The Relic (film)
Encyclopedia
The Relic is a 1997
science fiction
/horror film
directed by Peter Hyams
and based on the best-selling novel Relic by Douglas Preston
and Lincoln Child
. The film stars Penelope Ann Miller
, Tom Sizemore
and Linda Hunt
. The original music score was composed by John Debney
. The film is rated R for monster violence, gore, and language.
in Chicago
is studying a newly-discovered tribe in South America
, and drinks a soup made for him by the tribesmen. A short time later, he is seen accosting the captain of a merchant ship, asking that the shipment he has sent back to Chicago be unloaded from the ship. When the captain informs him that it's too late because the ship is about to leave, Whitney sneaks aboard. As the ship leaves the dock, Whitney searches through the cargo hold for his crates, crying out in despair when he does not find what he's looking for.
Six weeks later, the ship arrives on the Illinois River
, with its crew missing. Chicago PD
homicide detective Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta (Sizemore) is assigned to investigate the ship. His partner, Sgt. Hollingsworth (Clayton Rohner
) is sure that the crew's disappearance is drug-related, but Lt. D'Agosta opens the bilge
hatch and finds dozens of bodies and severed heads inside.
Dr. Margo Green (Miller), an evolutionary biologist, arrives at work at the Museum, which is planning a gala opening of its latest "Superstition" exhibition. She and her mentor, Dr. Frock (James Whitmore
) examine Whitney's crates, which are curiously empty, except for a bed of leaves used as packing materials and a stone statue of the "Kothoga," a mythical forest monster. Noticing a strange fungus
growing on some of the leaves, Margo decides to save some for analysis.
That night, security guard Fred Ford is gruesomely murdered in the same manner as the ship's crew. Lt. D'Agosta investigates the murder and puzzles over a possible connection. Since he believes the killer may still be inside the Museum, he orders it closed until the police have finished searching, despite the protests of museum director, Dr. Cuthbert (Hunt) about the upcoming opening.
Margo analyzes the fungus and finds that it is loaded with concentrated hormones found in several animal species. Opening the container of leaves, she finds a beetle
that crawled inside and has grown to a freakishy large size.
The autopsy of Fred Ford reveals the bizarre fact that the killer tore open his skull and extracted the hypothalamus
from his brain. An examination of the bodies from the ship reveals the same condition. Lt. D'Agosta is not sure what to make of this, but then the police teams find a derelict hiding in the Museum's basement, who is shot to death when he attacks the officers. When the derelict is found to be a convicted felon, with a history of mental illness, and has Ford's wallet in his pocket, everyone except Lt. D'Agosta considers the case closed, but the lieutenant has to give in when the Mayor of Chicago orders him to let the gala opening go on.
On the night of the opening, Lt. D'Agosta insists on sealing all areas of the museum except the main exhibition hall, while doing one last search of the basement tunnels. Dr. Frock and Margo are the last ones in the laboratory wing, and are unfortunately trapped inside when the wing is sealed (one of Margo's venal colleagues, Greg Lee, competing for the same grant from a foundation whose owners are attending the gala, has told the security chief that the laboratory wing is deserted).
In the basement, Lt. D'Agosta and his officers are attacked by something in the dark. The lieutenant tells Hollingsworth to run back to the main hall and evacuate the museum, but it is too late: the headless body of a murdered police officer tumbles from an air conditioning vent into the heart of the crowd, causing a panic. In their hysterical rush out of the museum, all the museum's alarms are tripped and their security system goes haywire, closing the fire doors and trapping a small group of people inside, just as the power fails.
Alone, Lt. D'Agosta finds his way to the lab wing, and discovers Margo and Dr. Frock. All three of them are then attacked by their antagonist
: the real Kothoga, an enormous chimeric
beast. They barely manage to close a steel door between it and them, while the monster wounds itself trying to batter through.
