The Nest

Sheriff Tarbell wakes to a troubling morning in North Port when numerous cockroaches creep through his house. The swarm feels deliberate and threatening, signaling that the town's normal rhythms are breaking down. The incident marks the first overt sign of the nightmare to come.

Tarbell drives to the airport to greet Elizabeth, his former girlfriend, who has returned for her father's birthday after four years away. The reunion unfolds amid growing unease as strange events ripple through the town. Elizabeth's arrival hints at a deeper connection to the unfolding crisis.

Across North Port, familiar places fall to odd disruptions: the town library's books have bindings damaged, and several dogs lie dead in bloody carcasses. The scale of the incidents suggests a coordinated threat rather than isolated accidents. Authorities begin to suspect something is weaponized rather than purely accidental.

Dr. Hubbard arrives at the investigation site to study the dog deaths. She sets a trap using a live cat as bait, and the cockroaches swarm to it, devouring the animal. The incident demonstrates the cockroaches' savagery and raises the stakes for any containment attempts.

Elizabeth visits the local diner owned by Tarbell's girlfriend, while Homer, the town's pest-control man, works to exterminate cockroaches inside the diner. The roach problem penetrates everyday life, turning familiar spaces into battlegrounds. The diner scene foreshadows the wider spread of the infestation.

Hubbard notes that the cockroaches reproduce asexually, making the threat harder to stop. Her spray of rotenone is useless unless a dosage lethal to humans is used, highlighting the danger of trying to neutralize them. Elias suggests evacuating the island, but Hubbard urges against panic, warning that moving might not end the crisis.

Tarbell shows Homer several small objects found on a dog carcass, which Homer identifies as Periplaneta droppings. This finding tightens the connection between the animal deaths and the insect population. The investigation pushes the team toward a potentially corporate cause.

Millie, Tarbell's secretary, reveals that Hubbard previously worked in genetics at MIT and conducted illegal experiments. The information casts Hubbard in a darker light and suggests a possible motive behind the outbreak. Tarbell begins to suspect a wider conspiracy connected to Hubbard and others.

Elizabeth ventures into a cave and uncovers equipment belonging to INTEC, a corporation tied to Elias's deal to develop the island. She is chased from the cave by flesh-eating cockroaches, realizing the danger is engineered. The discovery links the local crisis to corporate testing gone wrong.

Elizabeth and Tarbell confront Elias and Hubbard about the experiments and their consequences. Frustrated and alarmed, Tarbell resigns as sheriff, signaling the collapse of the old guard as the crisis escalates. The confrontation cements the alliance of Elizabeth, Tarbell, and Hubbard against INTEC.

A wave of cockroach attacks claims several lives, including Church, Shakey Jake, and Mrs. Pennington. The town realizes the threat has reached far beyond any single investigator's reach. The casualties underscore the scale and danger of the outbreak.

Tarbell learns that his secretary Millie and his girlfriend Lillian have both been found dead, deepening the personal cost of the crisis. The losses harden Tarbell's resolve to uncover the conspiracy and stop INTEC. The revelations show that no one is safe from the roach uprising.

Hubbard reveals that INTEC created a roach species designed to eat other roaches and then die after one generation, but the engineered roaches survived and mutated. Tarbell and Homer decide to turn the lighthouse beam on to signal not to spray, attempting to buy time and prevent the planned insecticide. The plan tightens the clock for action against the corporation.

Elias is attacked by cockroaches along with Elizabeth; Elias is killed and returns as a human-cockroach hybrid, which Elizabeth kills with a shotgun. Elizabeth, Hubbard, and Tarbell move toward the cave to locate the nest while Homer heads to the lighthouse to flip the beacon. The confrontation reveals the hybrids' threat and the scale of INTEC's experiments.

Elizabeth and Tarbell detonate an explosive inside the cave, incinerating the cockroaches in the nest, while Homer flips the lighthouse beam on, thwarting INTEC's spray plan. The immediate danger seems contained, but a grim epilogue reminds viewers that small survivors still lurk. The closing shot shows one cockroach escaping to continue the cycle.