Terminal Invasion (2002 TV Movie) User Reviews

Flawed but Entertaining B-Movie

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 19 July 2008]

In a stormy night, while transporting the criminal Jack (Bruce Campbell) to the death corridor, the officers have a car accident nearby a private airport. They bring the prisoner to the place where clients are arguing the owner of the charter services and pilot Cathy Garrett (Chase Masterson) because she refuses to take off with the bad weather and the communications are down due to the snow storm. Jack asks to go to the toilet being escorted by the guards; however, in the bathroom, a preacher attacks and kills the guards and when Jack kills him, his body vanishes. Jack returns to the lobby and when the security guard holds him, he accidentally shots a passenger, but the woman does not die until Jack shots her head and her body also disappears. The survivors conclude that they are trapped in a place with aliens and nobody is trustful.

"Terminal Invasion" has a good concept, where the viewer shall guess who are the aliens among humans, but there are many flaws in the story. But considering the extremely low-budget of this movie, with few locations, special effects and unknown cast (with the exception of Bruce Campbell), the result is an entertaining B-movie. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Ataque Alienígena" ("Alien Attack")

If stupid is your thing, then try this one

[racliff · 4/10 · 17 December 2007]

There are lots of other relevant comments here. The only reason I tried this movie was because I enjoy Bruce Campbell and Chase Masterson. Bruce did great considering what he was given to work with. I don't find Chase a very effective "Alpha Female" here -- I think I would like her to stick with comedies.

The suspense of the movie is good, but most of the story is predictable. The thing that drives me nuts is when so many of the characters are acting just plain stupid.

The idea of stumbling into an invasion is an appealing plot. The story is intriguing with a touch of "First Wave" and "The Thing", but there were times I almost had enough. I hung in until the end, but I wouldn't bother watching this a second time.

Nothing great but it's Fun

[sludgehound · 6/10 · 16 November 2002]

With the "near-great" Brucie, how can ya miss. Ok maybe he doesn't crack wise enough (Big Way my fave from another dud Navy spoof) but the scene near beginning in the men's room -- oh yes. Especially the religious slant. Gotta love it. Had this had an Aliens 2 style budget it would have kicked people better. But for FREE on Sci-Fi channel, what's to barf. Couple nifty twists offer a pleasant little ride. Grade: Gentleman's C. (C for Campbell)

I Bet It Wasn`t Originally Written As Sc-Fi

[Theo Robertson · 2/10 · 28 October 2003]

I do have a soft spot for aliens disguised as humans infiltrating mankind movies with some of the best SF written like QUATERMASS 2 and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS having this plot . Unfortunately some of the worst SF shows and films I`ve seen like THE PUPPET MASTERS and the dismal WAR OF THE WORLDS series also share the same plot so I guess it`s all down to how the story is developed

***** MILD SPOILERS *****

Alas TERMINAL INVASION is one of the lesser movies to use this plot . It contains a ludicurous scene near the beginning where a convicted murderer called Jack is being transported to prison via a snowbound airfield uses the toilet at the airfield terminal . So far so good , but then a priest suddenly enters the toilet , kills the two guards with Jack and proclaims he`s an alien who is leading an invasion infiltration force against Earth because " We don`t like you " . I just couldn`t take this scene seriously , but then I couldn`t take the entire film seriously because it`s clumsily handled . The characters are bland stereotypes who either take an alien invasion in their stride or are totally cynical to the threat when ever the script demands it . Despite being very similar to THE THING in many ways there`s a nagging suspicion I felt that the original draft didn`t contain an alien invasion plot and was more akin to something like D-TOX with the baddies being escaped criminals or foreign terrorists .

Regardless of what happened between initial script stage and final shooting TERMINAL INVASION is a very silly totally unbelievable sci fi TVM

Bruce doesn't save the day!

[Ralphus2 · 2/10 · 5 October 2007]

Bruce Campbell stars in this made-for-TV clanger directed by - surprisingly - Sean S. Cunningham of Friday the 13th fame.

