In the near future, wildfires and droughts begin spreading all around the globe. Soon scientists
announce an incoming disaster known as the Solar Crisis, which predicts that at the rate the Sun
is currently expanding, in one hundred years it'll engulf Earth and in three hundred the Solar System
won't exist anymore. The United Earth Government or UEG decide to proceed with the Moving Mountain
Project, which consists on building huge engines that will push the Earth out of the Solar System.
Because of the high cost of the operation that is eating resources at a rapid pace,
riots and protests ensue all over the world by people who don't care about tragedies that aren't
happening yet. The violent protests get worse when the UEG bans the Digital Life Project or DLP,
a radical group that believes humanity's future is in computers. They're developing a program
that would allow a person to upload their minds in a disk, but they lack the resources to go further,
so they're constantly hacking and throwing terrorist attacks at the UEG. After yet another
failed attempt from the DLP, the UEG notices the people are losing faith in their project and
consider stopping it. However Chinese ambassador Zhou convinces everyone to carry on with the first
part of the project, which will be done soon and will help with morale. The first plan is testing
the engine on the Moon, since they're planning to push it as well so that Earth can break way
from its gravity. Many people are being trained as astronauts for this task, and one of them is Liu,
a pilot that arrives at the base to find it surrounded by protesters. The guards try to keep
the angry people at bay, but one of the protestors manages to sneak inside. Luckily trainee Han
quickly knocks down the guy, which impresses Liu so much that he can already picture having
a future with her. While the guards use force to get rid of the protestors, the new trainees are
given a tour of the place and sent to the space elevator for their first test. This elevator is
the highest structure in human history, and it gives the cadets a taste of what's like to be in
space. It goes up so fast that many of them pass out and don't get to see the station that is being
built up there for the project. From then on, all the cadets are kept busy training in all matters
of subjects like hand-to-hand combat, use of firearms, and constant trips on the elevator until
they don't pass out anymore. They're also put through medical tests and exercise to make sure
they're on peak physical condition. While training together, Liu and Han get to know each other and
they fall in love. One day, Liu bribes the guards with cigarettes so they allow him to get a bouquet
inside the base and he gifts it to Han the next time they go on the elevator. That morning,
a new batch of reserve astronauts arrive and also join the elevator trip. Suddenly, all the drones
outside begin flying out of the hangar, and the engineers discover the system has been hacked. The
elevator begins going up before schedule, and the new astronauts change clothes, revealing they're
wearing uniforms with the cadets' names, which is noticed by Liu and Han. Outside, the drones open
fire, and everyone in the base must concentrate on defending the base by shooting their own tech. The
pilots try to use the planes to shoot, but the system won't aim at the drones because they're
detected as allies. The drones take advantage of this and bring down one of the elevators
with missiles. In the elevator, the newbies begin locking the doors and the chairs before stealing
IDs from the cadets, beating up anyone that dares resist. In the other room, Liu leaves his chair
and uses his glasses to make the sun burn the lock screen, causing the door to open. After
checking on a bleeding friend, Liu goes after the terrorists, fighting them until one of them falls
off the edge and dies. Liu goes after the other guy with a fire extinguisher, but it's too late:
thanks to the stolen ID, the terrorist gives the elevator access to the station at the same
time that the drones attach a missile on them. Meanwhile the scientists in the base bring over
the 550C, an intelligent quantum computer that finally overrides the hacking. The drones begin
crashing to the ground and causing explosions all over the place while the elevators are dragged
back down, shaking everyone around because of zero-g. Liu is still fighting the terrorist, so
Han grabs a mechanical arm to break a window and help Liu knock out the guy right then she happily
asks for her flowers again. Unfortunately the man managed to press the detonator before passing out,
and now the station is crashing down on the base, causing irreparable damage to the building and
many of the cadets, although Liu jumps on top of Han to shield her from it. The base is evacuated
and the newscasts announce around three thousand lives were lost that day. During the following
weeks, the riots and terrorist attacks get worse because of all the death and resource
loss the crash of the station caused, and people begin demanding the government to bring the DLP
back. Zhou makes his assistant read the speech he's prepared asking the UEG to have faith in
the project while he has a chat with the American ambassador to convince him to give them a chance.
