Credits
Production companies
Low Spark Films
IM Global
Distributed by
Focus Features
Directed by
William Eubank
Written by
Carlyle Eubank
David Frigerio
William Eubank
Produced by
Nimra Rafaqat
Brian Kavanaugh-Jones
Tyler Davidson
Starring
Brenton Thwaites
Olivia Cooke
Beau Knapp
Lin Shaye
Robert Longstreet
Laurence Fishburne
Cinematography
David Lanzenberg
Edited by
Brian Berdan
Music by
Nima Fakhrara
Synopsis
Three MIT students – Jonah, Nic, and Haley – are on a road trip to move Haley to California, a decision that stresses Nic’s relationship with Haley. Nic walks with forearm crutches, and the possibility of muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, or some other degenerative disease is implied but never specified. Haley feels Nic is distancing himself from her and Nic explains he does not want his disability to hold her back. During their stay in a hotel, Nic and Jonah discover that a hacker named NOMAD, who nearly got them expelled for breaking into MIT servers, has found their location and is taunting them with strange and ominous e-mails. They track NOMAD to an abandoned house in the middle of Nevada and decide to go after him. After finding nothing in the house, Nic and Jonah hear Haley scream and run outside, only to see her pulled into the sky before disappearing into a white light themselves. Nic, now with the number 2.3.5.41 tattooed on his arm, wakes up in a strange and sterile underground research facility where he is questioned by Dr. Wallace Damon, the head of the “transition group” in charge of helping Nic to cope with his strange situation. Damon tells Nic what they encountered near the house was an EBE: an extraterrestrial biological entity. Nic remains in a state of disbelief. Dr. Damon then shows him footage from Nic’s own video camera and pauses where an alien face can be seen peering from behind a tree. Nic is taken to his room where he hears Jonah talking to him through a small vent in the wall, saying “(his) body feels weird.” Nic also notices that his legs, previously weak but functional, are now completely numb. When Dr. Damon questions him again, Nic tries to get answers about Haley’s condition (who is in a coma at the time), but is unsuccessful. Following an unexplained experiment on a cow in another part of the facility, a security alarm goes off and Nic, along with other personnel, finds large dents with scorch marks running across the walls and no sign of Jonah. Nic asks Damon where Jonah went but Damon tells him that Jonah was never recovered from the house. Increasingly agitated, Nic tries to break Haley out but is intercepted. After being restrained, he is shocked to discover that his legs have been amputated and replaced by prostheses made from alien technology. Nic then uses these super-powered limbs to break Haley and himself out of the facility, only to discover they are in the middle of a vast barren desert. Nic finds himself inside what appears to be a different, larger exterior facility. Housed within it, through the broken barrier, can be seen ‘Area 51″, the Earth-like world with the canyon city. Looking in through the hole towards the bridge, he sees Damon walk up and remove his helmet to reveal that he is actually a robotic alien, with merely a human-like face. Nic turns back around, and through the glass sees stars and outer space. He realizes he is not in a government facility, but is actually on an immense alien spacecraft numbered 2.3.5.41 (matching the numerical tattoo on his arm) that is about to dock at their home world (signaled by the horn). A final zoom-out view reveals the whole ship, with a parabolic sun shield on the top and a large alien city, complete with skyscrapers, pointing away from the alien sun. In the distance, another similar city ship can be seen.