Genre: Thriller/Sci-Fi
Director: Neil Burger
Writer: Jack Slipter
Based on the novel by Michael Crichton
Cast: Colin Farrell, Jon Hamm, Vera Farmiga, Felicity Jones, Anthony Mackie, Josh Stewart, Katie McGrath, Marc Blucas, Kathryn Newton
Plot: Jack (Colin Farrell), a software programmer usually working with artificial intelligences, was fired by his agency for making an internal scandal public. As a result no other company will hire him and the man is forced to become a stay at home husband and to look after his children instead of his wife, Julia (Vera Farmiga), who works for the agency Xymos, a company of nanorobotica. Xymos is working on a new nanotechnology system to be applied to surgical operations, but Jack is very skeptical about this method, which his wife fully supports.
Suddenly in the family start strange events. One day Jack's daughter, Amanda (Kathryn Newton), experiences respiratory problems and her father takes her to the hospital where the doctors do not find the cause of the illness. Jack, under the advice of his wife, takes her to the doctors of the MRI, an institute of the Xymos, who take care of it immediately, without revealing the causes of the disease. The next day the MP3 player of Jack's son breaks down because of the chip that, inexplicably, disintegrates.
Jack is soon contacted by his former agency (now under the contract of Xymos) who is contracting him to help him with a software problem. Jack must therefore move to the Xymos site in Nevada. Ricky (Jon Hamm), the agency's leader, shows him the building and announces that the company is also under contract with the US Department of Defense to create a swarm of robotic micro cameras for military espionage and reconnaissance. The swarm is created by genetically modified E. coli bacteria, which however have serious problems because they are too light and therefore easily transportable by the wind. Because of this, the Pentagon decided to cancel the contract with the agency if the problem had not been resolved and the resolution was Jack's job. The Xymos solves the problem by adding new, more powerful and effective batteries and a new memory system, making them also self-sufficient and capable of reproducing. Soon, however, the situation escapes control and the swarms, escaped from the factory, soon become predators, attacking first some animals and then man.
Jack, with the help of Mae (Felicity Jones), Charley (Anthony Mackie), David (Josh Stewart), Rosie (Katie McGrath) and Bobby (Marc Blucas), members of the agency, tries to solve the very alarming situation. Examining a carcass of a rabbit killed by the swarm, Jack understands that the bacteria attack the prey by suffocating them. Soon, too, during a reconnaissance outside the factory, he was assaulted by the swarm and lost his senses, being saved at the last moment by his colleagues.
During a further round, in climatic conditions of strong wind (with which the bacteria are still uncomfortable), the group leaves the factory to look for new clues about "beings". Suddenly, however, the wind drops and the team finds itself surrounded by four swarms. Jack tries the only possible method to solve the situation: he convinces the group to arrange themselves in a formation similar to that of the flocks of birds, thus confounding the swarms of predators. However David, unable to keep calm, abandons the group and is immediately killed by bacteria. Rosie tries to save him, but she is also reached and killed. The other three manage to get back to the base.
Now, with only three members, the group has serious difficulties in confusing the swarm and seeks an alternative solution using their cars. The bacteria are soon able to penetrate the cars and Charley is in serious difficulty and must defend himself by spraying the isotope contained in a can to prevent the threat. But the poor Bobby dead in the car.
Jack and the rest of the group decide that if the bacteria were able to penetrate the base, they would make explosives shine in a kind of kamikaze action.
Meanwhile, Jack's wife, Julia, was hospitalized due to an accident and decides, understanding the situation, to fly to the Nevada office, with her assistant Ricky, to rescue her husband. A few days later she herself has the misfortune of having to find Charley's lifeless body, which had been attacked by the swarms in her laboratory. The bacteria had entered the base.
The following night he dreams of images about his wife flirting with Ricky and, waking up, he discovers that the dream, in spite of himself, was a perfect reproduction of reality. Through a security camera he sees his wife kissing Ricky. Suddenly, however, in the video appears also the late Charley, who, after a brief scuffle because of his refusal, is in turn kissed; immediately a river of particles enters the mouth, killing it. Julia suddenly arrives next to Jack and tries to kiss him but the man notes that around his lips buzz strange black spots and avoids the kiss. Jack and Mae discover that everyone, except them, is infected by the nanobots, who are now able to control humans and use them to multiply.
Jack finds a way to stop the swarms. There are predatory E-coli viruses in nature and, by genetically modifying them, could have used them to kill the swarms. Meanwhile, as "vaccine", Jack and Mae swallow some of these viruses, not dangerous to humans, thus making themselves immune from the assailants. Overcome many difficulties, Jack and Mae manage to perfect the new viruses, which quickly kill swarms and infected members. Jack and Mae flee by helicopter, shortly after detonating the factory by a gas leak.
Jack also understands that his daughter had felt badly because of the swarms themselves, brought in small quantities to their house by his wife, and that they had caused the breakdown of his son's MP3. Mae continues to work in nanotechnology while Jack abandons her. Subsequently he discovers an old e-mail of Julia announcing that the bacteria had been made to escape on purpose by the technicians to make them evolve, thus obtaining the resolution of their problems.
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