We Are the Ants

Henry wonders if the sluggers planted Diego in his life to test his resolve. He notes that he hasn’t been abducted since he started a friendship with Diego. Ms. Faraci encourages Henry to continue raising his grade through extra credit. Diego tells her that Henry likes to write, and she tries to instill confidence by saying that he knows everything he needs to and should write.

In the showers after gym class, Henry realizes that he’s developed a crush on Diego. He thinks Diego is straight because he’s mentioned an ex-girlfriend. Henry doesn’t allow himself to fantasize about Diego as a boyfriend. Henry blames himself for Jesse’s suicide and doesn’t trust himself to develop another relationship. Plus, he knows the world will end.

Henry is attacked in the shower by a group of boys in alien masks. They tie him up, kick him while he’s naked, and pour a green liquid onto him. As he lays there after the attack, Henry thinks of Jesse and hears Jesse’s reaching out to him, blaming him for what’s happened in his life.

Coach Raskin finds Henry at the end of the day. He unties Henry and calls in the principal, who peppers Henry with questions about what happened and why. Henry doesn’t reveal that he had smelled Marcus’s cologne during the attack. They call the paramedics and the police. Henry’s mom arrives to bring him home. The boys who attacked him had taken a picture of him tied up and naked and green, then uploaded it online. The picture goes viral.

Henry is abducted while in the bath, washing the paint off his body. He shouts at the sluggers that he won’t push the button and asks them why they chose him. A slugger appears, but Henry is unsure whether he can communicate with him. Henry begs the slugger not to bring Henry back to Earth if he presses the button. The slugger beckons Henry to follow him. Henry follows into darkness, then is stopped by a blinding light. Suddenly, Henry is surrounded by the stars of the galaxy, though he is neither indoors nor outdoors. He is stunned by the beauty of the stars.

In a thousand years, Dr. Hatori discovers time travel. At first, wealthy people use the new technology to become history tourists. But soon, national organizations use time travel to change history. An anti-time travel organization protests by destroying symbols of history. If there is no history to return to, no one will go back to change the thread of humanity. Emmanuel Roth travels back to January 29, 2016, to destroy the sight of what would one day become the setting for Dr. Hatori’s discovery. He accidentally sets off a series of reactions that lead to a black hole that consumes the Earth.

Henry’s mother insists that he return to school. Charlie offers Henry a ride. Charlie has started working for Zooey’s father, fixing computers. His new job gives him a new sense of pride and purpose. Charlie tells Henry that to keep people away from him, he has to start acting normal and stop with all his alien stuff. Henry insists that he only wants to be left alone.

In Ms. Faraci’s class, someone has slipped an alien mask onto Henry’s chair. Audrey tells Ms. Faraci hat she had seen Adrian do it. As Henry vomits in the bathroom, Marcus approaches him. Marcus insists it was just a joke. Diego finds Henry outside at lunch. Diego had been texting Henry, but Henry ignored his messages. Diego finally shares some stories about his family, how he and his sister took beatings from their father in defense of one another. Diego wants to know who hurt Henry so he can defend him. Henry tells Diego about the sluggers’ red button. Diego admits that he wants Henry to press the button. Diego invites Henry to Thanksgiving dinner with his sister, giving Henry something to look forward to.

In the early morning, Henry and his family are awakened by Nana playing the piano. They all gather around Nana, who soon forgets how to play or who these people around her are. Charlie sits with Nana and starts to play, helping revive Nana’s memory. Henry is impressed by the beauty of the gesture. Before they all go to bed, his mom declares she can’t do this anymore. Henry assures her she won’t have to for much longer.

At lunch, after Adrian returns from his suspension, a soda gets poured over Audrey. Diego proposes again that he and Henry ditch school. They decide to go to the beach. Diego’s car won’t start, but they’re saved by Audrey, who warns them the principal is on his way and offers to drive them all away. The three of them agree to go to the fair together that night, as Audrey’s friends have been avoiding her.

At the fair, Diego shares that his family grew up so poor they couldn’t afford the internet. Diego’s difficult past doesn’t get in the way of his having fun at the fair. Henry thinks of Jesse as he experiences the rides he used to go on with Jesse. The last time Henry and Audrey had been at the fair, they had been with Jesse, loving life and one another.

Henry and Audrey find themselves alone while Diego goes to the bathroom and runs into other people. Audrey and Henry confront their post-Jesse’s-death resentments. Audrey accuses Henry of not being there for her after everything they have gone through. Audrey was friends with Jesse for a long time and had helped him through several self-destructive tendencies before his suicide. Henry accused Audrey of going on vacation to Switzerland after Jesse’s death. Audrey confesses that she had been checked into a psychiatric hospital; her guilt over Jesse’s death deeply affected her.

A computer code for Earth simulation on January 29, 2016, deletes Earth.

Missing Jesse, Henry goes onto social media to revisit photographs and memories of Jesse. He discovers that someone has photoshopped Henry’s viral photo, tied up with an alien mask on, onto all of Jesse’s pictures. Henry is shaken to his core and wants to find his mother’s sleeping pills so he can end his life. On his way to the pills, he runs into Zooey. He helps Zooey find Charlie’s toolbox, and Henry feels his desire to die wane. She offers him a ride anywhere he wants, and he asks her to take him to the bookstore.

