Hollow Man

Hollow Man (2000) is a Science Fiction Thriller Film directed by Paul Verhoeven, inspired by H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man. It stars Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, and Josh Brolin as a team of scientists trying to perfect the formula for an invisibility serum for the military. Initially, the only remaining snag is reversing the invisibility effect, but when Dr. Sebastian Caine (Bacon) discovers the key, the team eagerly anticipates gaining clearance for human trials.

Caine, however, has other ideas. Concealing their success from the military oversight committee, Caine uses himself as a test subject for the formula... but discovers the antidote doesn't work on humans. Already unstable from the start, Caine's sanity starts to fray further as the team struggles to find a cure for his invisibility, until it becomes clear that their invisible test subject is turning sociopathic...

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects in 2000. The direct-to-video sequel, Hollow Man 2, was released in 2006.

Not to be mistaken with John Dickson Carr's novel The Hollow Man, also known as Three Coffins.

Tropes used in Hollow Man include:
  • And Some Other Stuff: Caine mixes nitroglycerine in the matter of five minutes or so without blowing himself to kingdom come - and apparently without using nitric acid.
  • Ax Crazy: Caine becomes this when his his megalomaniac tendencies begin to emerge.
  • Black Dude Dies First: Sort of. The black woman is the first of the main characters to die in Caine's rampage.
  • Body Horror: The incredibly-detailed transformation sequence.
  • Camera Spoofing: Caine does this with the thermal camera designed to keep track of him, allowing his escape.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: The base explodes, the elevator's bottom is covered in raging flames, yet the people climbing the ladder up the elevator shaft to leave have no problem with the heat.
  • Design Student's Orgasm: The credits sequence.
  • Dwindling Party: The proper thing to do when you're trapped in a sealed underground laboratory with a crazy killer, is to wander off on your own. And if you do manage to strike him down, put your weapon down beside him and turn your back...
  • Elaborate Underground Base: The lab where experiments take place.
  • Genre Shift: It starts out in the Sci Fi category, shifting to Thriller as Caine starts going off the edge.
  • Hot Scientist: Elisabeth Shue as a molecular biologist.
    • Sarah is pretty hot as well.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Non-fatal, using a crowbar.
  • Impending Doom POV
  • Invisible Jerkass: Caine.
  • Invisible Streaker: Is it still indecent exposure if nobody can see what's exposed?
  • Invisibility
  • Kick the Dog: "Smash it against the cage wall" actually.
  • Lightning Can Do Anything: During the climax, Caine is electrocuted, causing the invisibility to falter slightly, leaving him half-visible, with organs visible. A Chekhov's Gun is offered earlier in the film, in which the cure for a test gorilla's invisibility only worked after the team used a defibrillator on its heart.
  • Locked in a Freezer: Elizabeth Shue's character (the former girlfriend of Sebastian, the man who is now invisible) and her boyfriend are trapped in a freezer. The boyfriend is unconscious and bleeding severely, so she seals his wounds with duct tape, then rigs a magnetic device out of a defibrilator and assorted objects to open the door (which had been sealed from the outside).
  • Man On Fire: Caine is set on fire during the climax, and quickly learns how very flammable his latex mask is.
  • Name of Cain: Caine.
  • No OSHA Compliance: Quite a few. The walk-in freezer which can be locked from the outside (Walk-in freezers are always specifically designed NOT to do this, most in fact have doorknobs on both sides if they can even close at all while someone is in it) and the elevator whose emergency break cannot stop the elevator from falling.
  • Not Quite Dead: Quite a few times.
  • Painful Transformation
  • Power Perversion Potential: Made explicit when the invisible Dr. Caine rapes his female neighbor.
  • Professor Guinea Pig: While the team performed extensive tests on animal subjects, Caine thought the secret to reversing it could be unlocked using a human test subject, nominating himself. This proves to be ill advised.
  • Double Standard Rape (Male on Male): Caine tells a well-known joke about Superman and Wonder Woman, with the Invisible Man [1] caught in the middle. Possibly subverted, in that no one laughs. It only acts as foreshadowing of Caine's character.
  • Required Secondary Powers: The first problem is outlined when Caine screams that he can't block the strong ambient lights because his eyelids and arms are invisible. The problem of how he is able to see with invisible retinas is not addressed, but then, it never is.
  • Villain Protagonist: Caine.
  • Visible Invisibility: Even Caine's vomit is invisible.
  • What You Are in the Dark / GIFT: Sebastian concludes that he might as well molest, rape, kill people, and scare children if he can escape the consequences by being invisible.

Sebastian: It's amazing what you can do when you don't have to look at yourself in the mirror.

Sebastian: Well, your objections have been duly noted and summarily overruled.
Sarah: Yes, Sir!
Sebastian: How come when you say "Yes, Sir" it kinda sounds like "Fuck you!"
Sarah: Practice!

  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Of the "Most likely intentional for the sake of horror" variety, The woman who Caine raped is never seen or really mentioned again. The remainder of Caine's descent into madness can be viewed in different ways, based on whether or not he killed her (there's little evidence either way).
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Caine was a bit off-kilter to start, but when his visibility went, so did his inhibitions.
  1. ↑ Maybe it was the Martian Manhunter?
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