Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Writer: Seth Overton
Based on the video game series
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Will Yun Lee, Ken Watanabe, Fatima Ptacek, Mike Colter, Andre Braugher, Martin Sheen
Plot: A bearded and unkempt Paul Grayson (Bradley Cooper) sits in a bar with a glass of whisky in front of him. He spikes the drink with red sand (drug created by criminal triads on Mars from refined element zero). His eyes have a red tint, one of the symptoms for prolonged use of the drug. As he gets ready to down another glass, he is stopped by a man putting an envelope with the CERBERUS logo in front of him. The man storms out before Grayson is able to make out his face. He opens up the envelope.
The scene transitions to a clean-shaved Paul Grayson now looking visibly healthier and wearing a Cerberus outfit. He is there to ambush a deal between a quarian and a batarian, trading an essential technology, a computer virus that could allow control of the Geth. However, his phone rings, alerting the two of his presence. The quarian manages to escape in a rover, but Grayson keeps the batarian on gun point. He answers the phone - it's the school principal. His daughter Gillian (Fatima Ptacek), who is a biotic, has been getting in trouble with the other students once again and might get expelled. The batarian sees a window of opportunity and tries to make a run for it, but Grayson trips him over, all while maintaining a casual tone over the phone. He hangs up and apologizes to the batarian: "Sorry about that! My daughter's been having a hard time adapting at her new school. It's the third one actually. We've been moving out a lot. Which I guess contributed to it, now that I think about it. Well, that and me not being around having to work most of the time... You know how it is, right?" The batarian gets up and tries to escape, but Grayson trips him once more. After interrogating him, it becomes clear that it was the quarian who escaped with the geth virus. On his way home, he reports on the phone back to the Illusive Man (Martin Sheen) and even tells him about his problems with Gillian. Through their conversation, it is revealed that it was the Illusive Man who gave Gillian to Paul Grayson for adaptation, as a means to give him meaning and get him on the right path once again.
Elsewhere, Kahlee Sanders (Cate Blanchett) wakes up in a bed near her lover, Dr. Jiro Toshiwa (Ken Watanabe) who is still asleep. She goes through her morning routine, getting ready for work at the Ascension Project, a human biotics training program, based at the Jon Grissom Academy. At work, she is greeted by Paul and Gillian who were waiting for her at her office. Paul wants to sign his daughter up for the Project. Kahlee gives Gillian a tour of the Academy and makes her acquaintance with the other staff present, such as Dr. Jiro and the Chief of Security, Hendel Mitra (Mike Colter).
During her first months at the Ascension Project, Gillian learns not only how to "tame" her powers, but also receives philosophical and moral guidance on the responsibilities that come with using biotics, as well as history lessons regarding the origin of biotics, and how all biotics were children of the victims of three element zero 'accidents' across the Systems Alliance in 2170, on four separate colonies. Although these industrial accidents were in suspicious circumstances, no link between them was ever found. However, during the night, a strange man is seen coming into Gillian's room and injecting her with substances while she is asleep.
Meanwhile, Grayson has some intel on the location of the quarian who escaped with the geth virus. He catches him after a high speed chase through the slums and then convinces him at gunpoint to take him to the hide-out where he keeps the geth technology. However, at the hide-out, he is ambushed and has to take cover and gun down all the quarians in a tense action sequence. He finally retrives the geth virus and reports back to the Illusive Man.
Back at the Ascension Project, Gillian Grayson is eating lunch when she is confronted by another student. When the student teases her and biotically knocks her milk over, Gillian retaliates with a full biotic storm, until she is finally stunned by Hendel Mitra and hospitalised. After spending the night with Jiro, Kahlee goes to see Hendel, who is despondent over his ’failure' in the cafeteria. During their talk, Kahlee suddenly realises that Jiro mentioned her relationship to Jon Grissom—something known only in classified Alliance documents—and discovers both Jiro and Gillian have disappeared from the hospital. Hendel catches up with them in the atrium, where Gillian—having just received a cerebrospinal dose of the strange substance from Jiro—is suffering a seizure. Jiro stuns Hendel, but is caught by Kahlee, while Hendel saves Gillian's life with CPR. Later, in an integoration, Jiro admits he had been working undercover for the Illusive Man from the beginning, which comes at a great shock to Kahlee who feels betrayed.
Hearing that Jiro's cover has been compromised, the Illusive Man sends a team of undercover Cerberus operatives led by Kai Lee (Will Yun Lee) to retrieve all the data on biotics from Jiro's experiments, as well as relocate Gillian to one of his facilities. The operatives take over the academy, with Kai Lee shooting Hendel in the leg when he tries to stop them. Kai Lee approaches Hendel to finish him off, but is stopped by a biotic blast that throws him across the room. As Gillian helps Hendel get up, he apologizes for stunning her in the cafeteria. She assures him he was only doing what he always does - trying his best to protect the students of the academy. They are later joined by Kahlee who knows of a secret passage below the Academy that leads into the sewer system. However, just when they are about to enter the sewer system, they are stopped by Jiro, who tranquilizes both Kahlee and Gillian, disarms Hendel and takes the girl. Still hurt from the gunshot, Hendel is unable to run after them. He manages to wake Kahlee up who comes up with a plan.
Meanwhile, Kai Lee recovers the data pads, but is greeted by Grayson outside, who is not happy. During their fight, Kai Lee reveals that now that Gillian has reached her biotic potential, The Illusive Man needs to take her back, and that he only gave her for adoption temporarily. He then receives confirmation from Jiro that he got the girl, so he shoots Grayson and leaves. Jiro and Kai Lee leave with Gillian in a tinted Cerberus car heading for the spaceport. However they are ambushed by an Alliance vehicle and have to stop in a nearby warehouse. A man gets out of the Alliance vehicle and takes off his helmet - It's Admiral David Anderson! (Andre Braugher) He was called in by Kahlee. Also in the car were Hendel Mitra and a wounded Paul Grayson who managed to put a tracking device on Kai Lee during their fight at the academy and then lead Anderson to them.
In the aftermath of the warehouse fight, Gillian wakes up and becomes enraged when she sees the wounds on his father and on Hendel. She blasts Kai Lee and then approaches Jiro. In a plead for his life, Jiro reveals to her that she was adopted and that she was one of two girls that the Illusive Man gave away, the other one being her sister. The thought of someone out there that could understand what she is going through leaves her off-guard and Jiro manages to escape.
In an epilogue montage, she and Hendel Mitra are seen packing their bags and setting out on a mission to find her missing sister. Paul Grayson gives up his Cerberus uniform and throws it in a fire, along with his phone.
The scene transitions once more to the bearded Paul Grayson drinking whisky and red sand at the bar. He reads the letter from the Cerberus-signed envelope. It is a check from Cerberus for his mission retrieving the geth virus. He throws it in the nearest bin. On the television, there is a report on how the various Council races are left stunned at the attack on the Citadel—which is officially described as an attack by a rogue Spectre leading an army of geth. Grayson puts two and two together and concludes that Saren was able to control the geth using the technology from the Illusive Man and that he was simply a pawn in the Illusive Man's mission to challenge the status quo of the Council.
Post-Credits Scene
The Illusive Man is seen trying to call Paul Grayson once more, but then gets distracted by other news: They recovered Jack Shepard's body - he is clinically dead, but can be revived.
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