A few weeks later, cryosleeping pods are sent to the Moon with the crew that will keep on working
on the lunar engines. As soon as he wakes up, computer engineer Hengyu goes to check on his
things to make sure they're fine. This includes the AI 550A and a recording of his daughter Yaya
that interacts with him in a very limited way because of 550A's limitations. It turns out Hengyu
used to work for the DLP and now he's accepted to work on the lunar project to gain access to 550C,
which will control the entire base, because he thinks he can use it to make the Yaya's clip,
which only lasts a few seconds, develop into a full AI of his dead daughter's mind. While
working with the rest of the team, Hengyu learns that computer researcher Zhao is in charge of 550C
and wants him to work with him on the operation of the system. Hengyu and Zhao do the first testing
of 550C by making it activate each sector of the base. While they wait for the computer to do its
thing, Zhao gives Hengyu the digital copy of his mind that thecompany confiscated when they banned
DLP and explains it's up to him if he wants to destroy it or not. Sometime later, Hengyu shows
Yaya's clip to Zhao while he remembers the day of the tragedy. He had been driving with his wife and
daughter, but in a moment of distraction, Hengyu didn't see a truck coming and the car got in a
crash. His wife died instantly, but Yaya still had a few minutes left, so Hengyu took her to the DLP
to back up her mind. The organization didn't want to help because the technology wasn't ready yet,
but Zhao, who used to work there too, accepted to do the favor. Back in the present, Hengyu asks
Zhao to use 550C on Yaya, but Zhao is against the idea and reminds Hengyu that giving him 550A had
already been enough. Sometime later, the system detects an incoming level z9 solar storm. All the
workers have to rush back to the base but they're worried their vehicles won't be fast enough. The
drivers push the engines to the extreme and manage to enter the base right before the solar storm
hits, but unfortunately 550C gets fried in the process. The AI is needed to launch the project
in three days, so Hengyu offers 550A to replace it in exchange of being put in the team that will
develop the future 550 models. Zhao accepts, and Hengyu moves Yaya's mind to a disk before
handing the AI. Three days later, the team tests the engines and after some seconds of tension,
they're delighted to see the Moon goes through an angular displacement, small but real. This
proves that in twenty years they'll be able to be pushed away completely, and this success gives
people all over Earth faith back on the project. A few months later, they test the engines again,
this time on Earth. At first all the screens go black and people think it's failed, but suddenly
they feel the ground shaking and a bright beam can be seen coming from the astronaut base. Scientists
at the UEG confirm that Earth made an angular displacement, and people all over the world
celebrate that soon they'll be able to move Earth completely. Many years pass as the UEG continues
to work on finishing more powerful engines that will do the full push and the Moving Mountain
Project gets renamed as The Wandering Earth. Most of the building is being done by the fixed 550C,
who is also developing at an outstanding pace. Every year there's a new test that keeps proving
their theories right, and civilians become more accepting of the project, to the point where the
DLP disappears completely. However there's also talk about how not everyone will be allowed into
the underground cities that are being built right now, and the requirements to get a pass are quite
discriminatory. As Earth's rotation slows down more and more every year, society changes to a 60
hour system and global internet is shut down. All kinds of weather disasters soon hit the planet,
like floods and solar radiation that cause a raise in cancer cases. Liu and Han get married,
and eventually they have a baby boy that will become the protagonist of the first movie. They're
quite worried because it'll be hard to get a pass for the underground cities for their son too, and
to make matters worse, Han also gets cancer from the solar radiation. Hengyu never stops working
on Yaya's while helping with the development of the new 550, which is named 550W. Fourteen years
pass since the fall of the station and Liu, now with the rank of major, goes to an interview to
be one of the navigators that will be sent to the new one. The interviewer is 550W, who admits Liu's
skills are impressive but it also knows about his family troubles and thinks it's more reasonable
for Liu to stay on Earth and take care of them. Liu admits he's sorry to leave his family behind,
but getting chosen for the base is the only way to get his son sent to the underground city
through preferential policy. On the other side of the mirror, the scientists in charge of the
project are also hearing all the interviews, and Hengyu can't help thinking about his own daughter
while hearing Liu talk so passionately about his son. Then 550W points out that Han's life
will end soon, causing Liu to have a breakdown and make him fail the stress test. Afterward,
Liu goes to the hospital to spend time with Han, because her condition has worsened to the point
she can't be at home anymore. Han admits she'd like to see her hometown one last time, which
may be difficult because of the current weather problems. Later in the evening, inspired by Liu's
passion, Hengyu sneaks into the base and connects Yaya's mind to 550W. This time Yaya has unlimited
reactions to him and she can tell she's somewhere else, which makes Hengyu cry. At that moment,
a group of guards arrive with Zhao, who tries to make Hengyu see reason and accept Yaya's dead.
