Shortcut

The film opens with a boy wearing a yellow jacket injuring himself while running through the woods. He stops in despair, collapsing on his knees after a frantic escape, suggesting a recent and serious struggle. The scene sets an ominous tone for the events to come.

In Britain, five teenagers – Nolan, Bess, Queenie, Reggie, and Karl – board a bus for their field trip. Their driver Joseph provides a riddle involving seven letters and a virtue, indicating a playful or challenging journey ahead. The teens interact and tease each other, establishing their relationships.

A fallen tree blocks the usual path, prompting Joseph to take an alternative route through unfamiliar terrain. He exits the bus to remove a dead animal from the road, displaying a moment of routine work before the chaos begins.

Joseph returns from moving the carcass to find Pedro Minghella, an escaped convict, holding him at gunpoint and hijacking the bus. Pedro forces the teens to surrender their phones and coerce Joseph into driving further as he threats threatens their safety.

The bus enters a tunnel where it stalls. Pedro demands Joseph to fix it, and when the lights go out, a monstrous creature appears in the dark. It kills Joseph during a confrontation, leaving the teens trapped on the bus with no keys and a deadly threat outside.

In a risky move, Bess volunteers to get the keys from Joseph’s body outside the bus. She succeeds but must return quickly to help her friends. Her actions buy the teens some time, but they still face their predicament with the creature lurking nearby.

Pedro forces Reggie to start the bus while holding a gun to his head. Reggie manages to seize the gun and leaves the bus to fight the creature outside. Tragically, the creature ambushes and kills him before it infiltrates the bus wiring.

After killing Reggie, the monster tears into the bus’s wiring and climbs aboard. The teens frantically escape, only to realize they are still trapped and need to find a way to defeat it. The creature’s presence creates chaos and danger inside the confined space.

Nolan and Bess find evidence belonging to Giulio Sarpi, who studied the creature obsessively since losing his sister. His journals and drawings reveal attempts to kill the beast, indicating its deadly nature. They learn that Sarpi was killed by the creature after decades of trying to understand it.

The teens decide to take control by luring the creature outside. Bess and Queenie draw the creature into pursuit, leading it to the exit where daylight begins to break. They prepare torches, knowing the creature is vulnerable to light, and plan to trap and kill it.

Using torches and fire, the teens lure the creature to the outside daylight. With nowhere to run, they ignite it, causing the creature to writhe and screech before finally collapsing into death. Their bravery ends the creature’s reign of terror.

Victorious, the teens walk into town together, feeling closer and more confident. Voiceovers reveal that the key virtue for their survival was courage, emphasizing their growth and unity after surviving the ordeal.

Later, authorities arrive at the tunnel, and a detective enters with a flashlight. Suddenly, the light goes out and he hears the creature’s croaking sound. The monster’s presence suggests that the threat may still not be fully over, implying a potential sequel or lingering danger.