Nomads

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with the violent and painful death of its protagonist, French anthropologist Jean-Charles Pommier. The moment he dies in the emergency room of a Los Angeles city hospital, the physician treating him, Dr. Eileen Flax, becomes possessed with his memories. Dr. Flax relives the last week of Pommier's life until the moment of his death.
After travelling abroad and studying the spiritual beliefs and religious practices of primitive peoples, Pommier finally settles down with his patient wife Niki in Los Angeles to teach at UCLA. His home in the suburbs is vandalized one night by a gang of street punks who travel about in a black van. They are very interested in his house, and he finds that they have built a macabre shrine in his garage to a murderer who recently killed two girls who lived in the house. He studies them because they are an urban nomad culture that is strikingly similar to the ones he has studied.
He begins to observe them, following them around and covertly taking their pictures. He develops the pictures and is puzzled to find that they do not show up in them. He realizes that they are actually the Einwetok, demonic Inuit trickster spirits that take human form, commit acts of violence and mischief, and who are attracted to places of violence and death. Now that they are aware of him, they plan to claim his soul to keep their existence a secret.
Dr. Flax wakes in the bedroom of Pommier's house in the arms of his wife. They try to flee the city to escape the nomads, but the street fills with an army of leather-clad bikers and punks. They storm the house, forcing the women to flee to the attic. One of the nomads, Dancing Mary, breaks into the attic but leaves after scaring them.
Much later, the nomads have left the house, and the ladies leave the attic to find the house a shambles. Upon packing their bags, they flee the city. The next day, as they are driving down a back road, a leather-clad man on a motorcycle rides around them. Flax warns Niki that whatever she sees, she should not stop. As they drive by, they are horrified to see that it is Pommier, now one of the nomads.

Tags: paranormal, cult, psychological, murder, flashback

Review:
A French anthropologist (Pierce Brosnan's first leading role in a feature movie) moves to Los Angeles and is followed by the evil spirits of an extinct tribe he once uncovered.
A woman doctor (Lesley-Anne Down who married director William Friedkin) investigates and becomes the next target of a group of rare people with nomadic life .This is an eerie as well as supernatural chiller about a society of malevolent ghosts set in Los Angeles and dealing with a mysterious anthropologist well performed by Pierce Brosnan and the woman doctor finely acted by Lesley-Anne Dowen who investigates the weird deeds .
In his subsequent films used big stars as Sean Connery , Schwarzenegger , Willis , Travolta and again Pierce Brosnan , all of them appeared in ¨The hunt for Red October¨, ¨Medicine man¨, ¨Last action hero¨, ¨Die hard with vengeance¨ , ¨Basic¨ and ¨The Thomas Crown affair¨..
John McTiernan's Nomads is one of the best, and most unconventional horror flicks that you've never seen.
Nestled so far back into the 80's that it stands as the mile marker for Pierce Brosnan's first on screen leading role, it's a beautifully tense, atmospherically crafted fright flick that's been lost to the hazy aeons of time.
Brosnan plays a French (hon hon) archaeologist who begins to suspect he's being followed by a group of unruly urban punks which, upon further introspection, could possibly be the malevolent spirits of a now extinct tribe he discovered years ago.
The actors for these things are all especially chosen as well, each coached beautifully by McTiernan to act just normal enough to blend into the derelict fringes of an urban environment, while giving their demeanour an unnerving esoteric aspect, until they seem like a cross between mute versions of the Near Dark gypsy vampire clan and spectral coyotes.
But after 30 minutes or so, I was pretty hooked to see how the movie would eventually unfold.Even tho it turned out to be "ok", it's got a lot of flaws.
The whole nomad story is pretty vague and there's not much background info on Brosnans expeditions, which would've made this movie more gripping and interesting.
It almost goes into David Lynch territory at times, which isn't a completely bad thing, but you need to have that "something" to pull off a supernatural mystery like this.
Something was missing from the story.I was also left wondering if the movie had worked better without the doctor lady completely, concentrating on Brosnans character.
There was some nice editing at times and it added to the tension, but I still feel this movie would've worked better in a more linear fashion, dropping the doctor character completely.So, the initial story was interesting, but the execution made it a mess.
