Ann Lindberg, Sohm Kapila, arrives at a ranger station and informs Ranger Joan Devereaux Lauren Call that a bear has been repeatedly attacking park visitors, including a recent encounter with a group of Girl Scouts. Despite Joan noting that the issue has been reported multiple times, Ranger Chief Gary Bunney prioritizes dispatching rescue teams to 21 active smoke sightings caused by recent lightning strikes. Gary then assigns Ranger Leonard Landa Michael Vlamis to the McDonald ranger station and tasks Joan with guiding a camping group.
Elsewhere, Paul Dunn Jacob Buster, Julie Helgeson Brec Bassinger, and Michele Koons Ali Skovbye discuss their camping plans. Julie declines Michele's invitation, opting to camp with her boyfriend Roy Ducat Matt Lintz, while Michele Koons persuades Paul Dunn to join her group. The decision sets the stage for overlapping journeys into the park, where a sense of impending danger begins to creep in.
Later, Joan Devereaux leads her hiking group into the woods, confirming rumors of a local bear to the campers even though she has never seen it herself. Roy Ducat and Julie Helgeson hitchhike further up the mountain, while Michele Koons, Paul Dunn, Robert Klein Josh Zuckerman, and Paul’s dog Score head toward a destination together. The day’s travel brings them to a heavily booked farmhouse lodge, run by Tom Walton Brandon Ray Olive, where room availability is tight and tension simmers beneath the surface.
At the lodge, the staff and guests contend with crowded conditions. Tom Walton’s casual dismissal of the bear threat clashes with Joan’s insistence that the park’s waste disposal practices are drawing the bears near. The incinerator’s limited capacity—only 10 garbage bags a day—means bags pile up outside, turning the area into an irresistible feast for hungry bears and turning the lodging into a potential trap for unsuspecting visitors. With little room for everyone, an unbooked couple and a young man sleep under a nearby cabin as Roy and Julie set up camp outdoors nearby, while Michele Koons and her companions consider their next moves.
That evening, as Michelle Koons tends to a dog at the campsite, the others go fishing. A bear interrupts their meal, forcing everyone to scramble to higher ground. The animal devours their food and ransacks the site, lifting the sense of safety and turning the night into a tense scramble. Paul Dunn urges the group to hike to the ranger camp for safety, but distance and dwindling daylight make the option seem less feasible. In parallel, another bear attack unfolds at a separate campsite, dragging a camper named Rachel from her sleeping bag as others flee in panic.
During the night near the farmhouse, Dr. John Lindberg Oded Fehr and his wife awaken to screams. A bloodied Roy arrives at the cabin, waking the campers and revealing that a bear attacked him and dragged Julie Helgeson into the woods. The campers summon help from the farmhouse, where a rescue party armed with torches, led by Dr. Lindberg, arrives to aid Roy. Roy, overcome with guilt, begs the rescuers to search for Julie. Dr. Lindberg treats Roy’s severe injuries while Joan radios headquarters to request medical supplies and backup. Father Connolly [Joel Johnstone] volunteers to search for Julie, but Joan refuses to risk navigating the dark woods without weapons.
The group evacuates Roy by stretcher back to the farmhouse, and Chief Gary arrives in a helicopter with supplies. Joan helps coordinate the response as the medical team stabilizes Roy and urges an immediate transfer to a hospital due to substantial blood loss. Gary and his armed team then follow pools of blood into the woods and locate Julie, who is critically injured and transported back to the farmhouse. Julie Helgeson fights bravely, but the damage to her veins and lungs is catastrophic, and she dies after last rites from Father Connolly.
The next morning, Michele Koons and her group descend from the rocks only to discover that Michele herself is missing. They hurry to the McDonald ranger station to report the disappearance, and the on-duty ranger initially doubts that a bear could orchestrate two separate attacks in a single night. Once persuaded, he alerts headquarters to the second fatal attack. Paul Dunn, grieving Julie’s death, joins the rangers on a search of the campsite and uncovers Michelle Koons’s body.
In the aftermath, Joan Devereaux’s group is evacuated by van as the park reels from the tragedies. A remorseful Tom Walton is shown burning the remaining garbage at the farmhouse, vowing to destroy it all to prevent another catastrophe. As reports of further bear activity surface, park authorities issue a lethal mandate. With staffing stretched thin, Leonard Landa is drafted into the armed ranger teams, who ultimately track down and euthanize the bears responsible for the attacks. An epilogue reveals that the events depicted are based on true incidents, underscoring the real danger that forested lands can present when human beings and wildlife collide.
