As the film opens, a brown bird in flight becomes swept up in a mating frenzy with a blue companion midair. After weaving through a cloud, they tumble into a nosedive and crash into a satellite dish atop a house owned by Grant Boyer. The moment he is struck by a mysterious beam of energy marks the birth of a strange, reality-bending power that surfaces after he marries Keri Boyer. From that point on, Grant’s whims—driven by daydreams, impulses, and imagination—start to tilt the world around him. The effects ripple through ordinary life, turning quiet moments into surreal distortions and making everyday objects respond to his moods.
The newfound abilities alarm his wife, and soon they retreat to her parents’ home to face the unsettling changes in private. At dinner, Keri’s mother and father become unwilling hosts to Grant’s unpredictable influence: insects swarm and torment the former, while musical instruments erupt into chaos around the latter. Even the couple’s tender moment—Grant attempting to comfort Keri—unleashes a peculiar transformation, underscoring how love itself is not immune to the odd pull of his power. The tension between desire, fear, and control threads through the meal as the couple tries to preserve a sense of normalcy.
Meanwhile, a broadcasting company, Smilecorp, pursues higher ratings with a ruthless edge. Led by the calculating Larson P. Giles, he tests the limits of media influence through his underling Col. Ferguson, who moves with military precision to corral Grant for a televised coup of control. Back at Grant’s home, the power pulses again when he encounters his neighbor Bud Sweeny mowing the lawn. Grant ends up animating a blade of grass, which turns hostile and attempts to attack Bud. The danger is averted when Grant instead morphs the mower into a friendly, lumbering caterpillar. This odd display unsettles Grant as much as it excites him, and Bud wastes no time in alerting the high-wlacked world about the marvel.
News of Grant’s abilities reaches the Jackie Jason Variety Show, and Bud calls in the tip with hopes of capturing a larger audience. In the dressing room, Grant confides in Solly Jim, a once-renowned comedian who now struggles to regain his former spark. Solly’s act falters onstage, yet a crucial truth emerges: the boil-like bump on Grant’s neck is the source of his extraordinary powers. After Grant helps Solly, the comedian offers his business card and a possible future partnership, but a stagehand covers the boil with a bandage, halting its influence. When the bandage falls away, Grant’s power erupts with explosive force, nearly destroying the studio. The broadcast’s shocking spectacle rockets Smilecorp’s ratings, drawing even more attention from Giles.
With this new public spotlight, Col. Ferguson returns with Smilecorp’s tanks to capture Grant, but the nimble, power-fueled Boyer escapes through a combination of his abilities and the loyal caterpillar. Ferguson’s pursuit intensifies the chase, while the duet’s private fears—Keri’s worry about losing Grant to his own power—grow heavier. Keri retreats to her parents’ house, while Grant seeks help from Solly, only to discover that Solly betrayed him to the authorities. However, Keri learns the truth by eavesdropping on the Colonel and manipulates the situation to reveal Grant’s location.
The plot thickens as Solly tries to claim the boil’s power for himself, culminating in a staged standoff featuring Giles’s Smilecorp mascot and the colonel. Solly’s bid to implant the boil into his own neck ends in a grotesque, fatal split that eliminates him and complicates the power dynamic. Ferguson seizes a piece of the boil’s power, but his ambitions collapse into his own demise. Giles remains determined to seize the power for himself, while Keri disguises herself as a nurse to slip away with Grant and the boil, intent on keeping them out of Smilecorp’s grasp.
The final chase culminates in a dramatic escape sequence: a car crash, a parachute improvised on the fly, and the butterfly-like caterpillar aiding their descent to safety. They tumble into a red convertible, narrowly dodging gunfire and marching through waves of Smilecorp forces. A massive tank appears, but once again the butterfly intervenes, toppling a squad as Grant and Keri flee into the night.
In the climactic confrontation, Larson and the Smilecorp pulse crash lands in Grant’s car, and the two forcefully retrieve the boil. Larson uses his power to broadcast globally, his head ballooning with the reach of his control. As the world’s screens flare with his image, Grant and Keri intervene, piercing the dwelling of danger with their renewed bond. The swelling head bursts in a spectacular act of exposure, and a stray dog crosses the ground, consuming the boil and gaining a strange power of its own—the ability to conjure massive bones from the sky for its amusement. With the threat temporarily defused, Grant and Keri return to their life as Mr. and Mrs. Boyer, reuniting in a romance that seems newly vibrant.
Yet the film ends with a lingering note: the house itself seems to levitate once more, hinting that Keri may carry some of Grant’s powers after so much time together. The couple’s love remains the anchor of their world, even as the echoes of Grant’s extraordinary abilities blur the line between fantasy and reality, suggesting a future where the ordinary could once again tilt toward the miraculous.
