Plot

When Cpt. Artemis and her loyal soldiers are transported to a new world, they engage in a desperate battle for survival against enormous enemies with incredible powers. Feature film based on the video game by Capcom.

While on a peril-laden mission to track a missing team of soldiers, hard-as-nails U.S. Army Ranger Captain Natalie Artemis and her elite brothers-in-arms find themselves transported to an alternate universe. There, trapped in a barren desert-world rife with formidable adversaries and subterranean sand-dwelling beasts, for the first time, Captain Artemis and her squad are shocked to discover that their otherwise destructive military weapons are now entirely inadequate to take down the enemy. But, unexpectedly, in their desperate battle for survival, the team stumbles upon a mysterious local huntsman whose superior combat skills allow him to stay one step ahead of the mighty creatures. Is there an escape from the prison realm? Above all, what does it take to become a fearless monster hunter?—Nick Riganas

Ranger Captain Natalie Artemis and her six-man Alpha team seeks in a desert area the Bravo team that vanished. Out of the blue, they are surprised by a storm and cross a gateway to another world. They are attacked by an underground monster and a man first warns them and then help them with his bow and arrow. The monster kills two soldiers and Artemins and four soldiers hide in a cave, but they are attacked by spider-like monsters. Artemis is rescued by the Hunter, and they fight each other first. Then they team-up to reach the other side of the sand, and they succeed to kill the monster. The hunter returns to his people and their leader The Admiral offers to help her to return to her world.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In the New World where humans co-exist with a wide variety of large and savage monsters, a Hunter (Tony Jaa), a warrior trained to hunt and kill these powerful creatures, is separated from his team when their ship (which travels on sand, just as if it would travel on water) is attacked by the Diablos, a horned subterranean monster. The hunters were headed to the Sky Tower in the New World, which seems to be the center of power in this world. The Admiral (Ron Perlman) is the chieftain of a group of Hunters. The Admiral manages to save the ship, but in the ensuing fight, The Hunter gets separated and falls in the sand.

On Earth, U.S. Army Ranger Captain Natalie Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and her United Nations security team Marshall (Diego Boneta), Axe (Jin Au-Yeung), Steeler (Josh Helman), Lincoln (Tip "T.I." Harris) and Dash (Meagan Good) search for a missing team of soldiers in the desert. The team passes through a series of ancient markers with writings on them. Lincoln finds the tracks of the missing team in the Earth desert, but the tracks suddenly disappear with no trace.

A sudden storm engulfs the rescue team and activates the markers surrounding them. The markers emit an energy to create a portal and pulls them into the New World where they find the remains of the missing soldiers and their vehicles. Natalie cannot ascertain their position on any of her maps. GPS is fried, radio and satellite are getting only static. The bodies of the missing team are burned to a crisp, but not by any known weapon. The sand surrounding the burned bodies is turned to glass.

The team repairs their vehicles and drive on through the desert. They find skeletons which are huge, even bigger than those of dinosaurs on Earth. As the Diablos approaches them, the Hunter, who is observing the group, fires a warning signal. The Diablos, impervious to bullets and grenades, attack and kill two members of the squad. Steeler detonates a clutch of grenades right in the face of Diablos, but that barely even scratches its skin.

The survivors hide in a cave, where they are attacked by a pack of spider-like monsters called Nerscyllas (who only come out in the dark and are repulsed by sunlight). Artemis is injected with a paralyzing venom, and as the others try to save her, more Nerscyllas arrive and swarm them. Artemis wakes up in a Nerscylla lair, finding her team dead or infected with Nerscylla spawn, and escapes the lair by setting the pursuing monsters on fire (with a flare and a can of aerosol).

Artemis escapes to the ground above through a vent and realizes that the Nerscylla are afraid of sunlight. Atermis emerge on the top of a rock formation surrounded by the desert, where the Diablos still roams. Hence, she cannot stay (Nerscylla will emerge at night) and she cannot run away. Artemis runs into the Hunter, and after fighting each other (& surviving the night in Hunter's secret bunker hiding from the from the Nerscylla), they grudgingly agree to cooperate. Artemis saves Hunter after he falls into a Nerscylla nest and after that offers him her Hershey's bar to eat. Artemis learns that the portals are created by the Sky Tower, a structure located across the desert. The Hunter reveals they will need to kill the Diablos in order to cross the desert safely and reach the tower. Artemis learns how to fight using the Hunter's unique bladed weapons and helps him set a trap for the Diablos to kill it with Nerscylla venom. The attack is successful when Hunter shoots the poisoned arrow into Diablos's eye, and with Artemis delivering the finishing blow with an RPG from her Humvee and driving Hunter's blade deep into Diablos's brain, but the Hunter is badly wounded. Constructing a makeshift stretcher, Artemis dutifully carries him across the desert.

The pair reaches an oasis populated with tortoise like-creatures called Apceros. When a Rathalos, a fire-breathing Wyvern, flies by and causes the Apceros to stampede, Artemis and the Hunter are rescued by a group led by the Admiral. Admiral can speak in English. He says that many from Earth cross over previously and that's how he learned their language. The Admiral explains that the Sky Tower was built by the first civilization to travel between worlds, using the monsters (like Diablos and Rathalos) to protect it. The Admiral says that the ancient ones died out before closing the portal and hence now it is open and allows the frequent movement of people from one world to the other. Admiral knows that if Earth discovers the New World, that will signal the end of it.

Artemis agrees to help kill the Rathalos (who is the weakest just before it breathes fire) so she can return home. The gang reaches the Sky Tower, with an unstable portal at the base of it.

In the ensuing battle, Artemis falls through the portal, returning to her world. The portal does not close in time, and the Rathalos emerges and begins wreaking havoc (The Rathalos attacks the rescue team that has picked up Artemis). Artemis is able to slow it down long enough for the Hunter to slip through the portal and deliver the fatal shot. Though she has the chance to stay, Artemis decides to go back to the New World and remain with the Hunters.

The Admiral approaches her, just before the appearance of another flying monster; a black dragon known as Gore Magala. He notes that as long as the portal remains open, there will always be the threat that monsters will pass through to Earth. Artemis concludes that finding a way to take down the Sky Tower is now their primary objective.

In a mid-credits scene, Palico (Aaron Beelner), the Admiral's cat-like cook and companion, arrives to help fight the Gore Magala, while an ominous cloaked figure observes the battle from the top of the tower.