Battle: Los Angeles

On August 12, 2011, mysterious objects thought to be meteorites crash into Earth's oceans near many major cities including Tokyo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco, Panama, San Diego, Mexico City, New York City, Hong Kong, Shanghai, London, Barcelona, Hamburg, Sydney, Los Angeles, Aqaba, Moscow, Seoul, Mumbai, Calcutta, Manila, Jakarta, Lagos, Cairo, Karachi, Istanbul, Rome, Sao Paulo and Milan. These objects are revealed to be spacecraft containing hostile extraterrestrial beings. U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton arrive in LA to defend against alien ground forces and assist in the evacuation of civilians in preparation for a bombing campaign. Among the military's forces is SSgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart), a 20-year veteran who lost his squad during his last deployment in Iraq. Nantz had planned to retire, but the situation requires him to replace the platoon sergeant from Echo Company, 2nd Battalion 5th Marines.
Under command of 2ndLt. William Martinez (Ramón Rodríguez), fresh out of The Basic School, the platoon attends a briefing at Santa Monica Airport, which has been converted to a Forward Operating Base. They learn that the alien force consists solely of ground forces at the moment, with no air support to speak of; as such, the USAF plans to commence saturation bombing of the Santa Monica area at 1930 hours. The platoon's mission is to rescue civilians from an LAPD police station within three hours. As they advance through the city, they are ambushed and suffer casualties, but link up with a group of Army National Guard soldiers from the 40th Infantry Division, including Air Force intelligence Technical Sergeant Elena Santos (Michelle Rodriguez). Eventually, the combined team reaches the police station, finding five civilians inside: a veterinarian named Michele (Bridget Moynahan), children Hector Rincon (Bryce Cass), Kirsten (Joey King) and Amy (Jadin Gould), and Hector's father Joe (Michael Peña). A helicopter arrives to evacuate the wounded Marines Simmons, Guerrero, Lenihan and Grayston, but is unable to take on the civilians because it is already full. As the helicopter is taking off, it is destroyed by an alien aircraft, killing everyone onboard.