This is one of those films
that you have probably heard of, but not bothered to watch. Only to wish you had discovered the film
years ago, when you finally do get around to seeing it.
An apparently ordinary citizen walks into a bank, then suddenly guns down the security guards and makes off with the banks takings in a stolen Ferrari, whilst listening to loud rock music. A high speed police chase ensues, with the chap running people off the road and deliberately mowing down innocent bystanders, before he is finally stopped by getting pumped full of shotgun shells whilst trying to ram a police road block.
Despite his high speed high jinks, and the fact he was repeatedly shot, he still lives and staggers free from the wreck, but later dies at the local hospital. You can therefore imagine the surprise of the investigating police detective, Tom Beck (Michael Nouri), when the extremely ill man who was occupying the next bed just suddenly gets up and walks out of the hospital and proceeds to rob banks and steal cars in the same manner.
An FBI officer named to Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan), then jumps on the case claiming that this character is a known suspect to him and that he has been tracking him for years. He enlists the help of detective Beck to try and track him down, but it isn't too long before he realises that there is more to this case, and the enigmatic agent Gallagher, than meets the eye.
This becomes apparent when the man they've been looking for turns up dead inside a strip club, and one of the strippers (Claudia Christian) then embarks on a murderous rampage, and despite being shot over 40 times, it doesn't even slow her down. It turns out our criminal is actually an alien being that inhabits other bodies. Gallagher seems to know a lot more than he's letting on, much to the annoyance of Beck who can't work out why all these seemingly ordinary people suddenly start embarking on mass crime sprees.
Kind of a cross between "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Terminator". I really loved it and wished I'd seen it years ago. The car chase scene during the intro is excellent, as the guy comically runs down pedestrians for fun, which certainly had me in fits of laughter.
Best line : "He killed 12 people, wounded 23 more. Stole 6 cars, most of them Ferrari's. Robbed 8 banks, 6 supermarkets, 4 jewelery stores and a candy shop. 6 of the ones he killed he carved up with a butcher knife, two of them were kids. He did all that in two weeks, if anybody deserves to die this way, it sure in the hell was him!"
