The Damned

While on a boating holiday off the south coast of England, Simon Wells, recently divorced, meets Joan in Weymouth. She lures him into a brutal mugging carried out by her brother, King, and his motorbike gang. The assault marks the first step into a dangerous entanglement that drives the rest of the story.

The next day Joan climbs aboard Simon's boat and defies her overprotective brother. Their uneasy alliance grows as they evade the risks of King’s gang while out at sea. The moment also reveals a complicated dynamic rooted in manipulation and desire.

On the water, Simon is ready to forgive and forget, while Joan hints at the abuse she suffers from King. Simon urges her to run away with him, but she insists on returning to shore. Their time afloat is watched by a member of King’s gang, foreshadowing the danger to come.

Near the coast, nine children aged 11 live in a network of caves, their skin cold to the touch yet outwardly healthy and intelligent. Bernard oversees their education via closed-circuit TV and evades questions about their isolation. They are regularly visited by men in radiation protection suits, hinting at a deeper purpose.

That night, Joan and Simon meet at a cliff-top house and have sex. The house is surrounded by King’s gang, forcing them to flee toward safety. They escape and reach the relative safety of a nearby military base.

The couple descends the cliff to the beach and is pursued by King. They find a network of caves leading to an underground bunker attached to the military base, where they finally meet the children.

Bernard is forced to keep the children under watch, but he allows one chamber without cameras. The children remain unaware that their secret hideout is known to their captors, and they keep mementos of people they think are their parents. This dynamic sets up the fragile sanctuary the visitors stumble into.

The children host the trio in the unmonitored chamber and quietly smuggle them food. The atmosphere blends innocence with danger as the visitors realize the children are aware of more than they can tell. The group begins to understand the hidden power the children hold.

Joan and Simon pressure King to help rescue the children, but the plan is interrupted as all three begin to feel unwell. The sudden sickness hints at a looming hazard tied to the children and the environment. The group presses on despite the growing uncertainty.

Bernard urges the children to abandon their new friends and reveals he knows the exact location of their hideout. The children refuse and destroy the surveillance cameras, signaling a break with their captors. The action escalates toward a more open confrontation.

Bernard sends men in radiation suits, but King and Simon overpower them. Using a Geiger counter, Simon discovers the children are radioactive, a startling revelation about their survival and purpose. The stakes have shifted from safety to life-threatening exposure.

The intruders lead the children out of the caves but are ambushed by additional radiation-suited men. Most of the children are recaptured and taken back to the bunker, deepening the children's captivity. The escape attempt ends with a grim sense of what lies ahead.

King grabs a boy and flees in a stolen car, but radiation sickness overtakes him and he abandons the boy before the pursuers close in. A helicopter closes in and King loses control, dying in the pursuit. The escape narrative foreshadows the doomed fates of the other characters.

Joan and Simon manage to escape by boat but are soon overcome by sickness. A pursuing helicopter hovers overhead with orders to destroy the occupants once dead, underscoring the hopelessness of their situation. The couple's fate hangs in the balance as their boat drifts.

Bernard reveals that the children were born radioactive as a consequence of a nuclear accident and that they have survived by design. He confesses to Freya his belief that the children must endure a coming nuclear war. Freya rejects him and he kills her, and the film ends with holidaymakers on the beach, oblivious to the desperate cries of the imprisoned children nearby.