A young FBI Agent gets all he can handle when he interrogates a suspect who claims he can teach him to read minds.

SYNOPSIS:

NEIL BRYANT, Federal Agent, is given the task of interviewing one KARL DUNCAN, who has information that could lead to the capture of several scientists who have allegedly escaped with information about building a tactical nuclear device. Neil is shocked when Karl says that he can teach Neil to read his mind, and it is this ability that the FBI is truly after. He has Neil tell him a story, and focus on Karl’s reaction. Afterwards, he has Neil guess his favorite color. Neil successfully guesses “blue” (as revealed on a note Karl wrote beforehand), but is convinced it’s a lucky guess. Neil’s supervisors, DUFRESNE and MICHAELS, pull Neil out of the room and tell him that Karl is playing mind games to deflect his inquiry.

Neil goes to visit his mother, who is in a semi-catatonic state in an assisted living facility. When the nurse asks Neil what color she would like her room painted, Neil decides to try Karl’s trick with her. He tells her a story, and gets a mental flash of green. He tells the nurse to paint the room green, and gets the sense that his mother is happy with this choice. The next time Neil sees Karl, Karl can tell immediately that Neil has tried the technique successfully. Karl convinces Neil that what the scientists can do is much bigger than figuring out someone’s favorite color, that they can literally read minds. He also explains that if he is released, he will lead Neil to the scientists.

After Karl is released, he secretly meets with Neil and explains that there are only certain people with the ability to perform TRAP, or Thematic Reflective Apperception, the technique that the scientists use to read minds. The scientists are collecting people who can harness this ability. He encourages Neil to investigate the FBI’s own files to learn the truth. Indeed, Neil investigates, and finds a file with information about the TRAP process, and a list of possible candidates for it, which includes himself.

Karl takes Neil to JACOB TURNBULL, the leader of the scientists, who insists that the power of TRAP is best left in his hands, not the government’s. As a show of good faith, he turns in one of the scientists, SCHLESSENGER, to Neil’s custody. When Neil learns whose side he should really be on, Turnbull expects him to bring that scientist back to them. When that happens, Turnbull explains, he will cure Neil’s mother. Neil returns to FBI HQ and tells Dufresne and Michaels that he managed to escape from Turnbull with Schlessenger as his prisoner, but that Turnbull is gone. Neil continues his investigation, and realizes that Dufresne and Michaels have always known more than they let on. Neil decides that he and his family are in danger from all sides. He breaks Schlessenger out and escapes with his mother and sister to their cabin upstate to figure out his next move.

Shortly after they arrive, Michaels shows up and kills Schlessenger. With his gun trained on Neil, Michaels reveals that he and Dufresne realized that TRAP was real, and decided to use Neil to try to find out how it worked so they could use it for personal gain. Before Michaels can kill Neil, Karl arrives, having planted a tracer in Neil’s phone, and shoots Michaels. Neil goes with Karl to confront Turnbull before Dufresne arrives. However, once they get to Turnbull’s new location, at a secluded beach house, Dufresne, who has been hiding in Karl’s trunk, emerges and kills Karl before racing into the beach house to capture Turnbull. Neil follows and kills Dufresne. Neil chases Jacob into the ocean and demands he surrender. Jacob refuses, saying he doesn’t want a corrupt government to have his power. Jacob motions as if he is drawing a weapon, and Neil fires his own, causing Jacob to disappear beneath the waves.

We next find Neil in the office of the FBI director, where he gives his report, that he took Schlessenger to a secure location to protect him from Michaels and Dufresne. Neil explains that all the scientists were killed and he was not able to ascertain what they were working on. Any information on the computers regarding their work seems to have been destroyed. Neil is reprimanded and put on temporary restricted duty. As the story closes, we see Neil in his home with a very much alive Jacob Turnbull, who is sitting across from Neil’s mother, ready to begin to use the TRAP process to bring her back to reality.