Synopsis
Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard) is a former Marine, radicalized by tours of duty in Iraq and Afghaniisntan. His life in the military is behind him, but at heart he remains the same reckless alpha male he always was, eager for adventure, excited by the prospect of mayhem and destruction. Dena (Dakota Fanning) is a high society dropout, sickened by the consumer economy into which she was born. She’s moved west and cut ties with her family, edging ever deeper into radical politics. And Josh (Jesse Eisenberg), their leader, is a self-made militant, devoted to the protection of the Earth by any means necessary. The son of the middle class, a diligent student, a quiet person by nature, he is also intensely private, calculating and possibly cold.
From the organic farm where Josh works, the plot unfolds. Josh and Dena depart for what they tell their friends is a week- end trip to Portland, but instead proceed to nearby Medford, where they purchase a medium-sized pleasure boat and drive it half-way across the state of Oregon to Harmon’s mountain compound. There, amid discussions of political and personal motivation, the three conspirators fill the hull with a fertilizer-based explosive, and transport the weaponized vessel to the site of the dam. They pass hours waiting at the reservoir and, under cover of the night, detonate the bomb.
A night of frantic driving ensues, bringing them in and out of further danger, until at last they make it home. They wake, however, to find the story far from over: an innocent hiker has been killed by the flooding waters, and the media is on high alert.
In the following days, the conspirators, separated and filled with paranoia and dread, confront dangers physical and mental, anticipated and unexpected.