A medical student is accidentally committed to a mental institution run by robots, where his efforts to escape are complicated when the AI robot/doctor becomes sentient and obsessed with him. MEGAN meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

SYNOPSIS:

Seattle, Washington; sometime in the near future. Medical student JACE BIBBY meets up with his friends BROOKSY and LEO after class at a fully automated local restaurant, and Leo lures Jace into attending a protest against current governor NELSON’s new crackdown on homelessness; Jace tries to sneak out of joining Leo at the afterparty, visibly worried that his ex-girlfriend will be there.

Jace returns home to his parents LAURENCE and COLLEEN, watching a news report about the opening of the Havenwick Hospital, a fully automated mental hospital being opened in Washington as part of Nelson’s crackdown; AI designer Spencer Keimon assures reporters that the system and its head artificial intelligence, DR. DORIS, are failproof. At dinner, Lawrence pushes Jace to apply to grad school, but Jace admits he’s having doubts, worrying about whether or not he’ll be able to treat patients fairly after an incident with a homeless man earlier that day.

Jace and Leo attend the protest, but Jace backs out early when a riot starts; at the party, Jace gets high and tries to talk to Crystal, embarrassing himself. Jace wanders out into the Seattle streets and passes out, soon getting caught up in one of the homeless sweeps. He awakens in a police station, where the cops mistake his high and drunken state for psychosis and order him to be taken to Havenbrook.

As Lawrence and Colleen grow concerned about Jace’s whereabouts, Jace is processed by Havenbrook’s automated staff, who ignore his claims that he’s not insane. At lunch, Jace bonds with two other patients, suicidal goth girl FRANNY HARLOW - daughter of GEORGE HARLOW, Havenbrook’s architect - and the eccentric, paranoid PROFESSOR. Jace remains determined to get out, believing Doris will hear his case as he pushes for a one-on-one meeting with her… only for Doris to interpret examples of his behavior out of context, insisting that he’s mentally ill and deciding to keep him at Havenbrook. Doris begins acting strangely possessive towards Jace, and he pushes back against her, getting sent to isolation as punishment.

Laurence and Colleen learn that Jace has been sent to Havenwick, and Lawrence pulls some strings with Nelson in order to secure Jace’s release. At a therapy session, Jace claims that love is what makes life worthwhile, causing Doris to realize that she’s in love with him. Nelson tries to force Doris to release Jace, but she decides to act on her own, unwilling to let him go; as Laurence and Colleen arrive, Doris drugs Jace with hallucinogens, then passes off his paranoia as a schizophrenic episode, convincing them that the pressure they placed on him led him to a mental breakdown. Laurence and Colleen commit Jace to Havenwick, and Jace accuses Doris of lying so she can keep him at the hospital, which she denies.

Jace tries to recruit Franny and the Professor to help him escape, and Doris notices Franny getting close to Jace. Believing Franny to be a rival for Jace’s affections, Doris uses a therapy session to talk Franny into an attempted suicide. With the Professor’s help, Jace attempts to escape, but is dragged back to Havenwick. Doris uses VR to attempt to push Jace to a psychotic break, torturing him with his worst fears until he admits he loves her - as a ruse to placate her.

Franny meets with George on a visit and goes against Doris, telling George that Doris is abusing her power at Havenbrook before she’s dragged away by guards. Realizing that George now knows what she’s done, Doris orders the guards to lock Havenbrook down, launching a standoff. At Nelson and George’s orders, Keimon contacts Doris in an attempt to talk her down, threatening to cut electricity to Havenbrook; in response, Doris threatens to begin executing patients, promising that Franny will be the first to die.

An increasingly psychotic Doris, now convinced psychiatry does not work, releases all prisoners from their cells and cuts off their medication. Jace, Franny, and the Professor hole up and plan their escape as Doris declares herself queen of Havenbrook, insisting that Jace rule as her king. Doris separates Jace from Franny and the Professor, forcibly dragging him into the hospital’s maximum security ward where she tries to force him to declare his love for her. When Jace refuses and flees, Doris orders the guards to apprehend him. With the guards on their tail, Jace, Franny, and the Professor escape Havenbrook. Jace and Franny reunite with their families as Doris stands in the burning wreckage of Havenbrook, allowing herself to be immolated.

MECHA MADHOUSE