On the eve of his 32nd birthday, with his company racing towards a cure for Parkinson's, a pharmaceutical exec experiences phantom seizures that plague him every eight years. He unravels and must save his family from the terrifying truth : at large are inhuman dopplegangers of himself, harvested for experimentation -- and deadly.

COMPS: COMA, THE BROOD

(Note: This is a non-linear, interwearving narrative -- as if Robert Altman directed a David Cronenberg film.)

SYNOPSIS:

ACT I

JO-JO, a mute eight year-old with a strange red mark under his chin, is abducted by a child molester. When the child molester attempts to murder the boy, Jo-Jo horrifyingly transforms and kills the child molester. Jo-Jo may look like a boy, but it is NOT human.

Cut to the boardroom of a pharmaceutical company researching a cure for Parkinson's. It's the eve of his thirty-second birthday, and MARC CARVER delivers a merger presentation on behalf of his boss, matronly widow HANNAH GREGOR. A misunderstanding with a foreign investor disintegrates into a shouting match. Marc suffers an epileptic seizure -- and reveals the same red mark under his chin.

At the hospital, Marc's estranged wife DEE DEE and shy son HENRY fill in Marc's medical history. Every eight years, Marc has experienced seizures and vanishing blackouts. Outside the hospital is a homeless teen, MUM (also with a red mark). Through Henry's school counselor JESS and her classmate OTTO, we meet death row inmate JOHN Q. PUBLIC (24, mute... and also with a red mark).

ACT II

Marc is visited by DETECTIVE GLASS, who investigated Marc's disappearance at age eight. Glass suspects Marc is being poorly set up: Marc's fingerprints (as an eight year-old) were in the child molester's vehicle. Marc discovers a company asset overlooked in the failed merger: the National Associated Center of Applied Neuroscience (NACAN). Marc investigates, finding a closed-door research facility run by NURSE PERRY.

Marc begins to reconcile with his wife, and enjoys the weekend with Henry. While driving his son, Marc has another seizure and crashes. A non-company-assigned doctor questions Dee Dee: Marc's medication is not what they think it is. Marc is abducted from the hospital.

Secretly fighting early Parkinson's, Hannah helps Dee Dee search for Marc. Glass traces Marc's fingerprints (this time, as a sixteen year-old) to Jess's car stereo -- stolen by Mum. Another fingerprint search links Marc to the executed John Q. Public. Through the prison autopsy, Glass and Jess learn the shocking differences revealing John Q looked like a man but was NOT human. Otto looks for Jess, only to follow a trail from the school playground and into a series of culverts draining into the river. There, in deep in their lair, Jo-Jo and two physiological likenesses -- "ECHOS" -- kill Otto.

Marc awakens at NACAN. A not fully formed Echo is umbilically attached between their mutual red marks.

ACT III

Hannah reveals to Marc that every eight years, he has blacked out while undergoing the Echo Effect: he is physiologically duplicating -- echoing -- into an exact likeness of himself. (The process is the same for each Echo.) She reveals her surveillance on the Echoes. They are the source for the company's experimental and unethical drug, which is being fatally tested on NACAN's brain-dead patients. Hannah's blames Marc for the deaths of her husband and Marc's father, the company's founders killed long ago by Jo-Jo.

Henry befriends Jo-Jo. At a carnival, Jo-Jo kills Mum. A traumatized Henry heads homeward.

Back at NACAN, Marc escapes into the vents. Nurse Perry rushes the not fully formed Echo the operating room. It revives during surgery, killing her and staff -- and starting the facility on fire. Marc flees after discovering NACAN's dark secrets.

Returning home, Marc reunites with Dee Dee -- and is cleared by Glass and Jess. In the backyard, a brood of Echoes surround Henry. When Hannah -- to hurt Marc -- threatens Henry with an experimental injection, Jo-Jo kills her. Marc and Glass shoot the remaining Echoes. Henry suffers a seizure. A red mark has formed under his chin.