The siblings Noah and Emma travel with their mother Jo from Seattle to the family cottage in Whidbey Island to spend a couple of days while their workaholic father David Wilder is working. They find a box of toys from the future in the water and bring it home, and Emma finds a stuffed rabbit called Mimzy, and stones and a weird object, but they hide their findings from their parents. Mimzy talks telepathically to Emma and the siblings develop special abilities, increasing their intelligences to the level of genius. Their father becomes very proud when Noah presents a magnificent design in the fair of science and technology, and his teacher Larry White and his mystic wife Naomi Schwartz become interested in the boy when he draws a mandala. When Noah accidentally assembles the objects and activates a powerful generator creating a blackout in the state, the FBI arrests the family trying to disclose the mystery. But Emma unravels the importance to send Mimzy back to the future.

The first scene of Noah's science class starts at 02:03 by zooming out from the balding spot on Rainn Wilson's head. Director Robert Shaye "wanted to indicate he was an aging hippie."

Emma Wilder:
Do you want to see a magic trick I can do with my hands?

Errors in geography: (At 01:57) The film takes place entirely in Seattle, but in one of the early scenes, they show a closeup of Noah's cellphone with a Bell Canada logo clearly visible on it.

Performed by Roger Waters
Written by Roger Waters and Howard Shore
Produced by Roger Waters, James Guthrie and Howard Shore
Roger Waters appears courtesy of Columbia Records
Special vocal appearance by Rhiannon Leigh Wryn