Fans of Bruce Campbell seem to want desperately to review this film at least quasi-positively. That's entirely understandable. What horror fan doesn't have a soft spot for Bruce? If you are a die-hard fan of Bruce (no pun intended!?) then you may want to see this. But if you aren't: STAY WELL AWAY! This is a woeful movie! The acting (mostly) and script (entirely) are desperately bad. The premise, as far as B-grade made-for-TV movies go, is OK, I suppose. But the whole thing is executed so lamely! Aside from the writing, the worst thing is the 'look' of the film. TV movies do sometimes have a 'cheap' look like this but this is one of the worst I've seen. And the CGI effects are particularly crappy. CGI blood? A good old squib left over from Friday the 13th would have been much wiser.

Other than the presence of poor Bruce, this movie has absolutely nothing to commend it. Evil Dead, Bubba Ho-Tep it ain't! Don't let the Bruce-o-philes fool you: Terminal Invasion is bad enough to watch Oprah instead.

Phew !

[henry_speed · 3/10 · 14 April 2004]

I can tell you this, Bruce Campbell changed my rating for this movie from a 0 out of 10 to a 3 out of ten. Poor Bruce always getting the s**t end of the stick. The script, the direction, the effects everything was on a C movie level. Sean S. Cunningham how could you accept directing this piece of crap ?! I thought a sci-fi with Bruce and directed by Sean could be a good movie. Wrong ! This is 80 minutes of my life I will never get back ! Don´t see this movie ! that is an order ! Here is some trivia for all of you out there. The car crash is footage from The long kiss goodnight. They have changed the front of the car and some other things with cgi. Thats how little money they had to spend on this. TV movies suck ! Thank you for your time.

-H-

A convicted felon, some aliens and a snowed in airport, let the games begin!

[Animus · 7/10 · 14 September 2002]

Ok this movie will never win an award, it will never have a sequel and it will never be a cult classic, but it was a pretty good trapped with monsters formula movie. The basic plot involves aliens who are disguised as humans who are here for some reason you really won't care about, at an airport that has been caught in a blizzard. Enter Bruce "If Chins Could Kill" Campbell as our anti-hero, a convict who's trip up has been sidetracked by a cup of coffee. We quickly get down and dirty with aliens killing people and people killing aliens and people who don't trust people having to rely on those they don't trust when the people they did trust try to kill them. Got that? Good. If you follow that you'll have no trouble here. The action is fairly fast, except when it's not and I suggest that if you and your buddies haven't seen it, have a betting pool on who's what and who lives, it's not always who you think. My scores on a 1-10 scale: Action = 7, Acting = 7, Plot = 5, Tension = 7, Surprises = 7, Fun Factor = 7.

I wish I had kept the receipt.

[lazyaceuk · 4/10 · 29 March 2008]

Oh dear. This reminded me of the kinds of films that I used to rent on VHS purely because of the cover.

I bought this because of Bruce. And to be honest, he is, as is usual, the highpoint of this film which has the qualities of a day time soap.

The average X files episode used to sweep this kind of stuff in 45 minutes and there is a high degree of stretch to the story. The acting is pretty poor as well with some fairly desperate stereotyping.

As a cable production Cunningham (Director) probably had little to work with budget wise but this looks and feels cheap from the opening scene.

Avoid.

Not bad at all...

[JackDeth1985 · 7/10 · 15 September 2002]

Bruce Campbell stars as Jack, a convict who is being transported during a blizzard, unfortunately the car crashes and the police and him must hike to a nearby private airport that is shut down because of the blizzard and has a handful of angry customers who want to get out of there. Things go awry when people start disappearing and who is blamed? Of course Jack is, he is a convicted murder after all, but was it him?

The movie is basically borrows most of its originality from John Carpenter's the Thing but it really doesn't do that bad of a job of it. One redeeming quality of the movie was that the director, who directed the original Friday the 13th by the way, doesn't show the "creature" very much, which a lot of directors of todays big-budget horror movies could really learn something from.

Overall, this movie is a lot better then most of Sci-Fi's premiere movies and nearly all made-for-tv movies. Fans of Bruce Campbell should really enjoy this movie, as some of his humor of previous appearances play through in his character in this one.

