The film is about Jeremy "Powder" Reed, who has an incredible intellect, as well as telepathy and paranormal powers like controlling lightning and magnetism.

Jeremy "Powder" Reed is a young albino man who has incredible intellect and is able to sense the thoughts of the people around him.

Jeremy's brain possesses a powerful electromagnetic charge, which causes electrical objects to function abnormally when he is around them, particularly when he becomes emotional.

Jessie Caldwell, a child services psychologist, takes him to a boys' home because he is now effectively a ward of the state.

On a hunting trip with his schoolmates, Jeremy is threatened with a gun by John Box, an aggressive student who views him as a freak.

Before John can fire, a gun goes off in the distance, and everyone rushes to see that Harley Duncan, a Sheriff's deputy, has shot a doe.

Through Jeremy, the sheriff learns that his wife clings onto life because she did not want to die while not wearing her wedding ring and without him reconciling with his estranged son, Steven.

Eventually, a large spherical electromagnetic pulse erupts throwing Jeremy into a mud puddle and everyone else to the ground.

Salva personally wanted Goldsmith to score the music of the film because he had been "an enormous fan" of the composer's work.

Disney officials reported that they learned of Salva's crime only after production of Powder had begun, and stressed that there were no minors on the set for the film.

[6] When Powder was released, the victim, Nathan Forrest Winters, came forward again in an attempt to get others to boycott the film in protest at Disney's hiring Salva.