Hypnotic(2023)

In the opening scene, we are introduced to Danny Rourke, a detective from the Austin Police

Department, who is currently attending a therapy session. During the session,

he reflects on the traumatic event of his seven year old daughter named Minnie, being abducted,

which ultimately led to the breakdown of his marriage. It is revealed that he was at a park,

watching his daughter play, when he got distracted for a few seconds. Upon turning back around,

he discovered that Minnie had disappeared. The person responsible for the abduction has

been apprehended but was not charged as he was deemed mentally unstable.

Following the therapy session, Danny is picked by his coworker: Nicks, who informs him that they

have received an anonymous tip-off call regarding an upcoming bank heist targeting a specific safe

deposit box. According to Nicks, the recent string of bank robberies has involved the same bank,

but at different branches. However, the strange thing about this robbery is that

the thief is specifically targeting a safe deposit box that does not contain any money.

Upon their arrival outside the bank, Danny and Nicks enter a police van to

maintain surveillance on people both inside and outside the building. During their stakeout,

they observe a mysterious man named Lev Dellrayne, who seems to possess an uncanny ability to easily

hypnotize people. This power is demonstrated when he hypnotizes a woman, causing her to feel so hot

that she removes her clothes on the streets. Dellrayne then hypnotizes some bank employees

and even police officers, who obediently follow his commands as he enters the bank.

Sensing something amiss, Danny quickly exits the van and gets into the bank,

pretending to open a bank account. He promptly makes his way to the

deposit box room and unlocks the targeted safe. To his surprise,

he discovers a photograph of Minnie along with the message "Find Lev Dellrayne" written on it.

Meanwhile, Dellrayne stands at the counter line when the bank security guards suddenly erupt

into chaos. At the same time, he hypnotizes a bank employee, who then heads into the safety

deposit room to retrieve the targeted box. Danny, who is already present in the room,

aims his gun at the employee and demands that she freeze. However, she disregards his order

and continues her search for the desired box. The hypnotized guards also enter the room and shoot

Danny, causing him to collapse. But fortunately, his bulletproof vest shields him from harm.

Following this incident, both the employee and the security guards exit the bank and board a van,

intending to escape. Simultaneously, the woman who had experienced intense

heat earlier stands in the middle of the road. This results in several accidents,

including one involving the van carrying the bank employee and the security guards.

Shortly after, Dellrayne retrieves the safe deposit box from the deceased bank

employee and plants a timed bomb before making his escape. Danny, accompanied by two of his juniors,

spots Dellrayne and chases after him. They eventually manage to corner him at a rooftop.

As the two detectives approach to handcuff him, Dellrayne suddenly uses his hypnotic abilities

and manipulates them into firing their weapons on each other. He then leaps off the building,

swiftly vanishing from sight. After the chaos ends, Nicks arrives at the scene and informs

Danny that all the witnesses have no recollection of the events due to the effects of hypnosis.

Danny, who is convinced that the heist is somehow connected to his daughter's disappearance,

embarks on his own investigation. On the same night, Nicks contacts him and relays

the results of a trace conducted on the previous tip-off call. Wasting no time,

Danny proceeds to the specified location and finds a therapy facility owned by a

fortune-teller named Diana Cruz. He tells her about his purpose of visit,

and the two start a conversation. But when Danny mentions the name Dellrayne, she becomes scared,

and orders him to leave the place immediately. Unbeknownst to them, Dellrayne lurks outside

the facility. He sneaks up behind a man and hypnotizes him, causing him to ride a motorcycle

through Diana's window. The man says ‘Dellrayne will not stop’ before committing the unthinkable.

Following the incident, Danny takes Diana into protective custody and proceeds to question her.

The latter discloses that both the bank heist and the recent incident are the results of Dellrayne

exploiting his supernatural abilities. She explains that Dellrayne is a hypnotist with the

capability to manipulate and control minds using a psychic bandwidth. Danny asks how she knows so

much about hypnotics, to which she replies that she is also one of them. According to Diana, both

she and Dellrayne underwent training in a covert government hypnosis Division designed to harness

mind control. However, Dellrayne became the most powerful disciple and ultimately turned to evil.

He is now looking to gain control over the whole country. Hearing all this,

Nicks, who is also present there, simply chuckles. He doesn’t believe in all this

and claims that she is joking. In response, Diana hypnotizes Nicks,

compelling him to step outside for fresh air. After this, she reveals that Danny

possesses a strong immunity to mind control, perhaps because he is severely depressed these

days. Diana knows this because she tried to hypnotize him earlier but was unsuccessful.

On the other hand, Dellrayne appears outside the police station and hypnotizes Nicks. He

then orders the poor guy to attack his friends. As Nicks enters the investigation room, Diana quickly

realizes that something is wrong with him, so she suggests that they run away. She claims that Nicks

will not regain consciousness until he fulfills his assigned task. Despite Diana's advice, Danny

tries to stop his friend, and even handcuffs him. However, Nicks continues his desperate attempts to

reach for his gun, ignoring the pain given by the handcuffs. When the situation gets out of hand,

Diana grabs Nicks' gun and shoots him in the head, killing him on the spot.

The news of Nicks' untimely demise quickly spreads through television broadcasts,

and Danny and Diana are shown as the perpetrators. With no options left,

Diana proposes that they travel to Mexico, where she knows someone capable of thwarting

Dellrayne. Danny is skeptical about the idea but he has no choice but to agree.

In the next scene, the duo is seen at a local coffee shop where a Sheriff enters.

