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The film begins when an oil pipeline layer named Chester (Cambridge) returns to his suburban Los Angeles home from the North Pole, bringing with him a small sample of a mysterious frozen substance uncovered by a bulldozer on a job site. On the way to a lab to be analyzed, he places the storage container with the substance in his freezer, but he and his wife accidentally let it thaw on the kitchen countertop - which releases "the Blob" (the same "Blob" in the original 1958 film). It starts by eating a fly, then a kitten, Chester's wife, and then Chester himself. Lisa (Gilford) walks in on Chester in the process of being devoured by the Blob, and escapes, but cannot get anyone to believe her, not even her boyfriend Bobby (Walker). Meanwhile the rapidly-growing creature quietly preys upon the town: some of its victims include a cop and two hippies (Cindy Williams and Randy Stonehill) in a storm drain, a barber (Shelley Berman) and his client (in an unnerving scene), transients (played by director Hagman, Burgess Meredith and Del Close), a Scout Master (Dick Van Patten), a farm-full of chickens, a bar full of people (off camera), a hippie in a dune buggy (Gerrit Graham) and his girlfriend (Carol Lynley). The now-massive blob invades a bowling alley and a skating rink (consuming dozens more people in the process). No spoiler on the ending. ;)
In 1982 the film was re-issued with the tagline "The film that J.R. shot!" in an attempt to capitalize on the success of Hagman's television series Dallas.
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