American software developers Ben and Sean are flying to Russia when suddenly the power goes in
the plane due to an electrical short. Thankfully it immediately comes back and they land safely
in Moscow. They’re here to try to find local investors for their app, which specializes in
finding bars and events in the area. Sen’s suit is old and worn out, so he has to use a marker
to cover a hole. On their ride to the company, they check if anyone is using their app here and
discover two American girls having fun. Eventually they make it to a boardroom only to discover the
investment meeting was already started by their associate Skyler, who has stolen their idea and
is now selling a knockoff to the Russians. Skyler says they won’t be needed and makes security take
them away. Later Ben and Sean go to a club to drink and forget. Sean finds a girl he likes, but
it turns out she’s with Skyler. They also find the girls they saw on the app so they approach them,
learning that their names are Anne and Natalie and being happy that they recognize them from
their developer blog. The four of them are having lots of fun together when suddenly the lights go
out and their phones stop working. Everyone in town rushes outside and looks at the sky to see a
yellow aurora that glows for a few seconds before it splits into light balls that start falling all
over the city, dividing into smaller pieces to cover more ground. One of the balls lands near
the crowd with Sean’s group, and everyone steps back in shock. The thing that fell isn’t really
visible, they can only see a slight shimmer from certain angles. A cop decides to carefully
approach it and poke it with his baton, only for the light to suddenly disintegrate him until
there’s nothing left but ash. As the crowd panics and runs away, another cop tries to shoot the
light, but the bullet disintegrates as well. Soon more lights appear in the area and kill as many
people as they can reach Sean’s group runs back into the club and quickly closes the doors, but
at that moment the light destroys all the windows. This being sees the world in gray and only humans
are a glowing orange. It continues to attack people by shooting lines of energy, dragging them
into its center to disintegrate them. A person improvises a molotov bomb with bar supplies to
throw at the creature, and the fire manages to keep it back for now. Skyler comes running into
the club too and closes the door without saving his date, who immediately gets disintegrated. Then
Sean’s group manages to exit the club through a hole in the wall and finds a supply room
where they hide with the bartender, who has been wounded. Meanwhile people outside keep getting
killed one by one without mercy. Suddenly someone desperately knocks on their door and ignoring the
others’ concerns, Natalie opens it to find Skyler, who ends up hiding with them. The supply room is
safe enough that hours begin to pass without much happening, and the group stays alive thanks to the
food there. Sadly the bartender eventually dies from his wound, so the group wraps his body in
plastic and duct tape to avoid seeing him rot and hopefully cover the smell. The tension starts to
get worse every day too and arguments break every other hour. After five days of hiding,
the group is running low on food. Since it’s been twenty-seven hours without noise, they agree to
come out and search for the US embassy. They find the bar completely empty and destroyed,
so they gather any supplies they can find and a map of Moscow on their way out, but unfortunately
the map doesn’t have any important locations marked on it. Then they find the streets empty and
wrecked with cars abandoned on every corner. The group walks down the streets without knowing where
they’re going when suddenly they hear a noise. A Russian lady is sealing up the window of her
apartment and they try to ask for help, but she doesn’t understand English and only warns them in
Russian about the ghosts out there. Eventually the group finds the bridge that should lead them to
the embassy, but it’s been destroyed by a warship that crashed into it. As they wander through the
city thinking of other ways to cross the river, they reach Red Square and notice an abandoned
police car. Skyler and the girls hide nearby while Ben and Sean carefully sneak around to reach the
car, breaking the trunk open to find a better map and a flaregun. At that moment a dog starts
barking at something invisible only to suddenly be disintegrated. Panicking, Ben and Sean tell the
others to run inside the mall before rushing to hide underneath the police car. The creature soon
comes closer and its presence activates the car’s siren and lights, but while it can see inside the
car, it can’t see the guys under it and soon leaves. Afterward the duo runs into the mall
to reunite with the others. As they look around, they’re shocked to find an airliner that crashed
right into the building. Skyler thinks they should stay here until help comes, but Sean and Ben feel
they need to move on to survive. Discussing what happened, they conclude that the creatures must
use some sort of electrical field for protection which activates electrical devices. They look
for light bulbs and make them into necklaces to use as warning devices that will light up
if the monster comes closer. Then the group goes looking for more comfortable clothes to run in.
Sean can’t help watching Natalie stripping, only to be interrupted by the bulbs lighting up. He
immediately freezes in the display window and to his surprise, the creature passes him by without
noticing him. Meanwhile Natalie runs to hide among the clothes racks as the monster enters the shop.
