Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I remember seeing previews for Impostor months ago when I went to see some other movie. I thought it looked interesting, but I didn’t really think it was something I wanted to see. A few days ago, I was looking for a movie to rent and I saw Impostor there. I had forgotten that it had even been out in theaters. I’m not sure why I rented it, but I did.

CAST

Gary Sinise - Spence Olham
Madeline Stowe - Maya Olham
Vincent D’Onofrio - Major D.H. Hathaway
Tony Shalhoub - Nelson Cuttes
Time Guinee - Dr. Carone
Mekhi Phifer - Cale
Elizabeth Pena - Midwife
Cary Dourdan - Captain Burke
Lindsay Course - Chancellor

Gary Fleder - Director

Impostor is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. The movie was rated PG-13 when it was in theaters for some violence, some sensuality, and language. The director’s cut DVD is rated R for strong violence. I don’t think anyone should waste their time watching this movie, but definitely no children should watch this movie.

PLOT

The movie begins by showing some scenes from Spence Olham’s childhood. The Earth has been attacked by aliens. Spence’s father is a member of the military fighting the aliens. He is captured and killed by the enemy. Spence grows up to build a huge weapon that will be used against the aliens.

It is the year 2079. Spence is happily married to Maya, a doctor. One morning, Spence sees a news report about a recent alien attack and a forest fire. When he goes to work with his friend Nelson that morning, he notices that security is a lot tighter. He also notices that some of the security seems to be keeping an eye on him. The Chancellor is coming to town, and Spence assumes that the tightened security is because of that. A man, D.H. Hathaway, a major in the ESA, introduces himself to Spence. As a result of that meeting, Spence is drugged and arrested by Hathaway.

The ESA believes that Spence is actually a replicant robot with a bomb in his chest. The aliens use the replicants to kill targets on Earth. The replicants look human, sweat, and bleed. They kill humans and take on the appearance of the human. The replicants also have all of the human’s memories, and in fact, don’t even realize that they aren’t human. The bombs in the replicants are set to go off once the replicant is near the target.

When Spence comes to, he is restrained in a chair, and Hathaway makes his accusations about the real Spence being dead and the man in the chair being the replicant. Spence, of course insists that he is human and not a replicant. Hathaway shares the evidence that he has for Spence being an alien assassin. Hathaway is ready to use a nasty looking machine that will drill into Spence’s chest to remove the bomb right then. He isn’t willing to wait for more conclusive evidence, or run any other tests to make sure. Spence manages to escape, and he goes on the run while trying to prove that he really is human. Hathaway chases after him, determined to find Spence before the bomb can detonate. Spence meets up with a man, Cale, that helps him to get back into the city undetected. Maya knows what the ESA believes, and she doesn’t know what to believe. Spence gets the idea that there is some scan that he can have done at the hospital and compare his results to his records from a few years ago to prove that he is human.

I didn’t like Impostor at all. It wasn’t interesting to me in any way, and I didn’t care what happened to the characters. I really didn’t like any of them. There is basically no character development for anyone, so the characters didn’t seem like real people to me at all. Was Spence an innocent human or a replicant with a bomb in his chest sent by the aliens? I didn’t care what he was. Once that question is finally resolved in the movie, I had long since lost interest in everything that was going on. I was just glad that the movie was over by then.

Impostor is meant to be a suspenseful science fiction movie. There is nothing suspenseful about this movie at all. I thought it was very boring. I kept checking the clock to see how much longer was left. There really isn’t a lot that happens in the movie. Impostor is based on a short story, so there really isn’t enough material for a full length movie. It felt that many scenes in the movie were only there to stretch the running time out longer. There was no real reason for many scenes to even be in the movie.

Impostor was originally meant to be part of a science fiction trilogy as a short movie. It started out at about thirty-seven minutes long. While they were filming, someone with the studio got the bright idea that this would make a great full length movie. More scenes were added to the movie to make the running time ninety five minutes. It is very obvious that many scenes were added just to serve as filler to make the movie longer. There are several chase scenes, and a few scenes where Spence is having some weird hallucinations that didn’t add a thing to the movie. They just made it drag out far longer than it ever should have been. All the chase scenes were basically the same, with a few other scenes tossed in between them. Just about all of the scenes that were added to the original short movie version to make it into a full length movie were chase scenes of some sort. When a chase scene is done correctly, they can be very suspenseful. They were not suspenseful in any way in Impostor.

There was a little bit of action in Impostor, but it wasn’t enough to keep the movie interesting. There is some violence in a few scenes. There is a lot of blood in some of the violent scenes, and even in one or two that aren’t really violent. There are some disgusting and gory things shown a few times. Those things were not pleasant to see. People who don’t like to see violence in movies should not watch this movie. People who can’t stand to see gory things should avoid this movie also.

