Jump to content

Hollow Man

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 50.171.232.169 (talk) at 02:14, 24 December 2013 (→Cast). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other uses, see The Hollow Man (disambiguation).
Hollow Man
Film poster for Hollow Man
Directed byPaul Verhoeven
Screenplay byAndrew W. Marlowe
Story byGary Scott Thompson
Andrew W. Marlowe
Produced byDouglas Wick
Alan Marshall
Stacy Lumbrezer (co-producer)
Marion Rosenberg (executive producer)
StarringKevin Costner
Elisabeth Shue
Josh Brolin
Kim Dickens
Greg Grunberg
Joey Slotnick
Mary Randle
William Devane
CinematographyJost Vacano
Edited byMark Goldblatt
Ron Vignone (extended version)
Music byJerry Goldsmith
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • August 4, 2000 (2000-08-04)
Running time
119 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$95 million
Box office$190,213,455[1]

Hollow Man is a 2000 American science fiction-thriller-horror film directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Kevin Costner, Elisabeth Shue, and Josh Brolin. The film is about a scientist who renders himself invisible, a story inspired by H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects in 2001, but lost to Gladiator. A direct-to-video sequel called Hollow Man 2 starring Christian Slater and Peter Facinelli was released in 2006.

Plot

Scientist Sebastian Caine (Kevin Costner) has developed a serum that can make a subject invisible. His team of scientists, which includes ex-girlfriend Dr. Linda McKay (Elisabeth Shue) and Dr. Matt Kensington (Josh Brolin), eventually enable the serum to work on a gorilla and restore it to visibility. Sebastian becomes obsessed with Linda while unbeknownst to him, she has become involved with Matt.

Instead of reporting his success to the military, Sebastian lies to the oversight committee which includes his mentor Dr. Howard Kramer (William Devane), convincing his team to go right into human testing. The procedure is successfully performed on Sebastian, but three days later, the reversion fails.

Sebastian is quarantined in the laboratory due to his condition and the researchers construct a latex mask for him to wear around the lab. Unable to cope with the isolation, he heads to his apartment to bring some things back to the lab. There, he spies on his neighbor (Rhona Mitra) and rapes her while fully invisible.

Linda warns him that if he leaves again, she and Matt will tell the committee about the experiment. Ignoring their threat, Sebastian assembles a device that runs a video loop of his heat signature in his quarters. He leaves the lab again and spies on Linda and Matt, becoming enraged when he sees them having sex.

The team soon discover that they have been watching a recording and that Sebastian has been escaping without their knowledge. Linda and Matt go to Dr. Kramer's house and confess their experiments. After they leave, Kramer attempts to warn the military, but Sebastian, who followed Linda and Matt to the house, drowns him in his own swimming pool.

The next day, Sebastian waits until all of the team is in the lab and then disables the phones and all of the elevator codes except for his own. He removes his clothing and latex mask and, invisible, begins to hunt them all down.

Linda and the others hide in the lab while Matt and another technician take tranquilizer guns to hunt for Sebastian using thermal imaging goggles. While on top of a pipe, Sebastian throws the technician toward a steel bar, which hits his carotid artery. Matt tries to shoot Sebastian, but is instead almost killed by Sebastian until Linda drags him to safety.

One of the researchers heads to the freezer to get blood for a transfusion but is killed by Sebastian. He then attacks the others with a crowbar and locks Linda and Matt in the freezer, leaving them to freeze to death.

Linda constructs an electromagnet using a defibrillator and uses it to open the freezer door. She then gathers parts to assemble a flamethrower. Sebastian goes to the lab and creates nitroglycerin and puts it in a centrifuge with a timer to destroy the facility.

Just as he enters the elevator to leave, Linda appears and fires the flamethrower at him. Sebastian barely manages to escape the flames and the two fight. Just as she is about to lose, Matt appears and hits Sebastian with the crowbar. Sebastian recovers and approaches Matt and Linda from behind with the crowbar, but Matt deflects the blow, throwing Sebastian into a nearby circuit box, electrocuting him.

Linda and Matt find the nitroglycerin about to explode, and decide to climb up the elevator shaft to escape. The two are almost out when an injured and partially visible Sebastian appears. He fights with Linda before she grabs the elevator cable and knocks the car loose, sending Sebastian falling to his death. Linda and Matt emerge from the burning laboratory, and medics take them away in an ambulance.

Cast

File:Hollowman-pic.jpg
Sebastian with latex mask

Reception

Critical response

The film received negative reviews. As of 2013, Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 27% based on 113 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Despite awesome special effects, Hollow Man falls short of other films directed by Paul Verhoeven. This flick over time degenerates into a typical horror film."[2] Most critics praised the visual effects employed on making Kevin Bacon invisible, which earned the film a nomination at the 2001 Academy Awards. Some critics criticized the plot and acting, with some claiming it contains hallmarks of slasher films and misogynistic undertones. [citation needed]

Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4, and complained that Verhoeven wasted potential by taking an invisible man and doing nothing more than having him go berserk. Ebert praised the special effects, calling them "intriguing" and "astonishing" but stated that the film is merely a slasher film with a science gimmick.[3]

A fake review attributed to David Manning was revealed in late 2001 as a hoax, created by Sony to fake publicity for the film.[4]

Box office

Despite a poor response from critics, the film debuted at #1 with $26.4 million in its opening weekend. In total, Hollow Man went on to gross $190 million worldwide, exceeding its $95 million production budget.

References

  1. ^ Hollow Man (2000) - Box Office Mojo, Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  2. ^ Hollow Man. Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster.
  3. ^ Roger Ebert (August 4, 2000). "Hollow Man". Archived from the original on 2013-06-02.
  4. ^ "Sony admits using fake reviewer". BBC News. June 4, 2001. Archived from the original on 2003-07-27.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Hollow_Man&oldid=587457420"