It is about to catch her when suddenly Sean drags her away and tells her to freeze. Once again,
the entity passes very close to them without noticing them, although its electricity causes
Natalie’s hair to frizz. Sean realizes that glass blocks the creature’s sensors because it acts as
an electrical insulator. Next the group leaves the mall and goes looking for the US embassy,
but unfortunately they find it destroyed as well. There are dozens of shells from a gunfight at the
entrance, and Skyler finds a semi-automatic rifle that he takes for himself. He likes it a little
too much and starts shooting like crazy at nothing in particular, getting judged by the Americans of
all people. Skyler stays at the entrance to guard and the others go upstairs to look for survivors,
but the building is empty. In the Situation Room, they find reports about what happened: global
communications only lasted for three minutes after the attack, most capital cities have been invaded,
and they haven’t found anything that could hurt the monsters. The only solution found so far is
hiding underground. On a map on the table, the group finds a map with numbers and is upset to
realize they’re estimates of survivors. There’s also a radio inside a birdcage and Sean carefully
turns it on, but the message it plays is in Russian and they can’t understand it. Scared
that the creatures may hear them, Anne makes Sean turn it off. Then the group looks outside and by
using a rifle scope they discover various balls of yellow light and smoke streaming into the sky
as they dig around the city. The digging causes the buildings around those spots to collapse,
triggering a whole new level of destruction. Suddenly they hear gunshots and see Skyler running
down the street, so Sean and Ben decide to run after him to rescue him. On their way out, they
grab the map and the radio from the cage. Sean and Ben reach the street at the same time Anne
and Natalie see a monster coming, so they run out too to warn the guys. When the duo finally reaches
Skyler, the car alarms are set off announcing the monster is close. Skyler tells the guys to run and
distracts the creature by shooting at it, making it put its attention on him and not to the others.
In just a few seconds, Skyler is disintegrated, but his plan allows the boys to escape. As the
group reunites, Sean notices a room with power in an apartment building in the distance and they
suspect that this is what made Skyler leave. Sneaking around carefully in the darkness,
the group crosses the city while avoiding the attention of the creatures and eventually makes it
to the apartment building right before sunrise. As they walk through the corridors, they’re suddenly
blocked by Vika pointing her gun at them and speaking in Russian. The group explains in
English that they saw the light, and thankfully Vika speaks English as well. She takes them to
the apartment with the light, explaining she came over for the same reason. To their surprise, the
apartment is completely covered with a metal cage, and even the cat has a little metal structure on
its body. The owner Sergei! is happy to see more survivors and explains he has a diesel generator,
Vika adds that he transformed the apartment into a Faraday Cage, an enclosure used to block
electromagnetic fields. It’s used every day in various science fields and it’s capable of
keeping the creatures out. The group turns on the radio from the cage and Vika does the translation:
the message says a nuclear submarine is in the Moscow River and will pick up any survivors that
reach it before morning. They also report that tons of submarines are doing the same thing around
the world and Sergei explains that the submarines are perfect Faraday cages. The group agrees to
leave together to find the submarine, but first they’ll need supplies. Vika leaves with Natalie
and Anne to scavenge the other apartments, and on their way out, Anne doesn’t close the
latch well. Meanwhile Sergei shows Sean and Ben a microwave gun he built, believing it could be used
to disrupt the waveform and electrical shield of the monsters. While the girls look for supplies,
the creatures see them in the building and move in to attack. The exterior lights give away their
movement and the girls immediately run away: Vika runs to find a hiding spot thinking the
apartment is too far, but Anne thinks she can make it and starts running to Sergei’s place
as Natalie follows her. They manage to make it to the apartment but are unable to close the hatch,
so they hide behind a glass table. The creature quickly comes inside and while the cat runs away,
Sergei fires the microwave rifle at the monster. It seems the waves work and make the creature
freeze for a few seconds, revealing its ugly body inside the light. Unfortunately it only
lasts a few seconds and Sergei can’t recharge fast enough, so the monster becomes invisible again and
disintegrates Sergei. While Sean and Ben climb out through a fire escape, Natalie runs to set
some diesel fuel on fire to cover their escape. Then she runs to join the boys, but Anne is too
scared and doesn’t move fast enough. By the time she leaves the table, the monster sees her and
disintegrates her too. Natalie is devastated, but Sean urges her to move. The trio climbs down the
emergency stairs and reunites with Vika outside the building, then they run away as they see the
flames grow inside the apartment. Minutes later, they find their way blocked by a group of Russian
policemen dressed in metal, carrying weapons and shields they’ve made themselves. They tell
the group to hide and when the street lights start glowing, they open fire on the monster.
