.In addition to being pursued by an investigator for murder, he is also pursed by shapeshifters, "the strangers." They can bend walls into doors, and turn day into night. In the beginning this man is utterly powerless against them and can only run. The strangers meet together as a group and harness a form of collective conciousness to wield their powers and manage their experiments.

In the movie's end the man finds that he too has the power to shapeshift. He alters his surroundings which strikes terror in the lives of the strangers who thought their powers were absolute before encountering this strange man. Challenged in their own forums of play the strangers conclude that this man is like a messiah and could end their rule.

The movie has many similiarites to the Matrix movie. In Dark City a man believed to be mad discovers that the city he lives in is a manfacatured lie created for the purposes of a group of shaepshifting aliens. In the Matrix the world is a computer simulation. Both the Matrix, and Dark City presented a chosen being that upset the balance of power. Big trenchcoats were even in both movies. But while the Matrix was more a kung fu movie with a sci-fi theme, Dark City is a sci-fi film with a theme mainly of thought.