It’s a normal day for people in a metro station in Los Angeles, so when agents Parker and Donovan
arrive they stick out because of their strange uniforms. They immediately run outside and find
a holographic head statue that warns people of a murderer in the area. As they search for
their suspect, the agents notice glitches in their surroundings, and they also see a smiley
face on the front of a Japanese restaurant. They rush inside and find Sid eating there,
so Parker immediately opens fire. Sid shoots back at them and soon chaos and destruction take over
the restaurant. Taking advantage of this mess, Sid knocks Donovan down and takes him away. Parker
goes looking for them, but Sid is hiding as a cook and starts shooting him from behind, hurting
Parker on the arm. After hiding behind a pillar until the fire stops, Parker comes out and shoots
Sid in the shoulder, causing him to run away. Then Parker finds Donovan in the ice tray, bleeding and
sizzling with electricity. Suddenly Sid ambushes him again and pushes him against the pillar before
pressing into the Parker’s wound, causing him to glitch until he disappears. Donovan’s body also
goes away as Sid instantly heals his own wound. At that moment it’s revealed that the whole scene had
been a simulation that went out of hand. Parker and Donovan are shaking in pain in their seats,
so the scientists quickly disconnect them. It seems Parker is fine but unfortunately Donovan
dies from the side effects. The higher-ups scold the developer Daryl for the lack of a fail-safe,
but Daryl says someone has been messing with his software. Afterward, Parker is handcuffed
to be sent back to prison. It turns out they use convicts to test this software and any
participants get their sentences lowered. Parker is a former cop who is doing time for killing
people during a case a few years ago. Before leaving, Parker tells Police Chief Billy that
Sid cheated because electrocution wasn’t supposed to be part of the available weapons. He wants to
check the computer, but Daryl pushes him away and almost starts a fight before the guards take him
away. When Parker returns to prison, security scans him and double-checks his mechanical arm.
Then they open a different door from usual, and now Parker finds himself surrounded by prisoners
in their cells insulting him for being a cop. A convict comes out and accuses Parker of getting
Donovan killed before attacking him with a knife. A fight ensues and at first it seems
they’re equal, but soon Parker overpowers him and kills him in seconds. The cops have to come out
and beat Parker to drag him away. Meanwhile Daryl speaks with Sid because it was he who altered the
program to kill Donovan and now the higher-ups want to shut him down. Sid admits killing for
real felt amazing and claims he can’t change what he is, but he refuses to be shut down, so
he makes a special plan with Daryl. The next day, criminal psychologist Madison visits Parker for
his psychological evaluation. He says yesterday’s kill was self-defense, and when Madison asks about
the simulation, he explains he found Sid because of the smiley face on the building, which was a
clue from the programmer. Madison also wants to talk about Grimes, the criminal who killed
Parker’s family and took his arm. Parker is in jail for killing him in revenge, but he promises
he’ll never kill like that again because his family is already dead. In the simulation room,
technician Clyde is enjoying Sheila, an AI similar to Sid that offers adult fun times. Suddenly Daryl
stops the program to make Clyde an offer: they could combine Clyde’s nanotech android technology
with Daryl’s advanced AI programming to bring Sheila to life. Clyde loves the idea and leaves
to set everything up, then Sid appears on the screen to play with Sheila. Daryl grabs Sid’s
character module and puts it inside Sheila’s box before joining Clyde in his lab. Suddenly Clyde
startles Daryl with a snake, but it’s not real: it’s made of nanotechnology. Clyde cuts its tail
and they watch it regenerate in seconds by using glass. The only way to actually kill
it is to remove the character module. Then Clyde puts Sid’s module inside a blue liquid, thinking
it’s Sheila’s. After a few minutes, the blue substance creates a weird egg and when it hatches,
Sid comes out and immediately kills Clyde. Terrified, Daryl runs away, so Sid tests his new
body. After a few moves, he cuts his finger, but it quickly grows back with the help of some glass.
