The Darkest Hour (2011)

Recap of The Darkest Hour (2011)

American software developers Ben and Sean are flying to Russia when suddenly the power goes out in the plane due to an electrical short. Thankfully, it immediately comes back, and they land safely in Moscow. They’re here to try to find local investors for their app, which specializes in finding bars and events in the area.

Sean’s suit is old and worn out, so he has to use a marker to cover a hole. On their ride to the company, they check if anyone is using their app there and discover two American girls having fun. Eventually, they make it to a boardroom, only to discover the investment meeting was already started by their associate, Skyler, who has stolen their idea and is now selling a knockoff to the Russians. Skyler says they won’t be needed and makes security take them away.

Later, Ben and Sean go to a club to drink and forget. Sean finds a girl he likes, but it turns out she’s with Skyler. They also find the girls they saw on the app, so they approach them, learning that their names are Anne and Natalie, and are happy that they recognize them from their developer blog. The four of them are having lots of fun together when suddenly the lights go out, and their phones stop working.

Everyone in town rushes outside and looks at the sky to see a yellow aurora that glows for a few seconds before it splits into light balls that start falling all over the city, dividing into smaller pieces to cover more ground. One of the balls lands near the crowd with Sean’s group, and everyone steps back in shock. The thing that fell isn’t really visible; they can only see a slight shimmer from certain angles.

A cop decides to carefully approach it and poke it with his baton, only for the light to suddenly disintegrate him until there’s nothing left but ash. As the crowd panics and runs away, another cop tries to shoot the light, but the bullet disintegrates as well. Soon, more lights appear in the area and kill as many people as they can reach.

Sean’s group runs back into the club and quickly closes the doors, but at that moment, the light destroys all the windows. This being sees the world in gray, and only humans are a glowing orange. It continues to attack people by shooting lines of energy, dragging them into its center to disintegrate them. A person improvises a Molotov bomb with bar supplies to throw at the creature, and the fire manages to keep it back for now.

Skyler comes running into the club too and closes the door without saving his date, who immediately gets disintegrated. Then Sean’s group manages to exit the club through a hole in the wall and finds a supply room where they hide with the bartender, who has been wounded. Meanwhile, people outside keep getting killed one by one without mercy.

Suddenly, someone desperately knocks on their door, and ignoring the others’ concerns, Natalie opens it to find Skyler, who ends up hiding with them. The supply room is safe enough that hours begin to pass without much happening, and the group stays alive thanks to the food there. Sadly, the bartender eventually dies from his wound, so the group wraps his body in plastic and duct tape to avoid seeing him rot and hopefully cover the smell.

The tension starts to get worse every day, too, and arguments break out every other hour. After five days of hiding, the group is running low on food. Since it’s been twenty-seven hours without noise, they agree to come out and search for the U.S. embassy. They find the bar completely empty and destroyed, so they gather any supplies they can find and a map of Moscow on their way out, but unfortunately, the map doesn’t have any important locations marked on it.

They find the streets empty and wrecked, with cars abandoned on every corner. The group walks down the streets without knowing where they’re going, when suddenly they hear a noise. A Russian lady is sealing up the window of her apartment, and they try to ask for help, but she doesn’t understand English and only warns them in Russian about the ghosts out there.

Eventually, the group finds the bridge that should lead them to the embassy, but it’s been destroyed by a warship that crashed into it. As they wander through the city thinking of other ways to cross the river, they reach Red Square and notice an abandoned police car. Skyler and the girls hide nearby while Ben and Sean carefully sneak around to reach the car, breaking the trunk open to find a better map and a flare gun.

At that moment, a dog starts barking at something invisible, only to suddenly be disintegrated. Panicking, Ben and Sean tell the others to run inside the mall before rushing to hide underneath the police car. The creature soon comes closer, and its presence activates the car’s siren and lights, but while it can see inside the car, it can’t see the guys under it and soon leaves.

Afterward, the duo runs into the mall to reunite with the others. As they look around, they’re shocked to find an airliner that crashed right into the building. Skyler thinks they should stay there until help comes, but Sean and Ben feel they need to move on to survive. Discussing what happened, they conclude that the creatures must use some sort of electrical field for protection, which activates electrical devices.

They look for light bulbs and make them into necklaces to use as warning devices that will light up if the monster comes closer. Then the group goes looking for more comfortable clothes to run in. Sean can’t help watching Natalie stripping, only to be interrupted by the bulbs lighting up. He immediately freezes in the display window, and to his surprise, the creature passes him by without noticing him.

