A voiceover sets the scene: the time is after the Harmonic Convergence, when drastic climate change has swept away civilization as we know it. A vast wind current, the Slipstream, encircles the globe, and a few scattered settlements of survivors attempt to keep human life going. An aeroplane pursues a man running down a canyon, cornering him at a precipice. The plane lands, and its occupants, bounty hunters Will Tasker and Belitski, chase the man and shoot him with a
grappling hook. The fugitive looks at his arm, but seems intrigued rather than distressed. Tasker pulls on the rope, and the man tumbles down the side of the canyon, but he is not harmed. Immediately after his fall, the fugitive quotes from the aviator and poet
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.: "I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth, put out my hand and touched the Face of God." The bounty hunters take their prisoner to a busy airstrip, where he stands beside them, handcuffed, as they eat in the diner. Matt Owens, a small-time arms dealer, nearly gets his arm broken when he makes a pass at Belitski, then tries to sell
contraband to Tasker. It is then revealed that Tasker and Belitski are part of the remnants of a law enforcement agency, trying to keep the peace in a
post-apocalyptic society. Tasker seizes some of Owens' goods. However, as the pair are leaving, Owens abducts their prisoner so that he can claim the large reward. Tasker shoots Owens with a dart, telling him that it is poisoned, but it also implants a
tracking device in Owens' body, enabling Belitski and Tasker to follow them. Owens first flies to his home, Hell's Kitchen. On the way, the prisoner quotes from the poetry of
Byron, and misunderstanding, Owens begins to call him Byron. After their arrival at Hell's Kitchen, Byron heals a boy blinded by
cataracts, and Owens begins to wonder if Byron is more than he appears. After getting lost, they land at the home of a cult of cave-dwellers who worship the Slipstream and have recently been attacked by bandits. Byron attempts to help, lifting a heavy
milling stone off Avatar, the cult's leader. In his dying words, Avatar curses Byron as being part of the out-of-control technological advancements that led to the apocalyptic Convergence. The cultists let the wind decide what to do with Byron and tie him to a massive kite in the wind. The bounty hunters arrive midway through a windstorm, and Owens bargains with them to work together to get Byron down. Tasker reveals to Owens that Byron is an
android. After a rough landing from the destroyed kite, Belitski allows Byron and Owens to escape. Another visitor to the valley, Ariel, helps them escape and convinces them to take her to her former home. Ariel introduces them to her people, who inhabit a fortified underground museum. Byron's knowledge and appreciation of the museum's ancient contents make Ariel emotionally attached to him. Byron and Ariel spend the night together, while Owens gets drunk and hooks up with a girl in the community. The girl helps Owens decide to free Byron, who has become his friend. Later, Byron reveals that he was hunted for murder, and the man he killed was his master, he was designed as the man's companion, and when the man asked him to end his life, he obeyed, even though he was programmed not to harm. Byron also excitedly tells Owens that he has slept with someone for the first time and dreamt of a land at the end of the Slipstream, inhabited by other androids. After this, Owens tells Byron he will not take him in, although the two quibble about what Byron can do with Ariel and his instincts. Having tracked the trio to the museum, Tasker and Belitski force entry, killing guards and some inhabitants. After beating the Curator, Tasker forces the rest to find the fugitives. Byron is captured while Belitski shoots Owens in the chest with a dart. Owens retaliates by knocking her out and handcuffing her to a bed. She wakes and explains that the dart is the antidote to the poison. Owens engages in a shootout with Tasker in which Ariel is killed. Enraged at her death, Byron pursues Tasker to his plane. Tasker shoots Byron, to no effect, then tries to run him down with the plane as he takes off. However, Byron manages to climb and smash his way into the cockpit. As Byron is on the verge of killing him, Tasker quotes the Magee poem, and he relents. He then attempts to regain control of the damaged aircraft by using the control wires, but it crashes. Tasker is killed, but Byron survives because he is indestructible. He returns to the museum to find that Belitski has consented to become Owens' partner, they fly off together while Byron leaves to seek his promised land. ==Cast==