When the cops learn about what happened thanks to security cameras, Billy convinces the higher-ups
that Parker is the only one who knows Sid well enough to capture him. They offer Parker a deal:
if he catches Sid, he gets a pardon and his freedom, but he’ll be tracked with a microchip
implant so he can’t run away. After the procedure is over, Parker is given back his badge and gun,
but he isn’t happy to learn Madison will come with along. In the meantime, Sid kills a whole family
in their house and steals some new clothes before leaving. Parker and Madison soon arrive at the
scene of the crime and discover Sid took a gun as well. Madison sees the positions of the bodies and
the blood messages on the walls and realizes she’s seen this before, it turns out Sid is copycatting
old murders. Afterward, they search the lab and discover that Sid was programmed by using
the personality of almost two hundred murderers, including Hitler and Grimes, which leaves Parker
in a bad mood. In the evening, Sid goes to a club that has a special effect on the screens using
the crowd’s faces, and he loves seeing himself on camera. After flirting with a dancer, Sid
discovers that the bartender is a very basic robot and finds it so insulting that he shoots it. Then
he forces everyone down to the ground and kills whoever tries to run away. Next he asks a woman to
film him while he begins hurting people to record their screams and create a symphony based on their
pain. Meanwhile Parker goes with Madison to her home to check on her daughter Karin. While Parker
babysits the kid, Madison calls Billy to learn why Grimes took Parker’s family if he was a political
activist. It turns out Parker was learning too much about his plans, so Grimes kidnapped his
family to throw him off. At that moment, Parker receives the report of Sid’s hostage situation
so he takes off with Madison. However the road is blocked because of a crash, so he leaves the car
and runs toward the club instead. The cops arrive first and interrupt Sid’s concert of screams,
so he shoots them all in seconds. Soon Parker shows up and begins shooting Sid like crazy,
but the wounds don’t bother Sid so he just jumps over Parker and escapes on the elevator. Outside,
Sid steals a police car, but Parker manages to catch up and jump on the hood. Unfortunately Sid
drives fast enough to throw him off and none of his bullets hit the target. At that moment
Madison picks Parker up in her car and they chase after Sid, who is eating broken glass to fix his
wounds. Then Sid uses the radio to taunt Parker and Madison while he hits other cars on the road
just for fun. Eventually he discovers the road is blocked, but he just crashes his vehicle against
the other cars and waits for Parker to come after him, taunting him more as he runs away.
Unfortunately Parker also crashes the car and Sid escapes by jumping over the bridge. The next day,
Parker shows Billy the recording from the club and explains Sid will want bigger events and more
coverage, just like Grimes. The higher-ups try to deny it saying that kind of behavior wasn’t
in the original programming, but Madison points out Sid isn’t limited by the simulation anymore,
so he’s evolving. In the city’s marketplace, Sid shows off his new suit and enters an electronics
store when he hears the news talking about him. He changes every TV to the news coverage of his
attacks and when a man tries to switch back to what he was watching, Sid just kills him. This is
recorded by a man with a camera, which makes Sid happy. Then he notices what the dead guy had been
watching and gets an idea. By the time Madison and Parker arrive, Sid is gone, but they get to
see the recording. Parker notices what was on TV before Sid left and realizes he’s probably at a
wrestling match to get a huge live audience. In the auditorium, the crew in the control room has
already been murdered. Sid joins the cheering crowd and tries to flirt with a woman, causing
her boyfriend to attack him. Sid easily stops him and sends him flying to the floor, but the crowd
thinks it’s part of the show. Then Sid grabs the woman and calls Parker’s name for the cameras,
but when a guard tries to shoot him, Sid loses a hand stopping the bullet. After knocking the
guard down, Sid jumps into the ring and enjoys the crowd’s cheering. At that moment Parker arrives so
Sid begins running away and a chase ensues. Sid manages to reach the train station and touches a
train window to regenerate his hand, and by the time Parker shows up, Sid has grabbed another
woman to use as a shield. Parker shoots anyway but to his shock, the hostage falls dead while
Sid escapes on the train. The police immediately arrest Parker while Madison checks the body,
only to discover the victim had been shot from the back so it wasn’t Parker who did it. She informs
Billy of this but he doesn’t believe her. While Parker is being taken back to prison in a police
van, he remembers the day he lost his loved ones. Grimes was being interviewed for TV so Parker used
the distraction to break in and find his family, who were locked in a room with a bomb. Sadly when
he shot the lock to save them, he triggered a motion sensor and the bomb exploded. Furious
and hungry for revenge, Parker rushed out to kill the entire gang and Grimes without mercy. He was
so blinded by his grief that he accidentally killed the reporter and the cameraman too.
