Xeno

Story:

Matthew Loren Oates is the director, writer, producer, and editor of the 2025 American science fiction adventure film Xeno. The movie centers on a teenage girl who befriends an alien after it crashes close by in the desert. On September 19, 2025, the movie was released in the US.

In the New Mexico desert, a meteor-like object smashes after hurtling toward Earth. While his dog runs away, a neighboring hunter investigates and is attacked by a hideous extraterrestrial thing. 15-year-old Renee resides in New Mexico with her violent, self-centered new boyfriend Chase and her mother Linda, who has fallen into despair following the loss of her husband. She is an antisocial outsider who keeps a variety of arachnids and reptiles as pets. Renee flees into the desert and arrives at the impact site after arguing with Chase because she doesn’t like him. There, she finds the alien entangled with the hunter’s car and releases it before running away.

Renee gathers tools the following day, including Chase’s handgun, and goes back to look into it. They develop a bond after locating the alien and releasing it from the hunter’s jaw trap that was still linked to it. However, while coming home, Renee finds that she left the rifle in the desert. She locates the creature outside her home with the intention of retrieving it. After recovering from the ensuing shock, Renee conceals the alien in her home’s basement and gives it the name Croak since it establishes an empathic connection with her.

Renee’s classmate Gil, who is intrigued by her, stops over shortly after to get his video camera, which Renee had borrowed for her extraterrestrial hunt, and finds a tape of Croak on it. Renee confronts him, shows him the alien, and demands that he stay quiet about it. However, CIA Agent Keyes and his sidekick Browne have been looking into Croak’s arrival, tracked its path back to Renee, and overheard her talking to Gil. The following night, Chase attacks her violently after confronting her about his lost gun. Linda sends Chase out of the house after Croak, sensing her distress, smashes the wall in the basement, rocking the house and ending the altercation.

Keyes picks Renee up the following morning, he tries to persuade her to confess about Croak, but Renee refuses. Linda calls a plumber to inspect the basement’s water lines because she thinks the shaking was caused by an earthquake. The plumber discovers Croak, runs away in terror, and dies in an automobile accident. When Renee learns of this, she drives Croak into the desert at night to meet Gil, who informs her that Browne paid him a visit and threatened to deport his grandfather if he didn’t tell him about Croak. Renee chooses to flee, but Chase catches her and gets ready to kill her for betraying Linda.

Shortly after, Keyes shows up and restrains Renee; in order to entice Croak to the CIA’s trap, Keyes ruthlessly breaks Renee’s finger. They are brought to the local sheriff’s office when Croak is apprehended while trying to assist Renee. Keyes coerces Renee into working with him on a study of their empathic connection by telling her that he believes Croak is a species bred to serve as a scout for a planned alien invasion. After a face-to-face encounter with her mother, Renee is briefly left alone. She purposefully fractures her finger once more to provoke Croak into releasing her.

After catching up to Renee and Croak, Keyes randomly shoots at them. Croak leaves cover and rushes Keyes to protect Renee, killing him before collapsing with fatal injuries. Renee laments Croak’s passing as the movie comes to a close. In a scene during the credits, CIA forensics examine the alien’s corpse until it unexpectedly comes back to life.