By combining gunfire, a flamethrower, and a rocket-propelled grenade, they manage to hurt the
monster and scare it away. The cops explain that they can hurt the aliens but not kill them, and
that the monsters are weakest when they’re using their lightning. Sean notices a piece of a hard
black substance on the ground which was knocked off the creature’s shield, and decides to keep
it. Afterward the cops take the group to their hideout and both sides share the information they
have. The officers aren’t sure the radio message can be trusted, the leader also points out that
the river is too far and the area is infested. The group wants to leave anyway and at first the
cops refuse to go with them, explaining they want to protect their home. Natalie offers a speech
about wanting to go to her own home and the cops accept to at least escort them to the river. Both
groups leave together and take the subway tunnels for extra security. It’s very dark down there,
so they throw miniature light bulbs on the floor as a way to check for monsters. They immediately
start glowing, so the group rushes to the subway platform to hide as lines of light extend into
the tunnel to attack. One by one the group jumps on the train tracks to be safe, but Vinka gets
stuck behind a pillar while the light searches for her. Ben goes back to save her, throwing
her down to the track just in time. However he isn’t fast enough and soon the light grabs him,
dragging him on the floor before killing him. Sean is in shock, so Natalie makes him move and
the group manages to leave the tunnel with no more losses. Soon they make it to the river and find a
boat that they steal to sail until they find the submarine. While waiting, they grieve for their
lost friends and just in case, Sean says goodbye to Natalie now because he never got to say it
to Ben. Eventually the boat is pushed aground by some debris, so they must figure out how to get it
unstuck. Suddenly they see various giant beams of light lifting metals and resources into the sky,
and the cops conclude these must be aliens looking for Earth’s minerals because they
conduct electricity. At that moment they finally see the submarine approaching, but at the same
time a building next to the riverbank collapses. The debris falls on the boat and tips it over,
making everyone fall into the water. Sean, Vika, and the cops manage to swim to the submarine,
and one officer has a serious wound on his leg. The captain welcomes them and announces they must
leave immediately, but Sean notices Natalie is missing. As a flare launches in the distance,
Sean is sure it came from Natalie and gives a speech that convinces the captain to wait for them
to find her. Before they leave, the technicians on the submarine look over the microwave gun and
build another one with better batteries. Then Sean leaves with the cops and as many weapons
as possible, leaving Vika in the safety of the submarine. As the group moves through the streets,
they throw phones on the floor as warning devices. Eventually they reach a trolleybus depot only for
a phone to ring to announce an incoming alien. The cops run to take cover but Sean trips and
struggles with his weapon, thankfully he activates it just in time. Once again,
the waves freeze the alien and reveal its ugly face, which gives the cops the chance to shoot
at it directly. The creature explodes and dies for good, confirming the electricity is a shield and
they need to use the waves first to disrupt it. The group celebrates and is heard by Natalie, who
calls out Sean’s name and activates the windshield wipers of the bus she hiding in to indicate her
location. They can hear more phones ringing, so the team makes a plan. While Sean goes to Natalie,
the cops stay back and spill water from a tank truck to amplify the effect of the microwave
guns. Soon the aliens arrive but they won’t come close enough to the water. At that moment Vika
appears behind the aliens and begins throwing molotov cocktails at them to force them to
move onto the water. The cops shoot the microwave gun and reveal three aliens with exposed bodies,
then they shoot all the weapons to make them explode one by one. Meanwhile Sean finds Natalie
inside the bus and they hug. Suddenly an alien’s electrical surge makes the bus doors shut before
forcing it to move. Some sparks reveal the alien is inside and Sean tries to shoot it, but the bus’
movement causes him to miss. The alien manages to grab Natalie’s leg and starts dragging her,
but now it’s vulnerable and Sean hits it with the waves. Then Natalie takes over the wheel
and steers the bus to keep it from crashing while Sean continues to shoot at the alien,
which freezes the creature but doesn’t kill him. Sean has no real weapons but remembers the piece
of black substance, so he throws it at the enemy and makes it explode. The lack of electricity
finally makes the bus stop. Afterward the group rushes back to the submarine, but the cops decide
to stay to protect their home and ask Sean to tell the rest of the world how to defeat the aliens.
The submarine soon leaves and a technician repairs Natalie's cell phone, allowing her to get a text
message from her mom. It says she’s safe and hiding with survivors in Penn Station. Then Sean
and Natalie try to kiss, but Vika interrupts them with her disgust. Sometime later, they look at the
embassy's map while listening to shortwave radio reports coming in about groups who are fighting
back against the alien invasion. They decide to head to those locations to help with the fight.