Imposter (film)

Imposter is a 2002 American science fiction film based on Phillip K. Dick's 1954 short story "Imposter". The film follows weapon designer Spencer Olham, whom is believed to be a biological replicant created by alien invaders who will assassinate the Chancellor of Earth. Olham sets out to prove he's not a replicant while being hunted by the United Earth Security Forces. The film has a run time of 102 minutes and was released on January 4, 2002.

Plot
The film takes place in the year 2079. Forty-five years earlier, Earth was attacked by a hostile and implacable alien civilization from Alpha Centauri. Force shield domes are put in place to protect cities, and a totalitarian global military government is established to effect the war and the survival of humans. The Centaurians have never been physically seen.

The film follows Spencer Olham, a designer of top-secret government weapons. He is arrested by Major Hathaway of the Earth Security Administration (ESA), being identified as a replicant created by the aliens. The ESA intercepted an alien transmission which cryptanalysts decoded as programming Olham's target to be the Chancellor, whom he was scheduled to meet. Such replicants are perfect biological copies of existing humans, complete with transplanted memories, and do not know they are replicants. Each has a powerful "u-bomb" in their chest, which can only be detected by dissection or a high-tech medical scan, since it only assembles itself when it gets in proximity to its target. Detection via the special scan works by comparing against a previous scan, if there was one.

Major Hathaway begins interrogating Olham. As Hathaway is about to drill out Olham's chest to find the bomb, Olham breaks loose and escapes, accidentally killing his friend Nelson in the process. With the help of underground stalker Cale, Olham avoids capture and sneaks into the hospital where his wife Maya is an administrator to get the high-tech scan redone and prove he's not a replicant. But the scan is interrupted by security forces before it can deliver the answer.

Olham and his wife are eventually captured by Hathaway's troops in a forest near an alien crash site, close to the spot where they spent a romantic weekend just a week or so before Olham's arrest. Inside the ship they discover the corpse of the real Maya, and Hathaway shoots the replicant before she can detonate. Hathaway thinks he has killed the true imposter, but as his men move debris away from the Centauri ship, the real Spencer Olham's body is revealed. At that moment, Olham realizes aloud that he really is a replicant, and the secondary trigger (his awareness of what he truly is) detonates his u-bomb, destroying himself, Hathaway, his troops, and everything else in a wide area, in a fiery nuclear explosion.

In the final scene, the news announces that Hathaway and the Olhams were killed in an enemy attack, as if the government were covering up the truth or didn't know what actually happened. Cale wonders if he ever really knew Olham's true identity.

Production
Imposter was to be a segment of an anthology film titled 'Light Years' which was to blend Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question", Philip K. Dick's "Imposter", and Mathew Robbins' "Mimic". The project however fell appart with 'Imposter' being the only segment to have been shot during that project's production. Caroline Case, Mark Protosevich, and Scott Rosenberg set about working to expand the segment into a full length film.

Cast

 * Gary Sinise as Spencer Olham
 * Madeleine Stowe as Maya Olham
 * Vincent D'Onofrio as Hathaway
 * Mekhi Phifer as Cale
 * Tony Shalhoub as Nelson Gittes
 * Tim Guinee as Dr. Carone
 * Gary Dourdan as Captain Burke
 * Lindsay Crouse as Chancellor
 * Clarence Williams III as Secretary of Defense (uncredited)
 * Elizabeth Pena as Midwife
 * Shane Brolly as Lt. Burrows
 * Golden Brooks as Cale's Sister
 * Ted King as RMR Operator
 * Rachel Luttrell as Scan Room Nurse

Crew

 * Director and Producer: Gary Fleder
 * Producer: Mark Katz
 * Story Adeptation: Scott Rosenberg (adepted from Phillip K. Dick's Imposter)