Locusts

In a USDA VIA lab, Gina and Willy feed a swarm of Australian plague locusts. Gina descends into the glass room carrying a ficus, ignoring the protective suit, and the locusts swarm her almost immediately. Willy seals the outer door and Gina escapes, both shaken by the sheer danger of the swarm inside.

Maddy visits Lab C-12 and meets her former professor, Peter Axelrod. Peter explains that the locusts are hybrids resistant to pesticides and capable of rapid reproduction. He demonstrates with a sealed cage and DDT, and the lab attempts extermination, saving only a few in a biohazard tube; a jar is accidentally dropped, releasing some locusts down the drain.

From Andrews Air Force Base, the remaining four insects are packed for shipment to Beale AFB. An officer is attacked by a locust and drops the sealed case on the runway; the truck then runs over the case, releasing the insects into the air. The insects begin their uncontrolled spread beyond the lab.

One month later, Maddy discovers she is pregnant as swarms erupt across the country, from the American River in California to Napa Valley. A couple camping by the river wakes to the insects and flee, while farmers brace for crop damage in California. Maddy uses the Voracious Insect Mobile Research Lab to track the swarms and begins predicting their movements.

In Leesburg, Virginia, Peter monitors the approaching swarm as his daughter Sofia rides the school bus. The locusts attack the bus, knocking children unconscious, and Peter rushes Sofia to the hospital. The event confirms the swarms are indeed his engineered insects.

Back in Napa Valley, the swarms strip every bush and tree to the bark, leaving the landscape barren. Maddy and her team evacuate residents and document the damage as the infestation spreads. A news feed and on-site footage capture the scale of devastation.

The swarms move into Pittsburgh, filling the skies and entering offices through air vents. At the airport, a cargo plane engine fails after encountering the locusts, crashing near the runway in a fiery explosion observed by onlookers. The incident underscores the danger the insects pose to infrastructure.

In a DHS meeting, officials debate using VX nerve gas to kill the swarms. Maddy travels with Gen. Miller and Peter to Fort Douglas, where Peter reveals details of the plan. Maddy sabotages the mission by smashing the VX container on the helicopter, forcing a retreat and exposing the plan to the public.

After the aborted VX plan, Maddy, Dan, and Peter travel to Indiana to help Maddy's grandfather Lyle. They shelter in a metal grain silo as the carnivorous locusts approach. Peter volunteers to fetch fuel for an outside generator and is badly wounded; the group completes an electric kill by routing current through the silo and successfully repelling part of the swarm before Peter dies.

Back in Washington, the DHS leadership agrees to an electricity-based kill. Lorelei Wentworth proposes rerouting power to create a massive electric field to lure and kill the swarms without harming people. Weather balloons are deployed to guide the locusts toward the boosted grids.

At dawn, power is switched off nationwide and rerouted through two major lines, amplifying the electric field. The locusts fly into the massive cables and transformers ignite, killing the swarms in a spectacular display. The operation is hailed as a breakthrough, though political fallout follows.

One year later, Maddy and Dan have a child together, and Maddy contemplates returning to work. She acknowledges that family time is more important than the next mission. The film closes on a note of balance between duty and home.