Genre: Action/Superhero/Supernatural
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Writer: APJ
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Keira Knightley, Ian McShane, Damian Lewis, Frances Conroy, Lucy Griffiths, James Woods
Plot: Dr. Alec Holland (Alexander Skarsgard) is in his lab at AA Sciences when he finally gets his Bio-Restorative Formula to work, which will enable plants to grow in hostile terrain, which could end hunger throughout the world. He watches as the formula causes leafy green plantlife to grow in a patch of sand. He records his experiment on video and sends it to his superior, Dr. Jason Woodrue (Damian Lewis) about the findings. Woodrue, seeing massive commerical applications for the formula calls the owner of AA Sciences, Anton Arcane (Ian McShane) and tells about Holland's work.
Anton Arcane infects his wife, Georgia Arcane (Frances Conroy) with a form of necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh eating bacteria, without her knowledge. He has doctors cut out the infected tissue, and graft on new skin to replace it. Arcane assures his wife that he will do everything in his power to get to the bottom of her mysterious illness.
Holland lays in bed with his girlfriend Linda Wise (Lucy Griffiths) in a small cabin on the outskirts of Houma, Louisiana. He shares the news of his progress with the formula. She is proud of him and all the good that can be done across the world with the formula. They spend a romantic evening together in the cabin before Holland has to head back to the lab early in the morning.
Arcane's daughter, Abigail Arcane (Keira Knightley) visits the lab as she wants to provide the formula to poor countries around the world for free, rather than for profit like she suspects her father will do. Holland arrives at the lab and finds Abigail going through his notes. She apologizes for snooping and explains why she's there. Holland explains more about the formula to her and tells her that he has similar aspirations for the Bio-Restorative Formula, but that it is unfortunately not his decision to make.
Arcane asks Woodrue if the formula could potentially work on other living creatures. Woodrue says it theoretically could, but that's something Holland would certainly never even entertain the notion of. After Woodrue leaves his office, Arcane meets with the Demon Three, who materialize out of thin air, and tells them to steal the formula from Holland's lab. The Demon Three arrive at the lab and are surprised to find Holland working late into the night at the lab when they arrive to steal the formula. Holland grabs the formula and makes a run for it. He seals them in the lab, and continues to run. The Demon Three disappear and materialize in the hallway of the building to resume their chase. Holland makes it out to the parking lot and speeds away in his car, but the Demons Three chase after him down the road. One of the Demons manages to grab hold of Holland's car and starts breaking his way through the rear window. Holland begins swerving to try to shake the Demon off his car. Another Demon manages to jump onto the vehicle, causing Holland to lose control of the vehicle. The car flips and crashes into a swamp. The car burns up as it sinks to the bottom of the swamp with Holland's unconscious body inside. The canister containing the master copy of the Bio-Restorative Formula has broken and Holland sinks into the swamp surrounded by the formula.
Abigail barges into her father's office and demands that he use the Bio-Restorative Formula for good rather than for greed. Arcane tells her that would be a fine notion, but that the formula was unfortunately destroyed in a car accident involving Holland. He tells her that he suspects that Holland was attempting to steal the formula for his own means. Arcane tells her he will try to have Woodrue re-engineer the formula, but there are no promises that it will be as effective as Holland's work.
Abigail decides to head to sight of the crash to see if she can find the formula. When she gets there she finds the swamp flush with fresh plant-life. She realizes that the formula must have soaked into the soil and has already begun generating plant growth. She takes several samples of the plants and of the soil and heads to Holland's lab. At Holland's lab, Abigail discovers traces of human DNA in the soil and plant samples she took. Woodrue suddenly walks in and demands to know what she is doing in the lab. She tells him that she was just curious to see if Holland left any notes regarding the formula behind. Woodrue tells her that the formula died with Holland and that she must leave the lab at once lest she meet a similar fate.
Linda is present at the swamp as authorities pull Holland's car from the swamp. There is no body inside. The authorities say that maybe he made it out of the car and is in the water somewhere, but most likely his body has already been eaten by gators.
Georgia Arcane is once again afflicted by the flesh eating bacteria. Arcane oversees donor skin grafts that are applied to replace her rotted flesh. When Georgia wakes up, she catches a glimpse of her horrific reflection. She asks Arcane why he's done this to her, and he tells her that he is trying to perfect her. Georgia screams and jumps out a window to her death.
Abigail goes back to the site of the crash to further investigate, when the Demons Three approach her. Suddenly branches shoot out of the earth and attack the demons, sending them flying. Abigail runs away and hides, watching as some thing then emerges from the swamp muck. The thing, who appears to be made out the swamp vegetation, towers over the Demons Three. The Swamp Thing, eyes glowing red, grabs the demons and hurtles them deeper into the swamp waters where gators begin circling them. Swamp Thing then picks Abigail up and takes away from harm's way. Abigail asks if Swamp Thing is Dr. Alec Holland. The creature nods his head.
General Avery Sunderland (James Woods) arrives at the Arcane Labs in Houma where he is greeted by Arcane, who leads him through the labs to a secret subterrainian lab where he proudly shows him his "Un-Men": stitched together modified human bodies made to look like horrific monsters. Arcane says he can give them power if they are able to re-create Holland's Formula. Sunderland is excited by the potential military applications of the formula and gives Arcane his full support.
The Swamp Thing trudges through the swamp and begins walking down the road. He stops when he gets to the outside of Holland's cabin. The Swamp Thing begins calling out for Linda. She comes outside and is frightened by the sight of Swamp Thing. The creature tries to explain that he is Alec Holland, her boyfriend, but she screams and goes to call the police. Soon, cop cars converge on Swamp Thing. In his anger, tree roots burst from beneath the road and impale the cop cars. Swamp Thing then slowly walks back into the swamps with his head down.
