在这部誓死追缉令剧情/犯罪/悬疑片中,傑瑞警官（傑克尼克遜飾演）在臨退之際，卻碰上一椿棘手的幼女變態凶殺案，死者的母親要求傑克立誓破案，隨即順利地逮捕到一名印地安人嫌犯（班尼西歐岱托洛飾演），並宣告破案。
但傑克覺得此案另有隱情，他為了調查於是遷居到案發地內華達的小鎮，買下了一個公路加油站，以便觀察過路的旅客，並在當地認識了一對母女（母親由蘿蘋萊特潘飾演）。有天，傑瑞決定用這位小女兒當誘餌，真凶終於上路了，案情呼之欲出…
本片不以追緝凶手的推理過程為主軸，而以男主角面對誓言時所表現出的生命所不能承受之輕為重心，突顯出精彩的情緒凝練和角色的表演。
The night he retires as a Nevada sheriff, Jerry Black pledges to the mother of a murdered girl that he will find the killer. Jerry doesn't believe the police arrested the right man; he discovers this is the third incident in the area in the recent past with victims young, blond, pretty, and small for their age. So he buys an old gas station in the mountains near the crimes in order to search for a tall man who drives a black station wagon, gives toy porcupines as gifts, and calls himself the wizard: clues from a drawing by the dead girl. Jerry's solitary life gives way to friendship with a woman and her small, blond daughter. Has Jerry neglected something that may prove fatal?
生活有时太残酷了。那你倒真算残忍。DETAIL MEANS LOT。用尽余生。太残忍了。用《金色池塘》的节奏拍一部现实主义的重视心理描述的电影。我不想说...。誓言。谋事在人成事在天。因为信仰！因为誓言！。
