n the year 2079, the Earth has been under attack by an alien force, the Centauri, for more than a decade. Many of the world's cities have been reduced to rubble; the rest survive beneath impenetrable energy domes. Spencer Olham (Sinise), whose father was killed by aliens, has reached manhood during this fierce war and dedicated his life to defeating the unseen foe.
Spencer is a weapons designer and has overseen a project that will result in the ultimate destructive device. On the eve of his triumphant meeting with the Earth's supreme leader, he and his wife, Maya (Stowe), have just returned from a camping trip in Sutton Wood, outside the city.
Maya is a surgeon at the veteran's hospital, where a never-ending stream of war casualties floods the emergency room. Spencer arrives at his job at the headquarters for The Project, where he meets with longtime friend Nelson (Tony Shalhoub). Watching as workmen complete the weapon, Spencer is melancholy. "Only two things are infinite," he tells his friend. "The universe and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe."
His comments do not impress Major Hathaway (D'Onofrio), who overhears their conversation. He's the Project's new head of security—and he immediately zaps Spencer and takes him into custody.
Strapped into an interrogation chair, Spencer learns why: Hathaway believes that the real Spencer is dead, and that the person before him is actually a clone, manufactured by the Centauri to carry a hidden bomb in his chest meant for the Supreme Leader. Drugged, Spencer watches in horror as Hathaway shows him a 3-D hologram of an earlier clone, whose chest is ripped open to reveal a bomb ticking within his heart.
It's a mistake, Spencer screams. As Hathaway is about to vivisect him, Spencer manages manages to escape the chair, grab a weapon and flee.
He must make it to Maya's hospital, where a body scan will confirm that he really is who he believes. But first he must evade Hathaway's forces and put his faith in a homeless outsider, Cale (Mekhi Phifer).
Back to a familiar future
Impostor, based on Dick's story "Imposter," has followed a circuitous route to the cineplex. Envisioned as a 40-minute short and one-third of an SF anthology film, Alien Love Triangle, Impostor was graduated to feature-film status based on early positive screenings. Inflated to 90 minutes, the movie then sat on the shelf for more than a year as various release dates came and went, before Dimension finally scheduled it amid a flock of wizards and hobbits this Christmas. Director Fleder (Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead) attributed the delays to an effort to make the film suitable for a PG-13 audience.
The final version plays like an extended episode of TV's The Outer Limits, with better production values. Though Impostor carries Dick's pedigree and dances around a number of deeper issues, including the nature of the human soul, it is essentially a chase flick that builds to a surprise ending. Much of the film takes place in interiors, underground tunnels and dark hallways, shot with handheld cameras, and it is surprisingly claustrophobic for a major movie.
The always-reliable Sinise provides the movie's heart and soul as the increasingly frantic Spencer Olham, who tries to hang on to his humanity despite protestations and mounting evidence to the contrary. Stowe is underused as Olham's loving wife. D'Onofrio treads up to the boundary separating villainy from hambone, and stays just this side of the border. The rest of the cast is solid in their brief roles.
Consciously or not, Fleder evokes other, similarly themed films in Impostor's visual style, sound design and overall feel, including Total Recall and Blade Runner. There is also a bit of Starship Troopers in Impostor's military bearing.
The film disappoints in not delving a little deeper into the intriguing question it raises: What makes us human? In particular, the audience comes to expect more interaction between Spencer and Maya, exploring whether one can really know one's beloved, but those scenes never come. Instead, the two meet only at the end of the film, where the secrets are revealed.
