After 10 years of devastating warfare on Planet Sirius 6B a distant mining planet Commander Joseph Hendricksson (Peter Weller) is assigned to protect his outpost from the New Economic Block. His scientists have created a perfect weapon designed to destroy all enemy life - a blade wielding self-replicating race of killing devices known as Screamers. But something has gone wrong - the Screamers continue to evolve without any human guidance cloning themselves into human form and obliterating all forms of human life. Betrayed by his own political leaders and disgusted by the atrocities of the endless war Hendricksson decides he must negotiate peace with the enemy. But to do so he must first destroy the very weapon he helped to create - the Screamers!