In the future, the world is run by various different corporations that completely control society. As part of their way of controlling society, the corporations have created a sport known as Rollerball, the purpose of which is to show that individuality means absolutely nothing. One player of the sport is Jonathan E (James Caan) who becomes so successful at the game that he begins to undermine the principles that caused the corporations to create the game in the first place. Mr. Bartholomew (John Houseman), who owns the team that Jonathan plays for attempts to convince him to retire. When Johnathan refuses, the corporations begin looking for any means to remove him from the game, even if it means killing him.