Hollow Man

Plot synopsis:
This film is loosely based on H. G. Wells' "The Invisible Man", with Dr. Sebastian Caine (actor Kevin Bacon) taking the place of Doctor Jack Griffin (actor Claude Rains) and updates the story to the 20th Century. In this version of Wells' story, the doctor is a brilliant, but megalomaniacal, molecular biologist, and is working on an invisibility serum for the U.S. military, as well as a serum that will return the subject back to visibility. Sebastian has been attempting to perfect the formula for the last four years, and he conducts his experiments on animals kept inside a top-secret hidden military lab accessible only to him and his staff. His current project is reversing the invisibility effect on his test subject, a female gorilla named Isabelle. Working late one night on re-configuring the molecular model of the irradiated protein that will restore Isabelle to visibility, he solves the problem and immediately reports his success to the top members of his staff.Although work on the serum occupies nearly all of his waking hours, Sebastian becomes obsessed with his ex-girlfriend Dr. Linda McKay (Elisabeth Shue), who is a scientist on his team. Unbeknownst to him, she has become involved with Dr. Matt Kensington (Josh Brolin), another member of their research group. Sebastian and his colleagues, who also include veterinarians Sarah Kennedy (Kim Dickens) and Carter Abbey (Greg Grunberg), and technicians Frank Chase (Joey Slotnick) and Janice Walton (Mary Randle), eventually enable the serum to work on the gorilla. In celebration, the team goes out for a fancy dinner, where Sebastian makes a toast to the greatest research group in the world. To Sebastian, however, it feels like the end as reversion was the last big breakthrough.Instead of reporting his success to the military, Sebastian inexplicably lies to the oversight committee including his old teacher Dr. Howard Kramer (William Devane), and talks Linda and Matt into lying to the other four and going right into human testing. The subject: Sebastian, himself. Despite a painful shift to transparency, the procedure is successful. After being unconscious for about 17 hours due to shock, Sebastian wakes up in pain, and recoiling from the ambient light, realizing that he can see through his eyelids. He then conducts some clinical tests on himself. But when it comes time to return to visibility after three days, the reversion fails and almost kills him.The researchers construct a latex mask for the scientist to wear around the lab, crudely approximating a human appearance. During this time, Matt discovers a promising way to make Sebastian visible again. A computer simulation, however, fails. Over the next several days, isolation and virtual imprisonment in the lab begin to wear on Sebastian's patience. Disobeying Carter and his own rules, he heads back to his apartment to grabs some books, CDs and Twinkies to take back to the lab. There, temptation gets the best of him, and he first spies on his neighbor (Rhona Mitra), and then rapes her, while fully invisible. Linda shows up at the apartment and finds the mask and clothes, but no Sebastian.Sebastian 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 Dr. Kramer what they did. Ignoring their threat, he assembles a device that runs a video loop of his heat signature in his quarters; the repeating image fools Frank into believing that Sebastian is still in the lab, when, in fact, he is out spying on Linda and Matt.Sebastian is furious that Matt and Linda are together, and smashes their bedroom window. The two call Frank, who tells them that Sebastian is still in bed. Meanwhile, an enraged Sebastian returns to the lab, frustrated and angered at the thought of Linda and Matt together. Unable to stand the annoying barking of an invisible dog, Sebastian approaches the dog, reassuring it that he means it no harm, then kills it with his bare hands by brutally smashing it against the cage wall. The team soon discover that they have been watching a recording and that Sebastian has been leaving without their knowledge.Linda and Matt go to Dr. Kramer's house and confess about their experiments with Sebastian. Dr. Kramer is disappointed, and tells them that they are fired from the project. Dr. Kramer then attempts to call the military and inform them about Sebastian, but Sebastian has actually followed Linda and Matt to the house. Sebastian tricks Kramer into leaving the house and then 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. Janice falls behind while the team searches for Sebastian and he strangles her with an IV line and stuffs her body in a locker.Linda, Matt, Sarah, Carter, and Frank learn what Sebastian is up to, realizing that they are the only ones who know what he has become, and therefore he is planning to kill them all. Linda, Sarah, and Frank hide in the lab while Matt and Carter take tranquilizer guns to go hunting for Sebastian in the empty hallways using thermographic imaging goggles. Matt shoots at a heat signature that turns out to be from a steam vent. When Matt turns around, Carter has been yanked into the air by