History Film / Impostor

In the middle of the 21st century, humanity was attacked by an alien civilization from the Alpha Centauri system. The Centauri have bombed Earth continually for over 45 years, reducing large parts of the Earth to wasteland and destroying effective goverment in others. A global totalitarian government takes control and the major cities are fitted with defensive shields to protect the last vestiges of civilization. The Centauri subsequently start to resort to more covert means to destroy humanity, using biorobots armed with atomic bombs to infiltrate the cities and kill key political figures.

''Impostor'' is a 2001 science-fiction film, starring Creator/GarySinise, Creator/VincentDOnofrio, Madeleine Stowe, and Mekhi Phifer. The film was based on a 1953 short story by Creator/PhilipKDick, and [[StillbornFranchise was intended to be the first of a science-fiction anthology]] with the Isaac Asimov story ''The Last Question'' and the DonaldWolleim story ''Mimic'' to follow after.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The hero and his wife are dead and one of their roboclones explodes. Hundreds of acres of forest are destroyed, killing thousands of people and Major Hathaway, who had been trying to prevent exactly that from happening the entire film. The assassination of the Chancellor has been prevented however and Cale gets his sister the medicines that Spencer provided him with.]]

In the middle of the 21st century, humanity was attacked by an alien civilization from the Alpha Centauri system. The Centauri have bombed Earth continually for over 45 years, reducing large parts of the Earth to wasteland and destroying effective goverment in others. A global totalitarian government takes control and the major cities are fitted with defensive shields to protect the last vestiges of civilization. The Centauri resort to more covert means to destroy humanity, using biorobots armed with atomic bombs to infiltrate the cities and kill key political figures.

** Hathaway was so dead set on Spencer being a bomb that he didn’t consider that [[spoiler:Maya might have been a bomb, too, even though both her and Spencer were in the countryside when the switch was supposed to have happened.]]

* BrandishmentBluff: Spencer unsuccessfully tries to convince the ESA that he will explode to get out of being cut open.

* PostCyberPunk: CrapsackWorld exists outside the domes, but inside the city, things are pretty nice.

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Two in succesion. Dr. Olham’s innocence is proven when Hathaway reveals that his wife has been replaced with the real biorobot sent to assassinate the chancellor. Shortly afterwards they discover the real Olham’s body, as it turns out that both the Olhams had been killed and replaced with copies.]]

* DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler:The film revolves around a man trying to prove that he's not an alien-created replicant of himself with a bomb in his chest. At the climax of the movie, the man and his wife find the alien crash site where he was allegedly killed, and discovers his wife's body inside the spaceship, proving that his wife was the replicant instead. Then suddenly, in the last few minutes, the authorities that were chasing him through the whole movie discover the man's body as well, proving that he was also a replicant, and the man promptly explodes and kills everyone in the area.]]
* DiscoveringYourOwnDeadBody: [[spoiler:A variation on the trope where Dr. Olham becomes a fugitive after he's accused of being a bio-robot infiltration unit sent by a hostile alien race and set to explode when he comes in contact with the Earth's chanceller. His wife is then revealed to be the real impostor, but then it turns out that ''both'' he and his wife had been replicated when he discovers the real Olham's body.]]

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Set in 2079.

''Impostor'' is a 2001 science-fiction film, starring GarySinise, Creator/VincentDOnofrio, Madeleine Stowe, and Mekhi Phifer. The film was based 1953 short story by Creator/PhilipKDick, and was intended to be the first of a science fiction anthology with the Isaac Asimov story The Last Question and the Donald Wolleim story Mimic to follow after.

''Impostor'' is a 2001 science-fiction film, starring GarySinise, [[Creator/VincentDOnofrio Vincent D'Onofrio]], Madeleine Stowe, and Mekhi Phifer. The film was based 1953 short story by Creator/PhilipKDick, and was intended to be the first of a science fiction anthology with the Isaac Asimov story The Last Question and the Donald Wolleim story Mimic to follow after.

''Impostor'' is a 2001 science-fiction film, starring GarySinise, [[Creator/VincentDOnofrio Vincent D'Onofrio]], Madeleine Stowe, and Mekhi Phifer. The film was based 1953 short story by Creator/Philip K Dick, and was intended to be the first of a science fiction anthology with the Isaac Asimov story The Last Question and the Donald Wolleim story Mimic to follow after.

''Impostor'' is a 2001 science-fiction film, starring GarySinise, Vincent D'Onofrio, Madeleine Stowe, and Mekhi Phifer. The film was based 1953 short story by Creator/Philip K Dick, and was intended to be the first of a science fiction anthology with the Isaac Asimov story The Last Question and the Donald Wolleim story Mimic to follow after.

* Foreshadowing: The forest fire in the countryside is mentioned a couple of times before its relevancy comes about.

* InspectorJavert: Dr. Spencer Olham is being chased by an officer who's convinced he's an alien biorobot who killed the original and took on his personality in order to detonate a bomb and kill the Chancellor. He plans to prove that by vivisecting the protagonist and disarming the explosive. The protagonist spends the whole film trying to prove he's human. [[spoiler:The officer turns out to be right]].

* IdiotBall: Spencer is accused of being a living bomb sent to assassinate a chancellor making a visit to his city. While escaping the city so he wasn’t dissected makes sense, sneaking back into the city to clear his name while the chancellor was still there while Hathaway and company were still on high alert was poor thinking.

''Impostor'' is a 2001 science-fiction film, based on a short story by Creator/PhilipKDick. It starred GarySinise, Vincent D'Onofrio, Madeleine Stowe, and Mekhi Phifer.

''Impostor'' is a 2001 science-fiction film, based on a short story by Creator/PhilipKDick. It starred Gary Sinese, Vincent D'Onofrio, Madeleine Stowe, and Mekhi Phifer.

Dr. Spencer Olham (Gary Sinese) is a renowned scientist working on government weapons projects. One day he is unexpectedly arrested and accused by Major Hathaway (Vincent D'Onofrio) of the Earth Security Administration of being a robot sent to assassinate the Chancellor during an upcoming meeting. Olham goes on the run and heads to the outer regions to prove his innocence.

* {{Fanservice}}: The somewhat long interrogation scene in which Gary Sinise is shirtless the whole time.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The hero and his wife are dead and one of their roboclones explodes. Hundreds of acres of forest are destroyed, killing hundreds of people and Major Hathaway. The assassination of the Chancellor has been prevented however and Cale gets his sister the medicines that Spencer provided him with.]]