The Insect (2025), a Warner Bros thriller starring Dwayne Johnson, unfolds as a gripping tale of psychological horror, conspiracy, and survival. The film follows Jack Ford (Dwayne Johnson), a tough, no-nonsense ex-military officer turned private investigator, who finds himself plunged into a nightmare after a strange encounter with a mysterious scientist, Dr. Elias Stone (played by Willem Dafoe).
The movie begins with Jack struggling to rebuild his life after a traumatic incident during his service. He’s trying to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter, Sara, while taking on mundane investigative work. One evening, Jack is approached by Dr. Stone, who cryptically warns him about an impending threat involving insects, claiming they are not what they seem. Jack dismisses him, but shortly after, he begins to experience terrifying hallucinations of insects crawling everywhere—in his home, on his skin, and even in his food. The once mundane world around him turns into a living nightmare as these insects seem to grow in number and intensity.
As Jack’s paranoia deepens, he starts to lose touch with reality. He becomes obsessed with finding answers, alienating those closest to him, including Sara, who begins to worry about her father’s mental state. Jack’s investigations lead him down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories about mind control experiments conducted by a secret organization known as The Hive. The organization uses a neurotoxin that manipulates the brain, making people see and feel insects that aren’t really there, pushing them to madness.
Jack discovers that Dr. Stone was once a lead scientist in these experiments but had a change of heart after realizing the devastating psychological impact of the toxin. Stone reveals that The Hive plans to release the toxin on a massive scale, using it as a tool for control and manipulation. Jack, battling his own crumbling sanity, decides to stop the organization at any cost.
The film escalates into a series of high-stakes confrontations, with Jack fighting both real enemies and the illusionary insects that plague his mind. Intense sequences show him battling shadowy agents of The Hive, escaping from booby-trapped locations, and racing against time to prevent a city-wide release of the neurotoxin.
In the climactic showdown, Jack confronts the leader of The Hive, exposing the organization’s plans to the public. However, the film ends on an ambiguous note, with Jack still seeing insects crawling on his hands, leaving audiences questioning what is real and what isn’t. The Insect closes with Jack looking into the camera, haunted but defiant, suggesting the nightmare is far from over.