Henry claims that Charlie will be a terrible father and will one day walk out on Zooey and their child. Zooey doesn’t get angry with Henry. Instead, she tells him about how she finally started liking Charlie despite how he can often be insensitive. She reveals that she had thought about getting an abortion, but when Charlie gave up his dream of becoming a firefighter, she knew he was serious about becoming a father. Henry hadn’t known that Charlie had been enrolled in the firefighter academy. In the bookstore, Henry wants to feel close to Jesse again, who had loved the bookstore. Henry runs into Audrey, who invites him to get cookies with her at the nearby mall.

Audrey and Henry have another heart-to-heart about what happened with Jesse. Audrey confesses that she had been in love with Jesse and had harbored his secret depressive behavior, such as his cutting. Audrey didn’t tell anyone about what Jesse was going through, so she blames herself for his death. Audrey tells Henry that her stay in the mental hospital had been good for her because it gave her the space to curl up inside herself and deal with finding peace away from external pressures and people. Henry assures Audrey that he doesn’t hate her and doesn’t blame her for Jesse’s death.

Henry, Audrey, and Diego sit together for lunch at school when they see Marcus hit another student named Zac. Audrey tells them that rumors are Marcus hooked up with Zac’s girlfriend, so Zac broke the windows in Marcus’s expensive car. Diego avoids talking about the gossip. Henry is taken aback by Diego’s sudden sullenness and wonders what he’s done.

Audrey and Henry go to the beach. She asks after his grandmother, and Henry wonders aloud if, given Nana’s condition, it would just be better for her to die. Henry has told Audrey about the sluggers and the button, but he can tell she doesn’t believe him. He mentions that he’s worried about Diego, sensing an inner rage that Diego tries to hide through exclamations that the world is a beautiful place. Henry wonders aloud if Diego had been the one to break Marcus’s car windows. Audrey tells Henry that Marcus was suspended for the punch, and since then, he’s been self-destructing with pills and meaningless sex. Henry tries not to care, but Audrey knows Henry did like and care about Marcus, even though Marcus didn’t deserve Henry.

Henry walks in on his mom smoking weed. They smoke together, and Henry encourages her to try cooking again, that the best parts of her aren’t gone now that his father isn’t around.

Diego texts Henry about Thanksgiving plans, but Henry ignores him because his mother is fixated on getting family pictures. Their unusually family-oriented Thanksgiving goes wrong when Nana burns the turkey and nearly starts a fire. Henry’s mother blames Charlie for not looking out for Nana. Charlie storms out with Zooey, and Nana cries. Henry calls Diego, and he picks Henry up to bring him to his sister’s anti-Thanksgiving barbecue.

Diego’s house is brightly colored. His sister Viviana calls Diego by his first name, Valentín. Henry looks around the house and finds a room where Diego displays and works on his paintings. Henry is moved by the paintings, which feature messages of escape and transformation. Diego offers to paint a portrait of Henry, making Henry feel exposed. Viviana’s friends come over for the barbecue, and Henry enjoys the peaceful conversation free of tension.

When Henry points out to Diego that he has not shared anything about his past, Diego agrees to tell him more if Henry tells him more about the sluggers. Henry confesses that he asks the sluggers to keep him instead of sending him back to Earth. Henry asks Diego if he was the one who broke Marcus’s car windows, but the look on Diego’s face at this accusation makes Henry feel bad, and he flees into the house. Henry realizes that he’s developed feelings for Diego and has been wondering if Diego’s protectiveness over him means that Diego has feelings for him.

Diego finds Henry in the house and kisses him. After kissing, Henry confesses that he still thinks about Jesse. Diego goes to get Henry something to drink, leaving Henry alone with his concerns that anything with Diego would end up ruined like all his other relationships. Just as Henry starts thinking he’s glad he has a choice in keeping the world going, the sluggers abduct him.

A new technology named Mind’s Eye is developed, allowing people to experience the world, their friends, and even video games through an implanted chip. People stop leaving the house, and though some industries like airlines fail, pollution is rapidly minimized. On January 29, 2016, South Korea is the first country to offer incentives to keep its citizens inhabited in Mind’s Eye. People on Earth become citizens of a fantasy world.

On the sluggers’ spaceship, Henry thinks deeply about the worth and value of human existence. He thinks that no one will have a memory of Jesse one day. Like stars, eventually, the light of a memory fades. Henry wonders if the sluggers want Earth to be saved; the sluggers like human literature, but Henry figures that they can simply take a few humans before the Earth’s destruction and repopulate them on another planet.

When Henry awakes on Earth, he discovers he’s been missing for four days. Charlie hugs him and tells him they had called the police. Diego has also been looking for him. Charlie pushes him around, demanding an answer about where he’s been. Henry doesn’t tell him, knowing it would only bring more problems and ridicule. After so many days, Henry’s family had imagined the worst-case scenarios for Henry.

At school, Audrey asks Henry where he’s been; Marcus overhears and makes fun of Henry’s abductions. Henry spends the afternoon at the beach, where Diego finally finds him. Henry doesn’t regret kissing Diego but doesn’t feel it’s right to start a relationship with him because he’s still thinking of Jesse and because Henry still doesn’t want to push the button and save Earth.

At home, Henry is surprised that his mother isn’t angry with him. Instead, she looks defeated. She tells him that she’s put Nana into a nursing home. She admits that, with all of life’s other stressors, she needs Henry to be okay. Not wanting to ruin her last 60 days on Earth, Henry assures her that he’s okay.