Sebastian, who is on top of a pipe. Matt tries to shoot him, but Sebastian throws Carter down toward a steel bar, which cuts his carotid artery, causing massive blood loss. Sebastian almost kills Matt, but Linda drags him to safety.Sarah and Frank find the barely conscious and severely injured Carter. Sarah runs to the freezer to get blood for a transfusion, despite Frank's wishes. There, Sebastian corners her. She splashes the blood all over the room, rendering him visible, however, Sebastian tackles her and shoots her with her tranquilizer dart, then breaks her neck.Linda and Matt find Frank tending to a dying Carter. Carter bleeds to death and the three go to find Sarah. They find her dead in the walk-in freezer. Frank sprays a fire extinguisher to expose Sebastian, but Sebastian comes from behind impales Frank with a crowbar. He then stabs Matt with the hook end, however non-fatally. Sebastian locks Linda and Matt in the freezer, turns the temperature control all the way down and leaves them to freeze to death.Sebastian puts on his latex mask and clothing, spending much time to ensure he looks near-human. Meanwhile, Linda dresses Matt's wound with duct tape and then works out a way to escape from the freezer. Linda constructs an electromagnet using a defibrillator and other lab equipment, and uses it to open the door. She lights a fire to warm Matt and gathers the parts needed for a flamethrower. Sebastian goes to the lab and produces nitroglycerin to blow up the lab. He puts the nitro in a centrifuge, starts a timer and destroys the keyboard, so it can't be stopped. Just as he is entering the elevator to leave, Linda appears and fires her crude blowtorch at him. His latex mask and clothes burning away, Sebastian barely manages to escape the flames. Linda uses the flamethrower to start the ceiling sprinklers, partially revealing him. The two fight; just as she is about to lose, Matt appears and hits Sebastian with the crowbar. Sebastian recovers, but while wet, he swings the crowbar and connects with a fuse box, electrocuting himself. As the electricity courses through his body, Sebastian is rendered partially visible: his muscles, bones, and organs can be seen, but his skin and what's left of his 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 Sebastian appears. He fights with Linda, and kisses her one last time "for old time's sake" before she finally kills him by grabbing the elevator cable and knocking the car loose, sending Sebastian plummeting into the inferno below. Eventually, both Linda and Matt emerge from the burning laboratory, and medics whisk them away in an ambulance.

Tags: comedy, suspenseful, boring, murder, cult, violence, horror, insanity, psychedelic, action, romantic, revenge

Review:
The rest of the cast are OK but basically just act as fodder in the way that a normal slasher movie will have actors to be disposed of as the film rolls.Overall I really enjoyed this film as it is a very expensive special effects movie which relies on spectacle to keep things moving.
Hollow Man takes an abundance of fantastic special effects and narrative possibilities and reduces it all to an expensive but cheesy horror movie..
As Roger Ebert mentions in his review of Hollow Man, it seems that director Paul Verhoeven, who directed such great films as RoboCop and Total Recall, seems to think that his audience is so intellectually dim that they prefer a mindless killer to the incredibly imaginative villain (or protagonist) that Dr. Sebastian Caine could have become.
Hollow Man is an absolutely fascinating display of brilliant special effects, which seem to map out internal anatomy just as good as any medical textbook, and is also a great deal of fun as the visible characters desperately try to make Dr. Caine visible again, but it is a dismal failure on the story level.
In this age of computer generated, digital effects I have a hard time telling good special effects from bad (they all start to look the same after a while), but this one has a few of the most impressive sequences I've ever seen on film.
It starts to get a little tired in the third act, but what the hell, I was entertained.Aside form Kevin Bacon, there were no real stand-out performances in Hollow Man. The invisibility serum seems to bring on severe emotional instability in animals, so Bacon's character decides to try it out on himself.
This is a really clever idea for a horror film, and the smart ways the scientists think of to detect Bacon in his invisible form never ceases to impress.
"Hollow Man" has enough strong performances, nice moments, and interesting plot turns to make for an mildly enjoyable film, as long as you don't think too hard about the plot.
Keven Bacon is his usual on-screen self, and carries the film effectively, which is no small feat when consider that half the time he is either invisible or covered up in latex, which deprives him of most of an actor's most effective tools (his eyes and his mouth).In the scenes where he is covered in bandages, he has to get the character's emotions and presence out with body language and vocal cues, and even this is filtered through SFX.
