Mindfield (1989) Synopsis
The movie starts with text from a New York Times article about Project MKUltra. Mind control experiments were funded by the CIA and many used LSD. Many of these experiments were conducted to make people kill without leaving a trace of evidence.It is Christmastime in Montréal. Montréal police detective Kellen O'Reilly is on his way to meet his ex-wife for coffee at a diner atop Olympic Stadium and hand over his divorce papers. At the same time, mob hitman Rudy Myers and his gang, which consists of Alabama Bill, Mick and Eddie, are visiting accountant Leo Sloukos to conduct a shady business deal. Back at the diner, Kellen tells his ex-wife that the police department is facing a possible strike and that he's overworked due to him organizing the strike. At Leo's office, Leo tells Rudy and his gang that he and attorney Bob Champlain got stiffed on a deal, but they obtained something very valuable. Despite the mention of the valuable artifact, Leo's carelessness and greed do not fare well with Rudy, who kills him and takes off with his gang.On his way back from the diner, Kellen starts to have flashbacks of him at a hospital and a mysterious doctor who tells him "Remember that he killed your father." Kellen is then seen at his psychiatrist's office. His psychiatrist, Dr. Mendel, is concerned about Kellen, who thinks that Kellen's flashbacks are caused by a number of things, including the police strike and his ex-wife's upcoming marriage. Kellen denies that those events are the reasons for his flashbacks. Dr. Mendel tells Kellen that it is time that the truth regarding his father's death be revealed, which Kellen insists on not hearing at the moment.At the local courthouse, civil attorney Sarah Paradis is at a hearing to represent the victims of mind control experiments that occurred many years ago. The mysterious doctor from Kellen's flashbacks, Dr. Gregor Satorius, who is being sued on account of the mind control experiments, shows no remorse for his victims. Sarah tells the judge that the CIA funded Dr. Satorius's clinic, The Coldhaven Institute and paid him to conduct the experiments. The case is then thrown out by the judge. Satorius, knowing that Sarah could destroy everything he's "worked for" and ruin his reputation, confronts Sarah and questions her motives. Sarah tells Satorius to just wait for when the trial takes place.Meanwhile, defense attorney Bob Champlain is about to leave his office for the day and tells his secretary to file his papers and mail something out. He then tries to come on to her by saying that he just received a big "payment" and he will be able to give her a Christmas bonus. She ignores his advances.At the strike meeting, tensions are high as everyone is debating as to whether or not the strike should be carried on. Things get even worse when Kellen makes highly inappropriate and sexist comments towards Sarah and begins to have flashbacks again. This angers Sarah. After the meeting as everyone else is headed home, Kellen notices that Sarah is having problems with her car. Kellen then decides to help her and Kellen apologizes to Sarah for what happened during the meeting. Sarah accepts his apology and offers him a ride home, which Kellen accepts. On their way, Sarah stops by a nearby pharmacy to refill a prescription.At the same time, Bob Champlain is walking inside the same pharmacy to purchase nose spray for his cold. He is unaware that he is being trailed by Rudy and his gang. Just as Sarah is getting her prescription refilled, Rudy and his gang, sporting guns and ski masks hold up the entire pharmacy. Meanwhile, Kellen needs cigarettes and two cops walking by tell him that he is right in front of the pharmacy. Upon walking inside, Kellen intrudes on the robbery and when he is told to stay right where he is, he then starts to have another series of flashbacks. This causes him to go into action and he shoots Bill. Rudy then tells Kellen that he will kill all of the hostages. Kellen allows Rudy and his gang to only take one hostage. They then take a scared Champlain outside to find out where he is hiding a key. Champlain now recognizes Rudy and Rudy reveals to Champlain about Leo's death. Rudy tells Mick to shoot Champlain in the mouth. As Rudy begs for his life and mentions how his key is in his safe and is the only one who can open it, Mick immediately shoots him the mouth. The cops arrive as soon as Kellen discovers the body.The next morning at the police station, Kellen talks to Eugene Borko, his captain, about the robbery and how it was conducted by Rudy and his gang merely just to get to Champlain. Later on, Kellen and his partner, Raolo Basutti go to Champlain's office to ask his secretary for any details regarding the murder. They discover Champlain's safe, which was unlocked the entire time and find a stash of pornography and sex toys. They also discover a complimentary key chain from the sex shop Erotim.At Erotim, Kellen and Raolo visit with the store's gay manager Juley "The Juice", who is also a police