At a desert facility called the
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, orphaned teenage hacker Jesse is caught trying to steal dynamite. His uncle Joe, a worker at the site, stops him. That night, unknown animals appear at the facility's mess hall and kill everyone except Jesse. When communications from the facility cease, a repair team of civilian technicians are called in to investigate, as the site had been experiencing power issues. The team's leader, Major Tom McQuade of the
Department of Defense, explains that Yucca Mountain is a military operated
uranium mine, usually off limits to civilians. However, the facility has a schedule to keep, and the group was the closest team available on such short notice. The investigators find the place deserted; three go to the control room to try to reboot the computer system, while the other three form a search party. They locate Jesse, catatonic and in a state of shock, and take him to the control room. The team realizes that the issues with the communications equipment cannot be resolved from the control room, concluding that they must venture down into the facility to find the cause of the problem. Although the lowest levels are classified, the team proceeds to investigate them as well, despite objections from McQuade. Helicopter pilot Galloway and computer expert Moses stay in the control center with Jesse. When an animal kills team member Kahane, the rest of the crew flee the lower floors. Jesse, listening to their radio chatter, realizes what happened and flees the room just before a
Velociraptor appears and kills Moses. Galloway flees to the helicopter and starts the engine. Before the crew can reach her, a
Velociraptor in the back seat attacks her. During a struggle, the helicopter is inadvertently lifted. The dinosaur kills Galloway and the helicopter crashes, stranding the crew. The group returns to the control room. They demand answers from McQuade, who reluctantly reveals
the dinosaurs' origins: two months earlier, a biotech firm had been working with fossilized DNA and genetic experiments, finding a way to recreate dinosaurs. The government had sent in a team to contain the situation, and dozens of eggs were discovered and were stored at Yucca Mountain. The dinosaurs later hatched and killed the facility workers. Jesse informs the team of the facility's dynamite, and they decide to use it to blow up the plant and its dinosaurs, despite McQuade's objections. McQuade eventually says that the lower levels of the facility are a repository for atomic waste, including dozens of warheads. Radiation is now leaking from a containment unit, damaged by the dinosaurs, and a repository failure will occur in less than two hours, potentially setting off the warheads. Jesse devises a plan to
crash the computers to send the site into emergency mode, which should get an evacuation squad to rescue them. Following the plan, the group begins making their way back to the surface, using dynamite rigged with tripwires to hold off the dinosaurs while getting to the elevator. A
Velociraptor breaks into the elevator and kills Rawlins. The elevator's cables snap and it crashes. After they escape the elevator, Monk is injured as he accidentally activates a tripwire while fleeing from a
Velociraptor. Too injured to walk, Monk and McQuade blow themselves up to kill the remaining
Velociraptors. Jesse and Reed continue onward, but Reed trips over a wire and dangles from a platform, eventually suffering a long fall. Jesse reaches the surface and finds the evacuation team waiting, but they refuse to retrieve Reed due to the facility's imminent explosion. Jesse runs back in himself and helps Reed. En route to the rescue helicopter, they narrowly avoid a
Tyrannosaurus rex. Jesse runs back and grabs the remote detonator to trigger the remaining dynamite. The
T. rex bursts out of the building and kills a rescue team member. Jesse gets in a
telescopic handler and uses it to battle the dinosaur, eventually pushing it down an elevator shaft. The helicopter takes off, and Jesse detonates the rest of the dynamite, destroying the facility and preventing a meltdown. ==Cast==