The film is set in a post-apocalyptic England in the year 2020; twenty years after London tunneling project workers inadvertently re-awake dragons from centuries of slumber and the creatures have subsequently replaced humans as the dominant species on Earth.

With the fate of mankind at stake, two surviving parties, led by Quinn Abercromby (Bale) and Denton Van Zan (McConaughey) respectively, find that they must work together to hunt down and destroy the beasts in a desperate attempt to take back the world.