The corpse of a mauled bull lies in the middle of the road. The fresh claw marks are dug deep into its flesh, attracting flies whose irritating buzzing is only drowned out by the even more irritating chatter of the men who discovered the bull — a group of salt-of-the-earth locals who were heading for their weekly hunt in the mountains. They’ve called over the village police chief, Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min), to investigate this strange occurrence, and are already plaguing him with their theories of what did this: It can’t be a dog. Maybe it’s a bear. Or maybe, wild theory, it’s a tiger.
Bum-seok, a blowhard police officer who secretly thinks himself above his station at this sleepy rural village bordering a forest near the DMZ, pooh-poohs their speculation, but can’t help but be convinced by their tiger theory after they cite the testimony of one of the trusted local hunters. They’re not too far from the North Korean border, after all, and maybe a tiger somehow made its way through the mountains from Siberia. Worried about a tiger on the loose in a village mostly populated by the elderly, Bum-seok starts to call in back-up from the precinct, but finds they’re all preoccupied putting out nearby wildfires. Meanwhile, the group of hunters, led by Bum-seok’s rugged cousin Sung-ki (Zo In-sung), joke about pranking Bum-seok with the tiger theory, but happen upon more strange evidence: demolished shacks, dead chickens, and strange, giant claw marks in the mud. Concerned, Sung-ki orders his group to bring out all their gear and investigate deeper into the forest. And thus begins Na Hong-jin’s sci-fi thriller Hope, a riotous and relentless alien invasion flick that gives new meaning to “off the rails.”