Meanwhile, Natalie runs to hide among the clothes racks as the monster enters the shop. It is about to catch her when suddenly Sean drags her away and tells her to freeze. Once again, the entity passes very close to them without noticing them, although its electricity causes Natalie’s hair to frizz. Sean realizes that glass blocks the creature’s sensors because it acts as an electrical insulator.

Next, the group leaves the mall and goes looking for the U.S. embassy, but unfortunately, they find it destroyed as well. There are dozens of shells from a gunfight at the entrance, and Skyler finds a semi-automatic rifle that he takes for himself. He likes it a little too much and starts shooting like crazy at nothing in particular, getting judged by the Americans of all people.

Skyler stays at the entrance to guard, and the others go upstairs to look for survivors, but the building is empty. In the Situation Room, they find reports about what happened: global communications only lasted for three minutes after the attack, most capital cities have been invaded, and they haven’t found anything that could hurt the monsters. The only solution found so far is hiding underground.

On a map on the table, the group finds numbers and is upset to realize they’re estimates of survivors. There’s also a radio inside a birdcage, and Sean carefully turns it on, but the message it plays is in Russian, and they can’t understand it. Scared that the creatures may hear them, Anne makes Sean turn it off.

Then the group looks outside, and by using a rifle scope, they discover various balls of yellow light and smoke streaming into the sky as they dig around the city. The digging causes the buildings around those spots to collapse, triggering a whole new level of destruction. Suddenly, they hear gunshots and see Skyler running down the street, so Sean and Ben decide to run after him to rescue him.

On their way out, they grab the map and the radio from the cage. Sean and Ben reach the street at the same time Anne and Natalie see a monster coming, so they run out to warn the guys. When the duo finally reaches Skyler, the car alarms are set off, announcing that the monster is close. Skyler tells the guys to run and distracts the creature by shooting at it, making it focus on him and not the others.

In just a few seconds, Skyler is disintegrated, but his plan allows the boys to escape. As the group reunites, Sean notices a room with power in an apartment building in the distance, and they suspect this is what made Skyler leave. Sneaking around carefully in the darkness, the group crosses the city while avoiding the attention of the creatures and eventually makes it to the apartment building right before sunrise.

As they walk through the corridors, they’re suddenly blocked by Vika, pointing her gun at them and speaking in Russian. The group explains in English that they saw the light, and thankfully, Vika speaks English as well.

She takes them to the apartment with the light, explaining she came over for the same reason. To their surprise, the apartment is completely covered with a metal cage, and even the cat has a little metal structure on its body. The owner, Sergei, is happy to see more survivors and explains he has a diesel generator. Vika adds that he transformed the apartment into a Faraday cage, an enclosure used to block electromagnetic fields. It’s used every day in various science fields, and it’s capable of keeping the creatures out.

The group turns on the radio from the cage, and Vika does the translation. The message says a nuclear submarine is in the Moscow River and will pick up any survivors that reach it before morning. They also report that tons of submarines are doing the same thing around the world, and Sergei explains that submarines are perfect Faraday cages.

The group agrees to leave together to find the submarine, but first, they’ll need supplies. Vika leaves with Natalie and Anne to scavenge the other apartments, and on their way out, Anne doesn’t close the latch well. Meanwhile, Sergei shows Sean and Ben a microwave gun he built, believing it could be used to disrupt the waveform and electrical shield of the monsters.

While the girls look for supplies, the creatures see them in the building and move in to attack. The exterior lights give away their movement, and the girls immediately run away. Vika runs to find a hiding spot, thinking the apartment is too far, but Anne thinks she can make it and starts running to Sergei’s place, as Natalie follows her. They manage to make it to the apartment but are unable to close the hatch, so they hide behind a glass table.

The creature quickly comes inside, and while the cat runs away, Sergei fires the microwave rifle at the monster. It seems the waves work and make the creature freeze for a few seconds, revealing its ugly body inside the light. Unfortunately, it only lasts a few seconds, and Sergei can’t recharge fast enough, so the monster becomes invisible again and disintegrates Sergei.

While Sean and Ben climb out through a fire escape, Natalie runs to set some diesel fuel on fire to cover their escape. Then she runs to join the boys, but Anne is too scared and doesn’t move fast enough. By the time she leaves the table, the monster sees her and disintegrates her too. Natalie is devastated, but Sean urges her to move.

The trio climbs down the emergency stairs and reunites with Vika outside the building. Then they run away as they see the flames grow inside the apartment. Minutes later, they find their way blocked by a group of Russian policemen dressed in metal, carrying weapons and shields they’ve made themselves. They tell the group to hide, and when the street lights start glowing, they open fire on the monster.

