- A clan of evil rats overtakes a Manhattan department store and threatens to overrun the city.
- In Manhattan, when a client is bitten by a rat in the dressing room of the Garsons Department Store and contracts Weil's disease, the manager Susan Costello is assigned to hire and give all the necessary support to the best exterminator in New York, Jack Carver. The efficient Jack and his assistant Ty find a colony of mutant rats and try to convince the health department administrator and former partner of Jack, Ray Jarrett, how serious the infestation is. But the politician Ray is interested in covering the problem to protect economical interests of powerful groups.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- A woman in an upscale department store gets bitten by a rat. Unfortunately this isn't an ordinary rat and he is not alone. The rats invade the department store and a rec center and that is just the beginning. Soon people across midtown are checking into the hospital with the rare Weil's disease, a disease carried by rats. The health department is too busy covering up the situation to see how widespead and dangerous the infestation really is. Solving the rat problem thus falls to Susan Costello the department store manager, and Jack Carver the suave and discrete exterminator.—Big Guy
- Captions saying that the first beings which moved to Hiroshima after the A-bomb was thrown there were rats, and that New York is losing its war against them. Rats are creating a short-circuit in the crown lights of the Statue of Liberty. Rats go ballistic underground
A customer (Jackie Laidlaw) is trying out clothes in the changing rooms and she is bitten by a hidden rat under her clothes. She says "Damn it" and leaves.
Susan Costello (Mädchen Amick) is the operations manager of a department store called Garsons and she welcomes a royal lady (Kathryn Winslow) who looks of Arabic origin, and tries to speak on her language but messes it up. The Queen decides not to make a big deal of the mishal, and Susan shows her around, and especially a bottle of perfume. Susan leaves her to tend to the wounded customer, and apologises when she finds a loose peg under the same place where she was trying out her clothes. The customers asks whether she should have a shot or something, and Susan tells her that the things was not rusty, but that she may consult her GP. To compensate her, she tells her that she may have that outfit for free. Miss Paige (Sheils McCarthy) asks Susan about the events of the day: the royal visit - it went all right - and asks if the customer signed a legal release.
Susan encourages Amy Costello (Daveigh Chase), her daughter, to be first at everything at the swimming lessons. Amy sees a rat outside the window and screams. A guy comes to check it out, but he thinks that it's normal having rats when you live in a city. The guy bitches about posh Susan when he comes back to his hole home. He keeps several pets - birds and so - while rats or hamsters are staring at him and walk all over the place. He seems to be in friendly terms with them, but the angry rat outside Susan's window appear. He feeds it, and in spite of that, the big rat bits him. The guy tries to kill hitting it with a bat, which scares his hamster pets. He speaks to them to come back, but they leave. Suddenly, hundreds of rats attack him, led by that particularly aggressive rat that tears his ear off. He manages to tear away from him some, but they are an invasion and they overcome him.
Susan has to go to hospital to visit that customer. The doctor (Yanna McIntosh) tells her that she showed up with a mild case of septicemia. The nurse (Jennifer Coristine) is surprised that such a mild case has escalated to renal failure and other symptoms in such a short period of time. The doctor tells Susan that the small wound was a bite, possibly a rat bite.
Miss Page says that there are no rats on the Garsons, but she is worried about the bad publicity, not about that customer's health. Miss Page wants to silence the possible scandal.
A security guy tells Jack Carver (Vincent Spano) that he can't park there, but he finds Susan. He is discreet and he looks like another customer. Immediately, Jack finds the tiny crack where the rat came from. He uses an optical tube and sees scratches and chewed wood, pointing to rat.
Ty (Shawn Michael Howard) helps him. They turn off the lights and see remains of rat pee all over the place as they are incontinent. All the place has signs of rat pee all over the place.
At the swimming-pool, rats are lurking close while a fat guy (Teo Weyman) jumps in.
Carver says that eventually he will have to tell the health department, and the law says; but it's It's the Christmas season and the losses and bad publicity are going to be huge if the store is closed.
Rats jump into the water full of happy children, while a lifeguard (Bryan Thomas) is powerless to do anything. Amy was one of the ones who have to run from the water. Jack speaks to Amy and says that the big rat was like the one which stood outside the window.
A politician-sounding guy, Ray Jarrett (David Wolos-Fonteno) from Health and Safety says that it was all a prank. Ray admits that there have been an unprecedented increase in infestation reports. They come back home by underground, as Ray tells them that high people want to keep the news silent for a least two weeks.
