Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid), a genius gifted with psychic powers, wastes his abilities hustling women and cheating at the track. He is mysteriously abducted to work on a government program which is a new experiment involving dream research on patients who experience a high frequency of nightmares. Alex initially refuses to join the program, but the threat of an IRS audit forces him to comply. After a series of tests to sharpen his psychic abilities, Alex is connected to a machine, which allows him to enter and actively participate in the disturbed patients’ dreams. These dreams are full of life threatening situations and bizarre creatures. Once inside, Alex is able to alter the dream events and cure the patients of their nightmares and mental traumas. Alex discovers that he is really just a pawn in a government funded covert intelligence program which trains assassins to kill inside the dreams of victims who then die in real life. After Alex grows suspicious, he is given an ultimatum: work as a dream assassin or die!