Margo theorizes that the Kothoga must have been some much smaller animal that mutated
after eating the fungal leaves that she found in John Whitney's packing crates. Dr. Frock excitedly expands on her hypothesis: without the leaves to eat, the Kothoga's closest substitute for the hormones contained in them is to extract and eat human hypothalami. The tribe that Whitney was studying must have discovered the properties of these leaves, and used them to turn an animal into a weapon of war, that would eventually die when it had no more humans to kill.
Lt. D'Agosta finds a radio and orders Hollingsworth to lead the trapped museum guests to an old coal tunnel that will allow them to escape. A few guests refuse to go, preferring to wait for the fire doors to be opened from the outside. But the Kothoga returns to the main hall and murders these guests, as well as several S.W.A.T.
officers entering through the skylights.
Margo analyzes the Kothoga's blood and guesses that, since it is at least part-reptilian, it is probably cold-blooded and they can kill it with liquid nitrogen
. She and Lt. D'Agosta collect the remaining leaves from Margo's lab, but discover that Dr. Frock has already been killed by the creature.
Making their way to the sewer underneath the museum, Lt. D'Agosta baits a trap with the leaves, luring the Kothoga away from the party escaping via the coal tunnel, who have successfully escape the museum. But liquid nitrogen has no effect on the Kothoga, and Margo and D'Agosta flee back to the lab wing. Over her protests, Lt. D'Agosta tells her to lock herself inside, while he stays behind to stop the creature. As she pleads with him, her computer signals that it has completed the analysis of the Kothoga's DNA
: the Kothoga was not sent back by John Whitney; it is John Whitney, mutated after innocently drinking a soup made from the leaves, fed to him by the hostile tribesmen.
Just as she realizes this, the Kothoga smashes into the lab through the ceiling, while the lieutenant is trapped on the other side of the door. Margo runs through the lab, chased by the creature, and manages to start an explosive fire that destroys it, while she survives by climbing inside a maceration
tank and pulling the cover shut over herself.
As dawn comes, Lt. D'Agosta and a team of police break into the lab, see the charred remains of the Kothoga, and rescue Margo from the tank.
in New York City
. Because the novel portrayed the museum's administration in an unflattering light, they turned the film's producers down. Paramount Pictures
approached the museum and offered them a seven figure sum of money to film there but the administration was worried that the monster movie would scare kids away from the museum. The producers were faced with a problem as only museums in Chicago
and Washington, D.C.
resembled the one in New York. Fortunately, the Field Museum of Natural History
in Chicago loved the premise of the movie and allowed them to shoot there.
Penelope Ann Miller had not done a horror film prior to The Relic but was drawn to director Peter Hyams' desire to have a strong, smart female lead. Tom Sizemore was attracted to the film because he got to play the male lead: "I had the responsibility of pushing the narrative forward."
Makeup artist Stan Winston
and his team made three creatures with two people moving the heads and people on the side working the electronics to move the arms, claws, mouth, and so on. Hyams reviewed Winston's early drawings and his only suggestion was to make the monster more hideous looking. The director also suggested certain invertebrates for inspiration and Winston came up with an arachnoid
outline for the monster's face. In the scenes where the creature is running or jumping, a computer-generated version was used.
In addition to shooting on location in Chicago, a set was built in Los Angeles
of a tunnel flooded with water. Sizemore spent most of the shoot either damp, cold or soaking wet and, as a result, caught the flu twice. The production was shut down briefly when Hyams became too sick to work.
The names chosen for the police dogs in the film (Castor and Pollux) come from a pair of brothers
in Greek mythology
that make up the Gemini
constellation. Ironically, these names were also chosen as first names for the main villains in another 1997 film, the John Woo
action blockbuster Face/Off
.
of Reel Views said that "when all is said and done, this horror/science fiction amalgamation seems like nothing more ambitious than a bad reworking of elements from Aliens, Species, Jaws, and Predator."
