After listening to sounds of a car driving off, there is a cool shot of car approaching as the camera moves backward. Dr. Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) drives as Dr. Margaret Mathison (Sigourney Weaver) sleeps on their way to a paranormal investigation. The home appears to be haunted, as indicated by some very audible and violent sounds. In attendance is the family and the man of the house shows the investigators around. A medium named Traci Northrop (Jeany Spark) conducts a séance bathed in red light, while Tom records. It doesn’t go well, supported by overwrought camerawork and implied tension. Margaret figures out that the young daughter was responsible for the sounds and reasons with her to discontinue scaring her parents into moving. Cut to opening credits.
A plane lands at an airport, carrying blind Simon Silver (Robert DeNiro) and Monica Handsen (a very icy and British Joely Richardson). In a college classroom, Margaret conducts a class on debunking supposed spiritual activity. The lovely Elizabeth Olsen plays student Sally Owen. After class, Professor Paul Shackleton (Toby Jones) tries to persuade Margaret to join forces with his department. Stock footage of Silver being interviewed plays, as well as a retrospective, on a television near Tom in his laboratory. He goes on a date with Sally. He conducts a few magic tricks and insinuates that a psychic was responsible for misinforming his impressionable mother, leading to her death. In her kitchen, Margaret reminisces about her daughter and fields a call from someone who doesn’t speak on their end. She discovers a bent spoon in her coffee mug.
Margaret and Tom visit a family, whose child is unresponsive, while they sit around a table. On the car ride bad, Margaret steals Danny Glover’s line from the Lethal Weapon movies: “I’m getting too old for this shit.” Tom suggests Sally join their team. Margaret speaks to her comatose child David (Pablo Derqui) in the hospital and tells Tom that people believe in the supernatural out of hope and fear. People who take advantage of them are either delusional or charlatans. While Tom mingles around a city-wide celebration, Margaret takes pictures of people in a vehicle. Sally sits in the driver’s seat and Margaret explains she is looking for red lights. They enter a hotel where she touches base with a security detail. A mentalist is performing there. Margaret references Occam’s Razor (the principle to select the competing theory requiring the least number of assumptions) and says, “When I hear the drumming of hooves, I don’t think unicorns, I think horses.” They set up surveillance. They detect audio fed through Palladino’s (Leonardo Sbaraglia) earpiece while he “cures” a young girl with cancer. During his next miracle, there’s a slight snafu with feedback. Margaret busts in with security in the control room and the jig is up.
Silver submits to another interview. Tom tries to persuade Margaret to expose Silver. Paul pulls Margaret over to explain a card trick, which she manages by surreptitiously using the reflection of his glasses. Margaret sits in on one of Tom’s classes. During a televised panel concerning Silver, Margaret debates with a few professionals, including Monica. Tom and Sally watch the show together. Tom finds Margaret’s defensive tactics maddening and implores her again to investigate Silver. Margaret shares her last interaction with Silver, who personally taught her just how fraudulent he was while preying on her vulnerabilities.
Silver takes the stage in front of an audience of people and sticks his hands inside the torso of a man. Tom goes rogue to nail Silver. Electricity shorts, objects shatter, and a piercing sound afflicts the auditorium. Later, Tom finds an unconscious Margaret resulting in a trip to the hospital. Tom visits David with Sally. During a class, Tom is summoned to a payphone (!). Back in class, he’s interrupted again. Somebody has died (supposedly Margaret) and it’s implied that they have been cremated. At a penitentiary, Tom accuses Palladino of being in cahoots with Silver. He unsuccessfully tries to follow Silver and almost runs a spooky woman over. His cell phone rings, he rolls down his window, and the woman spits at him. He ends up in a building, where he’s sent on his way. He then has a dream about himself. It’s pretty clear that either Tom is going mad or someone is playing him for a fool. Regardless, his behavior is beginning to spook Sally out. When they return to their apartment after a brief absence, they find the place in shambles. On the TV, it’s reported that Silver has agreed to Shackleton’s request for testing, prompting Tom to accost Shackleton, demanding he be allowed to be involved with the proceedings. There’s a series of interviews with Silver’s fans who are angry that he has canceled a show to submit to the examination. It’s a really big to-do.
On the day of the test, Shackleton takes care of the formalities. The results play out in a prepared documentary and show that Silver has genuine powers. Tom employs his student Ben (Craig Roberts) to call his bluff. Tom breaks into Silver’s accommodations and they have a short exchange.
Silver endeavors his next performance for a concert hall full of people. In a rather overdramatic moment, Silver begins to levitate. Shackleton convinces Ben to share that his research with Tom provided no holes in Silver’s abilities. Sally asks Ben Tom’s whereabouts. In a restroom, a bearded man attacks Tom. Sally gives Ben some kind of timecode implemented by Silver, and that he was in cahoots with Shackleton and that Silver (surprise!) can see. Tom confronts Silver during his presentation. In stock DeNiro form, he reads the lines “Are you challenging me? Are you questioning my power?” in the exact tone of Taxi Driver’s “Are you talking to me?” Silver begins to meltdown and lights start blowing up. The commotion suddenly ceases and Silver asks Tom how he managed to stop it. He tosses a coin to the seeing Silver, who catches it, and leaves. In a lame narrated conclusion which serves as a letter to Margaret, Tom reveals, “It was me all along.” The End.
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