The Discovery

In the two years since scientist Thomas Harbor (Robert Redford) proved the existence of an afterlife, over four million and counting have opted to get to the afterlife by committing suicide in THE DISCOVERY. During a live interview, his first in two years, Harbor says he doesn't feel responsible for these deaths; immediately after he says this, the cameraman takes a gun to his head and kills himself in front of millions of viewers. His son, a neurologist named Will (Jason Segel), believes his father bears responsibility (as well as himself, as some of his research inspired Thomas) and is on a ferry to a remote island to confront his father and tell him to undo the damage he has done and to declare his findings as false, in order to stop this massive suicide outbreak. On the ferry, he meets Isla (Rooney Mara), who looks familiar to him but he's not sure how. On the island, Will arrives at an off-the-grid mansion where his father conducts research in a cult-like atmosphere where everyone under his care has attempted suicide. Later, on a walk, Will saves Isla's life after she tries to drown herself in the ocean. Isla is taken into the mansion to live. In a meeting with everyone in the mansion, Thomas announces that he has created a machine that records what the dead see in the afterlife. Profoundly disturbed by his father's increasing messianic and cult-leader tendencies, as well as his inability to acknowledge the suicide of his wife and Will's mother, Will must find a way to figure out what this machine really shows, and what this might mean for his father, for Will, and for his mysterious connection with Isla.