In 1975 NASA launched two missions to Mars. They were Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each mission consisted of an orbiter and a lander. The purpose of the program was to explore the red planet and search for life, past or present. Several models of the lander were created. Some were sent to museums for display. The program ended in 1982 when the last lander on Mars shut down. At least until a lander fell out of the sky and landed in the desert not far from an aerospace research center.
NASA sent a team out to find it and bring it to a secure facility. In charge of the investigation is Dr. Case Montgomery (Cotter Smith). With him is Michael Perkett (Leland Orser). Case brings in Dr. Gracia Scott (Deirdre O’Connell) to assist. Case recalls that NASA had a spare lander but doesn’t know what happened to it. While examining the lander, Michael sees that there is something on it that was not part of the original vehicle. There appears to be a metal container of some kind attached to the lander.
Soon the facility is swarming with Military personnel with Colonel Jessie Pratt (Robert Wisdom) in charge. The colonel wants to take the lander back to a secure Army base in the guise of national security. Case and Gracia lock themselves in with the lander. As the Army tries to cut open the metal door, the strange container on the lander opens. A mist spills from the container and an alien life form rushes out. As the outer door is breached, the alien form rushes past the Army and disappears down a row of corridors.
The facility is locked down and the Army goes searching for the creature only to find that it has grown to adult size in less than twenty-four hours. It then begins killing people. The Army manages to kill the alien. During the autopsy they find what appears to be an egg of some kind. It appears that the alien is asexual and can produce eggs. Each egg hatches with the collective knowledge of the aliens that came before it so each hatchling is smarter than the last. The question arises, are there more eggs? The Army begins a sweep of the facility. They still don’t know why the alien is here. Is it looking to make contact, or is this just the beginning of an invasion?
“Invader” AKA “Lifeform” was released in 1996 and was written and directed by Mark H. Baker. It is an American direct to video science fiction thriller.
This was a good movie. I only had two real issues with it but I don’t want to give away any of the ending. One issue was with the alien itself. For the most part, I loved the look of it except for the last manifestation where it completed its metamorphosis and grew a head and arms. There is some ambiguity with the ending of the film, which is fine. My concern is that the ending seemed abrupt and as if it was an alternate ending because they weren’t able to end it the way the filmmakers had originally intended. In general though, the film was better than I expected.
The movie briefly mentions the Pathfinder Mission. The Pathfinder Mission is a real event that happened in 1997. The robotic spacecraft landed on Mars in 1997. The Pathfinder consisted of a lander and a robotic rover named Sojourner. It was the first rover to operate outside of the Earth-Moon configuration.