The United States military decide to launch an offensive on the robot using unmanned aerial vehicles armed with Sidewinder missiles. The robot takes over control of the U.S. drones and guides them to crash into military tanks nearby.
At a McDonalds, Klaatu meets with a Mr. Wu. We learn that he is another alien who had been assigned by the same group of alien civilizations. Klaatu begins speaking to Mr. Wu in Mandarin
Klaatu: You've been out of contact for a long time.
Mr. Wu: I had a dangerous assignment. This is hostile territory.
Klaatu: I've noticed. I was hoping I could reason with them.
Mr. Wu: I'm afraid they are not a reasonable race. I've been living amongst them for seventy years now. I know them well.
Klaatu: And?
Mr. Wu: Any attempt to intercede with them would be futile. They are destructive, and they won't change.
Klaatu: Is that your official report?
Mr. Wu: The tragedy is, they know what's going to become of them.
Both Klaatu and Wu turn to look at Helen, Jacob and Wu's grandson who are seated at another table.
Mr. Wu: They sense it. But they can't seem to do anything about it.
Klaatu: It's decided then. I'll begin the process as soon as possible. We should make preparations for our departure.
They switch to speaking English.
Mr. Wu: I'm staying.
Klaatu: You can't stay here.
Mr. Wu: I can and I will.
Klaatu: If you stay, you'll die.
Mr. Wu: I know. This is my home now.
Klaatu: You yourself called them a destructive race.
Mr. Wu: That's true. But still, there is another side. You see, I love them. This is very strange thing. I can't find a way to explain it to you. For many years I cursed my luck for being sent here. Human life is difficult. But as this life is coming to an end. I consider myself lucky to have lived it.
Meanwhile the military encases the robot in a large metal modular structure, or containment panels.
After leaving McDonalds, Helen and Klaatu are pursued by the authorities throughout Newark, New Jersey, and the Highlands forest. Klaatu has her stop in the forest and gets out of the car. Moments later, Helen follow Klaatu and sees him at a pond. Klaatu signals for smaller spheres previously hidden on Earth to begin taking animal species off the planet.
We are shown various spheres around the world in jungles, the ocean, and deserts as earth creatures enter each sphere.
Regina soon receives the report of these numerous spheres from all over the world. Regina, Granier, and Driscoll watch videos of the spheres containing Earth's creatures, and they are all leaving the planet.
Back at the forest, Klaatu arrives back at the car.
Klaatu: I need to get back to the city.
Helen: I need to know what's happening.
Klaatu: This planet is dying. The human race is killing it.
Helen: So you've come here to help us.
Klaatu: No, I didn't.
Helen: You said you came to save us.
Klaatu: I said I came to save the Earth.
Helen: You came to save the Earth... from us. You came to save the Earth from us.
Klaatu: We can't risk the survival of this planet for the sake of one species.
Helen: What are you saying?
Klaatu: If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives. There are only a handful of planets in the cosmos that are capable of supporting complex life...
Helen: You can't do this.
Klaatu: ...this one can't be allowed to perish.
Helen: We can change. We can still turn things around.
Klaatu: We've watched, we've waited and hoped that you would change.
Helen: Please...
Klaatu: It's reached the tipping point. We have to act.
Helen: Please...
Klaatu: We'll undo the damage you've done and give the Earth a chance to begin again.
Helen: Don't do this. Please, we can change. We can change.
Klaatu: The decision is made. The process has begun.
Helen: Oh God.
At that moment, a police unit arrives and holds them at gunpoint. The officer steps in front of his patrol car parked just behind Helen's. Klaatu touches Helen's car and it slams into the officer, crushing him.
A moment later, he revives the officer using the placenta and the battery power of the patrol car. The officer is now completely healed.
Back at the command center, Regina and Granier speculate why the aliens are collecting specimens from the planet. Then it dawns on her, she compares it to Noah's Ark and the flood that destroys the world.
The robot is taken to the underground Mt. Weather Flash Facility in Bluemont, Virginia.
Helen takes Klaatu to the home of Nobel Prize-winning Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese). After working on some equations on a chalk board, Barnhardt turns to talk to Klaatu.
Barnhardt: I have so many questions to ask you.
Helen [addressing Klaatu about the music playing]: It's Bach.
Klaatu: It's beautiful.
Barnhardt: So we're not so different after all.
Klaatu: I wish that were true.
At the Mt. Weather Facility, Driscoll questions a military commander.
Driscoll: So is it a machine or a living thing?
Flash Chamber Colonel: Both. Or neither.
Driscoll: What do you mean 'neither'?
Flash Chamber Colonel: It seems to be some sort of silicone-based hybrid. We're calling it GORT: Genetically-Organized Robotic Technology.
Driscoll: The military and their acronyms...
GORT has been subjected to a number of experiments including a diamond drill that shattered when trying to penetrate its shell.
Back at the professor's home, they discuss the future of mankind.
Barnhardt: There must be alternatives. You must have some technology that could solve our problem.
Klaatu: Your problem is not technology. The problem is you. You lack the will to change.