Problem number three is (are) the escalating misogyny and graphic completeness of the voyeurism, molestation, and finally rape scenes included in the movie to convince the viewer that the Hollow Man is becoming a human monster.
On reappraisal this film is far better than any action movie delivered by Hollywood since September 11th 2001.Kevin Bacon is a huge talent and his performance is excellent given the limitations of the script and SFX process.
After that, of course, things go wrong, as Kevin Bacon remains invisible for the rest of the movie and is obliged to wear a latex mask, so his collaborators know where he is.
The special effects are top notch (a quality always prevalent in ALL of Paul Verhoeven's films)as we get to see some "body reconstitution" sequences never seen on a movie before.
Hollow Man is a film of great potential, packed with terrific special effects and a surprisingly engaging cast (the exceptions being Josh Brolin and Elisabeth Shue).
So when the movie goes to cliche hell in its final 1/3, you'll be very disappointed even though the action is still entertaining.Kevin Bacon stars as Sebastian Caine, a scientist working with a diverse crew in an underground laboratory on a military project.
With Caine growing further and further mad, the rest of the crew try to find a way to revert him back to his normal state, not knowing Caine is beginning to prefer his invisibility and will do anything to keep it.The first half-hour of Hollow Man is the best, when we're introduced to these wow-inducing, eye-popping visual effects.
This is where the movie truly goes awry.The last half-hour is essentially Caine going around, knocking off all the lab workers, and while it's uninspired material, it's still rather exciting to watch, if only because Verhoeven is a skilled action director who really knows how to make us squirm and cringe at the sight of blood and guts.
I don't know why most people didn't like this movie that much since the acting is good, the script is brilliant, the special effects are great, film editing is outstanding, and you have to admit that the cinematography is beautiful--look at the vivid colors all throughout the film!
But when the procedure to make him visible again fails, Caine's mind starts to experience side effects that make him violent and dangerous.Essentially an updated version of the Invisible Man story.
Yet devoid of expectations of a Verhoeven masterpiece, and the crushing realisation that it basically wastes its potential and plays out as a haunted house stalk movie - it's a good energetic popcorner.It quickly becomes obvious that we are entering special effects extravaganza, the opening credits are dynamite, sci-fi sexy, then the opening gambit sequence literally grabs us and a rodent by the throat.
From here on in we are treated to grade "A" effects and some genius ways of exposing "the invisible" Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) to us and the prey he soon comes to hunt.
"Hollow Man" is about an arrogant but brilliant scientist (Kevin Bacon) who leads a team of other scientists (including former girlfriend Elisabeth Shue and her new flame, Josh Brolin) on a quest to develop a serum that can make people invisible.
When Bacon becomes invisible, however, chaos ensues.The film was a lot of fun, with excellent special effects and a thrilling ending.
It was directed by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Robocop).If you like science fiction, action, and even psychological thrillers, "Hollow Man" is for you.
The only bad thing was that the highly touted special F/X where Kevin turns invisible were only good not great and for the hype they should have been better.
Possbily the best special effects I've ever seen since Terminator II, a terrific premise and a good cast can't salvage a mean spirited film with no sense of humor and a half baked script.Rated R; Nudity, Graphic Violence, and Profanity..
One could wish that an idea as good as the "invisible man" would work better and be more carefully handled in the age of fantastic special effects, but this is not the case.
It is obvious that the money is the key issue here: the time and energy put into the script is nowhere near enough, and as a result, "Hollow Man" is seriously undermined with clichés, sappy characters, predictability and lack of any depth whatsoever.However, the one thing that actually impressed me, beside the special effects, was the swearing.
It is one of my favorite horror slasher rated-R films from Paul Verhoeven Hollow Man (2000) which I think it is pretty underrated.
I love the cast: I think Kevin bacon did great job as the main scientist Sebastian Caine, more scientist who of course makes him self project's first human guinea pig who loses his mind and starts killing his fellow workers.
How many movies invisable man rated-R slasher films with a lot of blood and t**s you see this days?
Anything under 7 would be ridiculous, as anyone claiming this isn't at least a GOOD slasher rated-R horror film (it is sure as hell better than all the comic movies that get high scores) needs their head examined.
