Plot

Dr. Sayer is a pioneering neurologist who wants to take a risk and give his patients who suffer from encephalitis a drug used for Parkinson's Disease. He tries it out on one man who miraculously wakes from his perpetual catatonic state.

1969. Dr. Malcolm Sayer is hired as a clinical physician at a local hospital in the Bronx, despite only having a research background. The job is not ideal on his side as he has difficulties relating to people which is the reason he has focused on research projects not involving human subjects, while the hospital hires him somewhat out of desperation in not finding anyone else with the qualifications who wants the job. Most of his patients are in a semi-catatonic state and are housed no in what some of the orderlies coin the "garden" ward, where all they can do for the patients is water and feed them. He notices that some of the patients, despite their generally catatonic state, respond in unusual ways to certain stimuli. In doing some research, he also finds that some common bonds between these patients are that they suffered from encephalitis in the 1920s or 1930s, and that their physical states are like they have Parkinson's disease frozen in time. As such, he is able to convince, albeit reluctantly, his skeptical boss, Dr. Kaufman, to administer an expensive experimental drug therapy on only one patient with family consent. That patient is forty-one year old Leonard Lowe, who has been in his current state since he was eleven years old, and who has been supported by his loving mother through all these years. As the drug therapy "awakens" Leonard, there are several issues that come into play. Malcolm has to try and convince Kaufman and the hospital administration to extend the therapy to the other patients. Despite not knowing the long term effects, Leonard, who was aware of his surroundings through his catatonic state, may have mixed emotions about his situation, wanting both to be treated as human being and an experiment guinea pig to ensure that what is happening benefits him and others in the long run. Mrs. Lowe may be unprepared for the new Leonard, she expecting who she remembers as a sweet eleven year old boy. Through all these issues, what may be the most illuminating issue for Malcolm is the need to stimulate the human spirit, including his own in dealing with people around him.—Huggo

A new doctor finds himself with a ward full of catatonic patients. He is disturbed by them and the fact that they have been catatonic for decades with no hope of any cure. When he finds a possible chemical cure he gets permission to try it on one of them. When the first patient awakes, he is now in his 50s having gone into a catatonic state at 20 years of age. The film then delights in the new awareness of the patients and then on the reactions of their relatives to the changes in the newly awakened.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

A young boy named Leonard Lowe carves his name on a New York park bench while playing with his friends. But soon he is impacted by an unknown condition, and he can no longer concentrate. He was a bright student in class, but suddenly, he is unable write even a single sentence in his notebook without the line drooping away into gibberish. Leonard finds that his hands have started shaking in voluntarily.

In 1969, Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) is a dedicated and caring physician at a local Bainbridge hospital in the New York City borough of The Bronx. Sayer had applied for a research position at the hospital, as that was his prior experience as well, but was given the job of a staff Neurologist, as the hospital was heavily short staffed. Sayer was assigned to work with living patients. Sayer took the position as he needed a job and research positions were hard to come by.

At first, Sayer is overwhelmed by the abundance of misery at the hospital meant meant for chronic patients of mental diseases. With time, Sayer is introduced to catatonic patients at the hospital, who do not respond to any stimuli. Sayer discovers that one catatonic patient Lucy Fishman (Alice Drummond) responds when Sayer drops her glasses, and she moves her hand to catch it mid-air. Other doctors dismiss it as a reflex action. The hospital staff includes Dr Kaufman (John Heard), Dr Tyler (Bradley Whitford), Nurse Margaret (Mary Alice), Nurse Eleanor Costello and others.

After examining the files of all catatonic patients, Sayer determines that all of them are survivors of Encephalitis Lethargica, a disease which are discovered by Dr Peter Ingham (Max Von Sydow). Encephalitis Lethargica refers to an acute central nervous system infection, a rare neurological disease that affects both motor and mental functions. The disease impacted more than 1 million people worldwide and was suspected to be a viral infection.

Many of the patients were children when they contracted the disease. They developed neurological symptoms several years after their survived the infection itself. Peter says that the infection damaged the patients brains and their higher thinking faculties, and postulates that the patients are not thinking anymore.

After working extensively with the catatonic patients who survived the 1917-1928 epidemic of Encephalitis Lethargica, Sayer discovers certain stimuli will reach beyond the patients' respective catatonic states.

Actions such as catching a ball thrown at them, hearing familiar music, and experiencing human touch all have unique effects on particular patients and offer a glimpse into their worlds. Sayer learns from a mother Mrs Lowe (Ruth Nelson) that young kids communicate with their parents through actions and not words, and postulates that this might be the patient's way of communicating with the external world.

Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro) proves elusive in this regard, but Sayer soon discovers that Leonard is able to communicate with him by using a Ouija board. Leonard communicates the names of 3 books to Sayer, which tell him that Leonard feels like a caged Panther, restlessly marching up and down his cage, but powerless to do anything to escape it.

After attending a lecture at a conference on the subject of the L-Dopa drug and its success with patients suffering from Parkinson's Disease, Sayer believes the drug may offer a breakthrough for his own group of patients. A trial run with Leonard Lowe yields astounding results as Leonard completely "awakens" from his catatonic state; this success inspires Sayer to ask for funding from donors so that all the catatonic patients can receive the L-Dopa medication and experience "awakenings" back to reality.

Meanwhile, Leonard is adjusting to his new life and becomes romantically interested in Paula (Penelope Ann Miller), the daughter of another hospital patient and begins spending time with her when she comes to the hospital to visit her father.

Leonard also begins to chafe at the restrictions placed upon him as a patient of the hospital, desiring the freedom to come and go as he pleases and stirs up a bit of a revolt in the process of arguing his case repeatedly to Sayer and the hospital administration. Sayer notices that as Leonard grows more agitated battling administrators and staff about his perceived confinement, a number of facial and body tics are starting to manifest, and Leonard has difficulty controlling them.

While Sayer and the hospital staff continue to delight in the success of L-Dopa with this group of patients, they soon find that it is a temporary measure. As the first to "awaken", Leonard is also the first to demonstrate the limited duration of this period of "awakening".

Leonard's tics grow more and more prominent, and he starts to shuffle more as he walks, and all of the patients are forced to witness what will eventually happen to them. He soon begins to suffer full body spasms and can hardly move. Leonard, however, puts up well with the pain, and asks Sayer to film him, in hopes that he would someday contribute to research that may eventually help others.

Leonard acknowledges sadly what is happening to him and has a last lunch with Paula where he tells her he cannot see her anymore. When he is about to leave, Paula dances with him. For this short period of time, his spasms disappear. Leonard and Dr. Sayer reconcile their differences, but Leonard returns to his catatonic state soon after. The other patients' fears are similarly realized as each eventually returns to catatonia no matter how much their L-Dopa dosages are increased.

Sayer tells a group of grant donors to the hospital that although the "awakening" did not last, another kind one of learning to appreciate and live life took place. For example, he overcomes his painful shyness and asks Nurse Eleanor Costello (Julie Kavner) to go out for coffee, many months after he had declined a similar invitation from her. The nurses treat the catatonic patients with more respect and care, and Paula visits Leonard. Sayer and Leonard continue to communicate with the Ouija board.