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Mimic

In New York City, cockroaches are spreading the "Strickler's disease" that is killing hundreds of the city's children. Unable to develop a cure for the disease, Dr. Peter Mann, deputy director of the CDC, recruits entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler. Dr. Tyler uses genetic engineering to create the " Judas breed", a hybrid between a mantis and a termite that releases an enzyme which accelerates the roaches' metabolism. The roaches burn calories faster than they can nourish themselves and thus starve to death; this eradicates the disease-carrying insects. Peter and Susan later marry.

Three years later, a priest is chased and dragged underground by an assailant. The only witness is Chuy, a boy who refers to the attacker as "Mr. Funny Shoes" to his skeptical guardian, an immigrant subway shoe shiner named Manny. Later, two kids sell a "weird bug" from the subway to Susan, on which she performs tests, and realizes it is similar to the Judas breed. Initially, she believes that this is impossible since the specimens she released were all female and designed with a lifespan of only six months, which should have ensured that the breed would die off after a single generation. Before she can examine the insect further it is stolen by a figure who escapes out the window. After informing the police, she consults with her mentor, Dr. Gates, who autopsies a larger specimen found in the city's sewage treatment plants, and finds that its organs are fully formed, meaning the Judas breed is not only alive but has developed into a viable species, with a colony underneath the city.

Looking for more specimens, the kids go down the tracks where they find an egg sac and are then killed by the same assailant. Meanwhile, Chuy enters the abandoned church of the dead priest to find "Mr. Funny Shoes" and is abducted. Peter, his assistant Josh Maslow and MTA officer Leonard Norton enter the maintenance tunnels to investigate. However, Peter and Leonard get stuck and send Josh for help. Susan encounters a shadowy creature in a trench coat on a train platform. She approaches the figure, which unfolds into an insect the size of a human being. The creature abducts Susan and carries her into the tunnels. Meanwhile, Josh almost finds a way out but is found by a Judas and killed. Manny also enters the tunnels in search of Chuy and comes across Susan, whom he rescues along with Peter and Leonard, and they barricade themselves inside a train car.

Susan surmises that the Judas breed's accelerated metabolism has allowed them to reproduce at an accelerated rate, causing them to evolve over tens of thousands of generations within only three years, developing lungs, allowing increased size, and the ability to mimic their human prey. The group formulates a plan to get the car moving: using the remains of a dead bug to mask their scent as they work, Peter will switch the power on, and Manny will switch the tracks. Susan projects that the Judas will spread throughout the tunnels and overrun the city unless they manage to kill the colony's single fertile male. While trying to reach the track switches, Manny finds Chuy who has survived due to his imitating the clicking noises the bugs use for communication. However, before they can escape Manny is killed by the male Judas. Susan, realizing Manny has been gone too long, goes in search of him but finds only Chuy. Leonard's injured leg starts bleeding heavily and knowing the smell will incite the creatures and endanger the group, he creates a diversion that allows the others to get away, before being killed. Peter finds a dumbwaiter and puts Susan and Chuy in it, but stays behind to destroy the breed for good. He is chased into a room where hundreds are nesting and blows them all up by setting fire to a loose gas pipe, before diving underwater to safety.

The male Judas escapes the blast and goes after Chuy but is distracted by Susan, who lures it into the path of an oncoming train, which runs over it. The two make it to the surface, with Susan assuming that Peter had died in the blast. She then sees what appears to be another Judas, only for it to be revealed to actually be Peter alive and well. The three then reunite and embrace one another.