The Institute for Advanced Concepts is a think tank with an unlimited budget and a knack for fabricating national hysterias. The five scientists hatch a plan to trick a man into believing he is from another world by brainwashing him, and they deploy their talking computer Doris to conduct a nationwide search that culminates in selecting a psychology professor named Simon Mendelssohn, a man who was abandoned at birth and is attempting to run a personal experiment using an isolation tank. At the institute, Simon is submerged in the isolation tank for an extended period and emerges in a weakened mental state, replaying the entire history of life on Earth from single-celled organisms to modern humans. While he is in this altered state, the scientists plant hypnotic suggestions that his mother is an alien spaceship and that he was manufactured rather than born. They broadcast Simon’s ramblings to spark a national mood swing, offering provocative ideas for reforming American culture. When they decide he has become too dangerous due to his sudden celebrity, they summon the military to kill him, but his girlfriend Lisa steps in to rescue him.
As the couple goes on the run, they encounter a commune that worships a television, which they call the “magic box,” and they discover a founder who used to work for the American Broadcasting Company and now drives a truck equipped with a high-powered TV transmitter. The military soon traces the origins of Simon’s hijacked signals, forcing the fugitives to flee once again. Lisa finally convinces Simon that he is human when she reveals she is pregnant with their child.
Dr. Becker, the institute’s head, blames the release of a gas that once lowered IQs on Simon’s actions. As the group regresses into childish behavior, Becker and the military commander devise a rocket plan meant to send Simon home to his planet, but it turns into a literal launch into space. Simon calls and surrenders, and Becker—convinced he has outsmarted him—accompanies him to the rocket. In a tense struggle, Simon overpowers Becker, straps him into the rocket seat, and escapes in a NASA uniform as Becker is launched into space.
The final scenes show Simon and Lisa settling in Canada with their child, choosing a quiet life away from constant pursuit by the American media. Yet the world keeps asking questions, including a radio broadcast that hints at Simon’s Nobel Peace Prize, attributed to his broadcasts’ odd but well-meaning reforms—such as proposals to rethink public restrooms and towel usage—leaving a sense of uneasy peace as a new era begins.