Positive reviews came from highly influential critics Roger Ebert
and Gene Siskel
, with Siskel describing the movie as "surprisingly entertaining," and Ebert saying that the movie was clever in how it "combines the conventions of the horror and disaster genres" and "is actually a lot of fun, if you like special effects and gore."
Leonard Maltin
provided a more intermediate perspective, bestowing 2 out of 4 stars and stated, "Yes, it's Alien
in a museum,' but not bad. The monster, done both 'live' and by computer graphics is especially impressive."
The film was nominated for multiple science-fiction and fantasy awards, including best horror film and best actress (for Penelope Ann Miller) at the 1997 Saturn Awards.
1997 in film
-Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...
science fiction
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
/horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Peter Hyams
Peter Hyams
Peter Hyams is an American screenwriter, director and cinematographer, probably best known for directing the 1984 science fiction adventure 2010 , Capricorn One, the comic book adaptation Timecop and the Arnold Schwarzenegger horror/action film End of Days.-Family:Hyams was born in New York...
and based on the best-selling novel Relic by Douglas Preston
Douglas Preston
Douglas Preston is an American author who has written seventeen popular techno-thriller and horror novels, four alone and the rest with Lincoln Child...
and Lincoln Child
Lincoln Child
Lincoln Child is an author of seventeen techno-thriller and horror novels. He often writes with Douglas Preston. Many of their novels have become bestsellers, and one, Relic, was adapted into a feature film...
. The film stars Penelope Ann Miller
Penelope Ann Miller
Penelope Ann Miller , sometimes credited as Penelope Miller, is an American actress...
, Tom Sizemore
Tom Sizemore
Thomas Edward "Tom" Sizemore, Jr. is an American film and television actor and producer. He is known for his roles in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days, Pearl Harbor, Heat and Black Hawk Down....
and Linda Hunt
Linda Hunt
Linda Hunt is an American film, stage and television actress. After making her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye , Hunt portrayed Billy Kwan, her breakthrough performance in The Year of Living Dangerously...
. The original music score was composed by John Debney
John Debney
John C. Debney is an American film composer. He received an Academy Award nomination for his score for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
. The film is rated R for monster violence, gore, and language.
Plot
John Whitney, an anthropologist for the Museum of Natural HistoryField Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
is studying a newly-discovered tribe in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, and drinks a soup made for him by the tribesmen. A short time later, he is seen accosting the captain of a merchant ship, asking that the shipment he has sent back to Chicago be unloaded from the ship. When the captain informs him that it's too late because the ship is about to leave, Whitney sneaks aboard. As the ship leaves the dock, Whitney searches through the cargo hold for his crates, crying out in despair when he does not find what he's looking for.
Six weeks later, the ship arrives on the Illinois River
Illinois River
The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long, in the State of Illinois. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of . This river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route...
, with its crew missing. Chicago PD
Chicago Police Department
The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...
homicide detective Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta (Sizemore) is assigned to investigate the ship. His partner, Sgt. Hollingsworth (Clayton Rohner
Clayton Rohner
Clayton Rohner is an American actor. He is known for his role as Rick Morehouse in the 1985 comedy movie Just One of the Guys. He also starred in the 1986 film Modern Girls as Clifford and Bruno X. He is a main character in the 1994 film Caroline at Midnight. Other credits include the films April...
) is sure that the crew's disappearance is drug-related, but Lt. D'Agosta opens the bilge
Bilge
The bilge is the lowest compartment on a ship where the two sides meet at the keel. The word was coined in 1513.-Bilge water:The word is sometimes also used to describe the water that collects in this compartment. Water that does not drain off the side of the deck drains down through the ship into...
hatch and finds dozens of bodies and severed heads inside.
Dr. Margo Green (Miller), an evolutionary biologist, arrives at work at the Museum, which is planning a gala opening of its latest "Superstition" exhibition. She and her mentor, Dr. Frock (James Whitmore
James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore, Jr. was an American film and stage actor.-Early life:Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, before graduating from The Choate School in...
