Night Watch (2004 Film) - Plot

Plot

In the prologue, which is set in medieval times, the audience is introduced to humans with special powers called The Others (Иные, иной; Inyye, Inoy). The Others are allied with the forces of either Light or Dark, and the prologue recounts a great battle between the two factions. Geser, the lord of Light, realizes that the two forces are evenly matched and will annihilate each other. In parley with Zavulon, the general of Dark, the two agree to a truce in which the Light will form a Night Watch and the Dark a Day Watch to maintain the balance before the coming of the Great One who will choose either Light or Dark, and thereby bring one to prominence.

In modern Russia, when his wife leaves him for another man, Anton Gorodetsky (Russian: Антон Городецкий) visits an old woman, Daria, who he believes is able to bring his wife back. Daria tells him that his wife is pregnant by another man and that she must miscarry, because giving birth bonds her to that other man. Anton accepts responsibility for this. Daria prepares a drink using Anton's blood, which he drinks. The shot cuts to his wife telling the other man they have to split up. Daria starts to recite an incantation to induce an abortion, and Anton's wife on a distant boat collapses and clutches at her womb. Just as the incantation is about to be complete, two figures become visible in the room, and a third appears at the door and shapeshifts into a tiger. The Night Watch team works together to restrain the old woman. They express surprise when Anton sees them, and they note that he must be an Other. Twelve years later, Anton has become a member of the Night Watch and is working with the team. On Anton's request, Kostya, his neighbor, takes him to see his father, a butcher, to get blood for Anton to drink. The father does this reluctantly, and then tells Kostya that members of the Night Watch only drink blood when they hunt vampires like themselves.

A twelve-year-old boy, Yegor, hears "The Call" - a psychic call by a vampire who intends to feed. Anton tracks Yegor, being able to hear the call as he gets closer to Yegor, due to the blood he drank. On the way he sees a blond woman with her hair flying about even though she is inside a subway train with no wind. Realizing she is under a deadly curse, Anton uses a magical flashlight in an attempt to remove the curse, but fails. Two vampires are about to feed on Yegor when Anton arrives, and he is attacked by the male vampire, whom Anton can only see in a mirror. Anton hurts the female vampire with the remaining energies of the flashlight, forcing her to hide. The other members of the Night Watch arrive and turn on the head lights of their truck, which are enchanted in the same way as Anton's flashlight. Anton then picks up a mirror shard and directs the light from the truck towards the male vampire, destroying him. A member of the Day Watch arrives and reveals that the Day Watch is aware of the murder of one of their dark ones.

Anton is healed by Geser, who notes that he could have solved things more easily by entering into the Twilight - a shadow world only accessible by the Others. After Anton tells him about the woman in the subway, he reveals a legend about a virgin who is cursed so that people and animals around her die or sicken, and that she is accompanied by a vortex of damnation. It is now clear that the virgin, now reborn, will soon die, unless the Night Watch finds the one who cursed her. Geser gives Anton an assistant called Olga, which looks like a stuffed owl. Anton refuses and laughs, until he sees Geser throw it out the window, whereupon it turns into a living owl that flies away. At Anton's apartment, the owl arrives and shapeshifts into a woman.

Kostya arrives and says he knows that Anton killed the vampire Dark Other. Anton and Olga track Yegor to his home, where they must enter the Twilight, as Yegor is there hiding from the female vampire. The Twilight almost consumes Yegor, but a blood sacrifice from Anton satisfies it enough for them to escape. Emerging from the Twilight, Anton sees a photo of Yegor and his mother, who is apparently Anton's wife. The Night Watch members, Tiger and Bear, stay behind to protect Yegor, but as soon as they are distracted, the boy escapes and follows the call of the female vampire.

Anton and Olga arrive at a command and control center set up near the apartment of Svetlana, the cursed woman from the subway train. A vortex capable of immense destruction has appeared over her apartment and bad things have been happening to those near her. Anton discovers that Daria had lied to him and that the boy he tried to abort was, in fact, his own son, and not his wife's lover's. Therefore, Yegor is Anton's son. Anton enters Svetlana's apartment and talks to her, revealing that she cursed herself on her own, which also means she is an Other. As soon as this is revealed, the curse ends and the vortex disappears. Yegor escapes the grip of the female vampire, but is caught by Zavulon, who appears on the roof. During a duel, Anton attempts to stab Zavulon, but Zavulon sidesteps the swipe just as Yegor runs up. Zavulon stops Anton's momentum, both saving Yegor's life and making it appear as if Anton were attempting to kill his son. Zavulon's assistant reads Anton's personal file aloud. As Yegor finds out that Anton tried to kill him before he was born, and that he's now supposed to be the Great One, he willingly turns to the Dark, to Anton's dismay.