Two Americans, Ben and Sean, travel to
Moscow to sell a software application. After arriving, they find their business partner, Skyler, has betrayed them by already selling a knockoff. Disappointed, the pair goes to a nightclub, where they meet tourists Natalie and Anne. Suddenly, the electricity cuts off around the world and everyone heads outside. They witness balls of light fall from the sky and fade away. Invisible entities begin hunting and disintegrating people, plunging the entire world into chaos. Ben, Sean, Natalie, Anne, and Skyler hide in the club's storeroom. After a few days, they emerge to find the city full of scorched cars and ruined buildings, but devoid of people. While they search for supplies in a
Militsiya police car, an alien appears as an invisible, shifting spherical object. They hide as it moves closer, causing the car's lights and siren to turn on. Sean realizes that light bulbs and other electronics give the aliens away. The group takes shelter in a shopping mall. Looking for clothes, Sean and Natalie almost run into an alien, which cannot "see" them through a glass wall. Sean theorizes that the aliens can only sense their bodies' electrical charge, but not through glass or other insulators. The group finds the
US embassy gutted and lifeless. A logbook there reveals that the invasion is worldwide. They also discover a radio broadcasting a message in Russian. During their search, Skyler is killed by the aliens. Seeing a light in a nearby apartment tower, the survivors go to investigate. They find a young woman named Vika and a man named Sergei, an
electrical engineer. Sergei has turned his apartment into a giant
Faraday cage that hides everyone. He has also developed a
microwave gun that weakens an alien's force field, rendering them visible and vulnerable. Vika and Sergei translate the radio message, which says that a
nuclear submarine is waiting in the
Moscow River to take survivors to safety, but will leave soon. Vika, Natalie, and Anne gather supplies from other apartments. An alien senses them and gives chase. When they get to the apartment, the alien gets inside with them. Sergei shoots the alien with his gun, to no avail. The alien kills him while the others escape. Anne is also killed in the ensuing chase. To fight back, Natalie sets the apartment on fire and meets up with Vika. The group later meets with Russian policemen who manage to wound an alien with
conventional weapons. Sean collects a piece of the alien's body while the small police band agrees to help the group get to the submarine. As they move through the subway, an alien discovers them and kills Ben. The survivors make it to a powerless patrol boat on the river and drift downstream to the waiting submarine. The boat nears the submarine, but runs aground. As they attempt to push free, an alien light beam causes the boat to capsize. Sean and the policemen swim towards the submarine, but upon reaching it, they discover Natalie is missing. Sean is determined to get her, possibly missing his chance to escape. The policemen agree to help him. The submarine crew, after expressing their doubts about the rescue, assist by building another microwave gun with stronger batteries. Sean finds Natalie on a bus while the policemen and Vika start destroying aliens with the microwave guns. During the battle, Sean discovers the creatures' weakness when he throws a piece of the wounded alien he collected to another one, killing it. The two stop the bus and narrowly avoid a collision. After returning to the submarine, the police team decides to stay and fight for the city. Sean, Natalie, and Vika plan to spread what they learned about the aliens to the rest of humanity. They learn that multiple resistance groups are fighting back all over the world. ==Cast==