Cloverfield

The film is presented as recovered footage from a Department of Defense camera found in the area "formerly known as Central Park." It opens with intimate morning-after footage of Rob Hawkins and Beth McIntyre. That tape is being recorded over by the events of Rob's goodbye party — he's leaving for Japan for a corporate job. His brother Jason and Jason's girlfriend Lily are there, and Rob's best friend Hud has been tasked with shooting goodbye testimonials. Beth arrives with another man. Rob is wrecked.

A massive rumble shakes the city. Power flickers. The party spills onto the roof. They watch an explosion ripple across the harbor. The head of the Statue of Liberty hits the street below them. The military deploys. The streets descend into chaos.

The group flees south to evacuate via the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge collapses under direct attack from the creature. Jason is killed.

Rob gets a phone call from Beth — she's trapped in her Midtown apartment, impaled on rebar, unable to move. Against everyone's protests, Rob turns around and heads uptown to find her. Lily, Hud, and Marlena go with him.

The group descends into the subway tunnels to avoid the surface. Smaller parasitic creatures drop from the main monster down there — fast, vicious, biting things. Marlena is bitten. They reach a military refugee tent on the surface where she is pulled behind a curtain — her body ruptures grotesquely, killing her.

The remaining three reach Beth's apartment building, which is now leaning catastrophically into the building beside it. They climb up through the tilted structure, free Beth from the rebar, and get her out. The military tells them "Hammer Down" protocol is beginning — the carpet bombing of Manhattan to kill the creature. Civilians are ushered to evacuation helicopters at Central Park.

Lily makes it onto an earlier helicopter. Rob, Beth, and Hud board the next one. The creature shoots it down. They crash in Central Park. Hud emerges from the wreckage with the camera and is bitten in half by the creature on screen.

Rob and Beth, both badly injured, take shelter under a bridge as the bombing intensifies. They record what they believe will be their final messages on the camcorder. The bombs come down. The footage ends.