The movie is set in the year 1962, when the
United States and the Soviet Union are at each
other’s neck. In America, there is a rumor that
the Soviets may drop a nuclear bomb anytime soon,
prompting many citizens to build a secret bunker
in their house. Eccentric scientist; Dr. Calvin
Webber is one of those citizens, and after
months of hard work, he has built an advanced
fallout bunker in his backyard, which has all
the amenities required to survive a nuclear war.
One day, Calvin organizes a party at his
house and invites several of his colleagues.
While everyone is enjoying themselves,
President Kennedy announces on live
television that they are planning a
secret mission against the Soviets.
This terrifies Calvin, and he believes that
the war is about to commence shortly. Hence,
he sends all the guests away and hurries to his
secret bunker along with his pregnant wife; Helen.
At the same time, an aircraft is flying over the
city when it experiences a mechanical failure.
It crashes straight into Calvin’s
house, destroying it completely.
Inside the bunker, Calvin deduces
that the nuclear war has begun,
and immediately seals the door. He then tells his
wife that the door will open only after 35 years,
as it takes the same time for nuclear particles
to normalize in the atmosphere. With the house
completely destroyed, the Webbers’ neighbors and
authorities assume they were killed in the crash.
Now, with each passing day, the couple
starts adjusting to life inside the bunker.
While Calvin feels at home, Helen is
uncomfortable and constantly worries
about her family and friends. One day, Helen’s
water breaks, and she gives birth to a son.
The couple is over the moon to have
a child, and they name him Adam.
In the following scene, we see
a bigger view of their bunker.
It has enough stocks to last 35
years, including a fish tank,
fuels, a well-facilitated lounge
area, and a mini-mart full of food.
As time passes, Calvin homeschools his
son and teaches him about the history
of America. He wishes his son could one
day rebuild the country as it was before.
The movie then skips to the summer of 1965
when a team of construction workers cleans
out Calvin’s destroyed ground and builds a diner.
Cut to 10 more years, it is now the
autumn of 1975. Adam has grown into
a kind and generous boy, who likes
spending time with his parents.
He takes regular boxing classes from his
father, and dance classes from his mother.
Meanwhile, the diner becomes a pizzeria and then
a nightclub. In the basement, Calvin continues to
teach his son about various topics. He explains
about the stock market and gives lessons in
French and Latin. While they talk, Calvin
compliments his son’s incredible sense of humor.
One day, Calvin gives Adam a collection of his
baseball cards and explains to him about sports.
The movie then skips to the summer of 1995,
where Calvin and Helen celebrate their son’s
33rd birthday. Adam is a grown man now;
who desires to find a partner for himself.
Next, it’s 1997, and the bunker has reached its
maturity. Finally, after 35 years, the bunker’s
door automatically unlocks itself, and the family
excitedly goes to check. Calvin insists that they
wait for the night and let him check first, since
they’re unknown of the present world outside.
Above the bunker, the diner has now become a
home to beggars. While the beggars are drinking,
there’s a sudden shaking of the ground,
and they think it’s an earthquake. However,
It turns out that Calvin has come up to
the surface with a radiation suit on,
and seeing him, one of the
beggars falls unconscious.
Following this, Calvin ventures
out into his old neighbourhood,
only to find out that it has
completely changed. He sees people
playfully pointing guns at him and even
stumbles into an adult video store.
Realizing that his neighbourhood has degraded,
he gets worried and returns to the bunker.
At the dinner table, he shares with his
family that although the ground above
is breathable, it has become a post-apocalyptic
wasteland of irradiated mutants. As a result,
they must continue living underground.
Helen, who at this point has become sick
of living in the bunker, starts arguing. She
mentions that no matter the people above,
she wants to come out of their cooped
shell and wants Adam to see the blue skies,
touch the oceans, and visit the mountains.
Despite the inspiring speech, Calvin still
insists they stay underground, but as he
is arguing, he suffers a heart attack.
With supplies running out and Calvin
falling ill, Helen wants Adam to go outside
and get whatever they need for two years or
so. She gives him a list of grocery items
and tells him that it would be wonderful if
he can find a girl, one who’s not a mutant.
Before leaving, Calvin advises Adam to not
enter the adult video store, claiming that it
has harmful levels of radiation. Actually, he is
just trying to keep his son away from vulgarity.
After a while, Adam packs his handbag and leaves
the bunker for the first time. On the surface,
he comes across the beggar, Melker, who
encountered his father the previous night.
While Adam marvels at the outside
world, Melker starts worshiping Calvin
and the elevator through which he and Adam made
their way out. Melker thinks of them as some
divine powers that have struck
his life to change his fate.
Meanwhile, Adam finally sees the blue sky above
and waves at the people in the streets as he is
seeing them for the first time. He’s stunned to
see a woman of color and greets her excitedly.
Next, he stumbles upon the same adult video
store his father had warned him about,
so he quickly covers his nose
and urges others to do the same.
Later, Adam gets on a bus but he is scared
to feel the vehicle moving. He speaks as
per his taught knowledge but that apparently
doesn’t fit with the normal life at present.
The passengers on the bus think that he is crazy
and the bus driver even gives him a weird stare.
After a while, Adam finally arrives at a
grocery store and strolls around to pick
up the items his mom had listed for him. When
he goes to buy meat, the butcher tells him that
if he makes a larger order, it would be directly
delivered to his house. Hearing the word ‘house’,
Adam realizes that he has forgotten
the way back to his bunker.
