This is the most ambitious of all Hellraiser movies in terms of plot. Fans are given three separate timelines, all of them tracing the bloodline of the puzzle maker. The first timeline begins in the year 2127. Dr. Paul Merchant is seen aboard a spaceship of his design, programming a robot to solve the Lament Configuration.
The second timeline is set in 1796. Philip LeMarchand, a French toy maker, is commissioned by a lecherous aristocrat to create a puzzle box, which, unbeknownst to him, is intended to open a portal to hell. Realizing what he has done, he tries to make an anti-Lament Configuration to close the portal, only to find out that his bloodline is now cursed.
The third timeline is set in the present (1996), where his descendant, John Merchant, has just finished building a new skyscraper that resembles the Lament Configuration.
The movie encountered many problems during production. Its critical and financial failure at the box office would make it the last Hellraiser movie to receive wide theatrical distribution. The script would be re-written several times (giving the film a happy ending), and new scenes shot upon the insistence of the film's distributor, Miramax, which happens to be owned by Disney. The film would also be the last Hellraiser where Clive Barker would have a hand in its creation.