Despite being under heavy sedation, a young woman tries to make her way out of the Arboria Institute, a secluded, quasifuturistic commune.
Spanning over two decades of research and innovation from the 1960s to the early-1980s, the Arboria Institute--a secluded New Age commune and a state-of-the-art research facility--and the pill-popping psychiatrist, Dr Barry Nyle, are particularly interested in their newest specimen: the female patient, Elena. To begin to understand her mind-boggling telekinetic and telepathic abilities, the demented doctor keeps Elena heavily sedated and in a constant catatonic state; however, her capabilities are unfathomable. What are Dr Nyle's deeper intentions? In the end, could the institute's utopian doctrine be flawed after all?—Nick Riganas
In the 1960s, Mercurio Arboria founded the Arboria Institute, a research facility dedicated to reconciling science and spirituality, allowing humans to move into a New Age of "Serenity Through Technology" and perpetual happiness.
In 1983, Dr. Barry Nyle, Arboria's protégé, runs the Institute. His main subject is Elena. Held within the institute's lower levels, Elena communicates through telepathy and demonstrates psychic abilities, which Nyle suppresses with a glowing prismatic device.
During the day, Nyle subjects Elena to "therapy" sessions, during which Elena begs to see her father, but Nyle repeatedly rejects her. At night, while Elena uses her psychic abilities to surreptitiously watch television shows through a video monitor on the wall of her cell, Nyle returns home to his wife Rosemary, who seems permanently in a marijuana-induced stupor. Nyle himself takes significant quantities of prescription medications.
Attempting to elicit an emotional response from Elena, Nyle speaks about her dead mother. Following his hints, Elena finds her mother's photo under her bed.[7] That evening, nurse Margo discovers Elena's case notes, containing strange symbols and images that indicate Nyle's violent sexual obsession with her. She puts the notes back, but the ash from her cigarette tips Nyle of her discovery.
Nyle stages a confrontation between Margo and Elena, then deactivates the prism. Elena telekinetically kills Margo by causing her brain to burst through her eyes, thrilling Nyle. He briefly allows Elena to leave her cell before reactivating the prism, incapacitating her. He summons a "Sentionaut", encased in a red environment suit. The Sentionaut injects a tracking device into Elena's neck, returns her to the cell, and removes Margo's corpse.
Nyle visits Arboria, who displays signs of senility and drug addiction. He murders Arboria, which Elena experiences via telepathic link. A flashback to 1963 reveals that Elena's mother Anna was Arboria's wife and colleague. Arboria submitted a young Nyle to a procedure meant to help him transcend. After being submerged in a vat of black liquid and experiencing otherworldly, hellish visions, Nyle emerged insane and killed Anna. Unperturbed, Arboria submits the infant Elena, his daughter, to the same procedure. Nyle returns home and removes his disguises, revealing a bald head and black irises. Declaring to Rosemary he is an evolved being from "Beyond the Black Rainbow," Nyle pushes his thumbs into her eye sockets, killing her.
Meanwhile, Elena escapes her cell. Evading the prism's detection, Sentionauts, and unknown threats, Elena finds the way out and sees the night sky for the first time in her life. Nyle, wielding a ceremonial dagger he calls "The Devil's Tear-Drop," arrives at the institute to find Elena gone. While pursuing her through the wooded areas surrounding the institute, he kills a pair of "heshers."
Nyle eventually confronts Elena in a clearing and repeatedly implores her to come to him. Elena uses her psychic abilities to trap Nyle's feet, causing him to fall, hit his head against a rock, and die instantly. Elena finds herself on a suburban street, guided by the light generated by a television set.
A post-credits scene reveals a Sentionaut action figure, ostensibly in a child's bedroom.