Overall : 7/10

Fun movie that is not to be taken that serious

[Rayniack · 5/10 · 9 April 2011]

I watched this movie because it had Sean Cunningham (director of Friday the 13th) with Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) and thought it would be a high tension and suspense action-thriller. However, I think it was some more like some mystery-thriller a la Stephen King. The Langoliers was the first movie that popped into my mind.

People are stranded on an airport that is filled with aliens. Yes, we've seen movies like this a million times and it is what you would suspect. Nothing more, nothing less. OK, I found Bruce a bit like a whining wimp and some of the characters were very annoying and the monsters looked ridiculous. However, I found it interesting how they would get out of this trouble and the twist at the end was also welcome. The reason why the aliens invaded is well explained at the end Here is the reason why they invaded, that is explained at the very end (minor PLOT SPOILER ahead) They invaded the airport as a test before a bigger invasion. Their reason for invading earth is because they found humans had the strongest spirit and would therefore make the best slave labor (why these high-tech aliens would use human labour instead of high-tech machinery could be questioned?;) PLOTSPOILER END They do not invade us "because they hate us and want us dead" as the alien says in one of the first scenes and people here complain about this as "a stupid plot". You get what you expect and if this sounds something that you would like, go ahead and rent it, but do not expect anything groundbreaking.

Better than much of what passes for entertainment.

[uscmd · 8/10 · 14 January 2006]

Lets be honest.....this movie isn't Gone with the wind, or Ghandi....its not even Alien or Independence day. But its clever, well written and an alien movie with a unique storyline. Reminiscent of the paranoia in the best of the sci-fi movies of the 50's. Are they or aren't they. Bunch of folks in a confined area....unable to tell who's who. I recorded it...because of my fondness for Army of Darkness, fully expecting to bail out after 15 or 20 minutes. Instead I watched it all...and enjoyed it enough to encourage others to give it a try. I gave it a 7. I would have preferred to end this review a line above, but apparently I was too concise for my own good, falling short of the content minimum

cheesy fun sci-fi semi comedy

[Samiam3 · 7/10 · 9 May 2010]

Terminal Invasion has the look of a home video movie, but it just goes to show that even with the most amateurish of film production values, one can still deliver an entertaining feature. It's always a pleasure to see Bruce Campbell, and though he's not all that funny here, I'd say he is one of Terminal Invasions saving graces.

I thing I have a pretty good idea what Sean Cunningham (Friday the 13th) and Lewis Abernathy had in mind when they constructed Terminal Invasion. It has a fairly strong does of The Thing to it. An alien life form has found its way into a small airport (In one of the north western States, it doesn't say). Bruce Campbell is a prisoner, who escapes the custody of his escort there, and holds everyone at gun point. Unfortunately until the storm outside clears, he ain't gonna be able to fly outta this one, and it's a seventeen mile walk to the nearest town. He finds himself stuck with a dozen angry/confused/nervous (but quirky) folk. and some of them as he is about to find out may not be human.

Sean Cunningham is certainly not a name that I'd expect to see in the director's chair of something like this. Perhaps he needed a break from Hollywood and investing is all the crappy sequels to his classic. To say the film is played for laughs may be a slight overstatement. It is not a comedy but it has it's funnier bits. In one sequence the gang, use the luggage x-ray to determine who is alien and who is not. If nothing else I'll probably remember Terminal invasion for two things Bruce Campbell, and that scene.

To tell you the truth, I got a small kick out of the whole thing. It's not much of a movie, but it's good amateurish fun. If you catch it on the sci-fi channel, you may as well watch for a bit.

Not a bad flick at all

[mmlenz · 4 November 2003]

Bruce kinda had a quiet roll (although he did Co-Star in the film) and it wasn't exactly packed with action but it was a decent flick by SciFi Channel standards. Bruce plays the strong silent type in this movie, would have been nice to hear a few more wise cracks out of him. If you like Bruce Campbell its definately worth a watch.

A catastrophe that should never have been made!

[bobscott · 1/10 · 14 September 2002]

If the Sci-Fi Channel hadn't canceled Mystery Science Theater 3000, they could have premiered this movie there, as it ranks right up there with some of the worst science fiction films of all times.

