Reign of Fire

As every kid knows, in typical creature-feature there's usually the threat that if a particular giant lizard, monster spider, or ravenous alien isn't eliminated it will reproduce and destroy the world. REIGN OF FIRE is a rare monster movie that actually takes things to that conclusion: 21st-century mankind learned a hard lesson that flying, fire-breathing dragons are no myth but a voracious species that periodically emerges from hibernation, swarms, and scorches the whole planet (killing the dinosaurs was their doing), then goes back underground for thousands of years. Here, in what's left of England in 2020, huddled survivors are led by Quinn (Christian Bale), who, as a boy, witnessed the dragons re-emerge from a London cave. Unexpectedly, Quinn's stronghold gets visitors, American soldiers led by brawny Van Zant (Matthew McConaughey), who claims to have mastered the art of slaying dragons. Van Zant jeopardizes Quinn's colony by demanding they join his troops in a suicidal march on London against the chief "bull" dragon.