Michael Burrows (Joseph Fiennes) is a recently unemployed police personality profiler whose obsession with the Awards leads him toward a new avocation: creating a profile of these extreme risk takers. A preternaturally risk adverse person, he is paired with Siri Taylor (Winona Ryder), an insurance investigator who has been known to forget to buckle her seatbelt. Together they investigate the most famous of these urban legends, discovering their own destinies along the way.

Named after the evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin, The Darwin Awards honour those who improve the human species... by accidentally removing themselves from it! The film is part inspired by several unbelievably true stories of utter buffoonery and features and all-star cast.