The Puppet Masters (1994)

Director:

Stuart Orme

Writers (WGA):

Robert A. Heinlein (novel)
Ted Elliott (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 October 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Trust No-one.

Plot:

The Earth is invaded by alien "slugs" that ride on people's backs and control their minds.

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Iowa | President | Suicide | Des Moines Iowa

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Donald Sutherland	...	Andrew Nivens
Eric Thal	...	Sam Nivens
Julie Warner	...	Mary Sefton
Keith David	...	Alex Holland
Will Patton	...	Dr. Graves
Richard Belzer	...	Jarvis
Tom Mason	...	President Douglas
Yaphet Kotto	...	Ressler
Gerry Bamman	...	Viscott
Sam Anderson	...	Culbertson
J. Patrick McCormack	...	Gidding
Marshall Bell	...	General Morgan
Nicholas Cascone	...	Greenberg
Bruce Jarchow	...	Barnes
Benjamin Mouton	...	Higgins

Also Known As:

Robert A. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters (USA) (complete title)
Les maîtres du monde (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
A parazita (Hungary) [hu]
Ailen Master (South Korea) [ko]
Alguien mueve los hilos (Spain) [es]
Gospodarji lutk (Slovenia) [sl]
Il terrore della sesta luna (Italy) [it]
Invadatorii (Romania) [ro]
Puppet Masters (Sweden) [sv]
Puppet Masters - Bedrohung aus dem All (Germany) [de]
Uhka tuntemattomasta (Finland) (TV title) [fi]
Varastetut ihmiset (Finland) [fi]

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, sci-fi gore and brief language.

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Hungary:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | France:U | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 (video premiere) | Germany:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #33291) | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

City Hall - 2600 Fresno Street, Fresno, California, USA

Company:

Hollywood Pictures

Trivia:

At the start of the film when the boys are trying to convince Mary to go inside the fake spaceship, Andrew Nivens says, "She balked at Pirates of the Caribbean." Both Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, two of the films credited screenwriters, went on to write all three of the, "Pirates of the Caribbean," movies.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: After the president is saved by the OSI agents, just after Donald Sutherland enters the room a crew member's hand can be seen catching the door.

Quotes:

[After Sam rescues Andrew by shooting him]
Andrew: [musingly] I can't believe you shot me.
Sam: Well, what would you have done?
Andrew: [nonchalant] Oh, I'd have shot you, of course.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Faculty (1998)

This just ain't Heinlein...

How the producers got away with calling this "Robert A. Heinlein's Puppet Masters" amazes me - because the only resemblance to Heinlein's genuinely chilling short story about Titan 'slugs' are the character names. That's it. None of the wonderfully satirical espionage group shenanigans, none of the gripping suspense, none of the character development, and none of the setting. "Puppet Masters" is not supposed to be set in 1994, it's supposed to be set in 1957 - but a different 1957 to the one we know. I mean, this film didn't even attempt the flying cars or the hand-held lasers. Like so many new sci-fi films made from older literature classics, the fiction has been cut out like some sort of hideous tumor and the science has been exaggerated to make sure the audience knows it's SCIENCE fiction. The fact that the science is largely irrelevant is lost on most modern screen writers - and this movie is no exception.

Another example of a perfectly good story that has been shredded to make it 'fit' Hollywood's version of science-fiction, which is largely made up of clanking robots, flashing lights and explosions.

"The Faculty" was a good SF movie. And it was right - Body Snatchers is a rip-off from this story, but it never pretended to be anything but. Faculty had some enjoyable sequences. It wasn't perfect, and elements were laughable, but despite this, it was true to itself..._this_ film was just the massacre of a perfectly good story.

I only hope anyone else who ever tries to make a movie of a Heinlein classic will stick to the book and make a decent movie, not rehash the story until it sounds good - because they sounded good before.