informant, and the film's comic relief, to ask about the death of Mr. Champlain. Eddie is also present at the store as well. Kellan and Raolo learn that Bob Champlain was a regular at the store and mentions that a key chain can be obtained when a purchase of $50 or more is made. Juley also mentions to Kellan and Raolo information about Champlain's connection to local mobster Johnny Ronce and that Rudy Myers is from the United States and was indeed responsible for the death of Champlain.Later that night, Kellan and Sarah are at a restaurant on a date. Sarah notices a poster about the CIA taking over Chile and how "your country could be next." She declares to Kellan that she will bury Satorius to the ground if she has to. Afterwards, Kellan and Sarah arrive at the former's home and after settling down for a while, the two have sex, completely unaware that Eddie has been snooping around Kellan's home watching him. After their sex, Kellan mentions to Sarah that he felt an urge to kill during the robbery and tells her about his flashbacks of his days at Coldhaven. Later the next morning, Raolo arrives at Kellan's home with his wife Therese and his son Mario, since it is Raolo's day off as well as Kellan's. After some socializing, Kellan gets a call from Juley the Juice, which puts a halt to their day plan, much to Therese's dismay.At Erotim, Juley tells both Kellan and Raolo more information about Rudy as well as that Johnny Ronce sends any of his men who maybe hurt or injured to a small clinic run by a one Doctor Tom Luk, a former Saigon doctor. Afterwards, Raolo tells Therese that their day is no longer going to be able to go as planned, which enrages Therese as she yells at him for spending little time with his son.Raolo and Kellan go to Dr. Luk's clinic, but they notice that no one is present. As they approach the last room in the clinic, they notice that blood is dripping on the floor. The curtain is opened and it is revealed that Dr. Luk has supposedly committed suicide.At Johnny Ronce's health club, Johnny is relaxing in his hot tub, when a naked Kellan wanders into the hot tub and surprises Johnny. Johnny is surprised to see someone else in his jacuzzi, and his men are about to shoot Kellan, but Raolo steps in to keep control of the situation. Kellan tells Johnny that Dr. Luk is dead and was found hanged in his own clinic. Johnny denies that he knows Dr. Luk, but Kellan knows Johnny is lying and Johnny threatens to report Kellan. Johnny ultimately comes clean to Kellan about his connections to Rudy and Champlain and decides not to report Kellan.Later that night, Kellan and Sarah are at home setting up Christmas decorations. Sarah wants Kellan to testify against Satorius but Kellan is against it, knowing that he will get suspended from the police force if he does, as they do not take a kind approach towards workers with past mental health history. This enrages Sarah, as she throws a box of ornaments on the ground and storms out of Kellan's house.The next morning at the police station, Kellen and Raolo meet with Eugene and FBI Agent Hugh McVeigh. McVeigh mentions that Rudy is connected to the family DelGado which operates out of Miami, Florida and Eugene mentions that Kellan and Raolo no longer need to work on the case any longer, as it is being handed over to the FBI and R.C.M.P.Despite this however, Kellan and Raolo are still determined to solve the case themselves. They go to a bank and Kellan, posing as Bob Champlain, is able to get access to Champlain's safety deposit box, which has an old film reel. Kellan and Raolo's next stop is Erotim, to watch the film inside the store's theatre, much to Juley's dismay. While watching the film, Kellan notices a young Dr. Satorius conducting mind control experiments. One of his patients turns out to be none other than Kellen himself. Raolo becomes aware of Kellan's past at Coldhaven and shows his support for Kellan. They decide to take the film to their captain.This support does not last long however. As Kellan and Raolo are leaving Erotim, Rudy and his gang show up. Kellen notices that they have a gun pointed towards Raolo. Kellan tells Raolo to duck, which causes the car to trigger a car bomb set up by Rudy, killing Raolo in the process and presumably destroying the film as well. Mick searches an unconscious Kellan for the film, but Kellan hits Mick's head with a brick. Rudy and Kellan start shooting at each other and Mick ends up getting left behind as Rudy and Eddie take off. Mick is about to shoot Kellan himself, but Kellan tells him not to. Mick drops his gun, but quickly picks it up before being shot by Kellan. Kellan then goes to Raolo's house to bring the tragic news to Therese and Mario. Mario runs off as even though Kellan had not said anything, both Therese and Mario could tell from the look of Kellan's face that something horrible has happened to Raolo.Kellen is later at the police station, trying to convince Eugene about the film and that what he saw on the film is in fact real. Eugene does not buy