Carl Lehman, David McIlwraith, is a scientist working on a next-generation space suit for the ARC corporation in a high-tech secret lab run by the sinister Alex Whyte. One of the project components is the so-called “rage program,” a piece of software designed to seize control of the user’s brain when attacked, turning the wearer into a lethal weapon against the attacker. During early trials on monkeys, Whyte pushes the rage factor beyond safe limits, and the test subject is killed when the program spirals out of control.
After Carl confronts Whyte about suspicious funding cuts, Ian Massey is dispatched to rig an explosion in Carl’s lab, making the death look like a tragic accident. ARC informs Carl’s pregnant wife Lauren Lehman, Teri Austin, and their daughter Catherine that Carl has died. In truth, Whyte has preserved Carl’s charred body in a suspension tank filled with oxygenating fluid to keep his brain functioning. Using Carl’s space suit and ARC’s cutting-edge prosthetics, they rebuild him as a cyborg and dub him “Project Frankenstein.” The rage program is installed with a remote control unit as a safeguard, though its presence hints at the danger to come.
The initial reanimation falters, so researcher Gail Vernon, Lynda Mason Green, disassembles the suit. When the remote control unit is removed, a short circuit briefly revives Carl, but Gail’s attempt to reinstall the control triggers a brutal accident: Carl shoves her away, she staggers into a control panel, and a wave of lab monkeys is released, attacking and killing her.
Carl slips away, stows aboard a garbage truck, and is dumped into an incinerator. His flight suit is burned away, revealing the cybernetic implants beneath, yet his immense strength helps him break free and head home. En route, he is pursued by street thugs into an alley, where the suit’s rage mode erupts, enabling him to overpower and kill them all. Realizing the rage program prevents close contact with others, Carl begins to communicate with his wife from outside their house using a radio and a faulty synthesizer in the living room.
When the thugs’ bodies are discovered, Whyte fears a police inquiry into Project Frankenstein and hires the elite assassin Hunter, Pam Grier, to track down Carl. The next day, Lauren visits Burt Arthus, Carl’s colleague, to discuss what happened. Burt shows security footage of the accident to convince her Carl died, while Carl’s voice returns through the synthesizer that evening; this time, Whyte’s associate Kessler is watching.
Carl learns that Massey signed his autopsy report and death certificate and sets out to confront him. At Massey’s home, secured by Hunter’s forces, Massey is distracted, snorting cocaine and arguing with his girlfriend Lisa, Caroline Arnold. Carl questions Massey, and Massey panics, shooting Carl. The blow sends Carl into another rage, and he hurls Massey out of a window. Lisa bears witness, and Hunter kills her to cover up the project.
Carl flees through the sewers as Hunter’s team closes in. Gunfire damages his life-support system, but he retaliates by ripping open a gas line and incinerating Hunter’s men and Kessler as he escapes. He uses a coded meeting with Lauren to arrange help from Burt, who, unbeknownst to Carl, has betrayed him to Whyte and helped set a trap. Carl survives a fall into quick-setting resin, breaking free again during transport.
Whyte reveals that the Frankenstein upgrades extend beyond Carl to reanimate the corpses of Gail and Kessler and even to create a weaponized Whyte in a suit. Carl’s life-support begins to fail, and Lauren persuades Burt to help by contacting him again, while Carl tries to reach Whyte. Hunter reneges and tries to force Carl into a confrontation at the ARC lab, but Carl has secretly reprogrammed himself in the computer room while surveillance was down. Hunter ultimately commits suicide when confronted with Carl’s resilience.
The final confrontation brings Carl to Whyte, who has augmented his own body and is protected by resurrected colleagues. As Whyte’s氧 supply dwindles, Lauren disables the lifelines of the other cyborgs, and Carl draws Whyte into a desperate struggle. In a last act, Lauren hands Carl an umbilical that connects to Whyte’s suit, flooding it with fluid and drowning Whyte. With his own life-support exhausted, Carl dies for real.
Years later, Lauren visits an aeronautics museum with her son Carl Jr., where they admire a display of the suits, including Carl’s original. A guide describes a fabricated story about Carl’s heroism and how the suit’s flaws were overcome in later Mars missions. Carl Jr. asks if his father was a hero; Lauren answers softly that he was.
