An unassuming alien spacecraft drifts through the Solar System and, after a hit by an asteroid, crashes under the night sky in the small town of Perry Hall. A group of hunters hear the impact and alert the county sheriff, Sheriff Cinder. When they head out to investigate, the pilot emerges and destroys them with a disintegrator ray. The beast then stalks a couple in their home and a family on a drive, spreading fear through the town as the night deepens.
Cinder and his team, joined by a resourceful civilian named Jamie, confront the intruder. The creature moves with an almost supernatural resilience, shrugging off bullets and decimating the line of defense as more men fall. The following morning, they seek help from an expert marksman who manages to shoot off the beast’s disintegrator and briefly disarm it, but the victory comes at a terrible cost—the marksman’s son and another officer perish in the ensuing battle.
As evacuations begin, the town’s leadership buckles under fear and politics. Mayor Bert Wicker refuses to cancel his governor’s party, clinging to his plans even as danger closes in. The governor in attendance is Governor Embry. Meanwhile, a delinquent named Drago Drago abuses his girlfriend, who has also been spending time with Jamie. When police arrive to order the evacuation, the girl is killed after they depart, and Drago’s hold over her ends in a brutal strangulation, heightening the town’s sense of peril.
In the office of doctor Steven Price, the beast materializes again and claims several lives. Price and nurse Ruth Sherman hide in the basement, where they improvise a trap: frayed electrical cord and a plan to zap the creature with a high-voltage jolt. The tactic works long enough for the beast to flee, but the danger to the town remains acute. Ruth’s life is among those touched by the escalating crisis, further tightening the noose around Perry Hall’s residents.
As the situation spirals, Jamie becomes suspicious of Drago and confronts him, delivering a sharp beatdown before the danger can escalate further. The creature eventually stalks Mary Jane in a tense sequence that ends with her screams echoing from the basement, waking Wicker, who then meets a horrific end at the creature’s hands when he investigates the noise.
Back at the evacuation effort, Wicker and Mary Jane’s drunken chaos gives way to a coordinated plan. Price supports a final, desperate gambit: use a high-voltage coil from the town’s power plant to electrocute the beast. Drago resurfaces and attacks Lisa Kent, but Jamie intervenes and shoots him, removing one more threat from the field.
Cinder and his team return to Wicker’s house to set the trap, stringing metal wire between trees and wiring it to the coil. The beast storms the setup, and Jamie clings to the wire to keep the circuit contained as they throw the breakers. A surge of energy erupts, the creature explodes, and Jamie is pulled into the blast as the screen tilts toward the starry night sky. The film closes with that stark panorama, leaving Perry Hall to confront the quiet after the storm.
