Ratten - sie werden Dich kriegen! (2001)

It is the hottest summer in 150 years. In Frankfurt, the refuse collectors are on strike, but Mayor Semmler-Heiduck refuses to give in. Young doctor Katrin Elder has hardly any time left for her daughter. The little girl’s life is in danger when she plays on an abandoned factory site. She is rescued by Frank Dabrock, a pilot with the special fire-protection unit. In the process, he severs a cable, bringing the Frankfurt Stock Exchange to a standstill, and the hero finds himself transferred as punishment to the “Pest Control” subdepartment. Before long, his new assignment becomes a nightmare. A rat infestation sweeps through the city, carrying a deadly virus. The doctors and Dabrock’s colleagues begin a merciless race against time. When Dabrock and his team fight the rats in the sewers with flamethrowers, to ensure that the mayor’s reception can proceed undisturbed, they are overwhelmed by a gigantic swarm of rats. Bennat is killed by the rats, and while fleeing, Dinter is run over by two cars after coming up through a manhole cover and is killed. At the reception, the rats swarm into the building. The guests flee, and the mayor is bitten. At the same time, a rat also gets into the Elders’ apartment and bites their daughter, Anna. Because the rats transmit a form of meningitis, the first people soon die of the disease. The mayor also succumbs to the infection. Meanwhile, Dabrock and Staff Sergeant Hubert locate the rats’ hiding place and blow it up. After Elder realizes that her boss, Dr. Waldemar, is also infected and must have developed antibodies, since he has not yet died, she sets out to find him. She tracks him down, and a vaccine can be developed at the hospital.