By combining gunfire, a flamethrower, and a rocket-propelled grenade, they manage to hurt the monster and scare it away. The cops explain that they can hurt the aliens but not kill them, and that the monsters are weakest when they’re using their lightning. Sean notices a piece of a hard, black substance on the ground that was knocked off the creature’s shield and decides to keep it.

Afterward, the cops take the group to their hideout, and both sides share the information they have. The officers aren’t sure the radio message can be trusted. The leader also points out that the river is too far and the area is infested. The group wants to leave anyway, and at first, the cops refuse to go with them, explaining they want to protect their home. Natalie gives a speech about wanting to go to her own home, and the cops agree to at least escort them to the river.

Both groups leave together and take the subway tunnels for extra security. It’s very dark down there, so they throw miniature light bulbs on the floor as a way to check for monsters. They immediately start glowing, so the group rushes to the subway platform to hide as lines of light extend into the tunnel to attack. One by one, the group jumps onto the train tracks to be safe, but Vika gets stuck behind a pillar while the light searches for her.

Ben goes back to save her, throwing her down to the track just in time. However, he isn’t fast enough, and soon the light grabs him, dragging him along the floor before killing him. Sean is in shock, so Natalie makes him move, and the group manages to leave the tunnel with no more losses.

Soon, they make it to the river and find a boat that they steal to sail until they find the submarine. While waiting, they grieve for their lost friends, and just in case, Sean says goodbye to Natalie now because he never got to say it to Ben. Eventually, the boat is pushed aground by some debris, so they must figure out how to get it unstuck.

Suddenly, they see various giant beams of light lifting metals and resources into the sky, and the cops conclude these must be aliens looking for Earth’s minerals because they conduct electricity. At that moment, they finally see the submarine approaching, but at the same time, a building next to the riverbank collapses. The debris falls on the boat and tips it over, making everyone fall into the water.

Sean, Vika, and the cops manage to swim to the submarine, and one officer has a serious wound on his leg. The captain welcomes them and announces they must leave immediately, but Sean notices Natalie is missing. As a flare launches in the distance, Sean is sure it came from Natalie and gives a speech that convinces the captain to wait for them to find her.

Before they leave, the technicians on the submarine look over the microwave gun and build another one with better batteries. Then Sean leaves with the cops and as many weapons as possible, leaving Vika in the safety of the submarine. As the group moves through the streets, they throw phones on the floor as warning devices.

Eventually, they reach a trolleybus depot, only for a phone to ring, announcing an incoming alien. The cops run to take cover, but Sean trips and struggles with his weapon. Thankfully, he activates it just in time. Once again, the waves freeze the alien and reveal its ugly face, which gives the cops the chance to shoot at it directly. The creature explodes and dies for good, confirming that the electricity is a shield and that they need to use the waves first to disrupt it.

The group celebrates and is heard by Natalie, who calls out Sean’s name and activates the windshield wipers of the bus she’s hiding in to indicate her location. They can hear more phones ringing, so the team makes a plan. While Sean goes to Natalie, the cops stay back and spill water from a tank truck to amplify the effect of the microwave guns.

Soon ,the aliens arrive, but they won’t come close enough to the water. At that moment, Vika appears behind the aliens and begins throwing Molotov cocktails at them to force them to move onto the water. The cops fire the microwave gun and reveal three aliens with exposed bodies, then shoot all their weapons to make them explode one by one.

Meanwhile, Sean finds Natalie inside the bus, and they hug. Suddenly, an alien’s electrical surge makes the bus doors shut before forcing it to move. Some sparks reveal the alien is inside, and Sean tries to shoot it, but the bus’s movement causes him to miss. The alien manages to grab Natalie’s leg and starts dragging her, but now it’s vulnerable, and Sean hits it with the waves.

Natalie takes over the wheel and steers the bus to keep it from crashing while Sean continues to shoot at the alien, which freezes the creature but doesn’t kill it. Sean has no real weapons but remembers the piece of black substance, so he throws it at the enemy and makes it explode. The lack of electricity finally makes the bus stop.

Afterward, the group rushes back to the submarine, but the cops decide to stay to protect their home and ask Sean to tell the rest of the world how to defeat the aliens. The submarine soon leaves, and a technician repairs Natalie’s cell phone, allowing her to receive a text message from her mom. It says she’s safe and hiding with survivors in Penn Station.

Then Sean and Natalie try to kiss, but Vika interrupts them with her disgust. Sometime later, they look at the embassy’s map while listening to shortwave radio reports coming in about groups fighting back against the alien invasion. They decide to head to those locations to help with the fight.

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Full Movie Recap of The Darkest Hour (2011)