
The Lord Marshal sends Commander Vaako to hunt Riddick down. Riddick is taken to Crematoria, a harsh subterranean prison moon, where Jack, the girl Riddick also rescued, is being held. Lord Marshal orders Riddick's death, but Riddick escapes only to be recaptured by Toombs. Intrigued, the Necromongers' leader, the Lord Marshal, orders Riddick be scanned by the Quasi-Dead, half-dead telepaths, who determine that he is indeed a Furyan survivor. The next day, the Necromonger high priest called "The Purifier" coerces the populace into converting, except for Riddick, who kills the man who killed Imam. In the battle, Imam is killed and Riddick escapes. The Necromongers attack and take control of the capital in a single night. Aereon, an Air Elemental, identifies the army as the Necromongers, religious fanatics who seek to convert all human life and kill those who refuse. Imam believes Helion Prime is the next planet to be conquered by a mysterious force crusading across the stars.

Imam believes Riddick is a Furyan, a member of a race of warriors long thought extinct, and wants to know about his homeworld and if anyone other than himself is left. Riddick is reunited with Imam, the man he rescued in the first movie. After killing a crew led by mercenary Toombs and stealing his ship on planet U.V., he heads to New Mecca on the planet Helion Prime in the Helion System, after Toombs reveals his bounty originated there. Five years after escaping the dark planet, Riddick has been in hiding, evading bounty hunters and mercenaries sent to capture him.