) examine Whitney's crates, which are curiously empty, except for a bed of leaves used as packing materials and a stone statue of the "Kothoga," a mythical forest monster. Noticing a strange fungus
Fungus
A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...
growing on some of the leaves, Margo decides to save some for analysis.
That night, security guard Fred Ford is gruesomely murdered in the same manner as the ship's crew. Lt. D'Agosta investigates the murder and puzzles over a possible connection. Since he believes the killer may still be inside the Museum, he orders it closed until the police have finished searching, despite the protests of museum director, Dr. Cuthbert (Hunt) about the upcoming opening.
Margo analyzes the fungus and finds that it is loaded with concentrated hormones found in several animal species. Opening the container of leaves, she finds a beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
that crawled inside and has grown to a freakishy large size.
The autopsy of Fred Ford reveals the bizarre fact that the killer tore open his skull and extracted the hypothalamus
Hypothalamus
The Hypothalamus is a portion of the brain that contains a number of small nuclei with a variety of functions...
from his brain. An examination of the bodies from the ship reveals the same condition. Lt. D'Agosta is not sure what to make of this, but then the police teams find a derelict hiding in the Museum's basement, who is shot to death when he attacks the officers. When the derelict is found to be a convicted felon, with a history of mental illness, and has Ford's wallet in his pocket, everyone except Lt. D'Agosta considers the case closed, but the lieutenant has to give in when the Mayor of Chicago orders him to let the gala opening go on.
On the night of the opening, Lt. D'Agosta insists on sealing all areas of the museum except the main exhibition hall, while doing one last search of the basement tunnels. Dr. Frock and Margo are the last ones in the laboratory wing, and are unfortunately trapped inside when the wing is sealed (one of Margo's venal colleagues, Greg Lee, competing for the same grant from a foundation whose owners are attending the gala, has told the security chief that the laboratory wing is deserted).
In the basement, Lt. D'Agosta and his officers are attacked by something in the dark. The lieutenant tells Hollingsworth to run back to the main hall and evacuate the museum, but it is too late: the headless body of a murdered police officer tumbles from an air conditioning vent into the heart of the crowd, causing a panic. In their hysterical rush out of the museum, all the museum's alarms are tripped and their security system goes haywire, closing the fire doors and trapping a small group of people inside, just as the power fails.
Alone, Lt. D'Agosta finds his way to the lab wing, and discovers Margo and Dr. Frock. All three of them are then attacked by their antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
: the real Kothoga, an enormous chimeric
Chimera (mythology)
The Chimera or Chimaera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her...
beast. They barely manage to close a steel door between it and them, while the monster wounds itself trying to batter through.
Margo theorizes that the Kothoga must have been some much smaller animal that mutated
Mutation
In molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...
after eating the fungal leaves that she found in John Whitney's packing crates. Dr. Frock excitedly expands on her hypothesis: without the leaves to eat, the Kothoga's closest substitute for the hormones contained in them is to extract and eat human hypothalami. The tribe that Whitney was studying must have discovered the properties of these leaves, and used them to turn an animal into a weapon of war, that would eventually die when it had no more humans to kill.
Lt. D'Agosta finds a radio and orders Hollingsworth to lead the trapped museum guests to an old coal tunnel that will allow them to escape. A few guests refuse to go, preferring to wait for the fire doors to be opened from the outside. But the Kothoga returns to the main hall and murders these guests, as well as several S.W.A.T.
S.W.A.T.
- S.W.A.T. 1 :Date: October 4, 2006Location: VilniusResults: Valentine Bagdonavicius defeated Richard Damanskas by KO Gediminas Bielskis defeated Mantas Kuslin by KO Saulius Poltanavicius vs Aivaras Juska Draw...
officers entering through the skylights.
Margo analyzes the Kothoga's blood and guesses that, since it is at least part-reptilian, it is probably cold-blooded and they can kill it with liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in a liquid state at a very low temperature. It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. Liquid nitrogen is a colourless clear liquid with density of 0.807 g/mL at its boiling point and a dielectric constant of 1.4...
