My views
Plot
Misanthrope Amanda Sandford arranges an impromptu weekend getaway at a vacation rental with her husband Clay and their kids, Archie and Rose. After arriving at the rental, Amanda goes to the store. While shopping for groceries, Amanda sees a man stocking up on large quantities of canned food and water. Later, while the family relaxes at a nearby beach, they evade an oil tanker crashing on shore. When they return to the house, they notice the TV and Wi-Fi are not working and a pair of deer stare at them.
That night, the owner, George H. ("G.H.") Scott, and his daughter, Ruth, arrive at the house. Seeking shelter, G.H. explains that a blackout caused their return. Amanda is suspicious and doesn't want them to stay. Clay, however, trusts them and lets them stay the night. Later in the night, the television switches to displaying an Emergency Action Notification from the Emergency Alert System on all channels.
The next morning, Rose is frustrated that the Wi-Fi and TV are still down, which has prevented her from watching the series finale of Friends. Amanda notices four news alerts on her phone, two of which are about the blackout affecting the East Coast, the third alert about a hacker attack being behind the power outage and the final one beginning with the word "Breaking" and containing corrupted or encrypted text. Rose sees a much larger herd of deer standing motionless in the backyard.
Attempting to learn about the disruptions and fix the Wi-Fi, Clay drives to town while G.H. heads to his neighbor's house. Clay gets lost and exits his car to look around, missing a few seconds of clear reception on the radio broadcasting news of the cyber attack having catastrophic environmental effects in the South. He finds a Spanish-speaking woman seeking help, but abandons her and eventually encounters a drone dropping leaflets written in Arabic. G.H. searches the neighbor's home, finds a satellite phone inside, and finds there is no signal from the satellites. On the beach nearby, he discovers the wreckage of a plane crash just before narrowly escaping another airliner crashing.
Rose walks with Archie in the woods, where they come across an empty shed and Archie removes a tick from his ankle on the way back. Returning to the house, G.H. confides to Amanda the events he has witnessed. He thinks that satellite connectivity has been disrupted, but he is cut off by a loud, shrill noise that lasts several seconds. Amanda recalls the man stockpiling supplies, whom G.H. assumes to be Danny, his contractor. Clay returns shaken with the leaflet, which Archie partially translates as "Death to America". The Sandfords decide to drive to Amanda's sister in New Jersey but find the expressway jammed with collided brand-new self-driving Teslas; they narrowly avoid more incoming Tesla cars continuing to drive into the pile-up, and are forced to return to G.H.'s house.
Throughout the night, Ruth asks Clay provocative questions and they later discover flamingos in the pool. Amanda and G.H. establish a friendly bond but they are cut off by a second shrill noise, and the power fails. Later, Rose tells Amanda a version of the parable of the drowning man from an episode of The West Wing.
The next morning, Archie's teeth inexplicably fall out. Believing it is related to the tick bite, G.H. suggests visiting Danny for medicine. Rose is now missing and G.H. and Clay take Archie to visit Danny, while Amanda and Ruth search for Rose. At the shed, the two are confronted by an even larger herd of deer, which they scare away. G.H. and Clay attempt to convince Danny to help Archie, which results in an armed standoff between G.H. and Danny. Clay intervenes, convincing Danny to help Archie. Danny informs them that another neighbor may be equipped with an underground bunker and suggests that the shrill noises which have most likely led to Archie's teeth falling out result from use of microwave weapons.
Shaken, G.H. tells Clay and Archie that on the basis of his work with military contractors that the country is in a three-stage campaign leading first to breakdown of social order and resulting in a coup d'état or civil war. At the same time, Amanda and Ruth watch New York City being bombed. Rose then finds the neighbor's house with the bunker. Inside, a computer message warns of attacks by rogue military elements and elevated radiation levels in many U.S. cities. She finds a DVD of Friends and watches the series finale.
Comments
Post a Comment