Of course, I didn't expect much from a TV movie, but the plot was about as impossibly shallow as possible, and all the "surprises" were ridiculous and for the most part predictable.

The cast is not surprisingly completely at a loss to handle the incredibly dense script, despite the inability of most of them to act. Bruce Campbell would normally shine in such a role, but even he seems to be simply trudging through the movie from start to finish.

The most welcome part of the film: the ending, because it's over and there's no more watching involved! Avoid this one unless you're really into watching punishingly bad alien movies.

A Horrible Venture

[Billy_Crash · 1/10 · 18 April 2003]

This is another of the Sci-Fi Channel's pathetic waste of money because of a poorly written story. Don't waste your time watching this debachle unless you like television that requires no intelligence, is loaded with cliche and has a storyline that is downright predictable.

Do you really know Jack?

[michaelRokeefe · 4/10 · 26 June 2004]

This Sci-Fi Channel product finds Bruce Campbell playing a one named killer, Jack, being transported by two guards and being forced off road by a snowstorm. Refuge is found in an airport where passengers are being told that all flights have been canceled due to the major storm. Things liven up when a preacher reveals himself as an alien on a beginning phase of an invasion to search for captive human labor. Jack just wants the hell out of there and has more or less bargained with the pilot(Chase Masterson)to fly him alone to Canada. After the preacher/alien is destroyed, a passenger transforms into one of the invading soldiers and the survivors are forced to try and trust each other to survive the night, survive the storm and oh yes...beware of any alien among them. This one is not over until it is over. The plot is not exactly fresh, but tension and some surprise rides this thriller to climax. Also in the cast: Kedar Brown, Sarah Lafleur and C. David Johnson.

Terminal Darkness

[The_Rook · 10 February 2004]

As far as I'm concerned Bruce Campbell is bad, in a good way. This certainly is no worse than his older Evil Dead movies in my book. Sure it could have had a good premise for the alien invasion and better lines for them. That aside there is some decent acting, special effects, and the story isn't bad. All in all I would buy it if it was available on DVD. Quite honestly I think they should have either had one very bad alien or an ordinary man as a murderer that was among them while they were stranded. Of course Bruce would get the blame as the convict, but he would be innocent. Maybe in the sequel. Still I found it entertaining enough to keep me awake watching it late the other night.

Invasion of the Body Things Again, in One Room

[superman1 · 1/10 · 26 February 2009]

I'd like to add to the bad reviews. This film is terminal. This film contains nothing but spoilers.

This goes to show how expectations can ruin a poor movie.

1) To start, major disappointment the "terminal" is not an airport, but a room in the middle of nowhere.

2) Second major disappoint: You know from the start the whole film will not leave that damn room. similar to what some features from Full Moon Studios threaten to do, yet I think they always manage to leave it.

Looking bad so far...

3) And you also know pretty early it is a total talk fest, with no action.

4) You also know it is purely derivative - or pure dribble.

I thought there was one decent line in the whole movie, for that was the only one with some thought, not a cliché. At the end, but I will spoil it for you.

When the police siren is heard by the criminal, he says, "They're playing my song." (But maybe I haven't seen the movie it was stolen from.)

The only shock was that Sean S. Cunningham directed it.

At least other Sci-fi Channel pics have interesting CGI monsters, action, and some tension.

My thoughts after seeing Terminal Invasion

[ericshul · 7/10 · 14 September 2002]

Mostly predictable with a few surprises. Not a bad film, but not a great film. Acting was ok, aliens looked fairly real, would have looked better on a big screen. The way the aliens died looked a lot like they did on that TV show about the alien invasion called First Wave. Good surprise ending. But still a B type movie, but quite watchable.

Below average movie for Sci-Fi channel

[lucky-16 · 4/10 · 15 September 2002]

A movie with "aliens ate my mom and want to get me" plot. Mediocre acting matches well with below average plot. The idea is pretty simple: A bunch of humans are isolated while aliens run around and eat humans while in human bodies. That is, they eat humans after they turn from innocent humans to disgusting slime-dripping aliens. Make sense, right? I particularly liked the part when one alien kills another alien while trying to be a good human... just to confuse the person watching the movie -- the action makes absolutely no sense plot-wise. Enjoy wasting two perfectly good hours watching this movie on Sci-Fi channel.

