The Strain
In New York City, a Boeing 777 arriving at JFK International Airport "goes dark" shortly after touching down. Unable to establish contact with anyone inside, airport authorities force open the airplane and discover the passengers and crew dead. When authorities suspect a possible contagion, CDC official Dr. Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather is called away from his weekend visitation with his son, Zachary, to investigate. Eph and Dr. Nora Martinez, his colleague and former lover, find no signs of disease on the bodies. A large coffin filled with soil, missing from the plane's manifest, is found in the cargo hold.
Eph finds four survivors aboard the plane: computer programmer Ansel Arbour, attorney Joan Luss, rock star Gabriel Bolivar, and pilot Doyle Redfern. The CDC releases the passengers over Eph's objections when Luss threatens legal action, though Redfern voluntarily stays. Meanwhile, during a total solar eclipse over New York, the creature stowed aboard the plane manages to escape the airport and gain transport into the city. Abraham Setrakian, an elderly pawnbroker from Spanish Harlem, realizes what is happening and seeks out Eph and Nora and he urges them to immediately destroy the victims' bodies. Setrakian is arrested for trying to gain access to the morgue.
Over the next 24 hours, the four "survivors" gradually transform into vampires, while many of the "dead" passengers disappear from the morgue and return home to their families, spreading the vampire infection. Eph kills Redfern in self-defense and realizes that Setrakian's earlier warnings were true. Desperate to know what is going on, Eph bails Setrakian out of jail. Meanwhile, Gus Elizalde, a man who was paid by an anonymous man to unwittingly drive the coffin into Manhattan, kills a vampire in Times Square and is arrested, sharing his cell with Setrakian. Gus is urged by Setrakian to kill his friend Felix, who was bitten and infected by the vampire.
Setrakian reveals to Eph and Nora that vampires (Strigoi) are real, and that one of the seven original "Ancients" has come to America to infect its populace. Setrakian has already calculated that the New York infection will overtake the world in six months. He also warns that the seventh Ancient, "the Master," is being aided by a human accomplice. That same day, exterminator Vasily Fet visits a house in Tribeca to capture a rat. Because of similar cases, Fet suspects that something below ground is driving the rat population to the surface.
Following Setrakian's advice, Eph and Nora begin tracking down and dispatching the vampirized passengers. However, the trio are framed for Redfern's murder and forced to flee CDC headquarters. Setrakian explains they have one remaining course of action: because the vampires operate as part of a hive mind, they can contain the infection by destroying the Master. Eph goes to warn Zach and his ex-wife, Kelly, to leave New York; however, Kelly's jealous boyfriend Matt persuades her to ignore Eph's advice and wait out the crisis.
Eph finds evidence linking Eldritch Palmer, a wealthy investment banker, to the CDC. Setrakian, who has had past dealings with Palmer, deduces that Palmer is aiding the Master in exchange for immortality. After dispatching one of the "survivors," the trio are contacted by Fet. When they join forces, Fet quickly absorbs Setrakian's revelation about vampires and says he has found the Master's likely hiding place beneath World Trade Center site.
The Master confronts Eph and claims to have turned Kelly and Zach. Eph rushes to Kelly's house in Queens, where he kills a now-vampiric Matt. Zach appears unharmed, but Kelly is missing. Eph, Setrakian, and Fet enter the Master's lair and kill dozens of new vampires, driving the Master through an escape tunnel to Gabriel Bolivar's mansion. They drive him to the roof, where he is survives being scorched by sunlight before escaping. Setrakian admits that the Master has powers unlike any other vampire and that they now have no way to stop the plague from overtaking Manhattan.
While Gus is being transported out of the city in a police van, Felix turns and attacks the other prisoners. Gus escapes, killing Felix. When he runs home, he finds that his brother and mother have been turned. Gus emerges onto the street and fights several newly turned vampires, until a group of fully mature vampires appear and kill the new ones with specialized weapons. These vampire-hunters abduct Gus and take him to an abandoned mine outside Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where the three New World Ancients prepare their response to the Master's "incursion." They decide Gus, capable of moving about in daylight, will be conscripted as a vampire killer.
Returning to Kelly's home, Eph encounters one final horror: Kelly, now a vampire, is driven by a primal need to find and infect her son. Eph drives her away, knowing that she will never stop pursuing Zach unless she is destroyed. With Zach's help, Eph posts proof of the vampire plague online, and, for the first time in years - as he has been a recovering alcoholic - pours himself a drink.
violence