Barnhardt: Then help us change.
Klaatu: I cannot change your nature. You treat the world as you treat each other.
Barnhardt: But every civilization reaches a crisis point eventually.
Klaatu: Most of them don't make it.
Barnhardt: Yours did. How?
Klaatu: Our sun was dying. We had to evolve in order to survive.
Barnhardt: So it was only when your world was threatened with destruction that you became what you are now.
Klaatu: Yes.
Barnhardt: Well that's where we are. You say we're on the brink of destruction and you're right. But it's only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. This is our moment. Don't take it from us, we are close to an answer.
Klaatu is convinced by Helen and Jacob that humans can change their ways and are worth saving. However instead of quietly sleeping in the next room, Jacob calls a 800 hotline and reports where Klaatu is. He quickly learns his mistake when Dr. Benson is captured by miltary personnel and he is left alone with Klaatu. Two more helicopters appear to take out Klaatu with deadly force.
But Klaatu takes control of the choppers, causing them to spin out of control and crash, they erupt in a fiery explosion on the ground. Jacob runs away from Klaatu, arriving on a walkway bridge. A rotted plank gives way and as Jacob is about to fall, Klaatu grabs him, saving him.
At the Mt. Weather Facility, a technician is sent in to repair the drill. We see a close up of nanites multiplying. At a military facility, the captive Helen pleads with Regina that their only chance to save mankind is to reason with Klaatu, but Regina is unconvinced.
Klaatu and Jacob keep heading towards the sphere, while the boy discusses his relationship with Helen.
At the Mt. Weather Facility, the technician's suit is infected by the nanites, causing it to dissolve. He begins bleeding and collapses. The nanites soon spread throughout the underground facility. Driscoll slams his fist on a purge-like button, filling the chamber with a blast of flames, but GORT is unaffected.
Driscoll tries to flee, but the colonel insists the facility must remain sealed, no one leaves. The nanites consume the facility including the personnel and make their way to the surface. The huge swarm of nanites consume a armored batallion and its soldiers.
The swarm heads everywhere, destroying everything in their path back to Manhattan. The nanites consume a truck and its driver, and nearby road signs.
Meanwhile, Regina Jackson realizes that convincing the alien to change it's mind might be the only way to ensure the survival of humanity. Helen is allowed to leave and together with Granier they rendezvous with Jacob and Klaatu at a cemetery.
Jacob: I told Helen we should kill you.
Klaatu: Yes, I heard that.
Jacob: I didn't mean it though.
Klaatu: You didn't?
Jacob: Well, not anymore. So what's going to happen to us?
Klaatu: I was just wondering the same thing.
At the cemetery, Jacob leads Klaatu to the place where his father is buried. Jacob begs Klaatu to use his powers and bring his father back to life.
Klaatu: There are some things I can't do.
Jacob: But you have powers.
Klaatu: I'm sorry.
Jacob: Please. Please!
Klaatu: Jacob, nothing ever truly dies. The universe wastes nothing. Everything is simply, transformed.
Jacob: Just leave me alone.
Moments later, Helen and Michael arrive. Helen tells Jacob how much she missed his father and they share a good cry. The scene between the two convinces Klaatu to save humanity. Klaatu recognizes the other side that Mr. Wu loves about humans. Klaatu notices Granier.
Helen: It's alright. He's here to help.
Klaatu: There's another side to you. I feel it now.
Helen [referring to large, black cloud]: Is that how it ends?
Klaatu: Yes.
Helen: You can't stop it?
Klaatu: I don't know. It would come at a price, to you and your way of life.
Helen: But we can change, you know that now. Please, please, just give us a chance.
Klaatu: I'll try. I must get back to the city.
Meanwhile, the huge swarm of nanites continue consuming everything in its path, including the New York Giants stadium. Dr. Benson notices something is odd the way the entire town has been evacuated and how when after driving through a road block they are not chased by the military vehicles.
As they approach the sphere, she yells for Michael to stop the car. Just then, a targeted missile strike authorized by the president hits the sphere. It blasts the car into a tree and kills Michael. Just then the nanobot cloud arrives. There is not enough time to make it to the sphere so they run towards a footbridge to hide under. But inside, it is revealed that Jacob and Helen have been infected by the nanites.
Jacob: Mom!
Jacob, bleeding from his nose, collapses in the arms of Helen.
Helen: What's happening to him? Jacob!
Klaatu: They are inside him... He is dying.
Helen: Help him.
Helen wipes blood from her own nose, discovering that she is also dying.
Helen: Help him!... Please!
Klaatu saves both of them by transferring the infection to his own body.
Klaatu [to Helen]: Your professor is right. At the precipice, we change.
He then sacrifices himself to stop GORT by walking through the nanites to the sphere and touching it. His actions cause the sphere to emit a massive EMP which destroys GORT, saving humanity, but at the price of Earth's technology becoming useless and immobile.
As the sphere is leaving, Jacob realizes that Klaatu didn't die. He just merged into the giant sphere. The spheres surrounding earth leave with the giant sphere.
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