Taking place 300 years prior to the events of the first film in present-day 2009, the narrator describes how the government knew what was happening. A woman is seen driving recklessly on a California highway while arguing over her cell phone. Police officer Ryan Hadley (Bruce Boxleitner) pulls her over and gives her a warning. The man calls her back, but she tells him off and throws the phone down; the phone then transmorphs into a robotic spider that attacks and kills her.
At Edwards Air Force Base, an NSA officer informs her superior about intercepting a signal. In Los Angeles, Jo Summers (Jennifer Rubin) is shocked to read in the newspaper about of the death of the woman from the car. In the Kern County Morgue, the police are baffled by the wound that killed the driver. Madison arrives home to discover her television is out. A repairman is called to fix the television. It ends up being Jake (Shane Van Dyke), an old friend of Madison, who hasn’t seen her since returning from military deployment. Jake investigates her satellite dish and is shocked when it transmorphs into a robot. He runs inside to warn Madison, but when he goes back outside, the robot is gone. Summers meets up with Hadley to investigate the death of the driver, but the NSA show up and asks her to go with them. She advises Hadley to find the driver’s missing phone.