Susan suggests Coops, a long-ago closed down funeral shop which has become the place where security keeps shoplifters. Jay and Jack go exploring and find signs of rat infestation. They get to the lift shaft and they go down by some ugly old wooden stairs which keep on breaking under their weight. Jack helps Amy to the ground, and there is a moment of non-resolved sexual tension between them. They see signs of breeding spots for rats, but no rats. A dummy scares them all when it falls down from a wardrobe. They find a place of entry to the underground and a recently deceased rat. Jack puts it in a plastic bad for analysis at a laboratory later. The trains from the subway system are being heard all the time. They finally hear the rats, and they sound like millions and millions of them. There are tree roots, cracking wood sounds and the subway makes everything tremble. Finally, Susan and Ty convince him of going. Part of the roof gives in and the rats start pouring in. The three intrepid people have to run away. When they return to Coops, it's when they see the infestation of rats. Jack suggests to walk out of there slowly and without noise. It's even difficult not to step onto the rats.
However, the big grey rat seems to be watching them attentively. They are all over the place, covering the dummy. The Big Grey Rat smells them and looks at them, but this time it tells them go. Jack says that every six months they have to customize poisons, as rats get immune to it pretty quickly.
Miss Page tells Susan that Jack and Ty must patch up the hole on the wall and that it's a council problem. Miss Page doesn't want to hear about it, and Susan agrees with her.
The Big Grey Rat seems to follow Susan. She picks up all the crap on her car without really looking what's on the floor. A rat scurries by. Susan recognises the bites of the rats on a present. She has parked in such a way that there is no free space for her to leave. The Big Grey Rat attacks her and seems to direct the attack against her. She smashes one of the rats and the Big Grey Rat takes a close look.
Jack and Ty realise that the Garsons street, Poulson Street, has be to be special in some way. At the lab, the technician (Balázs Koós) says that the late rat is stronger and more aggressive because of the growth of the lungs. It may be a mutation or it may be an engineered lab rat which got loose. He found three labs midtown, and one of them was at Poulson St, and is called Tekworth Labs. Is it a coincidence that it's located four blocks down Garsons? Susan is distraught that the customer is not getting any better, so she wants to go there with Jack.
They enter Hazel Antiquities. Susan breaks the window and enters. Jack is surprised and carries her handbag. She was a janitor's daughter. They find a stinking smell, and cockroaches. Then, they find the bones of dead animals. Susan asks what that is, and Jack says "Food". We see Big Grey Rat eating the flesh of some small animal. Jack and Susan find an order to vacate the premises because of violations. The rats may have busted out of the cages by themselves. They read a plant natural classification: Acacia Farnessiana. Ty sees some weird plants. Ty finds a hole in one of the sewer system. The rats must have left through there after there were no more stay dogs and cats. Ty shouts "Hey", and rats listen to him.
Jack and Susan tell Ray, who doesn't want to do anything about it, until Susan presses him to go to the press. Jack thinks that Ray may not do anything about it anyway, Jack wants to come back for the documents, but Susan has already taken them.
Back home, Amy is about to have a bath, when the toilet lid moves. She gets closer to look until Big Great Rat appears.
Susan is outside, inviting Jack to have d inner with them. The baby sitter (Elisa Moolecherry) says that she hasn't seen anything. Amy insists that Jack stays to sleep. Susan and Jack play cards.
They put a camera on wheels down the sewer. Karl, the technician (Joe Pingue) helps them with it. Amy asks Susan if she likes Jack while on the underground. Both do. Meanwhile, the camera shows that there are rats scurrying around all over the place. The rats are all over the robot. When it walks back, it causes problems on a power line. The rats all run towards the underground. The stopping to a halt breaks Amy's figurine of that plant, the Acacia Farnessiana.
The driver (Cabral Richards) is thrust forward when the Big Grey Rat cuts on the electricity with Amy, Susan and a very nervous commuter (Dominic Cuzzcrea) on it. The driver goes onto the track to check it out, while rats start falling into the underground train. Rats pour in from an open window. Commuters panic. The driver has fallen down and the rats are also onto him. The nervous commuter shoots at the rats. The rats are cannibals, and eat their own dead.
Ty and Jack rescue people with a fire extinguisher. Susan tells Jack that the rats are attracted to a specific perfume, the one which broke from Amy.
Miss Page finally collaborates and she gives all the perfume she has of that brand to Susan to use, repeating again "I hate rats". The put the perfume on the robot. They go to the closed swimmingpool and prepare the booby trap for the rats. Harry, the cool Janitor (Aron Tager), lets them in. They throw the perfume bottles to the swimming-pool, and rats flock to it. Ty has gone to put the robot on work again, but Jack tells him to get out of there.
Rivers of rats invade the swimming-pool. Ty tries to run from the rats but they hear behind the wall panel. Ty and the rats explode from behind the wall and Susan is pushed onto the swimming-pool of rats. The rats scratch and bit Jack's arm, reaching out for Susan from above a sea of rats. They blow up everything, something which the Big Grey Rat had felt.
Jack, Susan and Amy are in the park. They are all doing OK. Jack and Susan have a relationship. He jokes that he has some clients to meet.
Rats start pouring out from a rubbish basket.
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