The Brain Machine (1977)

The military is working on a new technology capable of probing the human minds. Called the Brain Machine, it has the backing of an influential senator. Because testing the machine may be harmful to its subjects, the general directing the project has arranged for it to be secretly piggy-backed onto other studies at the ECC, a government-funded environmental research center. They have volunteer participants for their own projects. One of the ECC scientists, Dr. Krisner, has discovered the unethical Brain Machine testing has been coupled to his current project. He has fled the facility carrying the Top Secret file for the Brain Machine. He is tracked and eliminated. The general then declares that Dr. Roth's project on environmental sustainability will be utilized instead. That study has screened applicants and narrowed the volunteer field to four - a young Tennessee woman, a mechanic/plumber, a preacher, and a wealthy 24-year-old globetrotter. As the tests commence, to keep project funding in place, Roth and his two aides are obligated ask for participant responses to questions generated by the central computer, part of the Brain Machine test. The computer has received input on participant responses from their applications, then probes their brains to see if they are hiding the truth. They find the young woman lied about never being married. The mechanic had hidden a string of thefts. The preacher was guilty of adultery. The Brain Machine is obviously working, but Roth's study degrades into violent chaos as the participants kill each other and themselves.