''Alien Hunter'' is a 2003 American-Bulgarian

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by Ronald Krauss and starring

James Spader James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960; ) is an American actor. He is known for often portraying eccentric and morally ambiguous characters. He began his career in critically acclaimed independent films before transitioning into television, f ...

Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. Lewis was a dominant sprinter and lo ...

and Leslie Stefanson.

Plot

In 1947 New Mexico, a radio operator receives a bizarre signal coming from

Roswell, New Mexico Roswell () is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County, New Mexico, Chaves County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 48,422 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fi ...

. He decides to investigate its origin and disappears tracking it. In the present day, the same signal is received from the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

and then retransmitted from the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

to the United States. A satellite image captures an unknown object sitting on the Antarctic snow.

Cryptologist This is a list of cryptographers. Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries. Pre twentieth century * Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi: wrote a (now lost) book ...

Julian Rome, a teacher at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, is invited to investigate the mystery. He is sent to an Antarctic research base, which includes a large greenhouse of genetically modified plants being studied by scientists. They discover what appears to be an alien vehicle frozen in a large block of ice. The object is shaped like a shell or pod and is emitting the mysterious

encrypted In cryptography, encryption (more specifically, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plain ...

signal. Once it is released from the ice, Julian discovers that it has a powerful static electric charge on its surface and painfully shocks anyone who touches it. Julian tries to

decrypt In cryptography, encryption (more specifically, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plai ...

the signal (which soon proves to be: "Do not open!"), while another team works to open the alien shell. They succeed in cutting off the lid, which allows a viscous liquid to pour out. An alien also escapes, while at the same time an airborne virus sealed in the shell kills four scientists by melting them from within. The virus also kills all the plants, making them wilt and turn brown. The virus has an unusually high speed of transmission and extreme

virulence Virulence is a pathogen's or microorganism's ability to cause damage to a host. In most cases, especially in animal systems, virulence refers to the degree of damage caused by a microbe to its host. The pathogenicity of an organism—its abili ...

. It kills anyone within a few minutes of exposure. The government is aware of the alien virus and the global risk that it poses. They ask a Russian nuclear submarine to fire a nuclear missile at the base before the threat can spread. As the submarine nears its firing position, Julian manages to communicate with the alien, before it is killed by one of the survivors. Julian realizes that if any of the survivors leave the base alive, the lethal alien virus will cause a

pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

destroying all life on Earth. Just a few seconds before the missile hits, he and three others, Shelly, Kate, and Dr. Gierach, are rescued from the base by an alien spacecraft (which had homed in on the same signal Julian was studying). In the aftermath, the government mounts a

cover-up A cover-up is an attempt, whether successful or not, to conceal evidence of wrongdoing, error, incompetence, or other embarrassing information. Research has distinguished personal cover-ups (covering up one's own misdeeds) from relational co ...

campaign by claiming that an experimental

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...

at the base went into meltdown, destroying all of the facilities and killing everyone. The film ends with the alien spacecraft, still carrying the human survivors, leaving the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

Cast

as Julian Rome * Janine Eser as Kate Brecher * John Lynch as Dr. Michael Straub * Nikolay Binev as Dr. Alexi Gierach * Leslie Stefanson as Nyla Olson * Aimee Graham as Shelly Klein *

Stuart Charno Stuart Charno (born September 29, 1956) is an American actor. He has been a stand-up comic and has starred in film and on television. His first role was in the 1981 horror film ''Friday the 13th Part 2''. Other notable appearances of his include ...

as Abell *

as Grisham * Svetla Vasileva as Dacia Petrova * Anthony Crivello as Pilot * Kaloian Vodenicharov as Co-Pilot * George Stanchev as Airman * Rufus Dorsey as Navigator * Roy Dotrice as Dr. John Bachman * Woody Schultz as Sam * Ron Krauss as First Man * William Ladd Skinner as Second Man * Franklin A. Vallente as Third Man * Hristo Aleksandrov as Fourth Man * Ross W. Clarkson as Falkland Man # 1 * Willie Botha as Falkland Man # 2 * Tyrone Pinkham as Kitt Peak Man #1 * Atanas Srebrev as Kitt Peak Man #2 * Joel Polis as Copeland * Keir Dullea as Secretary Bayer * Bert Emmett as Gordon Osler * Marianne Stanicheva as Reporter * Dobrin Dosev as Captain Sokolov * Atanas Atanasov as Executive Officer Volkov *

Hristo Shopov Hristo Naumov Shopov (, ; born 4 January 1964) is a Bulgarian actor. Shopov's father, Naum Shopov, was a famous Bulgarian actor as well. He is most noted for his 2004 portrayal of Pontius Pilate in Mel Gibson's ''The Passion of the Christ''. S ...

as Navigator Petrenko * Harry Anichkin as Army General * Velimir Velev as Alien

References

External links

* * * {{YouTube, B5x9XnRP2FE, ''Alien Hunter'' film at Crackle 2003 films 2003 science fiction action films 2000s American films 2000s English-language films Films about alien visitations American science fiction action films American science fiction thriller films Bulgarian action films Bulgarian science fiction films Bulgarian thriller films English-language Bulgarian films Films about viral outbreaks Films produced by Boaz Davidson Films set in 1947 Films set in Antarctica Films set in California Films set in New Mexico Films shot in Bulgaria Films with screenplays by J. S. Cardone Films with screenplays by Boaz Davidson Nu Image films Films scored by Tim Jones English-language science fiction action films

Plot

Cast

See also

References

External links