There is one scene of a sensual nature in Impostor. It happens at the beginning of the movie. Spence and Maya are making love, rolling around in their bed. Some skin is shown, but there really isn’t any nudity shown. I don’t think that scene would offend anyone. Spence is shirtless in a few scenes and that is it for nudity in the movie. Gary Sinise looked like he was in good shape when this movie was made.

Impostor is set in the future. The sets did look futuristic. Some of them were very interesting looking. Technology seems to be very advanced in the time of this movie. People have video cell phones. They travel on some sort of flying things that they call bugs. Special effects were used to create the futuristic aspects of the movie. The special effects were actually very well done. Too bad they were wasted on a lousy movie. There was some very jerky camera work used at times in the movie. It was so bad it was making me dizzy. Those scenes were usually showing the hallucinations or flashbacks that Spence was having after he escaped.

There were some things about Impostor that just didn’t make sense to me. Hathaway, the ESA agent, is willing to kill people he believes are replicant assassins with little evidence to support his beliefs. Hathaway is basing his belief that Spence is a replicant assassin on the fact that Spence’s name showed up on a list as a target for the aliens. How did Hathaway know that the alien had killed the real Spence and assumed his identity? The alien may not have gotten to Spence yet. Or maybe the ESA decoded the list wrong. Hathaway refuses to even consider that or the fact that maybe the aliens hadn’t killed and replaced Spence yet. Hathaway is willing, even eager, to use that machine to ripe out Spence’s heart. At one point in the movie, Hathaway even admits that he has killed innocent people in the past that he assumed were replicants. Technology is very advanced at the time the movie is set. The aliens have been using replicants with bombs for years, so why wasn’t some kind of test developed that would be able to tell for sure if a suspect was still human or a replicant with a bomb? Of course, if there had been a test like that, then the movie would have been over in about fifteen minutes. That would have been a huge improvement.

The Earth has been at war for years with the aliens, the Alpha Centauris. The aliens are supposed to be very cruel and nasty. Human are very afraid of them. The aliens are never shown, not even once, during the movie. Also, unless I fell asleep and missed it, there is never an explanation given for why the aliens attacked. There didn’t need to be a big long drawn out explanation for that, but I would have liked to know what caused the attack in the first place.

The acting in Impostor wasn’t that bad. The actors did the best they could with the material they had to work with. If they had a better script to work with, then the acting probably would’ve been a lot better. There was no real character development. Spence was developed just a tiny bit, and the other characters not at all. Hathaway is in several scenes, but he is a flat character. Maya only shows up in a very few scenes. She was in several of the scenes in the original short version of the movie, but when the movie was made longer, she only showed up in one or two more scenes. There really wasn’t anything for her to do in the movie.

CHARACTERS

Spence Olham - He is a scientist who has been working on a huge bomb type weapon that will be used against the aliens. He is married to a doctor. He is convinced that he is a human, though he seems to know some things that Spence shouldn’t know. He seems to really love his wife. The death of his father when he was a child greatly influenced his life.

Maya Olham - She is Spence’s wife. She is a doctor who runs a veteran’s hospital. She seems to be very conflicted about what is going on with Spence. She isn’t sure what to believe.

D.H. Hathaway - He is an ESA agent. He believes that Spence is a replicant and is all set to have his heart removed with a very nasty machine. Hathaway is willing to go on circumstantial evidence, and isn’t even willing to consider that he has made a mistake, or that some more evidence is needed. He admits that he has killed innocent people in the past. He is nasty at times. He is focused on his job and he does want to protect the Earth from the aliens, but the way he does that makes him seem very cold and unfeeling and uncaring of if he kills innocent people along the way.

DVD EXTRAS

I rented Impostor on DVD. There are a few extras on the DVD, but not to many. There is a behind the scenes part that shows some of the scenes being filmed. People involved with the movie also talk about it. Some of those people were really going on and on about how great they thought this movie was. I really wonder if they actually believed that at the time somehow, or if they were just saying those things. It was also explained how some of the special effects were done and sets built.

The original short version of the movie is also included on the DVD. This version is just under forty minutes long, and it is still too long. In this version, almost as soon as Spence escapes, he ends up at this other location that is where the final scene takes place. All of the repetitive chase scenes were added in to make the movie longer. The scenes where Spence is suffering some sort of hallucinations or flashbacks or something were also added in.

There were also some previews to some other DVDs. There is an option for having subtitles in some different languages. There is an option for scene selections, but I don’t consider that an extra.

Impostor is one of the worst movies I have ever sat through. It is very boring and dull. There is no reason why anyone should watch this movie. I don’t recommend Impostor to anyone. Save your time and money.



Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age