Cape Fear is a 1991 film, directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a remake of the 1962 film of the same name and tells the story of a family man, a former public defender, whose family is threatened by a convicted rapist who wants vengeance for having been put in prison fourteen years before because of the lawyer's faulty defense tactics.

Plot:

Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) is a former Atlanta public defender who seeks to start life anew in corporate law for him and his family in the quiet resort town of New Essex, North Carolina. Max Cady (Robert DeNiro) is a client Sam defended fourteen years prior to the setting of the movie. Cady, who was being tried for the rape of a 16-year-old girl, was illiterate at the time of the trial and was unable to read a report Sam kept hidden from him and the court that could have lightened his sentence or gotten him acquitted. Now a well-read, recently-released ex-convict Cady stalks Bowden and plans to seek vengeance. The movie reaches a riveting climax as the two men engage in a showdown during a severe thunderstorm on Cape Fear.