- Giant robots from Venus invade Chicago. Stranded in the deserted city are strangers Frank and Nora.
- A large city is ordered to be completely evacuated as an army of robots, believed to be from the planet Venus, attack it. Left behind are Nora King and Frank Brooks, strangers until their chance meeting in the deserted streets. They meet a celebrating couple at a café, Vicki Harris and Jim Wilson. The quartet escape the robot patrol and take refuge in a large hotel. There, they encounter a new danger in Davis, a psychopathic killer. Venus robots or not, Davis practices his profession.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
- Titles and credits are shown over a view of the Earth from space, zooming in until we see the city below. We open in a room, the time is 1:30 p.m. and a woman lies asleep on a bed. Her name is Nora King (Kathleen Crowley) and despite what she thought was going to be a fatal overdose of sleeping pills, she wakes to an empty city. She soon discovers there is no water or electricity in her boarding house, and no people either. She exits the building and is confused as she wanders the deserted streets. She runs from street to street and finally finds a woman. She is dead and Nora recoils in horror. She backs away from the body and straight into a man smoking a cigarette with his jacket slung over his shoulder. Frank Brooks (Richard Denning) looks at Nora as she flees. He yells, "Hey, wait a minute." He chases her down an alley. He has her trapped so she picks up a brick and warns Frank, "Don't come any closer." He disarms, then slaps her. He explains that he won't hurt her and that he had nothing to do with the dead woman. They try to guess what has happened. They deduce that an evacuation was called, but are at a loss as to why.
They walk through the empty streets. Frank breaks into an appliance store. He wants a portable radio to hear any news reports. They find one, but there are no batteries. They exit the store and hear a piano playing. They follow the sound and enter a bar/restaurant. Inside they find a woman in a cocktail dress at the piano drinking champagne. Vicki Harris (Virginia Grey) lights a cigarette and playfully calls to her long-time boyfriend, Jim Wilson (Richard Reeves) for more champagne. Slightly drunk he pops up from behind the bar with two bottles of Bollinger. Nora and Frank join the celebrating couple and ask, "What are you two doing here?" Vicki goes to the kitchen and prepares a turkey dinner. The four eat and drink. Nora suggests another club to visit five miles away.
Out on the street, they find a car with the hood slightly ajar. When the men open the door for the ladies, a body of a dead man slumps towards the opening door. Frank and Jim remove the body while the ladies try to collect themselves. The men try to start the car with no success. Jim discovers the distributor cap loose and the rotor missing. Vicki and Nora return to the car. When Vicki asks what a missing rotor means, a man, Charles Otis (Mort Marshall) informs her, "It means you can't get the engine started." He explains to the four that he's been trying to get out of town, but all the cars he's found have the same problem. Otis explains he came from the north and the whole town is a wreck, windows are smashed, and houses and stores are wrecked. Everyone he has seen was dead. On the wall they see the shadow of some unidentifiable thing. They run to the safety of a nearby hotel.
Safely inside they discover a newspaper. The headline reads, "INVASION by Mystery Army." An army invaded the day before and the city was ordered evacuated. Otis panics and runs for the door. Outside he spots a member of that army, a mechanical creature with a triangular body, flexible tube legs, metal boots, pincers on a pair of solid tube arms, and a trapezoidal head. The thing spots Otis and dispatches the man with a solid white beam of light. The beam emanates from an oval screen on its head. The two couples decide to stay in the hotel and secure a key to a suite on the fourth floor. They take the stairs to the room and lock themselves in.
At Army headquarters near the city a meeting is taking place. Lt. General Wood (Arthur Space) briefs the assembled on the situation. The Colonel (Steve Pendleton) asks about the progress the scientists are making. He asks, "Haven't they any idea where the enemy could have originated?" The consensus is the planet Venus. The military believes the advance elements of enemy troops consists of just a few hundred, but they seem invulnerable to all means of attack. They are not aware yet that the force is of robots. A military strike is called, but the entire force is destroyed in the air over the city in an instant. Frank and Nora are falling in love. Nora confesses she tried to commit suicide. Sometime later she tells Frank that her husband died in an automobile accident while she was driving. She blamed herself for her husband's death.
The military plans to nuke the city. A Lieutenant (James Drake) brings the General an urgent message. They have captured an enemy combatant and are bringing it to the lab for analysis. In the hotel, Frank and Jim gather candles and food for the night. In the Army Lab, a technician (House Peters, Jr.) and Tom (Whit Bissell), the chief scientist, show the Colonel and General the captured enemy. They see for the first time that their enemy is a force of robots. Tom tells the General that if they can discover what broke the CRT screen on the head they can stop the enemy. So far, the scientist has discovered the robot bodies are made of surgical steel. Martin (an uncredited Herman Cohen -- also the Producer), another technician sets up the helmet for another test. A bullet is fired at the glass and no damage is done. The bullet is flattened with no ricochet.
At the hotel, the men sleep in the living room, Vicki and Nora use the twin beds in the bedroom. Nora is awakened by someone or something at the door. The lock is forced and a hand reaches through. Two bullets fired through the door compels Frank and Jim to yield. An armed man, Davis (Robert Roark) enters the room and holds the four hostage. Nora and Vicki decide to try to get some sleep. The next morning, Vicki admits the gunman looks familiar, but she cant place him. She does believe that the gun is police issue. Nora goes to the kitchen to get some beer for Vicki. She encounters Davis as she tries to exit the kitchen with the beer. He makes an unwanted advance and gets a slap for his effort. He wants to make a break and take Nora with him.
At the Lab, Tom and his tech are working on a sound frequency that will break the glass on the robots. Unless they show progress the city will be bombed shortly. Down in the lobby, Davis is holding a gun on his four captives. Vicki sees a robot on the street. Vicki finally recognizes Davis and tells the others he is a murder suspect held by the police. She approaches Davis and is shot and killed. When Frank tries to intervene, he gets shot in the shoulder. This distraction gives Jim the opportunity to struggle with Davis. Jim manages to disarm the killer, then chokes and kills him. Unfortunately, the commotion draws the attention of the alien robot (an uncredited Steve Calvert), which crashes through the lobby window. It enters the hotel lobby and confronts the three remaining humans. They manage to escape to the hotel roof, with the robot following them up the stairs. The robot breaks down the roof access door and menaces Frank and Nora. Jim distracts the thing and is killed trying to escape up a ladder. The robot returns its attention to Frank and Nora. It approaches them, then we hear a high pitched sound coming from the street below. The robot collapses and stops moving. The Army unit in the jeep sees the pair on the roof and motions for Frank and Nora to come down and join them. They hop in one of the jeeps. We close with a scene of the three jeeps driving down the empty street and a list of the Cast of Characters.
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