Jack Deth is a retired police trooper from the 23rd century who is called back into service to hunt Martin Whistler, a criminal mastermind who wields psychic powers to turn ordinary people into mindless Trancers and carry out his orders. Deth can identify a trance-induced individual by scanning them with a special bracelet, a device that reveals the hidden danger behind seemingly normal faces. In this future-forward chase, the Trancers initially appear as ordinary humans, but once Whistler activates them, they transform into savage killers with twisted features, driven by a single purpose: to obey Whistler’s commands and erase any obstacle to his dominion.
Whistler escapes by using a drug-induced time-traveling technique that lets his consciousness slip along the threads of time. His presence travels down his ancestral bloodline, landing in 1985, where he possesses the body of a Los Angeles police detective named Weisling. Once Deth uncovers this dangerous shift, he destroys Whistler’s vessel, effectively trapping the villain in the past with no immediate way back to the future. This act sets off a relentless pursuit through time, a pursuit that forces Deth to inhabit one of his own ancestors’ bodies—Phil Dethton, a journalist—so he can continue the hunt from within the past.
With the help of Phil’s date from the night before—a punk rock girl named Lena—Deth presses on as Whistler begins to trance more victims and extend his reach. Whistler’s ultimate scheme targets the future governing council of Angel City, a metropolis that will one day be known as Los Angeles, by systematically murdering their ancestors to sever the council’s lineage. Deth arrives too late to avert most of the killings, but he manages to shield Hap Ashby, a washed-up former pro baseball player who happens to be the ancestor of the council’s last surviving member, Chairman Ashe. This fragile protection becomes crucial as the timeline teeters on collapse under Whistler’s deadly plan.
To aid in the mission, Deth is outfitted with cutting-edge equipment delivered to the past: a sidearm containing two hidden vials of time drugs that can ferry him and Whistler back to the future, and a “long-second” wristwatch that can slow time, stretching one second into ten. The watch proves powerful, and a second, newer model is obtained later, extending Deth’s tactical edge as the chase unfolds. The climactic confrontation tests not only Deth’s physical skill but his resolve to preserve a future that remains uncoupled from Whistler’s murderous timeline.
In the final, heart-wrenching choice, a broken vial in Deth’s gun leaves him with a moral dilemma: kill Weisling, who remains possessed by Whistler, or sacrifice the chance to send Whistler back by using the remaining vial and risk stranding himself in the present. Deth makes the hard call and injects Weisling, freeing the detective from Whistler’s control but sealing Whistler’s fate to an eternity without a body to return to. With the immediate threat quelled, Deth resolves to stay with Lena in 1985, choosing a chance at normal life over a doomed return. Yet the story closes with a tantalizing echo of the future: McNulty, his boss from the future, watches from the shadows, having traveled down his own ancestral line and ending up in the body of a young girl. The film leaves a lingering sense of time’s fragility, the cost of heroism, and the way one man’s fight can ripple across generations.
