The Sender

A disheveled man wakes to passing traffic on the side of the road, confused and disoriented by memory loss. He is unable to recall his name or personal details and is rushed to a nearby mental hospital for evaluation. The onset of amnesia marks the start of a troubling, identity-evading saga.

He walks to a lake and tries to drown himself by filling his clothing with rocks and entering the water. He is pulled from the water and taken to the hospital for treatment. This desperate act shows the depth of his confusion and fear.

Without identification, he is designated John Doe 83 and placed under the care of Dr. Gail Farmer. He suffers retrograde amnesia, unable to remember his name or personal life, only knowing that he lives somewhere nearby and has no father to speak of. The labeling as John Doe 83 foreshadows the mystery surrounding his identity.

John begins to display odd behavior, and a fellow patient nicknamed The Messiah develops a delusion that he intends to behead John. The rivalry and threat heighten tension within the patient ward and draw Gail's attention.

Late at night, Gail hears a window break and sees John enter her house and steal a necklace. When she calls the police, there is no evidence of a break-in and colleagues at the hospital insist John is sleeping. The incident deepens Gail's suspicion that John possesses dangerous, intangible abilities.

Gail becomes haunted by visions of Jerolyn, a middle-aged woman who claims to be John's mother. Jerolyn urges Gail to release John for everyone's well-being but disappears before she can be questioned. The visions push Gail to consider subconscious trauma as a source of John’s experiences.

Gail theorizes that John can project dreams into others, sparking sensory experiences, while Denman dismisses it as a maternal bond developing with a young patient. This disagreement shapes their approach to treatment and creates professional tension.

John attempts suicide again and is taken in for electroshock therapy against Gail’s wishes. The procedure is meant to calm or control him, but it fuels Gail’s belief in the telepathy hypothesis.

As the current activates, John unconsciously unleashes violent, destructive hallucinations toward everyone in the hospital. Gail rushes in to remove the electrodes, and Denman begins intensive study of John’s alleged powers.

John begins to send visions while conscious, suggesting memories of a recent past are being pressed into others’ minds. Gail interprets the visions as repressed memories and continues to pursue the telepathy theory.

The Sheriff arrives to tell Denman and Gail that John’s house and mother have been found, and that she has been dead of carbon monoxide poisoning for five days. This revelation implies John killed his mother and alters the course of treatment.

John is prepared for an intracranial operation to identify and neutralize the receptors causing his powers. Denman and Gail brace for the risky procedure as they seek a cure.

During the operation, surgeons drill into John’s skull and he lashes out, triggering a room-wide explosion and fire. In the chaos, he steals Gail’s car keys and escapes, guided by a vision of his mother.

The chase leads to John’s house where he turns on the gas stove to kill cockroaches; Gail bursts in and drags him away as Jerolyn’s projection haunts them. The gas ignites and destroys the house.

Some time later, John regains his memory and recounts that his mother tried to kill him; his mind created a projection of her to push him toward self-destruction. He appears seemingly cured as he leaves the hospital, yet sits in the truck with his mother beside him, signaling an ongoing vulnerability and possible relapse.