Threshold (2003 TV Movie) User Reviews

Watchable Flick for Killing Time Only

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 22 April 2006]

While repairing a spacecraft, an astronaut is perforated in the arm by a tiny meteor. Once back in Houston, he stays in the hospital for a further examination. Along the night, he breeds some sort of alien moths that attack people with B-negative blood type, transforming them in creatures with claws. Dr. Jerome 'Geronimo' Horne (Nicholas Lea) and Dr. Savannah Bailey (Jamie Lurner) have forty-eight hours for finding a way of destroying the aliens, otherwise Houston will be completely bombed to limit the outbreak.

"Threshold" is a non-original sci-fi movie with the usual clichés, and with a storyline that mixes "The Astronaut's Wife", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "Alien" and other sci-fi of the 50's and 60's. The ham Nicholas Lea is awful, the effects are very poor, and in the end it is a watchable flick for killing time only. The conclusion suggests a sequel that fortunately has not been filmed. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Invasores" ("Invaders")

Another case of potential not realized.

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 1 October 2017]

During a space mission, an astronaut gets enveloped by some sort of cloud that is carrying alien insect DNA. He is infected, brought back to Earth, and soon gives birth to a multitude of moth-like beings that are intent on taking over the world. The two moronic humans who are supposed to help solve the problem through their research are military doctor "Geronimo" Horne (Nicholas Lea, who made his name playing Agent Krycek on 'The X-Files') and entomologist Savannah Bailey ('Melrose Place' / 'Just the Ten of Us' hottie Jamie Luner).

'Threshold' is standard-issue made-for-television genre fare. Granted, the premise of intelligent alien moths on a "take over the world" mission should make for reasonably engaging cheese, and the movie is surprisingly absorbing in the early going, with the filmmakers taking themselves fairly seriously. The story is watchable for a while, until the amount of ridiculous characters (and performances) and ridiculous moments in the script start to weigh too heavy.

Lea, who doesn't look like he gives much of a damn, is an uninspired hero. Luner, ordinarily fine eye candy, seems to have been made to look as dowdy as possible, presumably to make her at least somewhat passable in the role of a scientist. But the plot becomes less and less interesting as it goes on, it's treated with precious little enthusiasm, and it doesn't end with very much of a bang.

At least it has a few priceless moments when infected humans "bug out" and attack others, and some "ewww" inducing moments that are effective. The CGI, overall, is not the worst you'll ever see.

Five out of 10.

Laughable low budget trash.

[Aussie Stud · 1/10 · 14 May 2003]

I realize there was a limited budget for this "straight-to-cable" movie, but for crying out loud, NOTHING in this embarrassing laugh-fest looked even remotely real!

The paper-thin plot involves some sort of "moth nebula" that infects an astronaut docked in outer-space while fixing a spacecraft just outside of Earth's atmosphere. The astronaut is hospitalized, and then starts producing 'cocoon-like' objects on his fingers that breed 'alien moths'. Next thing you know, the moths fly out the hospital window and start infecting (biting) innocent citizens all over the city who happen to share the same blood type.

TV FOX fixtures, Jamie Luner ("Melrose Place") and Nicholas Lea ("The X Files") headline this atrocious 'movie' as a bug scientist and astronaut scientist who come together to try and stop the moths from infecting people. Luner is absolutely embarrassing as the bug scientist whose big discovery towards the ending of the film is pinpointing the location of the 'bug hideout shelter' simply by coincidental means. Her brother happens to take a photo of his girlfriend while a suspicious looking character just happens to be walking by in the background (LOL), therefore giving Luner's character a big clue as to where the moth people may be hiding.

The biggest laughs of all come from the low budgeted 'special effects'. One 'infected' woman is held captive in an interrogation room. She does her best 'scared/freaking out' impression when all of a sudden, 'computer-generated' arms lash out from her sides and quickly disappear again. Considering she is fully dressed, did the producers not even care about how the arms suddenly appear, then disappear without even tearing her clothes? And the fact that the arms resembled that of a papier mache model makes the whole situation even more laughable.