Worried, he desperately looks around the city for
his bunker’s location, but doesn’t find any sign
of it. By this point, his cash has almost run
out, so he tries to sell his father’s classic
baseball cards at a hobby shop. The shop owner
concludes that Adam is crazy for trying to sell
the cards for a surprisingly low price, so he
offers to buy the whole pack for just $500.
Just then, the shop’s assistant; Eve, approaches
the two and stops the owner from cheating.
She informs Adam that each of
his cards costs at least $6000,
as they are extremely rare.
She then berates her boss,
and quits her job on the spot. Witnessing
all this, Adam gets instantly smitten by her.
After coming out of the store, he
begs Eve to drive him to the Holiday
Inn restaurant, as per his
mother’s instructions. At first,
Eve refuses, but when Adam promises
to give her 2 cards in return,
she agrees. Soon, the two arrive at the hotel, but
before Adam can say anything, Eve returns home.
The following morning, Adam gets a call from Eve,
who asks him to come down to the lounge area. It
turns out that she has come to give back his card,
since she feels guilty. After returning
the card, she tries to walk away,
but Adam asks her to help purchase supplies
in exchange for $1,000 a week as her pay.
Eve agrees and they buy truckloads of supplies
as Adam has to make sure that the supplies last
for at least two years. Later, he also asks Eve
to help him find a wife who is not a mutant.
In the next scene, Adam meets Eve’s
gay housemate and best friend; Troy,
who is a bit curious by nature. He asks
Adam about his hometown and the latter
lies that he is originally from Alaska,
and has come here for a business trip.
Later, Eve and Troy give Adam a fashion makeover,
and the two even take him skateboarding.
Next, Adam gets the chance to
see the ocean for the first time
and he excitedly dives into the water
and enjoys himself. He also attends a
baseball game and shouts in excitement that he
finally knows what his father was talking about.
One day, it starts raining, and Adam feels
the rainwater for the first time in his life.
Eve urges him to return to the house, but Adam
wants to keep experiencing the wonderful feeling.
Out of nowhere, he hugs Eve tightly, implying
that he is enjoying life in the real world.
Later that evening, Eve and Troy take
Adam to a 1940s swing-style nightclub
to find him a wife. They advise him
to be himself while approaching women.
Surprisingly, Adam attracts the attention
of several women, including Eve’s nemesis
Sophie. When he and Sophie start to get along,
Eve feels uncomfortable and drags Adam away to
a table. Shen then recommends he look
for a ‘sweet’ girl instead of Sophie.
After a while, Adam approaches a girl and they
soon get along when he asks her for a dance.
In no time, Adam woos the crowd with his
exemplary dancing skills, as he has had
years of practice inside the bunker. Meanwhile,
a jealous Eve reconnects with her ex-boyfriend,
who pokes Adam into an argument. However,
he soon regrets it when Adam demonstrates
his boxing skills, having trained every
single day with his father at the bunker.
Because of all the commotion, Eve gets irritated
and decides to abandon Adam and return home.
A while later, Troy also arrives and
informs Eve that Adam left the club with
Sophie. Hearing this, Eve storms out of the
house and gets in her car to get Adam back.
Just as she is about to drive off, Adam suddenly
knocks on the door, startling the life out of her.
Following this, the two return to the house and
Adam explains that he politely rejected Sophie as
he could only think of Eve. He
then expresses his love for her,
and the two finally kiss. Now, with Eve by his
side, he decides to tell her about his past.
He reveals that he lived in a fallout
bunker with his family for 35 years,
and is seeing the outside
world for the first time.
He also expresses his desire to make Eve
his wife, and take her to the bunker,
so that they can live a happy life. However,
Eve thinks he is crazy and asks him to leave.
The following day, while learning to drive a truck
with Troy, Adam spots the adult video store from
earlier and finally discovers his bunker’s
location. He hurries back to Eve’s house
to tell her about his finding but notices
two psychiatrists waiting for him there.
Adam initially cooperates, but escapes after
giving Eve and Troy the key to his hotel room.
He asks them to take all the cards and pay
his hotel bill before driving away in a truck.
A while later, Troy and Eve reach Adam’s
room in the hotel and find clothing,
toothpaste and other items from the 1960s.
They also come across some valuable stock
certificates of Adam’s father, which
are now worth millions. With this,
they conclude that Adam is not crazy and he
was actually telling the truth the whole time.
In the meantime, Adam returns home after
two weeks of staying in the outside world.
He hugs his parents and tells them
about how lovely the world has become.
Soon, Melker and his friends help Adam
load the supplies into the bunker.
On the other hand, Eve and Troy try to locate
Adam’s underground bunker but to no avail.
At night, while they are returning home, Eve
spots Adam outside the adult video store.
She immediately calls out his name
and gets out of the car. They embrace
and kiss each other, and Adam
takes her to meet his parents.
Calvin and Helen are impressed with Eve,
but Adam wants his father to wait for 2
months, while he makes arrangements outside.
During this time, Adam and Eve sell the
stocks to build a new home in the country,
identical to his previous house. They
plan to bring Calvin and Helen slowly
to the surface and start a new life with them.
After a few months, Adam’s parents arrive at
their new home. They are astonished to see their
son do so much for them. While Helen and Eve
prepare dinner for the family, Adam reveals to
his father that there was never an atomic war,
and that the “bomb” was not a bomb; instead,
a plane crashed into their house. He also reveals
that the Soviet Union collapsed without a war.
However, Calvin is unconvinced and
makes fun of his son’s revelation.
The movie ends as Calvin plans
to build a new fallout bunker
as Eve watches from the kitchen window
and plays with her engagement ring.
