Plot
Eddie Kasalivich (Reeves) is a student machinist working with a team from the University of Chicago to obtain clean energy from water by efficiently splitting the hydrogen and water molecules. While working at home, Eddie inadevertently discovers the secret. The machine is perfected the next day in the lab and everything appears to be working and stable. To celebrate, a party is thrown in the lab. That night after the party, project physicist Dr. Lily Sinclair (Weisz) tries to leave the lab but her car battery is dead. Eddie offers to take her home by taxi. Back in the lab, Drs. Alistair Barkley and Lu Chen are on their computers while a van is seen driving towards the lab. Chen hears a noise and goes to investigate, but is kidnapped by unknown assailants as Alistair also comes under attack.Meanwhile, Lily and Eddie arrive at her house and after making sure she is okay, Eddie heads back to the lab to get his motorcycle. As he arrives at the lab, he sees a van leaving and hears alarms coming from the lab. He runs inside to find Alistair with a plastic bag over his head and Chen nowhere to be found. The hydrogen reactor is dangerously unstable and Eddie is unable to shut it down. Realizing the reactor is going to overload, he speeds away on his bike as a concealed detonator triggers a massive hydrogen explosion that destroys the lab and surrounding streets. As rescue crews arrive, Eddie is questioned by the police and later the FBI about what happened the night of the blast. Upon returning with Lily to their homes, they realise that they are being framed as fake evidence is planted in both of their houses.
Both go on the run and head to an observatory belonging to Maggie McDermott, an old friend of Eddie's. After resting up they contact Paul Shannon (Freeman), the man funding the project (along with DARPA), but are almost caught in the process and barely manage to escape. As Eddie and Lily are evading more police, Paul meets with Lyman Earl Collier (Cox) at C-Systems Research complex to discuss the current events. It becomes apparent that the plot to destroy the lab and frame Eddie and Lily for it was orchestrated by the company, and that Lyman is responsible. Despite some disagreement, Paul and Lyman decide to continue the hunt for Eddie and Lily, a task made easier when Eddie sends a coded message to Paul requesting another place to meet. At this new rendezvous, Paul reveals he was involved, but wants to talk somewhere else. The meeting ends in an ambush, and Lily is captured as Eddie barely escapes.
By tracing the license plate on the van used in the ambush, Eddie is able to track them to the C-Systems Research facility where Lily and Chen are being held. When C-Systems' test reactor fails again, Paul, the scientists and the prisoners all leave the room, so Eddie takes the opportunity to "fix" the system. The next morning, one of the other scientists discovers the working reactor and everyone celebrates. Paul is suspicious, and immediately obtains a download of the fusion data, and secretly gives it to his assistant, Anita, for safekeeping. He then finds Eddie at a computer in the company board room. There, Eddie demands to be let go in exchange for making the reactor work. Paul agrees but Lyman refuses, believing that the reactor already works, so Eddie sets the reactor to explode while sending proof of his innocence to the FBI and blueprints of the reactor to "hopefully a couple thousand" international scientists. Lyman responds by shooting Chen dead, then leaving both Eddie and Lily to die in the explosion as he, Paul, and their staff flee the site, setting lockdown doors on the way. Paul shoots Lyman for overstepping the bounds of the program, leaving his body in an elevator to be incinerated in the ensuing inferno. During his own escape, Paul deactivates the containment, letting Eddie and Lily escape. As he is doing this, Eddie and Lily struggle with one of Lyman's henchmen over an ascending construction lift, ending in Eddie and Lily climbing aboard it, moments before a blast wave sweeps into the tunnel. Both Eddie and Lily survive the shockwave to be met by FBI now convinced of their innocence, who take them to safety. Paul departs the scene via chauffeured sedan. He is last seen dictating a memo to Anita. The memo informs the Director of CIA that C-System is "...no longer a viable entity. Will be in contact."
Science
See also: List of water fuel inventions
The movie never leaves clear if the process is cold fusion or hot fusion,
and makes contradictory statements about the discovery. The process
supposedly extracts hydrogen from water, burns the hydrogen to generate
power, and leaves only water as a residue. It is claimed that a glass of
water could power Chicago for weeks, but no clear explanation is ever
given.The film is based around the premise that free energy suppression is real. The main character gets told that his discovery is too disruptive: energy would suddenly be extremely cheap, oil would no longer be necessary, all oil companies would go bankrupt, and the sudden economical changes would throw society into chaos. Unfortunately, this is only explained in the last minutes of the film, and it is unlikely that his discovery would have such an effect in economy. Most of the film revolves around action scenes in the style of 1990s blockbusters, and the topic of conspiracy theories is not adequately explored.
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