Jekyll and Hyde… Together Again

A group of medical students observe Dr. Daniel Jekyll performing brain surgery at Our Lady of Pain and Suffering Hospital in Los Angeles. Hubert Howes, the hospital's wealthiest donor, watches a recording of the procedure and attempts to recruit Jekyll for a radical 'total transplant' that would replace every organ at once. Howes threatens to blow up the hospital unless Jekyll agrees. Dr. Carew, the hospital overseer and Jekyll's future father-in-law, forbids Jekyll from marrying Mary if he does not comply with Howes' demands.

Jekyll attends to patients in the charity ward as Mary visits, complaining that she missed their lunch date because he was working. Dr. Knute Lanyon flirts with Mary, stirring tension. After Mary leaves, Ivy Venus—an alluring patient who works at a nightclub—flirts with Jekyll and invites him to visit her at the club.

Later in the lab, Jekyll measures two white powders on a square mirror, exhausted and unfocused. He knocks the powders onto the table, falls asleep, and inadvertently inhales the powder. The inhalation triggers a dramatic transformation into Hyde, who exudes wild confidence and an appetite for unchecked impulses. The seemingly mundane moment becomes the birth of a dangerous alter ego.

With Hyde in control, he steals a car and drives to Ivy's nightclub. Ivy performs onstage and leads him to her room backstage, where he introduces himself as 'Hyde' and they have sex. The next morning, Jekyll, regretful, declares his unwavering love for Mary.

Over the next days, Jekyll makes various attempts to dispose of his drug, but each time he ends up inhaling more. Hyde's presence leads to a string of comic, sexually charged exploits that keep Jekyll from regaining control. The cycle deepens as he indulges in the power of his alter ego.

Jekyll wins a research grant and is invited to a ceremony in London. Hoping to woo Ivy with the money, Hyde tracks her to an arcade and invites her to accompany him on the trip. Ivy says she prefers Jekyll to Hyde, and she does not believe they are the same man. In frustration, Hyde destroys an arcade game and Ivy is electrocuted.

Hyde travels to Los Angeles International Airport and climbs onto the back of an airplane headed for London, leaving behind his familiar life as Jekyll and rushing toward the unknown future that awaits him overseas.

Ivy revives after the electrocution and sets off toward London, traveling by train to pursue her revenge against Jekyll. Her return underscores the personal stakes of the split personality and foreshadows a confrontation abroad.

At the London ceremony, actor George Chakiris accepts the award on Jekyll's behalf, declaring that the remaining vial of the substance will be donated. Hyde swings down from the balcony, grabs the microphone and sings. Realizing Hyde is the fiancé, Mary becomes aroused by his new personality.

Hyde removes his pants and runs out of the hall, pursued through the foggy streets by the audience. Ivy joins the chase, and the crowd follows him until he falls off the side of a building, careening toward a fatal end.

As Ivy and Mary kneel beside what appears to be Hyde's body, he transforms back into Jekyll. He wakes and declares that the drugs have exposed his two split personalities. Mary desires Hyde while Ivy wants Jekyll, setting the stage for a dangerous and complicated love triangle.

Mary and Ivy drag a disoriented Jekyll through a nearby cemetery, hoping to work out an arrangement. Nearby, the skeletal corpse of Robert Louis Stevenson rolls over in its grave, a winking nod to the origin of the tale and the film's metafictional humor.

The film closes on a macabre joke, as the Stevenson graveyard gag lingers in the background, underscoring the eternal tug between science, desire, and the legend of Jekyll and Hyde.