Summaries

Synopsis

"Beyond" begins in an inner city urban district in Tokyo, Japan on a midsummer day. It begins with a quick montage of programmers on their computers, making calls, people during their commute and going about their daily lives in the modern day.

At an empty traffic stop, the light goes from red to green as a melody plays the folk song "Toryanse" and the only thing that crosses is a cat with a bell attached to her collar.

The scene shifts to a vibrant teenage girl with a star tattoo on her left cheek, Yoko (Hedy Burress), who, whilst on the phone, is preparing a meal for her cat Yuki (the same one that's out roaming the streets). Clad in her small clothes, Yoko relaxes in the full privacy of her bedroom as she continues her phone call. Yoko then calls out to Yuki twice while on the phone with her friend, but it's in vain. She begins to worry as Yuki never once misses a meal. After hearing a bell ring outside, Yoko quickly hangs up her call and dashes to the balcony sliding door and calls out to Yuki. This alone makes Yoko leave her apartment and go looking for her Yuki.

While asking around the neighborhood, she meets a small gang of younger kids. After showing the boys a clue in the form of a bell identical to what Yuki has on her collar, one of them named Manabu (Pamela Adlon) tells her Yuki is over at the "haunted house", the ruins of an off-limits compound in the center of town. Manabu then spots an unusual rainbow coming from above the property roof. Frustrated as to why Yuki (despite being an indoor cat) would venture off to the unknown, Yoko ultimately decides to check the place out and the boys invite her to come and see it.

Around that time, the movement of the kids entering the house draws the attention of a massive truck that's en-route to their location.

Arriving at the house perimeter, Yoko starts to look in the bushes for Yuki but ends up losing sight of the boys, leaving her on her own. The neighborhood kids have learned to exploit anomalies in the haunted house (which are glitches in the Matrix) for their own enjoyment through several areas which seem to defy real world physics such as: a soda can Yoko first discovers floating inches above the floor, glass bottles reassembling moments after being shattered by the gang of boys, then Yoko finds rain falling from a sunny skyline and broken light bulbs flickering briefly (during which they seem perfectly intact). After running through the house ruins, Yoko keeps venturing further into a darkened hallway until a sudden powerful gust of wind and wads of old newspapers knock the girl off her feet followed by the sound of distorting static.

Disturbed by what's happening around her, Yoko gets back up. Suddenly, a familiar bell is heard and Yoko immediately finds Yuki scurrying across a blacktop courtyard. Relieved to finally found her missing cat, Yoko embraces Yuki tightly, only to be momentarily spooked by the sound of a loud growling.

Elsewhere, the red truck is on it's way to the haunted house.

Back at the courtyard, Yoko relaxes on the pavement when she sees Yuki playing with another glitch: shadows that don't align with their physical origins. Behind her, Yoko meets a little girl named Misha (Tara Strong) who's aware of the occurrences surrounding the haunted house yet she completely unfazed.This means that she and the neighborhood boys have been using the haunted house as their playground for some time now.Yoko thanks Misha for looking after Yuki just as the pair are alerted by the sound of Manabu and his gang's shenanigans inside.

In a clearing, Manabu and several other kids have made a game out of the zero gravity effects of the house by throwing themselves off a high altitude platform, only to stop and hover mid-air before they could hit the pavement. One body gets a nosebleed in performing this stunt. Curious, Yoko enters the clearing followed by Misha and Yuki. The girl with the star tattoo wanders about until she sees a dove's feather rapidly whirring in front of her. Clutching the feather, she balances it on her fingertip. With a strong blow from her lips, Yoko suddenly loses her balance and starts to fall to her side. In Bullet-Time, Yoko sees the dive fly in slow motion before her face as her expression goes from shock to joy. During this phenomenon, a bright light shines down from the roof of the clearing, much to the kids surprise as this never happened before (and imply that Yoko may be a special "One"). In a state of euphoria, Yoko safely floats onto the ground and pleasurably hugs herself as the kids huddle around her. Knocking on the ground as if it was a door, Yoko asks, "Anyone home?"

A swarm of birds take flight from the rafters of the haunted house which is seen by a group of civilians from a few blocks away. This also has the attention of the strange red truck that's closing in.

Back in the haunted house, Yoko is seen doing a head-over-heels somersault in the clearing's zero gravity field before landing on Manabu's hand. He comments that Yoko is light as a feather while she feels exhilarated. As she lands back down, Yoko joins the kids as they continue playing around in the anti-gravity area for the duration of the afternoon.While everyone is having their fun, Yuki sniffs around in a bush and a rat jumps out.

Outside, a gathering of people have been drawn to the kid's noise-making. Soon enough, a bicycle mounted police officer arrived to disperse the crowd.

Inside, Yoko and the kids have their fun ruined as a swarm of rats invade their clearing. In the frenzy and confusion, Yuki runs off into the house interior, prompting Yoko to give chase once more. Outside, the rats cause the civilians to flee the scene just as the red truck arrives - crashing it's way through the house entrance and nearly injuring Manabu. A team of what appears to be Exterminators in Orange hazmat suits emerge from the truck and proceed to storm the place.

Meanwhile, Yoko is frantically looking for Yuki again as she runs up a flight of stairs. Hearing her cat's bell ring again, Yoko comes back down to quickly find Yuki from across a dark hallway and scratching a door. Kneeling down to scoop her cat into her arms, Yoko suddenly hears a voice coming from the other side of the door. Opening the door, Yoko finds one last anomaly the house generates: on the other side is an endless black void leading to nowhere and the voice echoing inside is Yoko's from the phone call she had earlier that day.

Just then, a searchlight shines on Yoko.Caught by the encroaching team of Exterminators, Yoko can only clutch her hissing cat tight to her chest with a look of terror as the strange men approach and detain her.

Out on the streets, a helicopter flies over head as the Exterminators guide the civilians away for their own safety as the haunted house is being prepped for cleansing. On the house grounds, the men round up the children in the vicinity. The Agent in charge (Matt McKenzie) asks one of his men who's captured a frightened Manabu if he's detained all the kids as just as Yoko the last one out. The Agent then orders his men to have Yoko examined before releasing her at which point, she snaps and breaks free from her captor.In a frenzy, Yoko screams at the Exterminators that there's no bugs or hazards in the haunted house but a place where the neighborhood kids can have fun. Yoko keeps protesting as the men hold her back until they forcibly restrain her by the hair. Ultimately, her pleas are in vain as the Agent orders the Exterminators to "seal the area off".The Exterminators proceed to fumigate the haunted house.

Some time later, the once wondrous haunted house has been converted into a parking lot under construction. Yoko shows up (with Yuki safe at home this time) at the lot's perimeter fence. Just then, a few of the neighborhood kids from the day before attempt to summon the abnormalities by smashing bottles, but to no avail. Disappointed, the kids leave to find something else to do.