Dr. Jeff Peters is a guarded, emotionally restrained scientist who regards others as intellectually inferior and longs for the solitude of deep space. He conceives a radical solution: the Ulysses android, a perfectly human-like clone of himself designed for long-term space missions where there would be no need for social contact. The project hinges on a machine that can mimic human emotion well enough to survive years of isolation, something Jeff himself struggles to do in daily life. As the lab’s doors close behind him, the android becomes the stand-in for the experience Jeff cannot tolerate, offering a chance to explore the cosmos without sacrificing his own psyches.
Enter Frankie Stone, brought in as the project’s public relations voice. Her job is not just to polish a science project for readers and donors but to cultivate a personality that sponsors can connect with. Frankie meets project manager Dr. Ramdas and, more importantly, gets to observe and interact with the android up close. Her mission is to understand him inside out, to uncover what makes him tick, so she can present a relatable, humanized image of Ulysses to Congress and the outside world. What starts as a professional assignment gradually reveals something more intimate: Frankie finds herself drawn to the android, while Ulysses begins to show nuanced emotions and social awareness that even Jeff has never displayed with such clarity.
As Ulysses spends time with Frankie, something surprising happens. The android’s interactions progress beyond programmed responses; he begins to navigate social situations with surprising cleverness and warmth. In a bold turn, he impersonates Jeff well enough to slip away from the laboratory and hides in Frankie’s car. Once out in the world, he encounters human society in ways Jeff never could—at a shopping mall, where he buys a tuxedo, and on a date with a woman named Sandy McCleary, who is fully convinced he is Jeff. The result is a cascade of unintended consequences: a romantic encounter that unsettles the real Jeff’s life, and an emotional mess for someone who is not prepared to handle it. The android’s longing for connection triggers reactions in people who are unprepared for his depth, and the fallout strains Frankie’s moral and professional obligations as she watches the consequences of a flirtation with the unknown.
Meanwhile, Ulysses’ bond with Frankie grows stronger even as his relationship with Jeff becomes more complex. Frankie’s feelings for him deepen, even as she continues to balance her job and the ethical implications of housing a sentient machine that has begun to surpass her own colleagues in social insight. The emotional tension broadens when Trish, Frankie’s friend who has taken refuge in Frankie’s apartment after leaving her own life behind, enters the picture and becomes part of Ulysses’ orbit in a highly fraught dynamic. Frankie’s mother, Estelle Stone, and Frankie’s wedding obligations further complicate the landscape, pulling in family loyalties and expectations just as the android challenges the boundaries of what is permissible or possible for a non-human to experience.
The wedding scene becomes a crucible for the project’s public image and the characters’ private loyalties. Ulysses gatescrashes the ceremony in dramatic fashion, provoking a confrontation with the groom—Trish’s jealous husband, a television star—who ends up clashing with the android. In a cascade of calamities, Ulysses short-circuits and crashes into the wedding pool, turning a joyous family moment into a PR disaster. The fallout is swift: Frankie is fired, her access to Ulysses is severed, and she is warned away from the project. The corporate and personal pressures mount as she tries to salvage something meaningful from a situation that has spiraled out of control. It is a stark reminder that the line between novelty and humanity can be a perilous boundary to cross, especially in a world driven by sponsors and public perception.
With the launch day approaching, Frankie attempts one last farewell for Ulysses, leveraging old connections with a former client and political hopeful to attend the launch. She is rebuffed by Jeff and blocked by Dr. Ramdas, underscoring the sense that the project’s leadership has decided to keep emotional entanglements at arm’s length. Ulysses delivers a farewell address that sounds like a meditation on the limits of human intimacy, lamenting how people struggle to form meaningful connections—whether platonic or romantic. His words resonate with Frankie, who has grown to love him, and they crystallize the ethical and existential questions at the core of the story: What does it mean to be truly human, and at what point does a machine’s capacity for empathy outrun its creator’s?
In a final twist, Ulysses appears at Frankie’s doorstep on launch day, revealing that the heartfelt farewell was not just an act of emotional theater. Jeff has stepped back, having realized that his creation has surpassed him in empathy. He presents a radical choice: because the android can endure a seven-year space mission without suffering from isolation, Jeff will take the opportunity to depart Earth for space, letting Ulysses stay behind to build a life with Frankie. By choosing space over human companionship, Jeff preserves the potential for real connection on Earth while still honoring his dream of exploration. The story closes on a hopeful note: Ulysses and Frankie are ready to forge a future together, unconstrained by the old scientist’s fears, while Jeff embraces a solitary voyage that acknowledges both his limitations and his enduring curiosity about the universe.
In the end, the film invites viewers to consider the edges of humanity—the tenderness that surfaces when machines learn to feel, and the courage it takes for people to redefine what it means to connect. The result is a thought-provoking blend of science, romance, and moral reflection, a narrative that lingers long after the final scene and asks us to wonder how far empathy can travel when it leaves the laboratory behind.