McTiernan continues to be a mystery of a director, having made classics and my favorites Die Hard and Predator, but still capable of creating an artsy movie like this and some complete garbage like Rollerball remake..
And that's why I'm not going to lambaste this movie.This is an experiment that fails.It probably should have been good, but this has to be one of the worst 100 directing jobs ever.It's too confusing to tell you what it's about.
One of those rare fantasy movies that has the courage to be conceptually uncompromising with its audience, this plays with several layers of reality so that often one is uncertain if the particular scene currently on-screen can be taken at face value or not ...
yet by the movie's end all makes perfectly coherent sense according to the movie's own internal logic.Brosnan and Down are not the actors you'd expect to find playing this sort of material, but Down turns in a perfectly creditable performance -- as does Brosnan whenever (which is, fortunately, most of the time) he doesn't have to speak: his French accent is lamentable.
Prime acting honours, though, must go to Anna Maria Monticelli; her portrayal of a French academic's French wife in an unknown city is pitch-perfect.If you enjoy the best of written contemporary fantasy and are dissatisfied by how rarely screened fantasy matches it, usually as a result of Hollywood defaults, then you'll whoop with joy on discovering Nomads..
Pierce Brosnan and Lesley-Anne Down turn in powerful and convincing performances as the doctor and the anthropologist linked by a telepathic bond.
Pierce Brosnan plays Jean Charles Pommier (with the worst French accent you ever heard) who is tracked down and killed by some tribe he uncovered.
Before he dies he whispers their name to doctor Flex (Lesley-Anne Downe) who is in turn hunted down by the tribe.The movie is boring and pointless with no scares and a stupid plot.
I think this is a very interesting movie, basically for two reasons: 1)The fear atmosphere is strong around all the time, the horror plot is suggested but almost never showed, and it increase the suspence and the desire to discover the end.
and being written and directed by John McTiernan, master of the action film, this movie has received overwhelmingly negative reviews.Jay Scott is the exception, as he described Nomads as "a breathlessly unself-conscious film (there is none of the self-congratulatory stylization of Blood Simple), the tone alternates maniacally between scaring the audience and making it giggle." Scott said McTiernan "has brought to his project a staggeringly resourceful technique.
I was not all that thrilled by the film as a whole, neither a horror fan nor as someone who has otherwise enjoyed McTiernan's work.
It successfully captures Pierce Brosnan and Lesley Ann Downs in one of the most unusual yet polished performances about a cultural anthropologist and a doctor's intimate experience of his last few days in tracking down a strange group of young wanderers.
Perhaps I'm simply imposing a 2013 movie-watching experience on a 1986 film.
Brosnan is a decent actor, but I could barely stand to watch the film because of his farcical French accent.
In another scene, he defends himself against an interloper (Adam Ant), and while his swings all look like they miss by a good foot, the attacker still goes down, even though for one of the blows there is a lamppost between the Brosnan's arm and Ant. People appear in and out of nowhere and switch bodies--perhaps it's real, perhaps it's part of a transcendent consciousness, or even just a dream--who knows?
If you want narrative plot summary, read the one posted on the IMDb. However, here are a few observations about "Nomads." o The most annoying thing about Brosnan speaking with an accent was not that he frequently slipped out of it.
The most annoying thing is that both Brosnan and his wife were frequently unintelligible.o The movie slips into its plot so quickly, it doesn't really allow you time to develop empathy for the characters.o Most viewers are probably not familiar with entities of varying physicality.
McTiernan fails to bring out the supernatural elements of the Nomads (who come off looking more like your standard street punks - "they don't live anywhere, they don't work anywhere, they resort to violence at the slightest provocation"), and the movie drags.
The ultimate point seems to be that Brosnan's character should never have bothered thinking about The Nomads, just as you shouldn't bother watching this film.
The closed captioning couldn't even make sense of his accent.The only takeaways I got are this - Pierce Brosnan did full frontal nudity and apparently it was really cold in the room they were filming.
So embarrassing.Also the one thing that shows how far we've come with makeup is the scene on the roof where one of the nomads stands next to Pierce.
Pierce Brosnan in perhaps one of his strongest performances of his career and almost completely out of his normal persona plays an anthropologist who at the beginning of the movie makes for a startling entrance that ensnares Lesley Ann Down, a doctor in one of the most densely layered and ghostly journeys ever taken.