it. Sergeant Lachance storms in on behalf of Raolo's death and that Kellan was still on a case he was no longer assigned to. Eugene and Lachance then tell Kellen that he has been under investigation and are aware of his psychological health and flashbacks. Kellen had lied about his medical history. He is then suspended and is required to turn his gun in.Back at his house, Kellen is drying himself off from a shower. He tells Sarah about what he saw on the film and that he is going back to Coldhaven to "get his memory back." Despite Sarah's pleas for him to not go, Kellen tells her to just back off and leave him alone. On his way to Coldhaven, Kellan stops at the apartment of local drug dealer Benny for Acid and L.S.D., presumably to make himself immune to Satorius' mind control treatment, should he use it on Kellan. Kellan is seen taking said drug not long after. Meanwhile, Sarah visits with Dr. Mendel, who tells Sarah that, when Kellan was nine years old, Kellen's father, also a Montréal police officer, had shot an unarmed man and that there was to be an inquiry. Kellen's father then shot himself in the head and that it was a young Kellen that found the body. Kellen, since his days at Coldhaven, had been in a state of denial about his father's death and had believed that his father was killed in the line of duty. Sarah mentions to Dr. Mendel about Satorius' mind control experiments linking L.S.D. with the mind, and Dr. Mendel mentions that whoever did conduct said experiments were totally irresponsible.At Coldhaven, Kellen sneaks into Dr. Satorius' office and logs onto his computer, which reveals a great number of detail about Satorius' former patients, including Kellen himself. At Kellen's home, Eddie, under the impression that Kellen still has the film, has completely trashed the home while prowling around again. Sarah later leaves a message on the machine saying that she found the film, and Eddie leaves the house.When Satorius walks into his office, Kellen confronts Dr. Satorius. Satorius reveals his intentions to Kellen as well as information that he helped Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty confess his crimes in 1949 by breaking his mental defense. Kellen tells Satorius that he only wants to change people for them to kill. Satorius reveals to Kellan the truth about his father's death. This causes Kellen to nearly kill Satorius by throwing a chair onto the doctor, but Kellen throws it at a mirror instead, which reveals that Rudy and Eddie were listening in on Kellen and Satorius' confrontation the entire time. Kellen is knocked unconcious. Rudy finds out that Satorius had lied to Rudy and did not get rid of any evidence like he was told to and that the world must never know of what really happened at Coldhaven. Rudy, Eddie and Satorius are then seen trying to wipe Kellen's memory clean of what he found out. Because of Satorius' double cross, Satorius himself is also wiped clean of his memory. Rudy and Eddie decide to make it look like Kellen had killed Satorius and then himself. As Eddie is adjusting Kellen, Kellen headbutts Eddie and takes off for Olympic Stadium, where the police strike is taking place. Sarah is present there.At the stadium, after a speech from Therese regarding her husband's death, the strike is made official. Sarah is then kidnapped by Rudy, who threatens to kill her if she tries to call for help. Mario witnesses the kidnapping. Mario then sees Kellen running on his way to save Sarah. Mario tells Kellen about Sarah's kidnapping and they move on to the arena. Mario is later seen alerting the Union Rep. The Rep then calls for anyone who has a gun to go to the arena, where Sarah his being held. At the arena, Rudy is interrogating Sarah about the film, when McVeigh shows up and tries to disarm Rudy and tells Sarah to run. McVeigh tells Rudy that the CIA no longer kills the indiscriminate and Rudy says that Project 47 sprung a leak and it's his job to fix it. McVeigh then tells Rudy his theory about the possibility of other people besides Kellen being seen in the film, quite possibly Lee Harvey Oswald. Eddie then shoots McVeigh and Rudy takes Sarah hostage by gunpoint. Eddie and Rudy notice the number of police arriving into the stadium. Eddie is shot by Kellen and falls to his death. The stadium power is then cut off by orders of the Union Rep and Rudy threatens to kill Sarah if his demands are not met. Kellen then hands the film to Rudy in exchange for Sarah, and Sarah is set free. Rudy is then promptly shot by the police. As Kellen looks upon Rudy's corpse, he starts to have another flashback, but then walks away.Back at Coldhaven, Satorius' computer is still on. The camera moves slowly downward and shows on the screen that Lee Harvey Oswald was one of Satorius' patients and was in fact, accepted into the fifth phase of Satorius's experiments. The building's janitor then walks in and unplugs the computer to plug in his vacuum, wiping out all of Satorius's data. Rudy got his wish posthumously!
Published Time: 2023-08-07 01:08:18