Review of Jack Sholder's film 'The Hidden' (1987): 'Borrowing the Name of Lloyd Gallagher'
A series of robbery-murders suddenly occurs in Los Angeles, committed by a respectable bank employee...
Detective Tom Beck (Michael Nouri) and his team corner him...
They pump him full of bullets... leaving him critically wounded...
Then, an FBI agent named Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan)...
a baby-faced investigator, arrives and says he wants to cooperate in the investigation of this case...
Beck: "Sorry, but the case is closed..."
"Boy Scout..."
"He's been shot full of holes and is going to die any minute..."
When Gallagher rushes to the hospital in a panic...
the respectable bank employee is dead...
and the patient in the next bed, who was being treated for a stomach ulcer, is gone...
They say that patient was a gentle and honest man, but...
That gentle and honest stomach ulcer patient begins committing robbery-murders...
The modus operandi is... chillingly similar to that of the respectable bank employee...
Gallagher: "It's him..."
Beck: "Him?" "He's dead right here, isn't he?"
Gallagher: "He's not dead... he's continuing the robbery-murders..."
Beck: "Please, just tell me everything you know..."
"Boy Scout..."
Beck feels suspicious of Gallagher's behavior...
and when he checks his identity...
he finds that Lloyd Gallagher died in a forest fire two weeks ago...
and the man calling himself "Lloyd Gallagher"...
is actually Gallagher's friend, Stone...
When Gallagher finds the gentle and honest man with the stomach ulcer at a strip club...
he is already dead from his ulcer, and the stripper he was obsessed with...
begins committing robbery-murders...
Gallagher: "It's her..."
Beck: "I'm tired of hearing your 'It's him/her' routine..."
"Gallagher (fake)..."
"Who on earth are you...?"
"What exactly is 'it'?"
"Why did a respectable bank employee, a gentle stomach ulcer patient, and a stripper..."
"turn into robbery-murderers...?"
Gallagher (fake): "It's pointless to explain it to you..."
Beck: "Whether it's pointless or meaningful is for me to decide..."
"Explain. Everything. Now."
Something like Gallagher (fake):
"It... parasitizes other life forms... and controls their bodies..."
"From the respectable bank employee to the gentle stomach ulcer patient..."
"From the gentle stomach ulcer patient to the stripper..."
"When the body it's parasitizing becomes useless..."
"it moves to another body..."
"THE WEAPON I HAVE..."
"IS ONLY EFFECTIVE IF IT HITS THE MAIN BODY DIRECTLY..."
"THAT IS WHEN IT IS TRANSFERRING TO ANOTHER BODY..."
Beck: "Are you... also... parasitizing a human body like that..."
Something like Gallagher (fake): "YES..."
"BORROWING THE NAME OF LLOYD GALLAGHER..."
"I AM CHASING IT..."
"TO AVENGE MY WIFE AND CHILD..."
Beck treats Gallagher (fake) as...
an incorrigible lunatic, throws him in jail...
and confiscates the weapon he was carrying...
But... it... moves from the stripper to a dog...
from the dog to the police chief...
and comes to finish off Gallagher...
The character design of Detective Tom Beck, played by Michael Nouri...
who is tough and hardworking, yet deeply compassionate toward his subordinates and family,
is irresistible, and the character design of FBI Agent Lloyd Gallagher, played by Kyle MacLachlan,
with his transcendent demeanor... and the cute sight of him drinking for the first time, getting drunk at Beck's house,
and sleeping in bed, is a character design that makes me want to eat bowl after bowl of rice... it's a masterpiece of a 'buddy movie'...
where two detectives... chase a vicious parasitic alien...
The two, who were initially at odds,
develop 'trust' as they come to understand each other,
and the scene where they walk side-by-side for the first time brings tears to my eyes...
The title of the fanzine for 'The Hidden' published by author Tsubasa Iwasaki
is 'I Want You to Provide Cover'.
'I Want You to Provide Cover' is...
the line Gallagher says when he corners the stripper...
and requests cover from Beck...
The way Iwasaki-sensei 'gets it' is just too much to handle.
You know.
The real reason I love 'The Hidden' is...
'The Hidden' is... a space cop who came to chase a vicious space criminal
and is operating on Earth 'borrowing the name of Lloyd Gallagher'...
In other words, he is...
'Ultraman', who came to Earth chasing Bemular
and is operating on Earth 'borrowing the name of Hayata'...
I love 'The Hidden'... because it is actually 'Ultraman'...
Finally... in the scene where Gallagher approaches Beck, who has been shot and is in critical condition...
and decides to naturalize on Earth as 'Beck'...
the child actress playing Beck's daughter...
the eyes of the daughter looking at 'Beck' are...
'the same' as the eyes when she first met Gallagher...
The acting of the daughter, who knows they are 'the same' but accepts 'that'...
and gently squeezes 'Beck's' hand, just makes me... cry and cry...
The Grand Prix at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival that year
was expected to go to Verhoeven's 'RoboCop',
but this film overturned those predictions.
Since then, in my mind, Verhoeven looks like Jones from RoboCop,
and Jack Sholder looks like Morton.
Verhoeven must have wanted to...
shoot Sholder in both legs...
and blow him up with explosives...
I enjoy these aimless delusions.
I am waiting forever...
for a Blu-ray release...
that includes the Japanese dub...