Nomads is style over substance.John McTiernan as writer and director delivers this mid 1980s surreal and supernatural thriller with LA punks and a thumping rock score.The film opens with Dr Flax (Lesley-Anne Down) a tired accident & emergency doctor who is called into treat a deranged French anthropologist Jean Charles Pommier (Pierce Brosnan.) He has only moved to Los Angeles with his wife recently where they have been harrassed by punks and rockers.Jean Charles dies but not before biting Dr Flax in the neck.
I did find the film a curious watch and felt that there was a better movie in there somewhere.Still Brosnan and McTiernan would later reunited in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair with McTiernan becoming one of Hollywood's top action directors..
Excellent film, one of Pierce Brosnan's best works.
Did I mention that this film features nomads whose hair just looks too good for people who supposedly live on the street?
During the first 20 minutes I was having a hard time getting into this movie, but as the plot developed I began to really get into it.
This film isn't for everyone (the person I watched it with got bored), not even all fans of the genre, but I found it quite entertaining.
Brosnan (as Pommier) was OK, despite the poor french accent - but the french twist was an unnecessary distraction to begin with, in my opinion.Good plot, though I feel expanding on Pommier's previous experiences with Nomads in other cultures would have added a more sinister touch than just some street punks in a black van.
 trying to catch some sleep on her break, Dr. Eileen Flaxwakes up to the sound of a phone ringing - calling Dr. Benway -cops picked up a guy on the beach- handcuffed to the bed - thelast few screaming words - sudden violent whisper transfersmemories via her ear - he ends up dying of past calamity - lastthing a man says is supposed to be significant - `N'y sont pas;sont des Innuat' - dreams of some graffiti - a woman - Frenchanthropologist Jean-Claude Pommier - his wife, Veronique - onduty Eileen collapses and has a series of visions - black van roarsby - bottle falls in slow motion, consciousness smashing away -sex death pigs kill' painted on his garage door - punks hangingaround a black van - a roll of bloodied carpet with newspaperarticles - realizes he has to check them out - gas stations, diners -Eileen at the beach - messed hair and a distant look - literallyseeing through his eyes - hostile spirits capable of hanging out atsome picnic tables - Southern California, where rootlessness is in rhythmic African drums - they bash a guy's head in and toss himin a dumpster - Pommier returns to the garbage bin finding nosign of a body - following his instincts, hearing tribal drums mixedwith guitar noise, he finds the gang in front of an abandonedlooking building  taking their picture, Mary Woronov's characterdoes a lewd dance on top of a car for his camera - explaining tohis angry wife, `I wanted to know what kind of people could think ofa murder as some sort of shrine - people who do not liveanyplace, do not work anyplace, I called the government and theirvehicle isn't registered - don't you understand?
 she warns him, but we know its too late - a hangingnun - flashing her breasts in the shadows - faces without flesh -he jolts into consciousness smashing his face into the windshieldmurders Adam Ant's character with a tire iron  but in themorning the body has disappeared  Eileen shows up at Pommier's house  Veronique wonders how she knows so muchabout Jean - nomads surround the house - cut the phone line -break through the door - the roof - the windows - they climb into theattic and Eileen experiences the severe beating Pommier tookfrom the nomads - screaming suddenly stops and the nomadsleave - after dark Eileen and Veronique find the house trashed -graffiti on every wall  get in their car and drive away  followed bya nomad on a motorcycle who turns back at the California stateline - Pommier is played horribly by Pierce Brosnan with a fakeFrench accent  early attempt at an experimental movie by JohnMcTiernan, director of Die Hard', Predator', and the terribleremake of Rollerball.'.
In it, Pierce Brosnan turns in an excellent performance as a French anthropologist in L.A. with his wife.
"Nomads" is, without a doubt, a thinking man's horror film..
"Nomads" is a terminally boring and barely worthwhile effort.**SPOILERS**Working a grueling hospital shift, Dr. Flax Stafford, (Lesley-Anne Down) begins to feel very weird after meeting Jean-Charles Pommier, (Pierce Brosnan) an anthropology professor and begins to suffer from a series of strange visions.
