In the near future, Earth is under occupation by a race of reptilian aliens, the Torkor. One human, the slave of an important ruler, is captured by a small band of rebel humans who aim to break his Torkor conditioning and restore his free will.
Opening narration[]
“At what point does a human being’s free will cease to exist? And if we have forfeited our free will… are we still human?”
Plot[]
In the near future, where a race of aliens called the Torkor have taken over Earth, Evan (Erich Anderson) is a slave in the mansion of the harsh-ruling Koltak (Vincent Hammond) who he refers to as “Milord”. Like all other slaves (“Jollem”), he has been “programmed” not to feel anything, and to accept everything his master says as fact without question.
Later, on his way to have his conditioning reinforced, Evan is captured by a resistance movement led by Professor Trent Davis (Brent Spiner), who call themselves the Vindicators, or the Deprogrammers. At first, Evan is completely vegetative and unresponsive to them. Not even experiencing pain or Trent cutting his wrist will make him flinch.
During the course of the next few days, little by little, the resistance manages to wake up the parts of his mind that have been silenced by the programming. He is slowly introduced to his past life, a successful military career, and to his wife Jill (Nicole Oliver), who is also working with the resistance movement.
The resistance aims to restore the meaning of what it is to be human, by the means of military power. Finally, when Evan comes to realize that his master is actually responsible for killing all the children of the world, including his daughter, he becomes sympathetic to the goals of the Vindicators, despite occasional quirks in his thinking.
Evan returns to Koltak’s mansion, bringing with him a vial that is camouflaged as a vial of Seragon Oil, a substance Koltak is particularly fond of. He drops the vial into the bath the alien is taking, and combines it with another substance, making the bath become solid, trapping the alien there. Evan beats Koltak to death, and then returns to the Vindicators’ base, carrying the head of Koltak with him in a bag.
At the moment of joy and success, Trent Davis asks if “Milord” is pleased, after which another alien steps in, whom Evan recognizes as Megwon (Vincent Hammond). Davis had been a Jollem all along, but was spared from the reprogramming so that he can continue with his experiments. Megwon had used Evan as a pawn to kill his rival. Jill proceeds to berate Trent, saying that the rebels will go after him but Megwon states the resistance are little more than a minor nuisance and that due to the power and might of the Torkor, any real resistance is impossible and will not be a threat to him.
In the final scene, Evan is being reprogrammed again along with Jill… though Jill seems to resist programming.
Closing narration[]
“For centuries philosophers have wrestled with the question, “Is man able to decide his destiny through his own actions or does fate have the final say?”
Cast[]
- Brent Spiner as Professor Trent Davis
- Erich Anderson as Evan Cooper
- Nicole Oliver as Jill Cooper
- Samuel Vincent as Akira Matsumoto
- Vincent Hammond as Koltok, Megwan
- Dean McKenzie as Newscaster
- Adam J. Harrington as Puppet Show Host