Six years after NASA beamed a powerful signal to an Earth-like planet outside our solar system, we get a response. Only the extraterrestrials don't send a message: they come calling, landing five huge amphibious spacecraft in the Pacific, just as a US/Japanese naval exercise has begun. The visitors initially just seem wary, but a panicked reaction from our warships makes them reassess us as hostile and sparks a ferocious response. And so it falls to hot-headed US Navy officer Lieutenant Alex Hopper, his older brother Commander Stone Hopper and the commander of the fleet Admiral Shane to defeat a threat which is greater than they first think. Also starring singer Rihanna as a US Navy gunner, though perhaps the film's real star is its CGI special effects.