The police scower the swamps for the "Swamp Thing" but are unable to find anything. When he receives word of the incident, General Sunderland sends the private military squad, Blackwood, into the swamps to find the beast and destroy it. Arcane, meanwhile, believing that the formula has somehow turned Holland into a monster, orders Dr. Woodrue to try to replicate the process to create a monster of his own. Woodrue tries to make an argument against the ethics of making monsters. Arcane tells Woodrue to replicate Holland's process or he will face a fate far worse than Holland. Woodrue works at replicating Holland's initial formula, but adds cells from various plants at the insistence of Arcane. Woodrue tries to explain that the formula was never meant to be used for something like this. Arcane forces Woodrue to drink the formula. Arcane then locks Woodrue in the lab to wait for the transformation to begin.
The Blackwood soldiers search the swamps with their infrared goggles on to help them find the monster in the swamp. Sunderland orders them to fire upon anything with a heat register. The squad finds Swamp Thing and Abigail and fires at them. Swamp Thing controls the vegetation surrounding the squad, pulling them into the waters of the swamp. The creature tells Abigail that she must go before more danger finds them.
Arcane watches as Woodrue begins to transform. Woodrue's skin turns into wood covered with patches of moss and his arms become long sharp branches. Arcane looks on with pride. Woodrue is envigorated by the power he feels. The lab begins to fill with vines and moss. Woodrue breaks through the lab doors with his branch-like arms. Arcane tells Woodrue that if they can get their hands on the Swamp Thing, there are no limits to the power Woodrue can attain.
Abigail goes back to the swamp to ask for Holland's help stopping her father. She calls out his name and Swamp Thing emerges from the swampy waters. She tells him that her mother killed herself but that it is her father, Arcane's, fault. He tells her he doesn't know how he could possibly help her - he's a monster now. She then tells him that Arcane is trying to use the Bio-Restorative Formula for military purposes. Swamp Thing was sure that the formula died with him, that is unless Dr. Woodrue has taken his notes and tried to recreate the formula.
Arcane walks into a secret lab in his mansion where the mangled corpse of his wife, Georgia, lays on an operating table. Arcane injects Georgia's body with the Bio-Restorative Formula. Georgia's body begins to reassemble itself, everything except for her rotted skin is back to normal. Arcane looks at her and tells her she is finally perfect and gives her a kiss. The revived Georgia has no memory of her life before. Arcane explains that she is the love of his life and the mother of their daughter. He tells her that she died, but that he was able to bring her back to life better than ever - his lovely Patchwork.
Sunderland and Arcane meet to discuss the Un-Men project. Arcane tells Sutherland that the Bio-Restorative Formula does indeed work as theorized. Together they can use the formula to make any kind of soldier the military could ever possibly need - the possibilities are endless. Unbeknownst to them, Abigail is recording their conversation.
Back in the swamp, Abigail shows Swamp Thing the tape of Sutherland and Arcane's meeting. Swamp Thing gets angry and his eyes turn red. Large thorns grow out of his shoulders. He tells her that he will help her stop her father from using his formula for nefarious purposes. Swamp Thing marches through the swamps toward the AA Sciences labs. Meanwhile, Abigail goes to her father's mansion where she finds what has become of her mother. Abigail is horrified at the sight. This makes the Patchwork Georgia angry. Georgia then attacks Abigail, who runs away out of the house and toward the labs.
Swamp Thing breaks his way into AA Sciences where he finds Arcane and Sunderland about to inject the Un-Men with the Bio-Restorative Formula. Swamp Thing shoots vines out, pinning the men to the walls before they can use the formula on Arcane's twisted projects. Suddenly the transformed Woodrue starts walking down the hall. Swamp Thing is shocked to see another creature like him. Arcane yells for Woodrue to attack the Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing is shocked that the creature is Woodrue, who insists on being called the Floronic Man. Swamp Thing shoots thorns out of his hands at Woodrue, who in turn fires large seeds at Swamp Thing. The two plant-based monsters grab each other. The Floronic Man begins wrapping his wooden arms around Swamp Thing, trying to crush him. Swamp Thing begins feeling weaker. Just when it seems like the Swamp Thing has passed out, Swamp Thing has thorns pop out of his body, stabbing Woodrue several times. Abigail makes her way into AA Sciences with Patchwork Georgia hot on her heels. As she runs down a hallway, she comes across the fight between Swamp Thing and Floronic Man. Swamp Thing punches Woodrue, sending him to the floor. Floronic Man is stunned and has a sap-like substance leaking from his stab wounds. Abigail starts a fire in one of the labs. Georgia then storms into the lab, trying to kill Abigail. Abigail quckly rushes out of the lab, triggering the containment lock on her way out to trap Georgia inside the burning lab. Abigail tells Swamp Thing to get out of the building before he burns to death. With Woodrue on the ground leaking sap, and Arcane and Sunderland still pinned to the walls, Swamp Thing and Abigail leave the burning building. Swamp Thing stands in a nearby swamp with Abigail sitting on his shoulder. Together they watch as AA Sciences burns to the ground, presumably with Woodrue, Arcane, Georgia and Sunderland still inside.
Mid-Credits: Anton Arcane wakes up to find himself surrounded by ash and flames. At first he thinks he's simply survived the burning AA Sciences building, but then he is greeted by a demon who welcomes Arcane to Hell. Arcane looks up toward Earth and announces that he's not done up there.
End Credits: A plane lands at a small airport outside Houma, Louisiana. John Constantine (Colin Farrell) exits the plane, immediately lighting up a cigarette. As he walks through the terminal he grabs a newspaper, with the front page story covering the mysterious AA Sciences fire.
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