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Part one
The film opens in the jungles of Zaire, where 30 years before Triffid expert Dr. Bill Masen's mother was attacked and killed by one of the plants. He tells the story of how the oils the Triffids produced were used as a new alternative fuel, effectively putting a end to man-made global warming. They were kept in warehouses in countries worldwide, but despite their benefits the treatment of the plants was not without protesters. One of these activists broke into a male Triffid compound outside of London and was arrested, but Bill was injured by an undeveloped male in the attempt as he had given up his safety goggles for another worker. The security officer whom he had saved rushed him to a local hospital, where he was told he had a 50:50 chance of going blind permanently. However with his eyes wrapped in bandages he missed a massive Solar Eruption which occurred that same night. The bright light of the sun's rays were seen all over the world, but the rays proved to be more dangerous than first thought. All those who saw the flares were blinded, more than 95% of the world's population.
Meanwhile a plane heading towards the capital was brought down when the solar storm blinded the pilots and all but one of the passengers on board. The sole sighted man clambered into the bathroom, covered himself in life vests and braced for the worst. The plane eventually crashed and the man, who narrowly escaped death, named himself Torrence after the now-destroyed Westminster road. Back at the hospital, Bill had finally regained his sight, but had no idea of how the world changed overnight. Chaos reigned in the streets, with many of the blind now struggling to find a way through. Bill found Radio Britain personality Jo Payton being threatened by a sighted man and saved her from further harm. The pair teamed up to find out what happened, but Bill's only concern was the Triffids, knowing the mass incident would have caused the electricity to go down at the compounds, the only thing keeping them safe. Bill and Jo soon spot a signal from a university tower, a message to the remaining sighted people. Upon arrival they find that a group has been assembled to continue the human race as best they can, but Bill is angered by how little warning there is to the encroaching Triffids. He attempts to escape but is captured by Coker, who uses him to round up survivors and supplies for the cause, but both are oblivious to the disaster that is about to unfold.
Part two
Bill and Coker are nearly killed during a late-night ambush by a group of Triffids. Fearing the worst is yet to come they both travel on foot to a new religious colony run by Durrant, now the Mother Superior. Despite its secluded location, Bill is aware that the Triffids may return and, to make thing worse, could reproduce faster thanks to a cluster of active beehives. Bill decides to leave for Shirning, hoping to find his estranged father Dennis Masen, and with it a solution to stop the Triffids. However, outside of the church he finds the lifeless body of Father Thomas, sacrificed by Durrant to the Triffids. He returns in anger, surprising Durrant, who leaves the colony, insisting that the society will collapse without her. Several days follow and Bill has continued to journey towards the house where his father lives. During the journey, he meets up with two orphaned but sighted girls Imogen and Susan, who almost kill him with potshots in the process. The three of them journey to Shirning, but are ambushed by a mysterious figure, who reveals himself as Dennis Masen. Upon returning to Shirning House, protected from Triffid attacks by a powerful electric fence, Bill is re-united with Jo, who narrowly escaped Torrence's men the night before. Dennis reveals his plan to stop the Triffids to Bill, his intentions being to genetically engineer a new species to neutralise the old one. Though Bill finds the idea absurd, he none the less agrees to retrieve the last part of the experiment, a single male Triffid head.
Finding the head during a daring break into an abandoned plantation, the new Triffid proves to be a success, but at the same time Coker drops some papers off at the house, which explains the details of a new colony on the Isle of Wight, where the last of the Triffids were exterminated. However, Dennis' examination of his wife's Triffid recordings from Zaire causes the still-growing Triffid to react, attacking him with its stinger. Bill hears Dennis' cry for help and attempts to free his father, firing at the Triffid through its head. With Dennis now dead & the subject destroyed, the group has no option but to leave for Wight. Before they can leave, Torrence, with a group of men turns up at the house, looking for the solution to the Triffids, but Bill refuses to tell him the plan. Torrence threatens to kill him, Jo and the girls if he doesn't find a new plan by the next morning. Bill plans an escape route and, using the same recordings that killed his father earlier to draw in more Triffids to cause a distraction. Their plans are nearly thwarted by one of the soldiers, a rookie cadet name Troy, who defects to them by faking their deaths to Torrence. The inactive fence is destroyed by the Triffid swarm, trapping everybody in the house and grounds, but one of the girls picks up an old tribal mask from Bill's old things, causing him to remember something from 30 years previously. He was told on that day by a tribesman that the mask would help him to see, ironically by being temporarily blinded by Triffid poison. Realizing that this is the solution they've been looking for, he administers the treatment to himself, Jo, Troy, Susan and Imogen. It allows them to pass through the Triffids unharmed, but Torrence is eventually overwhelmed by them and dies.
The family is next seen on the Isle of Wight after settling into the colony. With the group now protected from the Triffids by the Solent, Bill still wonders about eventually returning to the mainland, and questions the moral of how the world was blind even when our eyes were open.
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