| Director | Byron Haskin |
|---|---|
| Genre | film based on a novel, science fiction film, thriller film |
| Runtime | 108 min |
| Country | United States |
The Committee on Human Endurance researches the human body's ability to survive pain and physical stress as part of the space program. Dr. Henry Hallson, an anthropologist on the committee, has designed a series of anonymous questionnaires to screen people with greater survival capacity, using other committee members as preliminary subjects.
Hallson reveals his findings at a meeting with chairman and biologist Dr. Jim Tanner, geneticist Dr. Margery Lansing, physicist Dr. Carl Melnicker, biologist Dr. Talbot Scott, Dr. Norman Van Zandt, and government liaison Arthur Nordlund. Hallson announces that someone on the committee possesses a super-intellect beyond human measurement, capable of controlling other human minds, including those of the committee. When no one admits to having Hallson's theorized powers, Dr. Melnicker suggests a telekinesis test using a simple psi wheel. Stating that the test subject will never reveal himself, Hallson insists that all of them concentrate on it together, which sends the wheel spinning.
Later that night, Hallson is found murdered in the laboratory's human centrifuge, with the name "Adam Hart" scrawled on a piece of paper in his office. Hallson's widow Sally Hallson tells Jim Tanner that "Adam Hart" was the name of her husband's childhood friend. Tanner speculates that a superhuman could exist with capabilities far in advance of normal humans, but Talbot Scott denies the possibility.
As the police investigate Hallson's murder, Tanner immediately becomes the prime suspect when it is found that he apparently lied about his distinguished academic credentials. In fact, all records documenting his past have been inexplicably erased. Tanner then suffers bizarre hallucinations and narrowly survives a psychic assault on his life. Desperate to uncover the truth, he travels to Hallson's hometown and learns that Adam Hart is a superhuman, with different people providing different descriptions of his appearance and others still obeying commands that Hart gave them years earlier.
As Tanner and Lansing search for the other committee members, Melnicker is murdered while Nordlund apparently survives another psychic assault by Hart. Dr. Van Zandt is revealed to be an ally of Hart, but is also murdered. Surviving yet another attack, Tanner returns to the research center and confronts Talbot Scott with the police close behind. Scott believes that Tanner is a superhuman and pleads for his life, but panics and is shot by the police.
In a final showdown, Tanner confronts Arthur Nordlund, who faked his own attack and is revealed to be Adam Hart. Hart unleashes another psychic assault on Tanner, but Tanner instead kills Hart with his own awakened psychic powers. Tanner realizes that he was the superhuman uncovered by Hallson's tests, and that Hart was trying to eliminate any competition from others like himself.