Dr Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) has devoted her life to probing paranormal phenomena with her trusty assistant Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy).

She shares her experiences by lecturing university students including Sally (Elizabeth Olsen) and Ben (Craig Roberts) but Margaret’s unerring scepticism pits her against Professor Paul Shackleton (Toby Jones), who believes science cannot explain everything.

Out of the blue, the investigator’s great adversary — spoon-bending blind psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) — comes out of retirement and embarks on a lucrative theatre tour with his agent Monica Handsen (Joely Richardson).

Tom feels passionately that Margaret should debunk Silver but the closer he strays towards Silver, the more powerful the blind psychic becomes, putting the paranormal investigators on a collision course with disaster.