She begins to realizer that she is being possessed by him in order to find out his obsession with a specific roaming nomadic biker gang that's been terrorizing people for a long time until she realizes what the connection is between the two of them.
Finally understanding what's going on, she vows to get away from the horrifying truth and solve the mystery of the gang.The Good News: There's only a few moments here that actually work.
The early scenes, where it's hard to determine what's going on and are based around the confusion over what's happening, is actually not that bad and generates some decent moments, especially with the flashing images that appear to be from one source but come from another set, leaving this part feeling rather creepy and interesting.
That's it all done in the first half of the film, with the wild hospital scenes also coming into play as well making really enjoyable.
While Brosnan does a really ridiculous French accent, the acting was decent, and the atmosphere was genuinely creepy.This was one of those movies that, like 'Near Dark', assumes the audience has half a brain and makes them think a little.
Now, while this can be a good strategy (it worked like a charm in 'Near Dark'), sometimes you can go a little overboard.This was one of those times.
While I have my own ideas as to what the Nomads were and what they did, a teensy bit of explanation from Director/Writer John McTiernan would've been useful.But overall, it was a decent way to spend 90 minutes.
I find it hard to believe that Nomads can be considered "brilliant" or a "masterpiece" more than his later works like Die Hard and the underrated 13th Warrior when he had more experience under his belt.
The aggregate score of five is more indicative of where this film truly belongs.We are introduced to a bloodied Jean-Claude Pommier (Pierce Brosnan) a French anthropologist that whispers into the ear of his attending doctor (Lesley-Anne Down as Dr. Eileen Flax) somehow transferring his last memories to her just before he dies.
Not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination just not as good as some reviewers would have you think.
"Nomads" really shouldn't be classified as a horror film, per se.
I really consider it more of a Supernatural thriller since nothing horrific actually happens.The movie starts off with Pierce Brosnan, who plays a French Anthropologist with the worst french accent this side of a grade school production, who winds up in the emergency room ranting and raving and dies while whispering something in Lesley Anne Down's ear, who plays the ER Doctor attending him.
Her character going forward is pretty much used to tell his story leading up to his arrival in the ER in flashbacks, as it seems his spirit, or at the very least his memories, have taken her over.Though somewhat enjoyable,this movie could have been a lot better than it actually was with a few retweakings.
Lesley Anne Down's character was completely unnecessary and added nothing to the final story, even at the end.
They would have been better off just telling the story from the moment Pierce Brosnan and his wife move into the house.
Also, the horrible French accents used by Mr. Brosnan and Ms. Monticelli (who portrays his wife) are so horrible, it adds an unintentional comedic flair to the film.
An early McTiernan flick.This is not the most coherent film, but at the same time, the pacing and frantic build-up more than make up for it.The best scenes are when Brosnan's character suddenly realizes he's been following the Nomads for 30 hours and they haven't stopped to sleep once.Then, when he's hiding in the dark alley, and trying to take pictures of No. 1, (Adam Ant) they make it clear they know, and knew all along, he's been watching.
At this point everyone was wondering who, or what, these people are.The biker/punk look was a new twist, even if it looks dated now.And Brosnan should really avoid French accents.I'm also pretty sure that was Paul Bartel's voice on the phone.
~Spoiler~ Watch as Adam Ant and Mary Woronov chase Pierce Brosnan to an 80's soundtrack with guitar licks provided by Ted Nugent in Nomads.
Pierce Brosnan is a French anthropologist who studies nomadic tribes around the globe.
Through flashbacks she witnesses Brosnan's last days as he tracks a modern nomadic gang through the city.
NOMADS is the debut feature from acclaimed director John McTiernan, who of course would go on to make the ageless double-whammy of PREDATOR and DIE HARD, thus cementing his reputation forever in the minds of us action movie lovers.
NOMADS is more of a mixed bag, low budget and ultimately disappointing; the story is interesting enough but the editing and unusual structuring combine to work against it.Pierce Brosnan is barely convincing as a French anthropologist who dies in the film's first scene.
Pierce Brosnan is ok as the doomed character who gets too close to the ancient tribe that he's tailing across Los Angeles.
The editing between Pierce Brosnan's character and the doctors is done cleverly as well.
Creating dark suspenseful atmosphere and mystery out of some mere punks.Pierce Brosnan is excellent, in his first major film role.