Enjoyable made-for-TV movie from the creator of Jason Vorhees.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 22 July 2006]

Friday the 13th's Sean S. Cunningham directs The Evil Dead's Bruce Campbell in this entertaining piece of B-movie sci-fi/horror hokum. Although made for TV, 'Terminal Invasion' has its fair share of decent moments and Cunningham, no stranger to the genre, delivers a slick fun-filled film. Only the iffy editing and some dodgy scene transitions belie the movie's TV origins.

In a script that draws comparison with John Carpenter's (far superior) The Thing, a group of people, trapped inside a remote airport terminal during a severe blizzard, discover a malign alien presence intent on enslaving mankind. But with the extra-terrestrial creatures in human guise, paranoia and panic soon sets in.

Bruce Campbell, not the greatest of actors put possessing a strong screen presence, hams it up the only way he can, bringing a welcome familiarity to his role of Jack; this is basically Ash from Army of Darkness, minus his boom-stick! The rest of the cast give credible performances; a commendable feat given the cheesy lines they are forced to deliver.

The special effects are sparse, but effective; once out of their human form, the aliens are a creepy bunch of ugly critters, and there is even a tiny smattering of gore to keep horror fans happy.

Despite 'Terminal Invasion' being a made for TV offering, it is great to see Sean S. Cunningham directing again after a long hiatus-this is, after all, the man who gave us Jason Vorhees-and I look forward to 'Trapped Ashes', a horror anthology which will contain segments from four different directors (Cunningham directs the second segment) plus non-segment portions by Joe Dante. The film has been described as 'extremely twisted'. Sounds promising.

New category: "C movie"

[froggirl · 3/10 · 16 September 2002]

I love Bruce Campbell. Why else would I even watch this movie?

But it was so bland, boring, drawn out with silly dialogue and rife

with not-quite-realistic graphics (I'm guessing they couldn't afford

aerial shots of the airport or the truck driving on the mountain) and

effects (the alien creature get-up must have been so low-budget

that they decided to obscure it with choppy camerawork, like when

they were crawling through the air ducts and it jumped up and

grabbed the rich guy) that the whole experience was painful. Bruce

wasn't having any fun, and neither was I. Even "Tornado!" and

"Icebreaker" were better than this thing. Sorry, Bruce.

Pretty good

[saviovega · 10/10 · 16 October 2003]

Anybody who's expecting unbelievable special effects, Oscar winning performances and a trendsetting storyline, you better skip this. However, if you just want to see an action-packed alien thriller featuring Bruce Campbell, you can't go wrong.

For a TV movie, I thought it was actually pretty good. Granted, at some points the storyline has some holes, but really, I didn't enjoy the movie any less because of them.

If you're a fan of alien movies or a fan of Bruce Campbell, you should check this one out.

Only recommended as time passer.

[jhpstrydom · 7/10 · 17 December 2009]

TERMINAL INVASION features Bruce Campbell as a convicted felon who along with a few other people become trapped at an airport due to bad weather, but what he is about to realize is that not all the people at the airport are who or what they appear to be.

This film was actually entertaining, of course its nothing you would go and tell everyone about but for me it was a good movie, the acting wasn't perfect I won't argue there but it was above par compared to films in the same standard, the storyline although sometime uneventful had its moments by having a few clever plot twists here and there.

I would recommend this film to people that at times might feel like they want to watch a movie but don't know which one, its not a big budget effects feast but it'll pass the time, try it out even if you're not a genre fan.

The dialog were all sucked!

[SacLeung · 4/10 · 9 July 2004]

The funniest dialog was,

For the last 5 minutes, the black guy, alien, asked Jack, "why are you doing this?" (Why do you kill me?). Sure, he was an alien!!!

So silly!

And I don't know, why didn't they just killed the kids while they were changing to monster, but they escape instead! They had enough time to kill them both!!

The whole movie is just STUPID!

However, if you have nothing to do, you can kill your time by watching it!