Hengyu refuses and completely uploads Yaya into 550W, which immediately triggers problems in the
Moon's system and the engines begin failing. The guards tase Hengyu and take him away while Zhao
puts Yaya back on a disk and shuts down this extension of 550W. Meanwhile Liu pulls some
strings through old friends and borrows a jet to take his family to Han's hometown. After doing
some pirouettes for fun, they land on Shanghai, which is now a frozen wasteland. While they watch
the stars, Han asks Liu that when the time comes, she wants to die with dignity and not with a bunch
of wires and pipes connected to her. At the UEG, they discuss the system problem Hengyu caused and
notice it's very similar to the hacking they did to the drones and the elevator years ago. They're
trying to override the system with 550W, but somehow they keep getting blocked. Suddenly the
Moon's engines cross the limits of their power and explode, causing the Moon to lose a good chunk of
its land. This explosion also begins pushing the Moon towards Earth. Zhou is near the ocean when it
happens and sends an emergency alert to all world leaders as he watches a tsunami grow in size and
hit the land. Because of this emergency state, Liu gets a message calling him back to duty, and
the leaders already begin opening the underground cities to let people in since the tides will only
get worse from now on. Before Liu leaves for his mission, Han dies peacefully in her sleep,
and their son is taken to the underground city by Han's father. Meanwhile Zhou talks at the UEG
asking for their support for his emergency plan: he wants to use all of Earth's nuclear weapons on
the Moon to trigger its implosion and avoid the collision. No government has ever revealed how
many nuclear weapons they have in their arsenal because it's confidential, but for the first time
in history it doesn't matter and everyone agrees to hand in what they have in order to help. In the
meantime, Zhao visits Hengyu in prison to tell him they'll be activating Earth's engines sooner than
expected, so they need to reactivate the global internet to allow coordinated detonation control.
One of the servers is now underwater, and Zhao wants Hengyu to take care of it. To convince him,
he shows him he still has the disk with Yaya's and Hengyu's minds. Because lunar debris has formed an
asteroid belt around the Moon, the best pilots are chosen to take transport the nukes, including Liu.