It is my favorite Paul Verhoeven film and I really miss the director and his movies.Hollow Man is a 2000 American-German science fiction horror film directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue and Josh Brolin.
G. Wells' novel The Invisible Man. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects in 2001, but lost to Gladiator.8/10 Grade: B+ Studio: Columbia Pictures Starring: Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens, Greg Grunberg, Joey Slotnick, Mary Randle, William Devane Director: Paul Verhoeven Producers: Douglas Wick, Alan Marshall Screenplay: Andrew W.
It isn't totally credible towards the end, and the final action sequence isn't remotely credible, but it's all terrific fun, and considerably more entertaining than the overrated Invisible Man, which I always thought was one of the least interesting horror films of the 40s.But don't listen to me.
Unfortunately, like many of the director's latter-day films, "Hollow Man" takes things a bit too far and the end result is a sloppy, botched experiment, much like Bacon's science project.While there are certainly worse sci-fi flicks to be found, "Hollow Man" is an example of great potential failing to live up to expectations.
Hollow man follows the story of Dr. Sebastian Cane, an egotistical and arrogant scientist working on a way to make living matter invisible.
Kevin Bacon stars as the perfectly creepy scientist turned invisible man in this beautifully directed sci-fi/horror.
It's nice to see a modern movie that remains unceasingly interesting throughout, mixing horror with science and actually having a storyline as opposed to an excuse for bloodshed.One of the things that I loved about this film was the special effects involved.
The various invisible effects, not to mention the scenes where Caine is partially visible due to smoke or water effects, are quite enjoyable to watch.Kevin Bacon is making quite a performance as a very disagreeable fanatic scientist.
The story of The Invisible Man is updated for the 21st century in this tale of research scientists who've managed to turn animals invisible and then bring them back, and the arrogant egomaniac in charge, Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon).
The main reason to see this movie are the eye popping special effects, especially as we see characters like Caine and the gorilla go through stages of visibility.
Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Caine, a scientific genius who goes out into the world of invisibility and making it useful for military purposes.
Here in Hollow Man,he seems to be inching back to his naughtier instincts.Dr.Sebastian Caine(Kevin Bacon,NEVER in need of work it seems),is a hyper-kinetic,biochemical genius and he knows it!
The "Invisible Man" theme has been flogged to death by countless directors over the past few decades,so I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about watching this film when I saw the trailer.Nonetheless,I decided to give it a try,because I liked Kevin Bacon ever since I saw "Footloose".The movie was everything I did not expect it to be-it was not boring,not clichéd,and definitely not average.Instead,it turned out to be magnificent.Kevin Bacon plays maverick scientist Sebastian Caine,who comes up with a formula for turning animals invisible,and then back to normal again.His aim is to go for human testing,but his team is totally against it .Nonetheless,he gives it a shot and then discovers he can't go back to normal,and this is where the horror of it begins.For Caine is no good Samaritan who pursues science to better the world-he is a ruthless,egoistic man who is concerned only about himself .Worse,inside him is a sexual predator and homicidal maniac,both qualities that are unleashed after he turns invisible .However,he has one formidable adversary in his assistant and former lover,Linda Mckay (played by the adorable Elizabeth Shue) who vows to stop him,and indeed does.The first thing that makes this movie stand out is obviously the mind-blowing special effects.They are the most advanced I have ever seen,and surely the first and last reason the people will go to watch this film for.But there is more.Bacon is positively menacing ,whether he is visible or not.Elizabeth Shue delivers a very spirited performance, and she has arguably the best line in the film when she chases Bacon into the elevator,screaming:"You think you're God?
I'll show you God !"This sounds like a warning to all scientists the world over-think whatever you want,but don't think you are all-powerful.The film serves as a reminder of what science can do if it falls into the wrong hands.Clearly,director Paul Verhoeven has done a great job.This movie is on my favorites' list..
That must have been a chore to deal with.The only good thing I can say about HOLLOW MAN is that it wasn't director Paul Verhoeven's worst movie.
I think this is the wrong director for Hollow Man. There are so many aspects of being invisible that could easily have contributed to an entire movie, instead of showing sexual situations every 10 minutes and the ridiculously long "deathfight" of Sebastian Caine.
Bacon plays Sebastian Caine, a cocky scientist who teams with his ex-flame (Shue) and her secret lover (Josh Brolin) in military-funded experiments that make animals invisible.
