The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008 Film) - Plot

Plot

In 1928, on an expedition in the snowy Karakoram mountains of India, a mountaineer encounters a glowing sphere. He touches it and then finds himself awakening after a sudden loss of consciousness, with the sphere now gone and a scar on his hand.

In the present day, the United States government hastily assembles a group of scientists, including Princeton professor Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), to formulate a survival plan when it is feared that a large unknown object with a speed of approximately one-tenth the speed of light, is due to impact Manhattan.

The object slows down just before impact and is revealed to be a large spherical spaceship, which lands gently in Central Park. An alien emerges from the sphere, and finds himself surrounded by a hostile, heavily-armed US military force. Amidst the confusion and lack of clear chain of command, a soldier fires, shooting the alien. A gigantic robot then emerges to protect the alien by emitting an energy wave that temporarily paralyzes humans and disrupts all electrical systems in New York City. The alien then orders the robot to shut down.

The injured alien is rushed to a military hospital where a surgeon removing the bullet discovers that the alien body is a placenta-like space suit covering a human-like being. The being quickly ages into Klaatu (Keanu Reeves). Klaatu has the appearance of the man from the opening scene of the film from whom the earlier aliens extracted DNA. Klaatu informs Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates), the United States Secretary of Defense, that he is a representative of a group of alien races sent to talk to the United Nations. Jackson refuses his request and instead orders that Klaatu be sent to a secure location for interrogation. Klaatu manages to escape with the help of Helen, and is pursued by the authorities throughout Newark, New Jersey, and the forested Highlands, with Helen and her stepson, Jacob (Jaden Smith). Helen saved a vial of the placenta material, which Klaatu uses to rapidly heal his bullet wound.

Meanwhile, the presence of the sphere has caused a worldwide panic. The United States military manages to capture the robot after it thwarts their attempts to destroy the sphere using unmanned aerial vehicles that launch missiles. Klaatu meets with Mr. Wu (James Hong), another alien who has lived on earth for 70 years. Mr. Wu tells Klaatu that he has found the human race to be destructive and unwilling to change. This confirms Klaatu's experience so far, and so he determines that the planet must be cleansed of humans to ensure that the planet—with its rare ability to sustain complex life—can survive. Mr. Wu says that despite humanity's destructive tendencies, he has grown to love humans and will stay on Earth to die with them. Klaatu is perplexed by this, but continues to proceed toward eliminating the human species infecting the planet. He orders smaller spheres—hidden on Earth—to begin taking animal species off the planet. Helen drives Klaatu to a forest near a pond. She witnesses Klaatu summoning a sphere that collects various species (evoking Noah's Ark) as Klaatu walks on water. Around the planet, the spheres collect other life forms. Helen quizzes Klaatu about his statement that he has come to save the Earth and discovers that he thinks the only way to save the planet is to exterminate humans. She begs him to realize that humans can change. A police officer driving by the pond notices strange activity. He sees Klaatu and recognizes him as the wanted man. Drawing his gun he confronts Klaatu, who defends himself by using telekinesis to move Helen's car to run the officer over, killing him. But Klaatu then revives the officer by applying some of the placenta and then laying hands on his head, Lazarus-like, and raises the officer from the dead.

Hoping to appeal to Klaatu to change his mind about humanity and save it instead, Helen takes him to the home of Nobel Prize-winning Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese), where they discuss how Klaatu's own race went through a drastic evolution to survive their own star's demise.

In meantime, the robot, named "GORT" (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology) by the United States government, is subjected to experiments in an underground facility in Virginia. Trying in vain to drill into the robot, the drill bit inadvertently releases Gort's genetic material which produces winged insect-like entities. Eventually the robot's form dissolves into a swarm of these "insects". The self-replicating miniature robots begin erasing all humans and every human-made item in their path. However it does not destroy grass, trees or non-human organisms. Apparently if unstopped the swarm will erase all vestiges of the human race, leaving the planet in its natural state. The swarm is heading to Manhattan, where the major sphere is located.

After speaking with Professor Barnhardt, Klaatu believes that humans might change their ways. Jacob betrays Klaatu and calls authorities with Klaatu's location, in response the government sends 3 helicopters to capture Klaatu. Klaatu uses his telekinesis abilities to make ear-splitting sounds into the helicopter pilots' radio, causing them to lose control and crash but not before the military captures Helen. Jacob and Klaatu finally become allies, and Secretary Jackson allows Helen to reason with Klaatu. Klaatu becomes convinced of mankind's ability to change, and they are permitted to head for Central Park and the large sphere to stop the swarm. At this moment, the President orders Jackson to dispatch a military strike to kill Klaatu instead. Surviving the attack, Klaatu, Helen and Jacob are delayed from getting to the sphere.

Klaatu warns that even if he manages to stop GORT, there will be a price to the human way of life. The robotic cloud arrives before they can reach the sphere, and Jacob and Helen become infected by the miniature robots. She pleads to Klaatu to save Jacob, rather than herself. Klaatu saves both of them by transferring the infection to his own body, then walks through the swarm to the sphere and touches it. His actions cause the sphere to deactivate the robotic locust cloud, saving humanity, but at the apparent expense of Earth's electrical capability; rendered useless for one hour. The giant sphere leaves Earth.