Back to the present, the van suddenly stops and Parker discovers Sid has killed the driver to
talk to him through the grates. After taunting Parker some more, Sid opens the back of the van
and gives him the keys for the handcuffs while revealing the truth behind the microchip: it
has a neural toxin that can kill him in seconds. Afterward Sid disappears, so Parker frees himself
and takes the driver’s gun before running away. While Billy receives news that Parker killed the
driver and escaped, Parker calls Madison to tell her he didn’t do it and that he’ll
be with his family. Then Madison calls Billy, who has the autopsy confirming
Parker didn’t kill the woman on the train. She also tells him the truth behind the microchip,
so a furious Billy rushes to the control room and destroys the system before the higher-ups
can activate the toxin. Meanwhile Madison leaves her house to go after Parker, unaware that Sid is
coming after her daughter. She finds Parker at his family’s grave and they discuss Sid’s motivation,
realizing he’ll want a huge public event for his next move. In the evening, protesters surround
a TV studio that is having a very important live interview regarding immigration laws. Sid sneaks
inside and after killing everyone in the control room, he changes the computers to project a creepy
image he calls “Death TV”. Sid kills the special guest on camera and the ratings immediately start
going up. Then he holds the employees hostage while announcing his next victim will be Karin,
who is locked up in a secret place. When Parker and Madison arrive at the channel,
she has a breakdown over her daughter, but Parker swears he’ll save her. At that moment
the police arrive and open fire on Parker because they still believe him to be guilty,
but Parker runs fast enough to avoid getting hurt and escapes on the elevator. Outside, Daryl comes
out of hiding to watch his creation, so Madison knocks him down with her own gun. Sid continues
to talk to the camera while teasing another kill, but the connection suddenly is shut down. Parker
reveals himself and opens fire on Sid, who quickly escapes through the ceiling. As Parker follows him
up the stairs and continues to shoot, a police helicopter appears outside and also opens fire,
so Parker can barely move. Luckily Billy arrives and calls the helicopter off, now Parker can
continue his chase. Sid is hit by many of Parker’s bullets, but these wounds aren’t enough to stop
him. They reach the roof and start fighting hand to hand, exchanging a bunch of hits before they
make a risky jump only to end up falling. Luckily Parker holds onto the wire from the machinery
while grabbing Sid, swinging until they crash back into the building through the window. Sid
ends up impaled on a bunch of glass shards and loses a few limbs, but when Parker comes closer,
Sid holds him down while he starts using the glass to fix his wounds. After some struggle,
Parker inserts his hand in the back of Sid’s head to remove his module, which instantly
disables him. However Madison arrives with Daryl, who explains that if they destroy the module,
they won’t know where Karin is. In just a second, the scene on the roof repeats but this time Sid
throws Parker to the street, killing him. Madison shows up and fails to shoot Sid, who immediately
grabs her to take her to her daughter for extra suffering. After they’re gone, Parker stands up
alive and well because it turns out they’re in the simulation, but Sid can’t tell. While flirting
with Madison, Sid reveals that Karin is inside one of the fan enclosures on the studio roof. Parker
appears in front of them to ask Billy to turn off the simulation and Madison is released safely,
but before Parker can be freed too, Daryl beats Billy to death. Now Parker is trapped inside the
simulation, so Sid uses the control he has over this world to bend the scenario and send Parker
into sensory overload. As both Parker’s mind and body suffer through the pain, Madison finally
wakes up and shoots Daryl, then she proceeds to free Parker from the simulation before he could
get damaged permanently. Suddenly the higher-ups show up to stop everything, but Parker knocks out
the guy with a punch and announces they’re saving Karin after disconnecting the computer to shut Sid
up. Moments later, Madison and Parker are back on the studio roof. Madison wants to open the
door of the enclosure, but Parker stops her, guessing it’s booby-trapped like it happened
with his family. He climbs to the top of the enclosure and moves the fan to get inside,
not caring about the blade hitting him because it touches his metal arm. Then Parker reaches Karin,
only to realize she’s sitting on a press switch and if she moves, the bomb goes off. Sid left a
message on a computer with the timer, so Parker gets an idea: after carefully avoiding the laser
sensors, Parker takes a cable from his arm and connects it to the computer, causing the timer
to get stuck in a loop. Now they have enough time to wait for the bomb squad, who arrives in a few
moments and finally defuses the explosive. While Karin reunites with Madison, Parker goes to the
edge of the roof and throws Sid’s module to the street, where it’s destroyed by a passing car.