The special effects that transform animals and people into invisible states and then bring them back again are the movie's only redeeming element.Otherwise Marlowe's (Air Force One) script recycles every mad scientist and action cliche in the book.
'Hollow Man' is not a good movie, no matter how you slice it, but it does seem to be a deliberate imitation of cheesy sci-fi/horror films of another era.
I loved Hollow Man. Although everyone knows the story of the invisible man, it hasn't been done lately, since the 1930's really, and this 2000 remake was great, it has everything nowadays public enjoy in a movie: well known actors, interesting twists, awesome special effects, good action sequences and decent jump scenes, and this one is over-the-top in each of these categories!
Also what makes Hollow Man so sweet is the fact of uniting, a great cast, Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue..., a great composer Jerry Goldsmith, and a one time good director Paul Verhoven.
Saying yes to a project in which you are out of `sight' during almost all of the movie is a big challenge, halfway through the movie Kevin Bacon turns invisible and so he stays until the end, I mean, he is there, only painted on blue, or green, to be replaced by the special effects, which are great (for any reason they were nominated to the Oscar, and unfairly lost it to Gladiator.
As it is what we're left with is a movie with dazzling special effects and pretty much nothing else at all to recommend it.Hollow Man tells the story of brilliant scientist Sebastian Caine who, along with his small group of colleagues, is working on a top secret invisibility formula.
Limiting the action to an underground lab severely shrinks the scale of the movie and wastes whatever potential the invisible concept had to begin with.PLUS(2) Kevin Bacon's sudden jump from ambitious scientist to crazed madman needs more explanation.
The invisible man's insanity and subsequent irrational behavior rings hollow in the absence of character development.If Verhoven had fleshed out (1) and (2), the movie would have been a lot better.
In my mind that stands as the biggest waste of time by a Hollywood production team I've ever seen.But what else would you expect from a paradox like "See the Invisible Man!"Oh, but Elizabeth Shue looks good in anything she does.JYJimboduck-dot-com.
From the flat out bad plot, to the "horror movie stupidity" of the characters, this movie reeked, even worse, it had such promise...I had high hopes for this movie originally  - it could have been a great movie exploring what a real person would do if suddenly granted invisibility, and how it might slowly erode your morals since "Who's going to know?"  The temptation would be great, and in the hands of Kevin Bacon, one of the most versitile actors in Hollywood, it would be a superb movie.But "Hollow Man" disappoints.
I hate it when a movie spends so much time (and money; the special effects are excellent, too bad they are wasted here) getting you to believe in the thin scientific premise surrounding the plot (which I have no problem with; they did a good job here, albiet briefly, and I'm prepared to suspend a little disbelief), and then ignore BASIC PHYSICS and totally and blatently destroy the disbelief they worked so hard to create...Example - End of the movie.
I am saying this film is so bad I will never watch another Kevin Bacon or Paul Verhoeven movie again..
Kevin Bacon and Elisabeth Shue are both good actors and I have enjoyed them in other movies.
The film makes good use of special effects, especially when Sebastian is transforming between being visible and invisible.
Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) is a scientist working on an invisibility serum.
I wouldn't like to dwell on the things I would find myself getting up to, but director Paul Verhoeven is clear as to what he thinks men would get up to - voyeurism and rape, and this is a key theme throughout Hollow Man, amidst all the extreme gore of course.Arrogant, obnoxious scientist Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) makes a breakthrough in reversing invisibility on a gorilla, but when reporting his success to the Pentagon, he opts to hold back information to gain more time to experiment on himself.
When "Hollow Man" was released in 2000, it seemed like a decent enough premise for a thriller - a modern, updated spin on H.G. Wells' timeless Invisible Man story, with contemporary calibre special effects and the very underrated Kevin Bacon starring as the arrogant and obsessive scientist - at first glance, the film seemed destined to be a hit.
"Hollow Man" has fantastic special effects that almost make up for the standard slasher thriller that this film in actuality is.Dr. Sebastian Caine (played by Kevin Bacon) is a scientist working for the U.S government.
Hollow Man is a good visual effect film with talented actors in the movie.
The effects, like in Verhoeven's other sci-fi movie Starship Troopers, are outstanding, much better than "The Invisible Man".
Impressive considering some other hype films (think Star Wars) fail to surpass the realism of the invisible Bacon character at times.Worth seeing for the special effects.