Reign of Fire is a 2002 postapocalyptic action fantasy film directed by Rob Bowman and starring Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale, with the screenplay written by Matt Greenberg, Gregg Chabot, and Kevin Peterka. The film also features Izabella Scorupco and Gerard Butler.
The film opens shortly after the dawn of the new millennium. During construction on the London Underground, workers penetrate an underground cave. A huge dragon emerges from hibernation, incinerating the workers with its flaming breath. The only survivor is a boy, Quinn Abercromby Ben Thornton, whose mother Karen Alice Krige is the construction crew chief Karen is crushed to death while protecting Quinn as the dragon climbs to the surface. It flies out of the Underground and more dragons appear, multiplying rapidly. Shown in newspaper clippings and a voiceover, scientists discover that dragons are a lost species responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs by incinerating them. The dragons are speculated to hibernate after destroying most of the Earths creatures until the planet repopulates. After the dragons awakening humanity resists militarily, including a 2010 use of nuclear weapons this, however, hastens the destruction and within a few years humans are nearly extinct.In 2020, Quinn Christian Bale leads a community of survivors in a Northumberland castle who are starving while their crops ripen. Although most trust him, some are restless and defiant. Eddie David Kennedy steals a truck to harvest tomatoes with his group, although picking them too soon will destroy next seasons seeds. They are attacked by a dragon one is killed, and the rest are surrounded by fire. Quinn, Creedy Gerard Butler and Jared Scott Moutter rescue them with old fire engines and firesuits, but as it escapes the dragon kills Eddies son. ........
Source: Wikipedia