On Earth, three teams are sent to take care of the missing internet servers, which are on Beijing,
Tokyo, and Dulles. Zhao explains to everyone how to use the key that will decode the password,
which contains thirty thousand random numbers, then 550W will do the rest. Meanwhile the shuttles
with the chosen pilots leave for the Moon. The asteroids move fast and come out of nowhere,
so they do end up hitting a few of the shuttles and make them crash. This causes the team to lose
200 warheads, only leaving 180 for the detonation. The shuttles are guided by 550W through the
surface of the Moon safely, at least until another asteroid hits one more shuttle and causes it to
crash others including Liu's, forcing them to land rather violently. In the end, they lose 384
warheads. The survivors immediately search for tape to fix their helmets to keep up oxygen and
bandage any wounds, then they decide they'll deliver the remaining warheads on foot. Liu
doesn't want young people to die so soon, so he leaves the shuttle and closes the door, accepting
to sacrifice himself for their sake before sending the shuttle with all the survivors back. On Earth,
the three teams arrive at the locations of the servers and dive underwater, finding all kinds of
marine life already making their lives there. With the help of the drones and special tools, Hengyu's
team in Beijing enters the building and finds the door to the server, but when they try to force the
door open, the tool can't deal with the pressure and malfunctions, heavily wounding one of the
men. Zhao tries to take care of the wounds, but he doesn't have the necessary tools and the man
dies. While most of the team takes away the body, Hengyu and Zhao decide to go ahead and finish the
mission, making all the necessary connections to bring the internet back. While Liu takes a truck
to move the remaining warheads, suddenly lunar debris begins falling on Earth, which gets in the
way for a backup team to reach the Beijing server. The building starts shaking when the debris hits
it, and some hardware falls on Zhao's leg, getting him stuck. The room begins filling with water,
and Hengyu can't get the door open even with the help of his drone, so Zhao decides to pass him
the password key before the water takes over him and he dies. The lunar debris begins destroying
all the major locations on Earth, and the people that had been moving to the underground cities
peacefully now being to push in panic. At the UEG, Zhou gets bad news: they don’t have enough time to
coordinate all the warheads to make them explode at the same time because they're all different
models. Zhou is about to lose hope, but one of his men offer one alternate solution: they could
send more astronauts and detonate them manually, meaning they would be accepting to be a sacrifice.
Three hundred people are needed for the operation, and a few youngsters volunteer, but this action is
interrupted by an older pilot that points out it's their duty to do this and leave the young
people to take care of the future. All astronauts that are over 50 agree and immediately get on the
shuttles to fly to the Moon. Liu is shocked to see them arrive but his communicator is broken, so he
can't say his old teacher and training partners goodbye before he's put on a shuttle to return to
Earth. The UEG confirms the Tokyo and the Dulles servers are back online, but not Beijing. Hengyu
is having trouble because the water is filling his room as well, and he can't connect the key
to the right computer. Desperate for a solution, he connects the mind disk to the computer at the
same time the astronauts on the Moon detonate all the nukes. The Moon successfully implodes and the
collision is avoided, however more debris is coming and Earth needs to leave soon. Hengyu
activates Yaya's clip and tries to ask her to activate the internet from the inside by showing
her the key, but at that moment the water finally covers him and he dies as well. Lunar debris
continues to fall all over the world, and the UEG sends an emergency message saying the mission has
failed, thus riots and panic begin taking over major cities. However Zhao thinks not all hope
is lost and tells his team to start the countdown to fire the engines. Everyone thinks he's crazy,
but in Beijing, Hengyu's mind suddenly activates inside the computer as well. After reuniting with
his daughter, the Hengyu AI gets down to business and works to activate the server at the same
time a man follows Zhao's orders and presses the button. Everyone at the base watches with awe as
the Earth is pushed away out of the lunar debris' way and people around the world celebrate while
the tides finally calm down. Liu watches the Earth move from his spot in the shuttle and takes the
chance to record a beautiful video to send to his son, meanwhile Hengyu's and Yaya's mind backups
become one with 550W. Seven years later, as Earth wanders away, it regains its 24-hour system. Zhou
has retired, but his assistant carries on his legacy at the UEG. Now the lunar crisis is over,
they start the second part of the plan, which will be to fly near Jupiter in ten years to get the
second boost that will push Earth out of the Solar System for good. A space station has been put in
place to keep an eye on the engines, and Liu is in charge of it. The system is managed by 550W,
but the AI decides it isn't easy to say and turns the word around to form MOSS. Inside the AI,
Hengyu discovers it was the MOSS who destroyed the lunar engines and caused most terrorist attacks,
like the elevator and drone take-over. After watching Yaya in a loop, MOSS has reached the
conclusion that the best way to preserve human civilization is to destroy mankind, confirming
this is the same MOSS from the first movie that caused all the trouble under this philosophy.