This is the story is based on an actual incident. Claude Dallas is a man who loves to be free, so he lives in the mountains where he hunts for his food. However, Bill Pogue is a driven game warden, who abhors anyone who hunts out of season. When he catches Claude Dallas doing that; he's about to arrest him when Claude kills him and the other warden with him. When the man who was with Dallas tells the police what happened, a nationwide manhunt ensues. And there are people who didn't like Pogue and they hope Dallas is never caught.
On July 2, a giant alien mothership enters orbit around Earth and deploys several dozen saucer-shaped 'destroyer' spacecraft that quickly lay waste to major cities around the planet. On July 3, the United States conducts a coordinated counterattack that fails. On July 4, a plan is devised to gain access to the interior of the alien mothership in space, in order to plant a nuclear missile.
An ordinary man sees a bright light descend from the sky, and discovers he now has super-intelligence and telekinesis.