Hollow Man
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| Hollow Man | |
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 Film poster for Hollow Man |
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| Directed by | Paul Verhoeven |
| Produced by | Stacy Lumbrezer Alan Marshall Marion Rosenberg |
| Written by | Gary Scott Thompson Andrew W. Marlowe |
| Starring | Elisabeth Shue Kevin Bacon Josh Brolin |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Jost Vacano |
| Editing by | Mark Goldblatt |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 2, 2000 |
| Running time | 112 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $95,000,000 |
| Followed by | Hollow Man 2 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Hollow Man is a 2000 Academy award-nominated science fiction thriller film , starring Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, and Josh Brolin and directed by Paul Verhoeven. The film is about a scientist who makes himself invisible, a story which is inspired by H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man.
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects in 2000. The sequel Hollow Man 2 was released direct-to-video in 2006.
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[edit] Plot
This film begins with someone dropping a rat in a hallway. It runs into a cage, trapped, then goes to a bowl of water and is picked up and decapitated by an unseen force which blood soon reveals to be an invisible gorilla. The scene moves to the apartment of Dr. Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon), a brilliant but egotistical scientist who works on an invisibility serum for the US military. His current project is reversing the invisibility effect on his test subject, a female gorilla named Isabelle (which killed the rat in the opening), on his computer. It is incomplete so he eats a Twinkie and gives up. Then he tries one more time and completes reversion 100%.
Although he works on the serum virtually non-stop, he still finds time to obsess about his ex-girlfriend Linda McKay (Elisabeth Shue), another scientist on his team, and the new man in her life Matt Kensington (Josh Brolin), yet another team member. Caine and his team that also includes their animal vet Sarah Kennedy (Kim Dickens) and Carter Abbey (Greg Grunberg), Frank Chase (Joey Slotnick) and Janice Walton (Mary Randle) eventually do figure out how to get the serum to work on animals, bringing the gorilla back to visibility. Afterwards the team eagerly looks forward to getting clearance for clinical trials on humans.
Instead of reporting his success to the military, Caine inexplicably lies to the oversight committee including Dr. Howard Kramer, and decides to test the serum on himself. After some initial difficulties, the procedure is a success. Caine then goes through some lab tests. But when it comes time to bring him back to visibility the reversion fails.
The team constructs a latex mask for Caine to wear around the lab, approximating a human appearance. However, his isolation and effective imprisonment in the lab begins to wear on his patience. Disobeying Carter and his own orders, Caine heads back to his apartment. At his apartment, temptation gets the best of Caine, and he first spies on his neighbor (played by Rhona Mitra), and then proceeds to attack her.
Caine returns to the lab just as the others were planning to go after him. Linda warns him that if he leaves again she and Matt will tell Kramer what they did. Sebastian, not one to listen, uses some of the lab equipment to build a recording device to capture his heat signature in his quarters; the repeating image fools Frank into believing that he is still in the lab, when, in fact, Caine is out spying on Matt and Linda.
Sebastian is furious that Matt and Linda are together, and smashes their bedroom window. The two call Frank, who tells them that Caine is still in his bed. Meanwhile Caine returns to the lab. He becomes frustrated and angered at the thought of Matt and Linda together, and when he can no longer stand the annoying bark of an invisible dog, he kills it. The team soon discovers that they have been watching a recording and that Caine has been getting out without their knowledge.
Linda and Matt go to Kramer's House and confess about their experiments with Caine. Kramer is angry, and tells them that they are fired from the project. He then attempts to call the military and inform them about Caine, however, Caine had followed Linda and Matt to Kramer's house. Caine tricks Kramer into leaving the house and then drowns him in his own swimming pool.
The next day Caine waits until all of the team is in the lab and then disables all of the elevator codes except for his own. He removes his clothing and latex mask and, invisible, begins to hunt them all. Janice falls behind while the team searches for Caine and he strangles her with a wire.
Matt, Linda, Carter, Sarah and Frank learn what Sebastian is up to, realizing that they are the only ones who know what he is and he is, therefore, planning to get rid of them. They hide in the lab while Carter and Matt take tranquilizer guns to go hunting for Caine in the empty hallways using thermographic imaging goggles. Matt shoots at a heat signature that turns out to be from a steam vent. Suddenly Carter is yanked into the air by Caine and has his neck gashed on a jagged edge, his carotid artery hit. Caine almost kills Matt but Linda drags him to safety.
Sarah and Frank find the unconscious and severely injured Carter. Sarah runs to the freezer to get blood for a transfusion. There, Caine corners her. She sprays the blood all over the room, rendering Caine visible. Caine tackles her and shoots her with her tranquilizer dart, then breaks her neck.
Matt, Linda and Frank hurry to the freezer and find Sarah in the freezer room. Frank sprays a fire extinguisher to expose Caine but is impaled by a crowbar. He then stabs Matt with the same crowbar, but doesn't hit any organs. Caine locks them both in the freezer, setting the temperature very low, and leaves to let them freeze to death.
Caine puts on his latex mask and clothing, spending much time to ensure he looks near-human. Meanwhile, Linda dresses Matt's shallow wound with duct tape and then works out a way to escape from the freezer. Caine goes to the lab and mixes nitroglycerin to blow up the lab. Linda constructs an electromagnet using lab equipment, and uses it to open the door. She lights a fire to warm Matt and gathers the parts needed for a flame-thrower. Caine puts the nitro in a centrifuge and starts a timer. Just as he is entering the elevator to leave Linda appears and hits him with fire. His latex and clothes burning, Caine just manages to escape. Linda uses the flame thrower to start the ceiling sprinklers, revealing Caine. The two fight; just as she is about to lose, Matt appears and hits Caine with the crowbar, and then electrocutes him. As the electricity courses through his body, Caine is rendered partially visible: his muscles, bones, and organs can be seen, but his skin and hair remain invisible.
Linda and Matt find the nitro about to explode, and decide to abandon the lab, climbing up the elevator shaft. The lab explodes filling the shaft with fire. The two are almost out when Caine appears. He fights with Linda and she finally kills him by throwing him down the elevator shaft into the inferno below.
[edit] Cast
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[edit] Controversy
Despite receiving mixed critical reaction, one supporter of the film at the time of its release was film critic David Manning who gave the film critical praise. In late 2001, however, Manning was revealed to be fictitious, created by Sony to fake publicity for the film.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Full Cast and Crew for Hollow Man (2000); accessed on October 1, 2006
- ^ Sony admits using fake reviewer, BBC News, June 4, 2001
[edit] External links
- Hollow Man at the Internet Movie Database
- Hollow Man at Allmovie
- Hollow Man at Rotten Tomatoes
- Official Court Notice of David Manning settlement
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