Newton uses his alien intelligence to create a massive corporate empire. However, he becomes increasingly entangled in human vices—alcohol, television, sex, and paranoia. He falls in love with a hotel maid, Mary-Lou (Candy Clark), but struggles with human emotions and physicality. Eventually, the government, led by a curious professor (Rip Torn), captures him. They perform horrific experiments on him, and over decades, Newton becomes trapped on Earth, unable to return home, his original mission forgotten. The film ends with him as a hollow, immortal millionaire, alone and alienated.