Sirens choke, then silence—every screen goes black as a global summit falls into the dark. President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) is rushed below Washington while Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) fights blind through a city that’s turned into a maze.

Enter Scarlett Johansson as a crisis operative with a burned past—she has the kill‑switch code or the key to the trap. Set pieces rip: a canal chase in total blackout with NVGs blooming green ; an elevator‑shaft firefight lit only by muzzle flash ; drone swarms hunting by heartbeat; a bridge extraction under falling satellite debris . Analog becomes gospel—paper maps, flares, and trust. The architect of the blackout starts naming names, and the question sharpens: protect the chain of command or cut it loose to save lives. Final sting: a flare arcs across the Mall… and a silenced shot snuffs it.