The sun was dying out, people all around the world built giant planet thrusters to move Earth
out of its orbit and to sail Earth to a new star system. Yet the 2500 years journey came with
unexpected dangers, and in order to save humanity, a group of young people in this age of a
wandering Earth came out boldly and fought hard for everyone's survival.
In the future, the Sun has aged and is about to turn into a red giant, pushing the nations
of the world to consolidate into the United Earth Government, a world government, to initiate a
project to move the Earth out of the Solar System to the Alpha Centauri system, in order to
preserve further human civilization.
Enormous thrusters running on fusion power are built across the planet to propel the Earth.
Human population is reduced severely due to catastrophic tides that occur after the planetary
engines stop Earth's rotation, and later as the planet moves away from the sun, much of the
surface is frozen due to lowered temperatures, forcing humans to live in vast underground cities
built adjacent to the engines.
At the beginning of the film, Liu Peiqiang, a Chinese astronaut, promises to his son Liu Qi
of his eventual return before his mission to a space station that will help Earth navigate as
it moves out of the solar system, and handL guardianship of his son over to his father-in-law
Han ziang.
Seventeen years later, Liu Peiqiang's mission is about to end and he will soon return to
Earth. To celebrate Chinese New Year, an adult Liu Qi brings adopted sister Han Duoduo on a
trip to the surface in a truck they steal using Han's clearance as a trucker. They are
arrested, and meet Tim and are joined by Han after an unsuccessful attempt to bribe the detention
house keeper to release them.
As Earth passes by Jupiter to make use of gravity assist, Jupiter's gravitational spike
causes devastating earthquakes that disable many thrusters across the globe and pull the Earth
dangerously close. The four escape amidst the chaos and attempt to make their way out in
Han's truck, but the truck is requisitioned for a rescue mission by the military rescue ream
CN171-11; they are to transport a lighter core, an engine component, to restart the planetary
thruster engine in Hangzhou, supervised by soldiers led by Wang. In the remnants of Shanghai,
they lose their vehicle, and while transporting the component up the ruins of the Shanghai
Tower Han is killed. With news that the Hangzhou thruster was fully compromised and the city
was completely destroyed, the group temporarily despair. However they later find a new vehicle
where the on-board engineer, Li, convinces them to transport an lighter core to repair a
larger planetary thruster engine in Sulawesi.