Launched in 1977, the Voyager 2 space probe carried a gold phonographic disk with a message of peace, inviting visitors to visit planet Earth. The Voyager 2 probe is intercepted by an alien ship. Responding to the invitation, they send a small scout vessel to establish first contact with Earth. But instead of greeting the craft, the government shoots the alien down. Crashing in Chequamegon Bay, Wisconsin, the alien, looking like a blue ball of energy, finds the home of recently widowed Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen). While there, the alien uses a lock of hair from her deceased husband, a house-painter named Scott Hayden, to clone a new body which a stunned Jenny witnesses. The Starman (Jeff Bridges) has seven small silver spheres which provide energy to perform miraculous feats. He uses the first to send a message to his people about his craft being destroyed and that the environment is hostile. He arranges to rendezvous with them at "landing area one" in three days time. He then uses the second sphere to create a holographic map of the United States, coercing Jenny into taking him to Arizona. As the shock wears off, Jenny turns both hostile and frightened of him. After repeatedly attempting to escape, she finally implores the Starman to shoot her with her pistol. But instead he releases the pistol's magazine and tells her he means no harm. As they continue on their journey, the Starman, who had a rough understanding of English syntax from the Voyager 2 disk, learns to communicate with Jenny, who in turn teaches him that humanity is not completely savage. He explains to Jenny that he has three days to get to the rendezvous point, Arizona's Barringer Crater, or he will die. She teaches him how to drive a car and use credit cards, intending on escaping so he can continue his journey alone. However, as she is about to make her escape, she witnesses him miraculously resurrect a dead deer. Deeply moved, she resolves to help him at whatever cost. Along the way, they
Paul manages to find his son Scott in an orphanage, but he has trouble winning the boy's trust.
Although on the run from Fox in a newly purchased used car, Paul and Scott stop to help a woman who is having car trouble and is also on the run, having just kidnapped her own daughter.
Trouble with their truck in the desert forces Paul and Scott to seek refuge at a woman's experimental aircraft plant, whose problems could be worsened due to an unrecognized flaw in her father's radical airplane design, and for the first time Paul tries to resume his body's former job as a photographer.
When Scott decides to try out the blue sphere's otherworldly powers, the light causes a small town sheriff to report that he has seen a flying saucer and put Paul and Scott in jail, with Fox on the way.
Encountering a couple who knew the real Paul Forrester, Paul and Scott's problems are compounded when the wife declares that she still loves Paul and wants to resume their affair.
The search for Jenny Hayden leads Paul and Scott to a mental institution where a woman may have a valuable lead for them, unless the whole thing is an elaborate trap.
Weary of their life on the run, Paul and Scott start to enjoy staying in one place for a while, but when Paul sees that they must move on, Scott rebels.
Coming across an injured peregrine falcon, Paul risks his freedom to seek the help of a veterinarian.
Paul takes Scott to see his foster father's sister, a wealthy widow who has a $10,000 inheritance for the boy, but she wants to gain custody of Scott for herself, even if this requires betraying Paul to his pursuers.
The fugitives get a brief respite when Agent Fox is taken off Paul's case, but then Paul's life is endangered by a common cold and Scott comes to realize how much he would miss his newfound father.
Paul receives a letter from the real Paul's mother that prompts him to return to Paul's home town for the Christmas holidays, but when he arrives the woman says she did not send the letter and asks him to leave.
A simple traffic violation causes Paul to be arrested, when a computer check reveals an old contempt citation regarding photographs taken by the real Paul of an attorney charged with murder.
When a blind girl receives acid burns, Paul heals her. Unfortunately she wants her eyes healed as well.
Paul falls in love with an astronomer who is having a crisis of conscious over the military's funding of her research.
While going through Las Vegas, Paul and Scott pick up a woman. while they are away, she steals their vehicle. She then proceeds to sell it and gamble it all away. A hotel thinking that he is ""Paul Forrester"" gives him a room. They find the lot where she sold the vehicle and recover their belongings including the spheres. Paul later shows her herself and she finally decides to try and change her ways. And when they leave the hotel they discover that they accumulated a very large bill.
Paul is taken to Mexico and is held prisoner. He must escape and help a pregnant women sneak into the United States to look for the father of her child.
Paul and Scott are tricked into a scam by two con-man.
The owner of a fishing fleet hires Paul to photograph his daughter's wedding.
Paul and Scott are being followed by a boy who reveals that he is Paul's son.
Paul recognizes his home star in a painting. He seeks out and finds the artist who painted it: Jenny Hayden.
Paul convinces Jenny that he really is who he says he is. Together they search for Scott who has gone missing.
Paul answers an ad for a "pearl diver", which he learns upon arriving at the diner is a dishwasher. Scott goes to school. While working at the diner, Paul discovers that his co-worker is illiterate. Scott's teacher talks to Paul about their gypsy ways and thinks that Paul should consider staying in one place so Scott can explore his full potential. Paul then brings his co-worker to her, so that he can learn how to read.
