*The following is all from the POV of Hud's video camera.
The movie starts off with Rob videotaping the start of a typical New York day from an apartment in the North Tower of the Time Warner Center. He goes into the bedroom and chats with Beth, whom he has just slept with. The two agree to go to Coney Island for the day.
The tape cuts to Rob's brother, Jason, as he attempts to get the same camera working. His girlfriend Lily tasks him with documenting Rob's going away party, and Jason passes the task on to his and Rob's friend Hudson (Hud). Hud obliges, and takes the camera and begins filming the party.
During the party, Beth arrives with a date, much to the disappointment of Rob. The two argue, and when Hud asks Lily why, she reluctantly tells him and Jason about Rob and Beth sleeping together. Hud proceeds to tell a number of guests, and Beth leaves. Rob frustrates her even more by wishing "luck" to Beth's date as they leave.
Shortly afterwards, the ground shakes and loud roars are heard in the area. The guests of the party go to the roof and look downtown, and see a large explosion in the vicinity. Flaming debris flies towards the roof, and the guests run downstairs and begin to pile into the street. There is another roar and the head of the Statue of Liberty flies through the streets, landing near Hud. Hud walks over to it, then finds Rob, Jason and Lily and the four watch as the Woolworth Building suddenly collapses. They run into a shop to escape the debris. Minutes later, they exit the shop, and find their friend Marlena - whom Hud has a crush on - babbling about "it" "eating people".
After discussing what they saw and concluding that a giant creature is roaming the city, the five friends decide to make to leave the island. They are cut off, however, when the monster destroys the Brooklyn Bridge, killing Jason in the process. They run back into the city and go into an electronics store so that Rob can try and find a battery for his mobile phone. He finds one and gets a message on his phone from Beth, who is trapped in her apartment. Meanwhile, Hud watches the news and sees live images of the monster rubbing its back against buildings and dropping dog-sized parasites on the ground. The parasites start attacking people. Rob, however, decides to try and help Beth, and the friends all agree to follow him.
They make their way further north, towards midtown, and have an up-close encounter with the monster when the army comes and tries to shoot it down. The group panic, and run into a subway to try and escape. When they are below the streets, they discover that they can get to the other side of Central Park from Beth's apartment by following the train tracks and then turning west down Central Park South, and begin to walk through the tunnels. They are ambushed by the parasites during their walk, and during the attack Marlena gets badly bitten by one. They hastily climb into the abandoned Bloomingdale's via the 59th Street subway station. They are led by a squad of infantry to an army field hospital, which was set up to care for the hundreds of wounded civilians scattered around the city.
Shortly after arriving at the hospital, Marlena is dragged behind a paramedics screen and we see her silhouette gruesomely expand and then explode, some sort of effect brought on by the bite she received. The group are permitted by the sergeant to leave and try and help Beth, but to report at a military evacuation zone by 06:00 that morning. Hud has a minor break-down as they leave, but pulls himself together and they continue towards Columbus Circle in order to help Beth.
When they reach the Time Warner Center, they find that the north tower has been pushed over and is leaning against the south tower. Hud suggests that they climb the stairs in the south tower and try and find a way onto the roof of the north one, and they manage to get themselves to Beth's apartment. When they get there, they find Beth lying on the floor with her shoulder impaled by a length of rebar. The group pull her up, and lead her back down to street level. They briefly see the monster again as they cross the roof of the north tower, and have another encounter with a parasite as the go down the stairwell. Rob stabs it with a fire axe and the four manage to escape. As they run to the evacuation zone - which is just by Grand Central Station - they see the monster step right over the station as they run by it. They hastily try and get on a helicopter, and are separated from Lily, who is put on a different helicopter. Hud, Beth and Rob get on the next helicopter, and begin to evacuate.
As they fly over the city, they witness the monster being bombed by various planes and finally get knocked down into a building and under a cloud of smoke. As Hud shouts in joy, the monster suddenly rears up and smashes the rear rotor of the helicopter, sending the chopper circling towards the ground. It lands in Central Park and the group wake up a couple of minutes later, and help each other get out. The pilots are briefly seen in the helicopter dead.
Rob injures his leg in the crash, and Hud puts the camera down to help him get away, but when he goes to retrieve it the monster suddenly steps over him and looks down at the camera. Rob and Beth look on from behind the helicopter as the monster bends down and scoops Hud up in its mouth, and for a few seconds the camera is inside the creature's mouth. The top part of Hud falls out of its mouth - camera and all - and Rob and Beth run over to him sobbing.
Rob picks up the camera and carries it with him and Beth, and the two collapse under a bridge near the south eastern corner of the park. They sit there and listen as the bomb-warning siren goes off in the city, and Rob makes a last testimonial to the camera. As he quietly comforts Beth, a bomb drops on the park and the camera gets knocked out of Rob's hand, getting buried beneath some rubble. Rob and Beth each proclaim their love for each other just before another bomb goes off.
The camera pauses, and then cuts to a shot of the ocean from the Coney Island Ferris Wheel. In the far distance, you can briefly see a Japanese satellite fall from the sky and crash into the ocean - a part of the film's viral marketing campaign. Rob turns the camera back towards him and Beth, and then zooms in on Beth's face. She says "I had a good day." and then the tape freezes on her smiling face, and cuts to black.
At the very end of the credits, there is a short static transmission that, when played backwards, says "It's still alive."
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