Two weeks before election day, California senator and presidential candidate Jeff Knight speaks at a campaign rally. Meanwhile, inside a storage room at Walker Industries Research, a secret breeding facility, bodies of human clones are frozen and sealed in plastic. Elsewhere in the complex, living clones, unaware of their true identity and purpose, engage in physical activities, such as running and bicycling, to achieve ultimate fitness, while they are guarded by “guides,” dressed as athletic coaches. The clones are monitored on surveillance cameras throughout the facility. When the clone George dominates a wrestling competition, the lead research scientists, Dr. Jameson and Dr. Nelson, designate him fit to advance. In the laboratory, Jameson and Nelson give the unknowing George a glass of liquid to drink, describing it as the next step in preparing for the utopian destination, “America.” Within seconds, George is unconscious and the doctors ready him for storage by injecting a solution into his veins and vacuum-sealing his body in plastic. Later, during a lesson for the clones, Jameson shows an indoctrination film, which explains “America” as “a land of beauty where all your dreams come true.” When Jameson invites questions, Richard, who unlike other clones is suspicious of his surroundings, shows an Old Milwaukee Beer can that he found in the river, believing it is an artifact from “America.” However, Jameson insists the can is simply a product of the river and is not from “America.” Out of earshot, Jameson orders a guide to find out how the can got through the water valves. One day, Richard secretly passes a note to a beautiful female clone named Lena. During a romantic evening by an outdoor campfire, Richard and Lena get to know each other and make love, not knowing that the scientists in the control room are monitoring their interaction. Jameson and Nelson explain to a visitor that Lena and Richard are members of a clone control group possessing normal intelligence, unlike the majority of clones who are programmed to be mentally impaired. According to Nelson, their relationship and any schemes Lena and Richard devise will be closely watched so they pose no harm to the project. The next morning, Richard tells Lena that he wants real answers to his questions. Alone in his room one evening, Richard pretends to have chest pains, and guides show up immediately, confirming Richard’s hunch that he is being watched. Meeting inside an old barn, Richard informs Lena that he will try and sneak into “America” that night by accessing the building where the qualified ones are taken. In the control room, their conversation cannot be heard because the surveillance sound has malfunctioned. After the guides patrol at bedtime, Richard leaves his room and finds a way to enter the main research building. Inside a restricted office, he locates a map of the facility; a file and photograph of his original human “part” named Professor Richard Knight; and a videotape about the project known as Clonus. Watching the tape, Richard learns that most clones are made docile through a lobotomy. He takes the materials with him and searches for a way out of the building as scientists and guides issue an alert for his capture. Avoiding detection, Richard stumbles upon the storage basement filled with frozen bodies. Seeing George, he realizes in horror that this room is “America.” Through a tunnel, Richard escapes the Clonus facility, but is shot in the arm as he runs toward the perimeter. Arriving in a city, Richard staggers through the streets confused by the unfamiliar sights, until a Clonus agent on a motorcycle spots him. Grabbing a nearby bicycle, Richard dodges his pursuer, then crashes outside the home of Jake and Anna Noble, a friendly elderly couple. They bring him inside and dress his wound. As a retired journalist, Jake is curious about Richard’s odd story and agrees to help locate his “other part,” Professor Richard Knight. At home, Professor Knight, the brother of candidate Jeff Knight, works on a lecture while his son, Ricky, a campaign writer for the senator, relaxes by the pool. When Jake arrives and introduces Richard, the professor is shocked to see a carbon copy of his younger self. After watching the videotape about Clonus and confirming a birthmark, the professor realizes that the cloning project is real. Jake hides the incriminating videotape, while the professor contacts his brother who might have some knowledge of Clonus. Meanwhile, back at the facility, Jameson is told by George Walker, the powerful head of Clonus, that there will be serious consequences if the videotape is made public. Elsewhere, the Knight brothers meet, and the senator is unable to hide the fact that he not only knows about Clonus, but believes it is the answer to longevity. The senator explains that the project preserves clones at the peak of fitness to provide healthy organs for elite clientele, but the professor is appalled. Then, the senator reveals that his heart transplant was made possible through his adult clone and refers to the project as a “chance for immortality,” which causes the professor to reconsider the idea. Meanwhile, Richard feels increasingly uneasy in the real America, and when he overhears an argument between the professor and Ricky about whether clones are human, he runs out of the house. Ricky, who is more sympathetic to Richard’s humanity, follows him and agrees to help by driving him back to the Clonus facility so that he can be with Lena. That evening, the senator and two of Walker’s men interrogate the professor and torture Ricky, hoping to discover the location of the videotape. The professor resists their intimidation and ends up stabbing his brother in the chest with a fireplace poker. Walker’s thugs then kill the professor and Ricky. In an effort to destroy the videotape, Walker arranges an explosion, murdering Jake and Anna. Arriving back at Clonus, Richard sees Lena smiling from a window and rushes to her, but discovers that she has been subjected to a lobotomy, erasing her personality, and the guides and scientists take Richard away to prepare him for storage. Sometime later, at a press conference during the presidential convention, Walker introduces Senator Knight, who survived the stabbing after receiving a replacement heart from Richard. As the senator takes questions, a reporter in the back withdraws the videotape from an envelope and asks about Clonus.