Another laughable scene involves the 'thing' that is being guarded by all of the infected people. Some sort of big balloon sac with a 'human-like' being inside of it. We of course, never get to see this, because it gets blown up on a tug boat at the end of the film. This thing is supposedly the film's central object of 'horror', something that we never get to see, yet are supposed to be very scared of. I can't stop thinking about how bad this movie was!

What a stupid movie! It's not even worthy as a 'straight-to-Sci Fi Channel' film. To top it off, they even throw in the usual megalomaniacal military officer who insists on 'blowing up' the whole city to try and stop the outbreak, including all the other innocent civilians who haven't been infected. Maybe this movie should have been on Comedy Central instead?

I say, skip this trash and rent "Dog Soldiers" instead. This movie was a total joke.

My Grade - 1 out of 10

Comically inept story

[gtc83 · 4 December 2004]

As others have mentioned, this is about an astronaut who comes back from space infected with some alien virus, and moths start sprouting out of his body and infecting other people in the city. Too bad Hollywood has never heard of the concept of putting screens on windows, or the whole thing could have been easily avoided.

Our two main characters, Jamie Luner and Nicholas Lea, are called in to figure the whole mess out. The thing I found constantly humorous about the whole thing is that this pair, obviously hired by the government to figure out what went wrong with their space shuttle mission, seem to get the idea that they are running some sort of independent research lab and have no responsibility to share their findings with the people who hired them. They even accuse their employers of using "Homeland Security" to bug their phones to find out what they're up to. Um, no, actually these people are your bosses, and it's your responsibility to keep them updated on your progress, not keep everything secret from them. The other funny thing is that they do such a horrendously awful job of stopping the alien invasion. The head alien as much as tells Luner that they are intent on taking over the earth, yet in conversation after conversation she keeps acting indignant whenever her bosses suggest that the aliens might have evil goals.

To sum up, some movies feature mad scientists trying to take over the world. In this movie, you've got two characters who basically are accomplishing the same thing, except through sheer incompetence. Their bizarre attitude that they are the only two people who should be involved in the project, juxtaposed with scene after scene of them screwing everything up, is a real hoot. But not in the "so bad it's good" way. Just in the "it's really bad" way.

What's with Nicholas Lea?

[Justahunch · 2/10 · 20 April 2003]

There's nothing much to discuss. This starts out okay, for about ten minutes, and then proceeds to get worse moment by moment. An astronaut in space is hit by small "meteorites" that turn out to be of alien insect origin and upon returning to Earth, they leave this man alone in a regular hospital with the window open. No quarantine, no security, no special attention at all. Then, two of three people who know that this is an alien life form that has not only killed the astronaut, but has also escaped through the open window, then proceed to go kayaking and biking. And this is just the beginning of the illogical parts. However, the most annoying & mystifying aspect of this is that the interesting and talented Nicholas Lea can't get better parts than this. I don't get it. Everyone I know was impressed and/or intrigued with him in The X-Files, but he never capitalized on it. What a shame.

At least it had some nasty stuff

[xredgarnetx · 2/10 · 3 March 2007]

Try to stay with this TV movie and you may drive yourself crazy. THRESHOLD stars Nicolas "X-Files" Lea as a scientist trying to stop an alien infestation from taking over the world. If he doesn't stop the moth-like aliens in 48 hours, the city he is rushing around in will be nuked to stop the plague from spreading. Lea is not believable as any kind of scientist, and the cast otherwise is unmemorable and generic. The only thing that saves this thing from being a "1" are some yucky scenes of alien transference that strongly resemble similar scenes in the much-beloved THE HIDDEN. The creatures have interesting claws, too, that pop out at regular intervals.

About moths from outer space and infected human insectoid mutants...

