The Darkest Hour

The Darkest Hour is a 2011 Russian-American film about a Horde of Alien Locusts invading Earth. Invisible except for occasional orange ripples, deadly to the touch, and basically invincible, they quickly slaughter everyone in their path.

Ben (Max Minghella) and Sean (Emile Hirsch), two American entrepreneurs, join up with their corrupt Swedish business partner Skyler (Joel Kinnaman) and two female tourists, Natalie (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne (Rachael Taylor) as they try to make their way out of Moscow.


 * Action Survivor: Everyone has their moments, but Sean and Sergai stand out among all others.
 * Artistic License Physics: A radio is shown to work with no apparent loss in quality while inside Sergai's Faraday cage, and later Natalie uses her cell phone inside a submarine.
 * Badass Bookworm: Sergai, an electrician, made an improvised Faraday cage and microwave gun to combat the aliens.
 * Bizarre Alien Biology: The aliens are metallic lifeforms, and thus consume conductive metals to survive.
 * EMP: The aliens' arrival causes this, knocking out basically everything that wasn't somehow shielded.
 * Glass Cannon: The aliens are frighteningly powerful and basically invincible when their shields work, but beneath that are fragile enough to be killed by chucking a piece of metal at them.
 * Kill It with Fire: One of the early attempts to deal with the aliens. It doesn't hurt them, but the energy from the fire keeps them at bay.
 * Invisibility Cloak: The aliens have shields which render them nearly invisible except for occasional electrical arcs on the surface. It also instantly vaporizes anything it touches, and can resist a shot from a bazooka.
 * Jerkass Has a Point: While far from the nicest character, the Jerkass still has a point when he suggests going to the Swedish Embassy since it's closer.
 * Planet Looters: The aliens only want Earth's resources, specifically conductive metals. Humans are just in the way.
 * Touch of Death: Anything that touches the aliens' shields is vaporized on contact.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: The aliens can't see through glass.
 * When Things Spin, Science Happens: Once their shields are breached, the aliens are shown to be surrounded by spinning rings.
 * Worm Sign: The aliens are invisible, but their highly-charged shielding has the side-effect of powering any electrical device nearby. This even extends to lightbulbs that aren't plugged into anything.