In the middle of the night in Seoul, a girl is running around a park to look for her lost doll. When she finally finds her toy, sparks appear in the sky behind her. She turns around and screams when she sees a huge monster just passing by. 25 years later in New York, Gloria returns to her apartment after a long night out.
Her boyfriend Tim is furious, so he starts to rant, revealing that since Gloria lost her job, she does nothing but lie on the couch and party. He's tired of taking care of her drunk mess, so he breaks up with her. Tim has already packed all her things and wants her gone before he comes back from work. After Tim leaves, Gloria's party friends rush into the apartment, but she's too shocked to react.
Sometime later, Gloria returns to her childhood home in a small town. The house doesn't even have furniture, so she sleeps on the floor. The next morning, she goes to the store to buy an air mattress and bumps into her childhood friend, Oscar, who asks her to hang out. Gloria agrees while pretending she's on a vacation. At Oscar's bar, Gloria keeps scratching her head.
She explains it's a nervous tick caused by a weird it she sometimes feels. Later, Gloria meets Oscar's friends Joel and G and tries to avoid drinking while they chat. However, when Oscar puts a beer in front of her, she ends up drinking it anyway. After the bar closes, the group spends the night chatting and drinking. Joel tries to kiss Gloria, but she pulls away.
Oscar notices and yells at his friend before leaving in a huff. Gloria drags her mattress through the park to get home, only to fall asleep before she can set it up. She dreams of her younger self at the park watching the wind pick up and lightning appearing in the sky. A phone call from her sister wakes her up and tells her about a monster attack in Seoul.
Gloria rushes to get her computer and watches the footage of a huge monster walking through the city and causing lots of destruction. Then she calls Tim to discuss the incident, but Tim points out that this happened 9 hours ago, which means she's been drinking and ignoring the real world again. A frustrated Gloria hangs up on him.
In the evening, Gloria returns to the bar and watches the monster footage on the big screen while drinking again. Reporters talk about all the victims who died during the attack and explain that the air is contaminated. After leaving the bar, Gloria goes to the park for some fresh air and falls asleep on a bench.
The next morning, she calls Tim, but he can tell she's drunk and refuses to talk to her in that state. In frustration, Gloria throws the phone on the ground. Afterward, Gloria goes home and plugs the bed to inflate it, only to fall asleep. She's woken up by Oscar ringing the doorbell. He's bringing her an old TV, and while he sets it up, he tells her that the monster appeared in Soul again.
However, it just stood there and made hand gestures. It destroyed some buildings and a few people got hurt, but it wasn't a full attack like last time. The monster appeared at 8:05, which is the same time as the previous night and its apparition 25 years ago. Back then, people thought it was a hoax since there was only one picture, but now the story is confirmed to be true.
Before leaving, Oscar offers her a job at the bar, and Gloria accepts it with a hug, but she gets distracted when she notices a video of the monster scratching its head. That night at the bar, Gloria does a good job, but she can't stop looking at the big screen for updates on the monster. The creature made a gesture as if throwing something on the ground.
The next day at home, Gloria watches the footage of the first attack and notices that the monster appears to be dragging something over its shoulder. Then, Gloria goes to the park and realizes that the monster copied the gestures she made while she was there. For the next few days, the monster doesn't show up. People have all kinds of crazy theories, like the monster being a machine controlled by someone from afar because it never looks down.
Gloria keeps investigating and drawing parallel maps between Soul and her hometown. One morning, she finally tests her theory. At exactly 8:05, she steps onto the playground and starts making random arm movements. Then, she runs home to watch the news. The monster has appeared in Korea and made the same gestures as her, confirming that she controls it.
Gloria falls on the bed from the shock and falls asleep. When she wakes up, news programs are still talking about the monster, mentioning how humanitarian organizations are struggling to help. Gloria decides to call Tim and tells him that she's found a job. At that moment, Oscar arrives with his old couch, so Gloria tells Tim to wait.
They put down the couch and Gloria gets comfortable, but Oscar reminds her that it's time to work. Gloria leaves with him and forgets about Tim still waiting in line. At the bar, Tim tries to call Gloria, but since she's drinking, she doesn't pick up. After they close the bar, Gloria decides it's time to share her secret. She takes the guys to the park and makes them check the cameras in Soul Online.
