D.A.R.Y.L.

A young boy is trapped in a high-speed chase with an older man pursued by unknown forces. The man orders him to exit, and the car plummets off a cliff. The boy survives but is left with amnesia about who he is or why he was in the woods.

The boy wanders through the forest until he is found by Mr. and Mrs. Bergen. They bring him to Barkenton, South Carolina, where an orphanage takes him in. He still has no memory of his real identity, only the name Daryl.

Daryl is placed with Joyce and Andy Richardson and begins its new life with a foster family. His memory remains elusive, leaving him to piece together who he is while settling into their home. They try to treat him as their son despite the gaps in his past.

Daryl's social skills are limited by his isolated upbringing, but he befriends Turtle Fox, a sarcastic neighbor. The two form a wary but genuine bond as Daryl shares his hope that his real parents will find him. Turtle becomes a mentor and ally in his strange new world.

While watching Turtle play Pole Position, Daryl effortlessly outperforms him, revealing superhuman reflexes. He also displays rapid learning and problem-solving abilities that confound onlookers. These bursts of skill hint at his extraordinary origins.

Daryl excels in class and even corrects another student's work before being asked to swap papers. A stern teacher is astonished by how quickly he learns, recognizing talents beyond ordinary students. Yet his past remains a mystery to those around him.

Joyce grows disheartened as Daryl's perfection persists—he irons his clothes and makes his bed without needing anything from her. She wonders if he can truly connect or feel human emotion. The tension in the home grows as Daryl's differences become more apparent.

Andy uses baseball to teach Daryl social skills, and Daryl excels, hitting multiple home runs and impressing everyone. The community admires his talent, while Joyce remains emotionally distant. The game becomes a proxy for their evolving family dynamics.

Turtle advises Daryl to let Joyce assist him, and Daryl reluctantly agrees. He deliberately mishandles part of a game to invite Joyce to comfort him, testing their bond. Turtle quips that the move was extreme, but it achieves the intended closeness.

Daryl gradually grows closer to his foster family and Turtle, loosening his reserve and showing more emotion. The connections deepen as he begins to feel genuine care and belonging. The Richardson home feels more like a family than ever before.

Daryl demonstrates his advanced capabilities by helping Andy fix an ATM issue and manipulating it to deposit over a million dollars into his foster father's account. The astonishing display raises questions about where his abilities come from. This act foreshadows the deeper, systemic strength behind his intelligence.

During another baseball game, government scientists Dr. Stewart and Dr. Lamb locate Daryl and reveal themselves as his supposed real parents. They are surprised by the Richardson family's affection for Daryl and note his nervousness about meeting them.

Dr. Stewart and Dr. Lamb disclose that Daryl is an artificial intelligence experiment created by TASCOM, funded by the military. They explain that his emotional capacity marks the project as a failure, and plans to terminate him are discussed. The memory and purpose of Daryl's creation come into clearer focus.

Dr. Stewart, aided by Dr. Lamb, helps Daryl escape TASCOM as the project is deemed a failure. He undergoes debriefing that questions his earlier actions, and his memories of life with the Richardson family are acknowledged and restored. The line between human and machine begins to blur as he confronts his past.

In a last-ditch escape, Daryl steals a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and heads toward Blue Lake to rendezvous with Turtle and his sister. The air-escape ends with a dramatic crash into the lake; he is presumed dead, but Dr. Lamb reactivates his electronic brain. Recovered and revived, Daryl returns to his foster family, and happiness returns to those who believed in him.