He instantly recognizes them, but before he can react, Diana manages to hypnotize

him. At the same time, Dellrayne contacts Diana through the Sheriff's walkie-talkie,

freaking her out. Our protagonists attempt to flee, but right then, Dellrayne arrives with two

hypnotized police officers. Just when it appears as if Danny and Diana are about to be apprehended,

the hypnotized sheriff from earlier shows up in the nick of time and saves them.

Later, during their journey to Mexico, Diana reveals to Danny that he possesses a psychic block

that makes it more challenging for hypnotists to control him. The only one who can overcome

this barrier is Dellrayne. As the two approach Mexico City, they come across a police patrol,

but then again, Diana skillfully uses her abilities to maneuver past them. Ultimately, they

reach their destination—Jeremiah, an old friend of Diana's from their days in the Division.

As they engage in conversation, Jeremiah unveils the truth that Dellrayne is in search of Domino,

a potent weapon developed by the Division with the power to manipulate any hypnotist in the world. It

turns out that the Domino project was divided into several parts and stored in safe deposit boxes

across multiple banks. According to Jeremiah, if Dellrayne finds all the parts of it, there will

be no stopping him. He then unexpectedly asks for the picture of Minnie, which Danny had acquired

from the bank earlier. This raises suspicion on Diana's mind, and it is soon confirmed when

Jeremiah morphs into Dellrayne. It turns out he had been using his abilities to transform himself

into a totally different person. Acting quickly, Danny and Diana flee the scene, with Dellrayne

giving chase through an intricately constructed hypnotic environment. Many officers and random

citizens also join in the chase. Not long after, our protagonists find themselves cornered,

but just as they are about to be captured, Danny taps into his own reserve of hypnotic

power and takes control of the police officers, directing them to apprehend Dellrayne instead.

After the danger is averted, Danny is filled with confusion, unable to understand what he

just did. Diana is also equally perplexed, so she suggests they seek assistance from River,

a secret hacker who was once her friend within the Division.

Later, they arrive at his hideout and explain their predicament to him. River agrees to help

them and uses his hacking expertise to delve deep into Danny’s data. Shockingly,

he uncovers a startling revelation: Danny's wife: Vivian, is actually a member of the same hypnosis

Division just like Diana. As the three are talking, Danny receives a call from Dellrayne,

who attempts to hypnotize him over the phone, urging him to execute Diana. However,

Danny somehow manages to resist the hypnotic influence and hands up the call.

Later, while River and Diana are asleep, Danny personally checks the database and

learns something shocking. His daughter Minnie is actually Domino, the dangerous weapon,

and Diana is none other than his wife, Vivian. With this, the entire room around him begins

to unravel, showing that all the previous events were only hypnotic constructs. It

becomes clear that Danny had been under hypnosis throughout this entire journey. At that moment,

Diana walks out and reminds him that he was the one who took their daughter away,

motivated by the desire to shield her from the allure of hypnotic realms. Soon after,

Danny wakes up in a large room populated by Division agents, all of whom he has seen

throughout the constructed story, including Nicks and Dellrayne.

Scared, Danny runs out of the premises, only to stumble upon

the props and materials that had been used to create the illusion of reality,

realizing that they were mere scenarios. Here, it is revealed that Danny's memories had been wiped,

erasing any recollection of Minnie's whereabouts. So, the Division had subjected

him to these constructed experiences in an attempt to trigger his memories.

Afterwards, Danny is once again put through the same hypnotic construct, reliving the therapy

session and the bank heist just as before. The events unfold smoothly, mirroring the beginning

of the film. However, as Danny reaches the point of entering the bank, he taps into his own power

and breaks free from the hypnotic spell, escaping from the clutches of the Division. In this moment,

both Dellrayne and Diana realize that the phrase in the photo "Find Lev Dellrayne" does not

refer to a person, but rather to Deer Valley Lane, which turns out to be the location of

a ranch where Danny's foster parents have been hiding Minnie for all those 3 years.

After driving for a while, Danny arrives at his parents' house and

experiences a heartwarming reunion with his now-grown daughter, Minnie. However,

their joyous moment doesn’t last long as Dellrayne and his team members arrive,

armed with weapons. They immediately shoot Danny’s parents, cruelly finish them off.

In the next scene, Danny and Minnie walk out of the house, making Diana

emotional as she is seeing her daughter after such a long separation. Meanwhile,

the Division surrounds the ranch but Minnie uses her overpowering hypnotic abilities to

make all of them kill each other. She then forces Dellrayne to commit the unthinkable.

Finally, it becomes evident that Danny and Diana were the most powerful members of

the Division in the past. One day, they discovered that their daughter, Minnie,

had inherited even greater strength than themselves. When the Division

found out about this, they devised a plan to exploit her as a powerful weapon. However,

Danny and Diana vehemently opposed this notion. Instead, they chose to protect their daughter

by hiding her in the home of Danny's foster parents, while intentionally erasing their

own memories for Minnie's safety. The photograph discovered by Danny in the safety deposit box was

actually his own creation, serving as a means to remember the whereabouts of his daughter.

Back in the present, Minnie assists her mother in regaining her lost memories. It is revealed that

Danny and Diana patiently waited more than three years for Minnie to fully develop her

powers to a level where she could single-handedly defeat the entire Division. With their ultimate

goal now achieved, the family reunites and decides to live happily ever after.

However, in a surprising final scene, it is unveiled that Dellrayne managed to survive the

earlier shootout as he appears to have cunningly disguised himself as Danny's foster father.