United States

PEOPLE ARE NUMBERED. LOVE IS FORBIDDEN. YOU ARE BEING WATCHED.

The setting is a future society of sophisticated technology in a subterranean city.

Sex is outlawed; each individual has a number, not a name. Human responses and inclinations are suppressed by constant surveillance, robot policemen, and a diet of tranquilliser drugs.

In this computer programmed world one couple, THX 1138 and Ll.-JH 3417 start breaking the rules. They reduce their drugs intake, make love, and a child is conceived.

SEN 5241 wants to break this up, claiming to have engineered the computers so that THX has been designated as his room mate. THX has other pre-occupations. Lessening his drug dosage has reduced his standard of work. This is an offence. He is arrested and put in prison, where he finds a similar fate has befallen SEN.

Exploring the strange, void-like confines, they encounter a man who claims to know an escape route……..