At Orange County, California, in a distant future when United States has lost the war against drugs, an undercover narcotics agent (Keanu Reeves) has to spy on his own friends. This agent is only known in the force by his code name, Fred, but he is actually Bob Arctor. His goal is to investigate the irruption of a new drug, the Substance D, so he can find the source of that innovative substance. Arctor loses his identity as he keeps having that drug, so he ends up submerge in a world of darkness and awkward reality.