CIVIC-TV is a small Toronto based UHF television station headed by Max Renn. The station is notorious for airing a line up of shocking shows featuring softcore pornography and/or graphic, excessive violence. Despite this though Max is jaded and feels that his current line up isn’t scandalous enough to maintain his viewership seeking out ever more extreme shows to draw in an even larger audience share.
He is called to report one morning to the underground office of CIVIC-TV’s prime operator, Harlan. The station owns an illegal satellite dish array that can pick up broadcasts from countries as far away as Asia. In the privacy of his office Harlan has Max watch a few minutes worth of a gonzo TV show showing scenes of horrid cruelty being inflicted on nameless victims before they are eventually dispatched in an equally gory manner in a squalid, red-lit room. Harlan reveals that this show is entitled Videodrome and it is supposedly being aired from Malaysia. The show is precisely what Max is looking for, even deeming it as “the future of television” and he immediately commands the completely unlicensed televising the show via their station.
Shortly after relaying Videodrome Max begins to experience vivid visions of violence and lurid sex making it difficult to determine the real and the imagined; to complicate matters even more, the scandalous nature of CIVIC-TV’s programs draws the attention of other media personalities, notably radio host and psychiatrist Nicki Brand and professor cum philosopher cum pop-culture analyst who goes under the alias Brian O’Blivion. Max is invited to appear on Nicki Brand’s show for an interview and to be given a chance to defend his station’s choice of programs as the host denounces it for being sensationalized garbage. The enigmatic Professor O’Blivion chooses though to never appear live but rather as an image broadcasted remotely into a TV set that is brought on the show premises. Prof. O’blivion on the other hand gives an equally mysterious discourse predicting a future where television shows usurps real life.
Max manages to win Nicki over and begin seeing each other. He shows her an episode of Videodrome and rather than be disgusted she is intensely aroused. Max succeeds in convincing Nicki into having sadomasochistic sex with him as they watch the show. As they continue releasing the show Max eventually finds out that Videodrome isn’t actually being broadcast from Malaysia. It is in truth a cleverly set-up defensive strategy employed by the show producers to prevent the discovery of the actual location of their studio, which is located in Pittsburgh. Max divulges his discovery to Nicki, who is now a rabid fan of the show. She promptly leaves for Pittsburgh telling Max that it is for a business trip; in truth though it is actually to audition for a part in Videodrome’s plot less violent sex scenes. Unsurprisingly, Nicki is never seen again.
Nicki’s disappearance fuels Max to search for the truth behind the show and his search takes him to Masha, a producers of softporn shows. Max learns that the footage used in Videodrome 100% real and that it is more than just a show but rather the public arm of a shadowy political faction with very mysterious motives. Masha also discloses that the inscrutable Prof. O’Blivion knows more about Videodrome than anyone else within their circles. In his quest to get more answers Max makes his way to the Cathode Ray Mission, a homeless shelter where in addition to giving food, clothing, and shelter, they also provide and encourage those taking refuge into taking part of marathon TV sessions. Prof. O’blivion’s daughter Bianca manages the shelter in order to further their organization’s goal of realizing a world where TV replaces every aspect of human life.
Max manages to worm his way into the inner circles of the show and learns that Videodrome part of a greater socio-political battlefield for dominance for the minds of the viewers of the USA. Not long after learning the secrets of the show and the organization Max begins experiencing even more lucid visions of his torso developing a large pouch-like opening serving a similar function as a VCR. These grotesque transformations are the result of watching Videodrome, Bianca explains. She also explains that the show carries a signal that causes certain types of viewers to develop aggressive brain tumors. Her father had discovered that his partners wanted to weaponize this feature and he tried to stop them, resulting in his own death. O’Blivion however, being a true visionary made thousands of recordings of himself about his musings on television, explaining his refusal to appear “live.”
Soon Max is approached by the Spectacular Optical Corporation---Videodrome's producer. The Spectacular Optical Corporation is also a company that produces eyewear but is actually the respectable business front of an arms manufacturing company. His partner, Harlan, has actually been working covertly for the head of Spectacular Optical, Barry Convex. Their objective is to expose Max to Videodrome, giving him the urge to broadcast the show as part of a greater scheme to “weed out” the “lowlifes” of North America by giving terminal brain cancer to individuals hooked on programs filled with sex and violence.
Max’s prolonged exposure to the show causes the bizarre opening in his torso that he sees in his hallucinations to actually manifest in his physical body. Using this knowledge, Convex inserts a indoctrinating video tape into his VCR, and under Convex’s control Max goes on a shooting spree, killing his co-workers and attempting to kill Bianca O’Blivion. She manages to stop him by showing him footage of Nicki’s brutal death. Bianca then uses another videotape to turn him against S.O.C. and he manages to kill both Harlan and Convex, crippling Videodrome temporarily.
His involvement in this clandestine revolution though has made Max a wanted man. Hiding out on a rundown boat Nicki appears to him via a television broadcast. She informs him that he has successfully undermined Videodrome’s grip on North America, but to truly defeat the organization he must “leave the old flesh,” which is followed by an image of Max shooting himself in the head which in turn causes the TV set to explode in a shower of bloody chunks of flesh. Max takes the hint and promptly shoots himself ending the film. It is presumed that Max has now taken the fight to the airwaves, possibly as a form of a sentient television frequency.