. She and Lt. D'Agosta collect the remaining leaves from Margo's lab, but discover that Dr. Frock has already been killed by the creature.
Making their way to the sewer underneath the museum, Lt. D'Agosta baits a trap with the leaves, luring the Kothoga away from the party escaping via the coal tunnel, who have successfully escape the museum. But liquid nitrogen has no effect on the Kothoga, and Margo and D'Agosta flee back to the lab wing. Over her protests, Lt. D'Agosta tells her to lock herself inside, while he stays behind to stop the creature. As she pleads with him, her computer signals that it has completed the analysis of the Kothoga's DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
: the Kothoga was not sent back by John Whitney; it is John Whitney, mutated after innocently drinking a soup made from the leaves, fed to him by the hostile tribesmen.
Just as she realizes this, the Kothoga smashes into the lab through the ceiling, while the lieutenant is trapped on the other side of the door. Margo runs through the lab, chased by the creature, and manages to start an explosive fire that destroys it, while she survives by climbing inside a maceration
Maceration (bone)
Maceration is a bone preparation technique whereby a clean skeleton is obtained from a vertebrate carcass by leaving it to decompose inside a closed container at near-constant temperature...
tank and pulling the cover shut over herself.
As dawn comes, Lt. D'Agosta and a team of police break into the lab, see the charred remains of the Kothoga, and rescue Margo from the tank.
Cast
- Penelope Ann MillerPenelope Ann MillerPenelope Ann Miller , sometimes credited as Penelope Miller, is an American actress...
— Dr. Margo Green - Tom SizemoreTom SizemoreThomas Edward "Tom" Sizemore, Jr. is an American film and television actor and producer. He is known for his roles in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days, Pearl Harbor, Heat and Black Hawk Down....
— Lt. Vincent D'AgostaVincent D'AgostaDetective Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta is a fictional character appearing in the novels of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. He is an Italian New Yorker and a main character in several different storylines.-Fictional character biography:... - Linda HuntLinda HuntLinda Hunt is an American film, stage and television actress. After making her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye , Hunt portrayed Billy Kwan, her breakthrough performance in The Year of Living Dangerously...
— Dr. Ann Cuthbert - James WhitmoreJames WhitmoreJames Allen Whitmore, Jr. was an American film and stage actor.-Early life:Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, before graduating from The Choate School in...
— Dr. Albert Frock - Clayton RohnerClayton RohnerClayton Rohner is an American actor. He is known for his role as Rick Morehouse in the 1985 comedy movie Just One of the Guys. He also starred in the 1986 film Modern Girls as Clifford and Bruno X. He is a main character in the 1994 film Caroline at Midnight. Other credits include the films April...
— Det. Hollingsworth - Chi Muoi Lo — Dr. Greg Lee
- Thomas Ryan — Tom Parkinson
- Francis X. McCarthy — Mr. Blaisedale
- Constance TowersConstance Towers-Early life:Towers was born in Whitefish, Montana, the daughter of Ardath L. and Harry J. Towers. According to her official Web site, a contract from Paramount Pictures was offered to her at age 11 but was declined...
— Mrs. Blaisedale - John KapelosJohn KapelosJohn Kapelos is a Canadian actor from London, Ontario. He is best known for his portrayals of janitor Carl Reed in The Breakfast Club and Detective Donald Schanke in Forever Knight....
— McNully - Don HarveyDon Patrick HarveyDonald Patrick Harvey II is an American actor and voice actor, known as Don Harvey.He was born and raised in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, the sixth of eight children. He started acting in high school. He did several shows before graduating and moving on to the University of Michigan where he studied...
— Spota - Audra LindleyAudra LindleyAudra Marie Lindley was an American actress, most famous for her role as landlady Helen Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers.-Career:...