As soon as she steps onto the playground, the monster appears and copies all the movements Gloria is doing, even the dancing. As the men stare in shock, military aircraft appear in Korea and open fire at the monster, causing Gloria to feel the pain, too. She throws a punch in the air, and the monster does the same to bring down one of the aircraft.
She realizes she may have killed the pilots and freaks out until she trips and passes out. Later, Gloria wakes up at home and sees on TV all the destruction caused by the monster falling. Oscar arrives with food and finds her having a breakdown over all the deaths she's caused. She wants to turn herself in, but Oscar stops her to show her a newspaper, which reveals that a giant robot appeared with the monster.
Oscar thinks the monster represents him stepping onto the playground to help her. The duo goes to a diner to have breakfast and discusses the situation. When they were kids, there wasn't a park there. It was a fenced off construction site. Gloria remembers a day when she and Oscar were walking near the area after school.
She had been carrying a project about Korea when the wind suddenly picked up. Oscar convinces her not to turn herself in and Gloria gets an idea. The duo stops at a Korean restaurant to ask the owner to translate a message into Korean. Then they go to the park to wait until morning. They chat about their lives and Oscar reveals he never believed her vacation story.
He's been following her career since she left, so he's always known she was fired. He also shares that he almost got married 6 years ago, but his girlfriend left him. At 8:05, Gloria steps onto the playground and makes hand gestures to make everyone leave. Oscar follows it on the cameras and tells her when everyone's gone.
Then she copies the message on the ground, apologizing for all the destruction and promising that it won't happen again. Everyone around the world is shocked to see that the monster is smart and some people now think it's a good creature. After work, Gloria visits Joel and they end up getting dirty. The next morning, Gloria watches the news and is horrified to discover that the robot has reappeared.
She drags Joel to the playground where they find Oscar moving around to control the monster while Gar guides him with a map to make sure they don't destroy anything. When Gloria tries to tell Oscar to step out, he says that it isn't a big deal and that at least his robot didn't kill anyone.
A furious Gloria steps on the playground, too, making her monster appear. They can hear people in the neighboring houses cheering. Oscar again refuses to leave, so Gloria slaps him, and the monster repeats the action. This finally makes Oscar leave. That night, reporters call Gloria's monster the protector of Soul, and lots of memes are born from the slap.
The monsters are getting more fans every day, and people are flying to Soul to see them. At the bar, Oscar is drinking more than usual and won't stop watching the clip. After closing, he keeps talking to everyone in a rather rude way and calls Gar out for all the time he spends in the bathroom, implying he's been taking substances.
Gar furiously yells at him, reminding him he's been clean for years and he only has stomach issues now. Since Oscar keeps insulting him, G leaves. Then Oscar insists that Gloria should drink something since he's noticed she hasn't touched alcohol in days. Gloria explains she doesn't want to get drunk and cause trouble again.
So Oscar says that if she doesn't drink, he'll walk on the playground. Gloria grabs the bottle and empties it on the floor. Getting angry, Oscar gets in his van with Joel and Gloria tries to stop him because he's very drunk and she thinks he'll do something stupid. Oscar yells at her and insults her, not even caring when she steps in front of the van.
He just drives around her and leaves. At 8:05, Gloria finds Oscar already on the playground. She rushes in and both monsters appear as she starts slapping Oscar, who keeps taunting her. Her slaps become punches and Oscar grabs her hands. hurting her. This causes her to respond by kicking him in the groin. The monsters copy every move in soul while the audience cheers.
Then she tries to push him off, but he grabs her and brings her down. Joel sees the monsters falling on his tablet and begs the duo to stop. Gloria announces she quits her bar job, but Oscar pushes her down and tells her that if she doesn't come to work, he'll destroy Soul. Afterward, Gloria goes home and thinks about her childhood.
On the day the monster appeared for the first time, the wind had blown her project away, so Oscar climbed over the fence to look for it. Sometime later, Joel comes to see her and apologizes for everything. He swears Joel is sorry, too. And to make up for it, he sent her lots of furniture and house items. Gloria runs to Oscar's house to demand an explanation and discovers he's a hoarder.
