Reeling from the death of his brother from a climbing accident, a neuroscientist creates a memory-altering spray only for it and his wife to fall into the hands of a sinister technocrat.

SYNOPSIS:

Professor TOM HAYWORTH, an avid rock climber, is finishing a lecture on cellular memory and how disease is imprinted or remembered by our cells, and how his memory gas is capable of "tricking the body into forgetting it's ill" to a rapt audience when he's approached by major donor PAT DOREMUS. While Tom has been lecturing, Doremus has been coveting this valuable research and also Tom's wife, Yolanda, with a joyride in his Rolls-Royce. Yolanda, black, voluptuous, and an LAPD cop, has become Doremus' object of desire. As the men admire the Rolls' Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament the statuette becomes Yolanda. Doremus is already determined to steal Tom's memory gas — and his wife.

We learn that MARCUS, bound and hanging from a rod in Doremus' basement, failed to steal the formula for the memory gas and meets a grizzly end at Doremus' hands.

A few days later, Tom and his younger brother Peter are climbing El Capitan in Yosemite when Peter's rope breaks sending him to his death. The local rangers are suspicious and Tom is distraught. Two months later Tom accidentally slams off the computer while testing the memory gas and discovers the catalyst to make the gas work -- an electrical field.

At the university, the next day Tom and Steven Knight, Tom's British best friend and collaborator, try to give a practical demonstration to department head Frank Johnson, who's pushing to let the Oligov Corporation in the form of Doremus, have closer access to Tom's research. As Tom tries to give Johnson a demonstration of the Mnemosyne (the Greek goddess of memory) he realizes that his computer files have been pilfered by the new search engine Mooncalf. Steven points out that they stole the old version which Tom just discovered at home the night before. Tom calls Yolanda at their house but there's no answer. Concerned, he heads home.

Tom's house is covered in fumigator tarpaulins and has been ransacked. He also finds his cat, Albert, killed Tom is attacked by Mr. Biggs, a huge African American thug. Tom manages to skewer him and fends off Singh, a huge Sikh. Tom is jumped by Kurt, a Finnish body-builder-cum-killer, and Bettina who realizes they've stolen the old formula. After Tom receives a nasty pistol-whipping, Steven crashes in to save the day.

They figure out the thugs belong to Doremus who is working for Oligov, the Eastern European LINUX powerhouse. Steven and Tom break into Oligov Corp. using one-man balloons and find the server room as Bettina and the thugs race after our heroes. Tom and Steven find the server room is set up to release the virus across the globe which will have most of the industrialized world on its knees in a week. Why release another, albeit deadly, virus? Well, with all operating systems trashed Doremus' patron, Oligov, can waltz in with a clean, virus-free universal operating system that he controls. It's freeware at first then the price goes up. Remember AOL, remember AltaVista, the biggest of the pre-Google search engines? Doremus also has personal reasons for wanting to get hold of the Mnemosyne -- he wants to use it to forget his beloved first wife -- a ringer for Yolanda. In fact, Doremus is going to erase Yolanda's memory of Tom as he recreates his old relationship with his first wife Yasmin using Yolanda as a living proxy.

Tom spots webcams tuned into Oligov's conference and anti-virus experts, all about to become chemically lobotomized. Our boys then plan to use Tom's ancient phone under an old cup of coffee, which will tip over when called on vibrate mode and spill over the servers, and sabotage Doremus' plans.

The crooks close in and our heroes grab the remaining balloon and clear the fence. Bettina makes off in a helicopter after Tom's car. Tom surrenders but hides a can of the memory gas after Kim and Steven take off. Biggs tosses him into the chopper which departs for Doremus' forest aerie.

Meanwhile, in Doremus' hunting lodge, Yolanda is trussed up to look like the Spirit of Ecstasy, and Doremus has created a gold statuette of Yolanda, in a clumsy attempt to seduce her. Doremus is interrupted by a call from Oligov and a kidney stone attack puts paid to any more amorous intentions.

As the helicopter flies too close to the giant Douglas firs a fight ensues and Biggs punches Tom out of the helicopter. Tom descends through the thick foliage grabbing branches in a desperate attempt to break his descent. Finally, he crashes into a bee hive, which breaks his fall. Tom finds the lodge and manages to fend off Singh and more bad guys but Yolanda is whisked off to the conference center as a hostage. Tom tears off after Yolanda but the guards rebuff him. He then calls the local police from an ancient 911-only payphone. The sheriff turns out to be Peyton, the same sheriff from the climbing investigation, who throws Tom in the back of the car in cuffs.

Tom escapes from Peyton and leaps onto a passing log truck and gets into an epic battle with the Lumberjack using ice axes on a terrifying log ride as they slide toward the cliff edge until Tom skewers the Lumberjack's hand into the tree and his adversary cascades to his death over the cliff.

Tom makes his way to the Eagle's Nest Conference Center where he finds Steven and Kim. Tom says they need to find the electromagnetic source, probably a huge power cable laid somewhere inside. Steven informs Tom that a cell phone signal can be obtained by standing on some distant promontory. Tom finds the massive, circular strip of lights and hidden coil but the electromagnetic field from the huge power line triggers a memory spike, and Kurt forces Tom into a control room.

Meanwhile, Doremus informs the guests that they should reach under their seats to look for a cash prize in the form of party streamer cans — and unwittingly erase their own memories. Tom escapes and hustles Yolanda into the trees and informs her that the outcrop above is the only place they can get a cell signal to dial his own phone. Chased to the top of the granite monolith Moro Rock, Tom then takes out Biggs with an axe and confronts Doremus after eliminating the rest of the thugs. Yolanda rams Kurt's air pods into his head, then frog-marches him off the mountain.

Tom realizes he has to climb the rock face to get the signal. Doremus sneers that Tom can't conquer his fears and won't climb. But Tom manages to climb the ledge and a faint signal is received as it pings Tom's old phone dumping the coffee onto the servers, activating the sprinklers, and trashing everything. The virus begins to recede.

Tom takes out Bettina with the baton but Doremus showers them with a huge dose of hidden spray. Tom finds himself in a memory gas-induced psychosis while Doremus leads Yolanda off the edge of the rock. He manages to reach her in time, but Doremus tries to strangle him while confessing to killing Tom's brother but Yolanda flings the baton to Tom who whacks Doremus. Doremus tries to persuade Tom not to waste his discovery but grabs the spray again and tries to zap them but loses his footing as Tom turns the gas on him and Doremus slips off the rock to his death.

LOST CAUSES.