Hope

Ko Bum-seok is the police chief of Hope Harbor, a small village near the Korean Demilitarized Zone populated mostly by elderly residents. His second cousin, Ko Sung-ki, asks him to look into a dead cow with gaping wounds. Sung-ki and his fellow hunters believe a stray tiger is responsible, but soon find further dead cattle and the farm's owner also dead. Returning to Hope Harbor, Bum-seok discovers that a large creature has massacred several villagers. With reinforcements tied up fighting wildfires elsewhere, he teams up with retired colonel Ahn Nak-yeon to track it down, but the pair mistakenly shoot and badly wound a local chef.

Continuing the search alone, Bum-seok joins a local militia and learns that the creature is in fact an intelligent, apparently indestructible humanoid. After it wipes out the militia, rookie officer Im Sung-ae saves him using grenade launchers she has scavenged. Sung-ae manages to sever one of the creature's legs, and the two give chase by car. Bum-seok hesitates to finish it off after seeing it crying, but it is killed when a tanker accidentally runs it over.

Bum-seok later helps a surgeon examine the body, who notes several similarities to human anatomy. At police headquarters, he and Nak-yeon encounter an eccentric hunter and would-be carpenter, Yang-bae, who claims to have killed a second creature. Though sceptical, they go with him to inspect the corpse stored in his freezer. Meanwhile, Sung-ae tends to the wounded at a makeshift hospital and interviews a Mr Hae-sul, who says he saw several such creatures while out hunting. Worried more remain at large, she sets off to warn Bum-seok.

The body in Yang-bae's freezer turns out to be a monster infant, named Kh'arli. Bum-seok realises the adult creature had been searching for its offspring, and angrily blames Yang-bae for triggering the massacre. Authorities subsequently remove the infant's remains. When Sung-ae arrives with news of Hae-sul's sightings, the group fears for Sung-ki's safety, and Bum-seok, Nak-yeon, Sung-ae and Yang-bae head out to warn him.

Elsewhere, Sung-ki and his fellow hunters stumble upon a crashed spaceship in the forest and realise the creatures are aliens. Inside, they find a nursery-like chamber but are ambushed by the alien Empress J'aur and her subordinates, Ma'veyyo and Ai'dovor. The aliens kill everyone present except Sung-ki, who breaks free of Ma'veyyo and is rescued by a heavily armed group of local union members — who are then slaughtered in turn. Bum-seok's group arrives in time to let Sung-ki escape on horseback.

Ma'veyyo pursues him along the highway as Bum-seok and Sung-ae attack from their car. Sung-ki climbs aboard and badly wounds Ma'veyyo, but is accidentally thrown from the vehicle when Yang-bae swerves sharply. Ma'veyyo rejoins J'aur, and together they watch an allied spaceship belonging to Emperor Kh'worl emerge from a portal in the sky and crash into a nearby mountain. The resulting shockwave sends the police car off the road, forcing Bum-seok, Nak-yeon, Sung-ae and Yang-bae to press on by foot as they try to evade the aliens and reach Hope Harbor in time to raise the alarm. Meanwhile, J'aur and Ma'veyyo search for the infant Kh'arli, intending to revive him using Ma'veyyo's own heart.

A mid-credits scene reveals that Sung-ki has survived and is seen limping along the highway.