[Vomitron_G · 4/10 · 3 August 2011]

An astronaut being the carrier of alien insect seeds returns to earth and spawns a bunch of hostile moths, thus spreading the infection. The moths need human hosts to complete their evolution and... yada yada, we've heard it all before. The often ridiculed SyFy Channel - before their name-change, actually – produced this lamentable alien invasion TV-effort, resulting in a highly uninspired mess of straight-faced, cliché-driven shenanigans. Nicholas Lea and Jamie Luner run around earning their paycheck as the scientist duo figuring out ways to save mankind. Nothing remotely interesting is done with the material, and Charles Bowman's utterly bland directing is smudged by cheap cinematography and some generic CGI effects. Remind me again why I watched this?

Creative yet disappointing

[KnightsSayNI · 6/10 · 20 April 2003]

Okay, first off, this is a Sci-Fi original. So that tells us right of the bat that this isn't exactly going to be The Empire Strikes Back. However, it did have a few good points. For example, the movie was very loyal. Whoever wrote the script knew what they where talking about, that being bugs of course. Also, the acting and effects where good in the main categories. There where also some creative twists and excellent camera work. Yet, as I said before, this isn't exactly Star Wars.

First of all, there was some pretty cheesey dialogue. Also, not the most gripping plot line. In my opinion the story kind of falls flat on it's face after the first hour or so. The ending was not at all well done. It just seemed like it was thrown together at the last possible second. Rather anti-climatic if you ask me. But then again, there wasn't much to build up on.

Peculiar, interesting story maintains interest.

[capkronos · 6/10 · 10 April 2007]

If you can accept the very odd premise, this is a pretty well-done and entertaining horror/sci-fi effort. After being struck in the arm by meteor particles, an astronaut is brought back home to a hospital, where he comes down with a fever, blurred vision and an infected hand. He dies, his finger tips split open and a swarm of moths (!) escape out the window. At a 4th of July barbecue, suburban father Frank (who has a beer-swilling, unfaithful wife, bitchy redneck sister-in-law and two kids) is attacked and eventually turned into an emotionless killer complete with long, clawed appendages that come out of his sides to grab people. He injects digestive fluids into victims and then sucks out their liquefied internal organs (mmm!) with a hollow tube that comes out of his mouth. He is also overseeing an ever-growing army of similar alien-possessed who are hiding out in a basement waiting to strike. Police are baffled finding dozens of dead bodies with broken necks, dislocated jaws and sunken in chests, but NASA chief medical examiner Jerome "Geronimo" Throrn (Nicholas Lea), tough entomologist Savannah Bailey (Jamie Luner) and others uncover a string of clues (starting with insect-like alien DNA taken from the astronaut) that they need to piece together to save the entire country. See, word has spread to other countries, who have threatened to blow the U.S. off the map with nuclear weapons if the menace isn't quickly contained! Bizarre story, some surprise plot twists, entertaining characters and good chemistry (and performances) by talented leads Lea and Luner make it enjoyable.

Techno-Babble

[Theo Robertson · 2/10 · 24 February 2004]

I can`t remember much about this TVM except for the fact I hated it . This was down to two things

1 ) The techno-babble . In order to fool the audience into thinking they`re watching a high brow sci-fi movie the writer has introduced reams and reams of big words in the dialogue and there`s no way I can quote it because I`ve no idea how the spell the words . It doesn`t matter if they`re real scientific expressions or just made up because the audience will be totally confused either way

2 ) The gore is rasther off putting . You see being a TVM I was expecting a PG certificate but we see things like killer moths from outer space burrowing out of peoples` limbs . Yuck

nice, but left me wanting more.

[davidm-14 · 22 April 2003]

excellent concept with serviceable special effects. insects from outer space that use us for food and hosts for their offspring. watching it, i was left feeling that many opportunities for good gratuitous gore were left out. plus, it had the same "surprise" ending so many of these sci-fi movies have. nicholas lea was surprisingly good in a non-x-files-but-somewhat-x-files leading role.