On an isolated, sun-splashed island that sits within the Bermuda Triangle, Daniel Letterle is Josh, a high school senior who discovers he has unknowingly won an MTV contest to meet Carmen Electra. Yet the celebration is undercut by the revelation that his sister Jen set the whole thing up to turn a school party into a legendary weekend. Josh, newly dumped by his girlfriend, isn’t feeling the mood, even with his closest friends by his side— Stack, played by Joe MacLeod, and Andy, portrayed by Cascy Beddow—as they arrive on the remote beach to a scene of excess and adrenaline-fueled chaos. The mood shifts quickly from party haze to the uncanny when a quick glimpse of a flying winged ant hints that something far stranger is at play.
Backstage passes grant Josh a closer look at the spectacle, and he finds himself drawn to the singer herself, [Carmen Electra], whose presence feels almost otherworldly amid the neon-lit frenzy. The concert erupts in a roar of sound and color, and for a moment Josh dances with a rare sense of release. But the moment shatters when the winged insect descends on the crowd, grabbing Eightball—his formidable bodyguard—and Carmen, dragging them away toward a distant mountainside that will later reveal a volcanic secret. Panic erupts as the partygoers scramble for signal on their phones that won’t connect to the mainland, and Bob Staton’s announcements offer little reassurance. The crowd begins to disperse toward boats, yet Josh, driven by a stubborn mix of protection and rescue fantasy, argues that they should press on to save Carmen, rallying the group to join him even as the island’s strange energy seems to intensify.
Into the jungle they push, and the group is soon joined by Lil Mindi, a determined up-and-comer eager to boost her profile, along with her cameraman G.T.—Jeff Geddis—and Josh’s ex-girlfriend Maddy, a capable presence played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who now has a new boyfriend in Chase, the confident class president portrayed by Chris Harrison. The expedition is chaotic at times, with Stack climbing a tree to scout ahead, catching a glimpse of the mountain before a misstep sends him slumping back to the ground. Eightball reappears after a fall of his own and eagerly threads into the search for Carmen. Along the way, Maddy discovers a mysterious necklace and puts it on, a choice that seems to awaken a sense of purpose and unusual bravery in her.
The jungle yields peril after peril: a colossal praying mantis stalks the path, and the group must slip past a dangerous female mantis that has already overpowered its mate. A dangerous river crossing yields a canoe escape, but the peril doesn’t end there. Carmen, meanwhile, awakens deep inside the island’s volcanic core, a prisoner among a forgotten people who are bound to the island’s ancient, ant-like rulers. The party is forced to move quickly as the jungle’s otherworldly creatures close in, including a terrifying fish-like monster called the Piranha Man that makes a brutal appearance before a mysterious white-suited physician arrives.
That physician is Dr. Harryhausen, a long-term resident of the island whose white suit and steady presence bring a surprising, almost scientific lens to the island’s oddities. Adam West introduces himself as the doctor who has spent years studying the island’s anomalies. He explains that the island’s monsters are the products of radioactive bombs and toxic waste dumped into the area, and he warns that the island itself is sinking toward the sea unless the group can find a way to escape. The revelation reframes their journey from a rescue mission to a race against a looming ecological catastrophe, while the group begins to see that the island’s history is entwined with a tribe of prehistoric people who disappeared from the surface world after the military’s failed attempts to claim the land.
Guided by Harryhausen’s knowledge, the team presses on toward the mountain. Eightball makes a heroic, self-sacrificing stand when a mantis attack threatens the others; he uses a bulldozer to topple the creature off a ledge, costing him his life in the process. Chase, increasingly frightened and reckless, abandons Lil Mindi, whose fate remains either killed or captured by a monstrous spider—an outcome that exposes Chase’s true character as he seizes her camera footage and tries to extricate himself from the danger. At the mountain’s base, Josh, Stack, Andy, Maddy, and Jen steel themselves for the final ascent, arming themselves as best they can against the mountain’s sentries.
Inside the volcanic mountain, the group encounters the island’s queen ant and her followers, who compel a hidden, long-lost tribe to ferry food to the queen while Carmen is kept in ceremonial custody. Maddy, revealed as an incarnation of the island goddess and aided by the necklace she wears, draws upon newfound resolve to break the tribe’s control and unleash a revolt against the ants. With the tribe’s help, they fight their way toward an exit, the queen ant and her underlings closing in with a growing sense of fatal momentum.
Harryhausen, staying behind to ensure the others can escape, detonates an explosive to destroy the queen and himself, an act that marks the collapse of the island’s current order. The volcanic mountain shakes, and Josh wrests the necklace from Maddy to restore her sense of self as the group races toward safety. A key rescue finally arrives in the form of a helicopter, piloted by Nick Carter, who descends to pull Josh, Maddy, and a handful of ancestral islanders to freedom. The craft departs just as the island finally buckles, and Rudy, a creature left under their care, remains aboard the vessel in some uncertain state.
As the chopper climbs away, Josh and Maddy reaffirm their relationship, their bond tempered by peril and survival. The rescue marks a tenuous return to the world they left behind, while the island’s strange legacy continues to hover at the edge of memory. Chase’s fate is left unresolved, as he is last seen fleeing from a deadly Piranha Man, a reminder that not all threats are eradicated even as the group makes it back to safety.