The pictures of his ex are still up, but scratched out. All the empty bottles indicate he has a drinking problem just like her. He apologizes for everything and since Gloria knows what it's like to be too drunk, agrees to forgive him, but only after he promises he won't stay at the bar drinking again.
When Gloria returns home, she discovers that Joel has decorated her living room. She then gets a call from Tim, who shocks her by saying he's come to her hometown for a job. Gloria visits him and says that this is very weird, so she accuses him of being jealous. Tim snaps and insults her waitress job, which he sees as a downgrade from her writing career.
She gets upset and tries to leave, so Tim quickly apologizes and offers to give her a ride. At the bar, Tim meets Oscar, who immediately starts acting like a He makes lots of rude comments before asking what the most irresponsible thing he could do in the bar is. He brings out a huge firecracker and starts moving the furniture, causing the few clients to leave.
Oscar lights the firecracker and the destruction immediately begins. Many items are broken, including the big screen, and a fire starts at the back. When Gloria and Tim try to leave, Oscar blocks them and says that even after what he did to the bar, Gloria won't leave him. A desperate Tim admits there's no job and came to see her.
But Gloria still refuses to leave Oscar because she knows he'll destroy Soul if she quits. Tim leaves alone and Oscar insults him. Later, when Gloria goes home, she finds Oscar drinking in the darkness. He says he's come to make sure that Gloria doesn't call Tim because he doesn't want her to get back together with him. Oscar even tells her to sleep while he keeps guard.
Gloria scratches her head while finally remembering what happened on the first monster day. She had followed Oscar to the construction site, but he didn't see her. When he found her project, he stomped on it to destroy it. Lightning then appeared in the sky and struck her head which then caused the monster to appear for the first time in soul.
The injury caused her to bleed and she passed out. The lightning hit Oscar and knocked him out too. Among their things, the kids had a monster and a robot toy. In the present, Gloria tells Oscar that it's not romantic jealousy. He just hates himself. Gloria got to go to the city and had a career while he stayed in the small town with a bad job, so he hates how small it makes him feel.
She calls Tim and tells him she'll leave with him. on TV. Soul is ringing its siren since it'll be 8:05 soon. Oscar tries to leave for the playground, but Gloria hits him with a chair to stop him. An angry Oscar then kicks the couch to get a wooden piece before coming after her, so Gloria throws the bookcase on top of him.
When he tries to crawl away, Gloria pushes the TV to trap him in the corner. Oscar easily comes out and tries to reach the door, so Gloria runs after him and chases him upstairs. She isn't fast enough and Oscar leaves the house by jumping through the window to land in the pool. Gloria tries to stop him again when he comes out, but he dodges her and jumps over the fence to escape.
Then Gloria rushes to the playground and is ready to fight when Oscar also arrives, but she barely lands a hit before he quickly overpowers her and brings her down. He tells her that she can return to New York if she wants, but then he'll continue to destroy Soul. Oscar starts stomping around, causing thousands of deaths in Korea.
Gloria has a breakdown while she watches him leave. Later at home, Gloria sees that her map is hanging upside down, which gives her an idea. She packs her bags and rushes to the airport to take a flight to Seoul. Once she reaches the city, she calls Tim to tell him she's fine and finally in control of her life. Meanwhile, Oscar goes to Gloria's home and sees that she's gone.
So, he returns to the playground and makes the robot appear. People panic and start running away, but Gloria walks toward it. Oscar gets ready to kill a child, but freezes when he feels the ground shaking. To his shock, Gloria's monster has appeared in front of him. He immediately starts running, but Gloria controls the monster to capture him.
The robot floats up while the monster roars at Oscar, who cries and begs, but also insults her. Gloria then throws him away, and now that she's found closure, her monster disappears. People in Soul celebrate when they see the robot disappearing, too. Joel follows the updates on the news and sees Gloria on the streets, so he smiles when he realizes she's solved everything.
Gloria goes to a bar and cries before asking the clerk if she wants to hear an amazing story, but she gets frustrated when the clerk offers a drink.
