Memoirs of an Invisible Man is a 1992 science fiction romance released by Warner Bros. It stars Chevy Chase, Darryl Hannah, Sam Neill, and Michael McKean. The producers are Bruce Bodner, Dan Kolsrud, and Arnon Milchan. The director is John Carpenter.
The story follows a man named Nick Halloway who has few friends and no family. One day, after excusing himself from a shareholder meeting at Magnascopic Laboratories, he wanders around the building looking for the men’s room. He asks for directions from someone in the lab who accidentally spills coffee on the console. Nick falls asleep in a vacant sauna as the rest of the building is evacuated. Parts of the building are now invisible, including the dormant Nick. He is taken out on a stretcher but tries to escape as a CIA operative named Dave Jenkins discovers his condition. Jenkins is a crooked man and wants to take credit for finding Nick and desires to have him become a secret agent. He relentlessly pursues him throughout the film, threatening to kill him if he doesn’t comply.
Sam Neill’s portrayal of the corrupt David Jenkins is quite remarkable. Jenkins is a man who’s constantly under suspicion for his tactics. He is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants, even if that means hurting other people in the process. Jenkins, at first, wants to turn Nick into a secret agent but later talks of selling him to the highest bidding country on the black market. Up until I saw this film, Sam Neill was only known to me as Dr. Alan Grant from Jurassic Park, but seeing him as a villain shines a whole new light on him for me.
Nick Halloway, the title character, appears to be the most interesting character in the film. In a way, he was invisible before he literally became invisible. He had almost no social life, few friends, and no family. Thus, people paid very little attention to him while he was still visible. Becoming invisible was, for Nick, just becoming what he, for all intensive purposes, already was.
To wrap, if a good science fiction film about a man who literally became what he had been trying to be for most of his life, then Memoirs of an Invisible Man may just be what you’re looking for!