Screamers (1995 Film) - Plot

Plot

Screamers is set in 2078 on Sirius 6B, a once thriving commercial and mining hub planet, now reduced to a wasteland by a civil war between the Alliance, a resistance group composed of the colony's former mining and science personnel, and their employers, the New Economic Bloc. Five years into the war, Alliance scientists created a new weapon called the 'Autonomous Mobile Sword', an artificially intelligent self-replicating machine. Due to the noise emitted by the machines, the Alliance nicknamed them 'Screamers'. Since screamers are not designed to distinguish friend from foe, and because they track targets by their heartbeats, Alliance scientists created a device called a 'Tab', which renders its wearer 'invisible' by broadcasting a signal which cancels out the wearer's heartbeat.

Both the Alliance and N.E.B. forces on Sirius 6B are exhausted, poorly supplied and undermanned. Consequently, they have a shaky stalemate. The Alliance's commanding officer, Joe Hendricksson (Peter Weller), receives word from Alliance Command on Earth that they are negotiating with the N.E.B. A message guaranteeing safe passage through N.E.B. territory for two Alliance officers to discuss a peace treaty is recovered from a dead N.E.B. soldier, killed by screamers as he approached the Alliance compound. When an Alliance troop transport from Earth crashes, the only survivor, Michael "Ace" Jefferson (Andrew Lauer), tells Hendricksson that the message from Earth was a lie. Hendricksson feels that Alliance command has been lying to them for years, intent on simply abandoning them on the ruined planet.

Feeling betrayed, Hendricksson accepts the N.E.B. peace offer and takes Jefferson for the meeting with the enemy commander, Marshall Richard Cooper. While traveling through a destroyed city, they discover a boy named David (Michael Caloz), clutching a teddy bear. The following night, they are attacked by a new type of 'lizard' screamer, and Hendricksson becomes suspicous of the Screamer's loyalties. When Hendricksson's group nears the N.E.B. compound, David is shot by an N.E.B. soldier, who reveals to the shocked Alliance soldiers that David is actually a "type 3" screamer, capable of impersonating a human. Three N.E.B. soldiers, Becker (Roy Dupuis), Ross (Charles Powell), and Jessica (Jennifer Rubin) explain that everyone else in their N.E.B. contingent was wiped out after their patrol teams had unwittingly brought a David screamer back to the base.

The group heads to the N.E.B. command center finding only an empty building and large pools of blood. Locating the mainframe computer, Hendricksson discovers the N.E.B. treaty message was also fake. The group retreats back to their bunker while being pursued by "type 3"s. Later, as the group argues, Becker kills Ross, claiming he was a screamer, though it is clear that he was not. Hendricksson decides to return to the Alliance base. When they return, they find that everyone was wiped out by "type 3" screamers. As dozens of "type 3's" pour out of the bunker's entrance, Hendricksson fires a micro nuclear missile into the bunker's entrance, obliterating the screamers. Becker appears to have been seriously injured in the blast, prompting Jefferson to rush to his aid. Becker then kills Jefferson, revealing that he is also a screamer. Hendricksson then kills Becker. Following this, he and Jessica are the only survivors left.

Now quite paranoid, Hendricksson cuts Jessica's hand in order to determine whether or not she is a screamer. Seeing blood and satisfied she is human, they head for a hidden escape shuttle. They find that the shuttle can seat only one person. Hendricksson wants the reluctant Jessica to escape, but a second Jessica arrives, proving that Jessica is an advanced form of screamer. The two forms of Jessica fight, with the first protecting Hendricksson. The second Jessica is destroyed with the shuttle's engines. With her dying breath, the first Jessica professes her love for Hendricksson. Hendricksson notices that the screamers are evolving to become more human, since they have learned how to kill each other.

Hendricksson boards the shuttle and leaves for Earth. Contemplating everything that has happened, he plays with the teddy bear that was carried by the first "type 3" he encountered, before tossing it up onto the control console. In the closing shot, the teddy bear begins to slowly move on its own as the screen fades to black.