Critical Mass

Los Angeles: BOYD, a California blond, is a failed medical student. He has become the "Friday Killer," compulsively strangling a random victim every Friday. He sees himself as The Human Antibody, a reflection of society as an autoimmune disease with himself at the center. Hiller, the detective hunting Boyd, suffers from fatigue and a strange feeling of detachment. A bizarre coincidence pushes the action into crisis mode: A shootout between mercenaries results in a small atomic bomb being hastily stashed at the house where Boyd is staying. Finding the bomb convinces Boyd of his true mission as destroyer/martyr. He is now primed to destroy Los Angeles. Hiller, knowing nothing about the bomb, closes in on Boyd. It turns out Boyd's horrible compulsion and despair is caused by an allergy to a factory chemical emitted on Fridays. Hiller's problem, too, is an allergy. A standoff at the factory: Boyd's thumb is pressed on a detonator switch designed to go off when he lets go. Boyd dies when Hiller's careful marksmanship shatters the bomb apart into useless but radioactive pieces. The factory is sealed up tight for 900 years of quarantine: a monumental reminder.