By The mishap in The Guardian where Randall loses his crew is loosely based on an actual U.S. Coast Guard aviation mishap in Alaska. The Guardian aircraft was an HH-3F Pelican (USCG variant of the Jolly Green Giant) instead of the HH-60J Jayhawk (USCG variant of the Blackhawk/Seahawk) pictured in the movie.[4]
Rain battered the streets of New York as Daniel Cross walked home, the collar of his coat turned up against the storm. Thirty-five, quiet, and burdened by a past he barely remembered, he lived a life of repetition—work, home, sleep. The world went on around him, oblivious to the fact that Daniel was anything but ordinary.
For centuries, the Order of the Guardians had operated in secret, defending humanity from creatures born in the shadow between dimensions—Wraiths. Invisible to the average eye, these beings fed on fear, despair, and chaos. Each generation, a handful of Guardians would awaken, bound to their ancient destiny by bloodlines forgotten.
Daniel’s first sign came as a whisper.
He heard it late one night, a voice that wasn’t his, soft and firm: “Wake up.”
He blinked, jolting upright in bed, the dream already fading. His heart raced. The digital clock glowed 3:33 AM. Outside, thunder cracked like a warning shot.
Over the next few days, things spiraled. He saw things others couldn’t—flickers of movement in mirrors, shadows that moved against the light. When a homeless man grabbed him in the subway, screaming “You’re one of them!” before vanishing into the crowd, Daniel started to believe something was wrong.
Or right.
His awakening began in earnest the night he saved a girl.
It was in an alley, after work. He heard a scream and without thinking, ran toward it. A shadowy figure loomed over a young woman, its body tall and twisted like smoke in human form. She lay on the ground, eyes wide with terror. Instinct took over. Daniel grabbed a metal pipe and swung. The creature turned—and for the first time, he saw it clearly.
The Wraith hissed, vanishing in a flash of black mist. The girl vanished too, but not before whispering, “You’ve seen it now. They’ll come for you.”
And they did.
The next morning, Daniel was followed by men in suits—Watchers, servants of the Wraiths. He barely escaped. That evening, a woman named Elara found him.
Tall, fierce, and cloaked in a long gray coat, Elara was a Guardian. One of the last. She explained everything: The war, the Wraiths, and his birthright. Daniel’s father had been a Guardian too, killed in a failed uprising. His memories had been sealed to protect him.
But now, the seal was breaking.
Elara took him to the Haven—a secret sanctuary hidden under an abandoned cathedral. There, he met others like him: Caleb, a tech-savvy ex-hacker turned Guardian strategist; Mina, a healer with eyes that could see through lies; and Tomas, a grizzled warrior who trained Daniel day and night.
In weeks, Daniel changed. He learned to fight with weapons forged from celestial iron. He learned to channel energy through his hands—light that could burn Wraiths into ash. He learned to listen to the voice inside him, now louder, clearer. It wasn’t madness. It was power.
But with power came a price.
The Wraiths, sensing a new Guardian rising, launched a city-wide assault. Nightmares plagued the streets—people disappearing, buildings collapsing under unexplained forces. Fear rippled like a plague. Daniel felt it like a pulse under his skin.
Then came the Vision.
During meditation, he saw a place—an old theater in the Bronx, long abandoned. Beneath it, the Wraith King, an ancient entity named Vorthen, was preparing a portal. If opened, it would let in thousands of Wraiths. The world would fall into eternal shadow.
Only a Guardian could close it.
Only Daniel.
The team prepared for the final assault. Armed and armored, they infiltrated the theater under cover of night. Inside, the walls bled shadow, whispers filled the air, and reality bent under the weight of dark energy.
They fought their way to the lower chambers. Caleb was wounded, Mina barely held her ground, and Tomas fell holding off a horde of Wraiths so the others could press forward.
Daniel and Elara reached the portal. Vorthen waited.
He was massive—ten feet tall, robed in darkness, his face hidden behind a mask of bone. His voice echoed with a thousand screams.
“You are too late,” he said.
Daniel stepped forward, light blazing in his palms. “I’m just in time.”
The battle was brutal. Elara fought Vorthen’s guard while Daniel faced the King. Power met power. Light clashed with shadow. The walls cracked and the portal surged.
In the final moment, Daniel realized what he had to do. The portal needed energy to close. Not a weapon, but a sacrifice.
He turned to Elara. “Tell them I chose this.”
“No!” she cried, but he smiled.
“I remember now. My father did the same.”
He ran toward the portal, channeling all his energy, all his light, into it. Vorthen screamed as the gateway collapsed inward, pulling the darkness with it.
Then—silence.
Daniel was gone.
Weeks passed.
New York began to heal. The Wraith attacks stopped. People returned to their lives, unaware of how close they had come to doom.
At the Haven, Elara stood at the memorial wall. She placed a hand on Daniel’s name, carved into stone beside his father’s.
“A true Guardian,” she whispered.
But in the shadows of the city, a flicker of light moved.
And somewhere, Daniel opened his eyes—on another plane, neither dead nor alive.
The war wasn’t over.
He would return.
The Guardian
A tale of courage, sacrifice, and the unseen battle that shapes our world. Not all heroes wear capes—some carry the weight of light in the darkest places.
