IMPOSTOR (film)

IMPOSTER. Gary Fleder, dir. Philip K. Dick, short story; Scott Rosenberg (adaptation); Caroline Case, Ehren Kruger and David Twohy (screenplay). USA: Dimension Films, Mojo Films, P.K. Pictures (prod.) / Buena Vista Home Video (US dist.), 2002. Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe, Vincent D'Onofrio, Tony Shalhoub, major cast. (Filmographic information and brief summary from IMDb,[1] and D. Dumar—cited below.)

Premise is that of the story, but the setting is a mostly dystopian Earth at war with aliens. "Originally a 30-minute portion for an anthology film, Impostor was retooled into a full-length feature film. Based on the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name, it follows the lead character Spencer Olham's quest to regain his identity after being suspected as an alien android, on a future Earth at war with aliens that use the androids as bombs to destroy their" enemies (Hyperpup summary on IMDb [lightly edited by Erlich]). The bit part of Mrs. Olham in the story is expanded to give the significantly named Dr. Maya (= Illusion) Olham a leading role as a physician and hospital adminstrator caring for human wounded in the war against the aliens from Alpha Centauri; in a twist on the suprise ending, both Olhams turn out to be android replicants: replacements carrying assassination bombs (not a planet-buster as in the story). Sinise and Stowe's androids come across as more human/humane than D'Onofrio's Major Hathaway, the special agent who pursues Olham and is associated with malevolent machinery, or Shalhaub's Nelson Giites, Olham's not-so-good friend. Cf. replicants in BLADE RUNNER as arguably more human than the blade runner chasing them, vs. far less symphathetic androids in Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? See under fiction, P.K. Dick's "Impostor" and "Do Android's Dream …?" Contrast passionless and therefore inhuman replacement pods—vegetables, not mechanisms—in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (novel by Jack Finney, Don Siegel film 1956 — reworked in films from 1978 and 1993). Prerelease coverage in Denise Dumars's "Philip K. Dick's Impostor. A science fiction exploration of the nature of identiry inspired by a giant in the field" (Cinefantastique 32.2 [Aug. 2000]: 30-31), a source for parts of this citation (additional source: IMDb). Impostor is reviewed by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian for 14 June 2002: [2]; Urban Outlaw: [3].