— Dr. Zwiezic - Lewis Van BergenLewis Van BergenLewis Van Bergen is an American actor, best known for his role as Jon Sable on the short-lived 1987 television series Sable.- Biography :He became famous by being humiliated and beaten by Warren Beatty in the film Bugsy.- Film :...
- Dr. John Whitney
Production
The Relic was based on the best-selling horror novel by Douglas Preston, an ex-journalist and former public relations director for the American Museum of Natural HistoryAmerican Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Because the novel portrayed the museum's administration in an unflattering light, they turned the film's producers down. Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
approached the museum and offered them a seven figure sum of money to film there but the administration was worried that the monster movie would scare kids away from the museum. The producers were faced with a problem as only museums in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
resembled the one in New York. Fortunately, the Field Museum of Natural History
Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...
in Chicago loved the premise of the movie and allowed them to shoot there.
Penelope Ann Miller had not done a horror film prior to The Relic but was drawn to director Peter Hyams' desire to have a strong, smart female lead. Tom Sizemore was attracted to the film because he got to play the male lead: "I had the responsibility of pushing the narrative forward."
Makeup artist Stan Winston
Stan Winston
Stanley Winston was an American visual effects supervisor, makeup artist, and film director. He was best known for his work in the Terminator series, the Jurassic Park series, Aliens, the Predator series, Iron Man, Edward Scissorhands, and Avatar...
and his team made three creatures with two people moving the heads and people on the side working the electronics to move the arms, claws, mouth, and so on. Hyams reviewed Winston's early drawings and his only suggestion was to make the monster more hideous looking. The director also suggested certain invertebrates for inspiration and Winston came up with an arachnoid
Arachnoid
Arachnoid may refer to:*Relating to arachnids*Arachnoid mater, a layer of the meninges, membranes that contain the central nervous system*Arachnoid , a geological structure found only on the planet Venus...
outline for the monster's face. In the scenes where the creature is running or jumping, a computer-generated version was used.
In addition to shooting on location in Chicago, a set was built in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
of a tunnel flooded with water. Sizemore spent most of the shoot either damp, cold or soaking wet and, as a result, caught the flu twice. The production was shut down briefly when Hyams became too sick to work.
The names chosen for the police dogs in the film (Castor and Pollux) come from a pair of brothers
Castor and Pollux
In Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux or Polydeuces were twin brothers, together known as the Dioscuri . Their mother was Leda, but Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who visited Leda in the guise of a swan...
in Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
that make up the Gemini
Gemini (constellation)
Gemini is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It was one of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. Its name is Latin for "twins", and it is associated with the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology...
constellation. Ironically, these names were also chosen as first names for the main villains in another 1997 film, the John Woo
John Woo
John Woo Yu-Sen SBS is a Hong Kong-based film director and producer. Recognized for his stylised films of highly choreographed action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and use of slow-motion, Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard...
action blockbuster Face/Off
Face/Off
Face/Off is a 1997 action thriller film directed by John Woo, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. The two both play an FBI agent and a terrorist, sworn enemies who assume the physical appearance of one another....
.
Reaction
The film opened #1 at the box office, grossing $9,064,143 its opening week and a total of $33,956,608 domestically, against an estimated cost $60 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 32% and a Metacritic score of 55, indicating mixed or average reviews. James BerardinelliJames Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
of Reel Views said that "when all is said and done, this horror/science fiction amalgamation seems like nothing more ambitious than a bad reworking of elements from Aliens, Species, Jaws, and Predator."
Positive reviews came from highly influential critics Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
and Gene Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
, with Siskel describing the movie as "surprisingly entertaining," and Ebert saying that the movie was clever in how it "combines the conventions of the horror and disaster genres" and "is actually a lot of fun, if you like special effects and gore."
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
provided a more intermediate perspective, bestowing 2 out of 4 stars and stated, "Yes, it's Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
in a museum,' but not bad. The monster, done both 'live' and by computer graphics is especially impressive."
The film was nominated for multiple science-fiction and fantasy awards, including best horror film and best actress (for Penelope Ann Miller) at the 1997 Saturn Awards.