So...remind me again why we picked this mesa to climb?
Because once we're up there
we'll be able to see half of Nevada.
That's it?
Well, we'll be able to see
the three towns close to the mesa too.
You are so dumped when we get down from here.
A little help here.
Billy?
Rule number one of rock climbing.
You never, ever leave your..
'We are requesting a rapid response force deployment'
'from Dulles Air Force Base'
'to contain and counter'
'an extra-terrestrial landing.'
'This is not a drill.'
'Waves two and three, flank.'
Containment has failed and we are taking heavy losses.
Requesting emergency support.
I repeat, we cannot contain them!
Sounds like the commander could use a little reassurance.
Let's hope we can give it to him.
We'll give it to 'em, alright.
And then some.
'Strength in numbers and all that.'
'It's growing bigger.'
It's somehow devouring everything around it
and converting it into mass.
- 'Those spider-like things?' - The same.
And once they're done with the debris
from the army's attempt to beat them back
'they're going to spread out to those three towns.'
"Diana, I have the communications feed'
'from the general on the ground. Patching it through.'
This is Wonder Woman. Go ahead, general.
This is General Eiling, USAM.
We're in the process of evacuating
the three towns in the immediate vicinity.
We need those...things locked down.
Then the first task is containment.
I've got something on board that may buy us
a little more time.
- Batman, what was that? - Fermionic gas.
Cools to within a few degrees of absolute zero.
Why would you have something like that on board?
'I needed to freeze the Gotham river once.'
"Long story.'
Move in!
Good job. Surround them and close in.
Hold on a second.
They're right under us!
Wonder Woman, can you hear me?
I'm in the town of Goldhanger, two clicks from you.
And we're not gonna get everyone out in time.
'You won't have to, general.'
The watchtower is now in stationary orbit over the site.
I'm clearing the binary fusion generator for firing.
The what?
It converts our space station's
entire power output into a single shot.
It's a gun with the punch
of a small nuclear weapon, general.
- You're not serious. - We're very serious.
Now pull your men back.
We can't hit the aliens directly
because it could scatter them for miles.
So we're going to be burning a trench around them.
Fall back! Go!
An hour until we find out if it worked.
That should buy them some time to get the townspeople out.
Now I want to learn about these things.
'l think the main space craft is replicating them.'
'There's some kind of molecular machine inside each of them.'
'A sort of dark heart building around itself.'
We need Ray Palmer in Boston.
Superman, you'll get there fastest.
Agreed. Be right back.
Hold the line.
'Professor Palmer, we've lost you off the scanner.'
'Professor?'
Reconfigure for the atometer limit, Katie.
I know he's down here somewhere.
Could be pretty small by now.
And he just found me.
He's bigger than my car now, Katie.
Personally, I blame you.
'How can it possibly be my fault?'
Because otherwise it would be my fault.
That can't be right. I'm a professor.
I have the core control, and I can see the problem.
The chemical wash made a bad nanochip.
I can shut him down by..
Okay, I'm just gonna be direct.
'Professor Palmer? Professor? Ray!'
I'm going to lay here for a while, Katie.
I'm old now, and I get tired.
'"You have, uh...company, professor.'
'Serious company.'
I'm coming up. Stand by.
Hello, Superman. What brings you to Boston?
Omega level situation.
Katie, please inform the front office
that I'm gonna be, uh, out for a while.
'Fifty years ago Dr. John Von Neumann'
'imagined that self-replicating robots'
'would be how we'd explore the universe.'
'Send one robot out, order it to build another ten'
'wherever it lands.'
'Another ten are sent out in all directions.'
I think we have one of those in Nevada, Ray.
Then we're looking at the big nightmare of nanotechnology.
A machine that can build clones of itself
out of atoms of anything.
What would stop them from building
until everything is gone?
'Got an ETA yet? We need you.'
Soon.
How's the trench holding up?
What trench?
The was the last of my useful armaments.
I can't do anymore.
Batman to all points. I could use some air support.
Since I can't fly...at all.
Now would be good.
The spiders are forcing us back.
And the mother ship is releasing mechanical
attack tigers to protect them. Where's the Atom?
Getting sweaty in here. Is that Batman?
Find Wonder Woman and get us down.
This is a losing battle.
We destroy one, the main vessel breeds three more.
Welcome to our nightmare. Can you help?
Look at those. It's amazing.
Ray, tell them what you told me.
These things build copies of themselves
using whatever material is around
and they'll only stop when everything is gone.
So this isn't just about these three towns?
No.
They'll go coast to coast
and then across the seabed.
They'll use rock, metal, plastic, plant life.
- People. - Yes.
And destroying the replicated machines isn't enough.
You have to get to the system's core control.
If we destroy the mother ship.
You have to understand, making metal out of rock
is a microscopic process.
The core control is issuing instructions at an atomic scale.
You can't just smash up a machine
the size of an infection.
Leave a crumb of it intact
and it'll start all over again.
You have to get me to the main ship.
I have to go inside that thing and reprogram it.
All points, this is Batman. We have a new plan.
We have to get the Atom to the main vessel.
Superman puts him and Wonder Woman there.
Half of us back her up.
Everyone else, we draw a line here.
No one is going to die because of us. Go.
- Ready? - Just don't squeeze.
Let's go to work.
We need more cover.
Supergirl, Green Lantern
more air support for Wonder Woman.
I need both hands, Professor Palmer.
Go!
I'm in.
Palmer to Batman.
I think I'm almost there. Stand by.
- Wow. - 'What's your status?'
This is incredible.
Every atom of it is filled
with a book's worth of information.
- It's beautifully simple. It-- - 'Save it for the autopsy.'
I think I can access it.
I knew it.
'It carries its own history.'
It copies it into each replicant.
Batman, can you hear me? It's a war machine.
'What was your first clue?'
'Two planets at war.'
It's builders launched it at a whole other planet
'like a cruise missile.'
'It ate an entire planet.'
'And it followed its programming.'
'Reproduce, go to the next occupied planet, reproduce.'
Maybe this war was fought across the galaxy.
But it doesn't know the war is over.
If I'm reading the symbols right, the original device
was constructed more than 50,000 years ago.
Ray? Ray! Aah!
Batman, I've lost contact. Are you there?
Come on, come on! It's here somewhere. I know it.
Yes! The core control.
It won't break. I have no tools. Think.
No tools...except this one.
Controlling my size and weight. Be direct.
'Atom, we're about out of time.'
- 'What's happening in there?' - It didn't break.
I couldn't break the heart. It--
'It what?'
I couldn't break the heart.
But I bet I can give it a heart attack.
These arteries are feeding liquefied matter into the heart.
If I can interrupt that flow
starve it of matter, build up some pressure.
Come on!
Ray? Can you hear me? Come in.
There. Is that..
That...was disgusting.
I don't suppose you need any help destroying that.
Wouldn't want that technology falling into the wrong hands.
We can learn a lot from it.
It almost beat the Justice League, after all.
Why would you need something to do that, general?
Oh, I don't know.
Maybe because it turns out the Justice League
has had a secret space-based weapon
of mass destruction all along.
And we're gonna be talking about that someday.
Believe me.
Ma'am.
Amazing.
Show him a weapon that destroyed its creators
and every other thing it saw
and he wants to play with it.
What's to stop history from repeating itself
right here on Earth?
We are.