History Film / HollowMan

The film was nominated for an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Visual Effects in 2000. The direct-to-video sequel, ''Hollow Man 2'', was released in 2006 and starred Creator/ChristianSlater.

* RapeAsDrama: The invisible Sebastian fondles Sarah's breast and pinches her nipple while she's asleep in her chair (making her think it was just an {{erotic dream}} at first). Then he [[rapes a woman he was spying on]].

* FanDisservice: We do get to see Sarah's exposed breasts, but given that it's when Caine is molesting her while she's asleep, it's deeply disturbing. Also, Caine's across-the-street neighbor (Creator/RhonaMitra) who's less than diligent about closing her blinds as she changes clothes. After a few scenes of tease, we get to see some actual nudity... right as Caine attacks and rapes her.

** Before going through the final stage of invisibility, Caine responds to a question by reciting a crude joke involving Superman, Wonder Woman and the Invisible Man. [[spoiler: The joke actually foreshadows how corruptable Caine is; like Superman in the joke, Caine uses his powers to successfully rape his neighbor and get away with it.]]

* PowerPerversionPotential: Implied when Caine and Linda (when they were a couple) apparently had conversations about what it would be like to have sex with/while invisible. Made explicit when the invisible Dr. Caine rapes his female neighbor.

* RapeAsDrama: Sebastian rapes a woman he spies on while invisible, and fondles Sarah's breast and pinches her nipple while she's asleep in her chair (making her think it was just an {{erotic dream}} at first).

'''Sebastian:''' How come when you say "Yes, Sir" it kinda sounds like "Fuck you!" \\

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Of the "most likely intentional for the sake of horror" variety-the woman who Caine raped is never seen or really mentioned again. The remainder of Caine's descent into madness can be viewed in different ways, based on whether or not he killed her (there's little evidence either way). Although, a draft of the script and a deleted scene reveals that the woman was only raped.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark[=/=]{{GIFT}}: Sebastian concludes that he might as well [[spoiler:[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking molest, rape, kill people, and scare children]]]] if he can escape the consequences by being invisible.
-->'''Sebastian''': It's amazing what you can do when you don't have to look at yourself in the mirror.

* DuctTapeForEverything: In the freezer, Linda uses duct tape to stop blood flowing from Matt's belly after Caine hurt him.

** An underground laboratory, full of hazardous chemicals, with only one exit. Which is an elevator...

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: [[spoiler:If someone had just mentioned the access ladder at the ''start'' of Sebastian's rampage, the whole team might have gotten out alive.]]

** Before going through the final stage of invisibility, Caine responds to a question by reciting a crude joke involving Superman, Wonder Woman and the Invisible Man. [[spoiler: The joke actually foreshadows how corruptable Caine is; like Superman in the joke, Caine uses his powers to successfully rape his neighbour and get away with it.]]

* ImStandingRightHere: Inverted. Caine's coworkers are finishing lunch and chatting about what they'd do if they were invisible (or what they think Caine would do), complete with misgivings about the project, the experiment, and so on. After they've all left, one empty chair turns and rolls back from the table, [[ParanoiaFuel exactly as if, say, an invisible man had just stood up from it.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Even before becoming invisible Caine wasn't exactly the nicest guy in the world as he was egotistical, narcissist and rude.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark / {{GIFT}}: Sebastian concludes that he might as well [[spoiler:[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking molest, rape, kill people, and scare children]]]] if he can escape the consequences by being invisible.

* AloneWithThePsycho: A truly horrific example: [[spoiler:Caine's neighbor is raped by the ''invisible'' psycho never finds out what truly happened to her.]]

* AnkleDrag: Caine grabs Linda by the ankle in the elevator shaft.

* CatapultNightmare: Linda when waking from a bad dream she was having about Caine invading her bedroom.

** [[spoiler:The lab explodes, the elevator's bottom is covered in raging flames, yet the people climbing the ladder up the elevator shaft to leave have no problem with the heat]].

* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: When Caine is strangling Linda in the corridor, Matthew comes from behind and hits Caine with a metal bar JustInTime before Linda runs out of air.
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: [[spoiler:If someone had just mentioned the access ladder at the start of Sebastian's rampage, the whole team might have gotten out alive.]]

* FanDisservice: We do get to see Sarah's exposed breasts, but given that it's when Caine is molesting her while she's asleep, it's deeply disturbing. Also, Caine's across-the-street neighbor (Creator/RhonaMitra) who's less than diligent about closing her blinds as she changes clothes. After a few scenes of tease, we get to see some actual nudity. . . right as Caine attacks and (possibly) rapes her.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: [[spoiler:If someone had just mentioned the access ladder at the start of Sebastian's rampage, the whole team might have gotten out alive.}}

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Caine. Started out as just a scientist on a military project (albeit an extremely brilliant one). Ended up a an invisible, sociopathic murder and (probable) rapist.

* AloneWithThePsycho: A truly horrific example: [[spoiler:Caine's neighbor is raped by the ''invisible'' psycho and never finds out what truly happened to her.]]

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: After the serum injected on the gorilla, it goes to the heart and from there on to the body... while in fact after the heart the blood goes to the lungs to oxygenate, after that return to the heart and finally distribute through the body.
* AxCrazy: Caine becomes this when his megalomaniac tendencies begin to emerge turning himself from an arrogant but relatively harmless {{Jerkass}} to an outright monstruos killer. Though some hints suggest he wasn't particularly sane to begin with.

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Caine killed a dog in a fit of rage, after he found out about Linda and Matt's relationship.

* BodyHorror: The incredibly-detailed transformation sequence.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Dr. Sebastian Caine. His employers tolerated his eccentricities because he was remarkably talented, though when Caine failed to announce his breakthrough (after nearly a year of no progress), they warned him that should he fail to come up with results shortly, he would be fired.

* CollapsingLair: The ElaborateUndergroundBase gets destroyed in the film's finale.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: [[spoiler:The lab explodes, the elevator's bottom is covered in raging flames, yet the people climbing the ladder up the elevator shaft to leave have no problem with the heat]].
** Also regarding cold temperatures,

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: If someone had just mentioned the access ladder at the start of Sebastian's rampage, the whole team might have gotten out alive.

* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The lab where experiments take place.

* InvisibleJerkass: Caine. Though the film hints that it may not entirely be his fault; the incident with the invisible gorilla suggests the serum has deleterious effects on the mind.

* {{Invisibility}}: What the team were working on, and the root of all conflict in the film. Notably, it's left nebulous if the invisibility formula itself pushed Caine into complete sociopathy, or if it was just the power of "not having to look at himself in the mirror anymore."

* LockedInAFreezer: [[spoiler: Linda and Matt are]] trapped in a freezer. [[spoiler:Matt is unconscious and bleeding severely, so she seals his wounds with duct tape, then rigs a magnetic device out of a defibrillator and assorted objects to open the door (which had been sealed from the outside).]]

* MagicCountdown: The elevator tumbling down the shaft at the end takes extremely long to arrive at the heroes.

** The walk-in freezer which can be locked from the outside (walk-in freezers are always specifically designed NOT to do this, most in fact have doorknobs on both sides if they can even close at all while someone is in it).

** An underground laboratory, full of hazardous chemicals, with only one exit. Which is an elevator ...

* OnlySaneMan: Frank briefly plays this part during the climax, constantly shouting for people to not wander off on their own and being ignored, before he himself joins the overall stupidity and turns his back on the door he's supposed to be watching.
* PainfulTransformation: The first clue that the serum may not be all it's cracked up to be in humans is when, injected with it, Caine starts screaming in agony just as the effects become (in)visible...
* PetTheDog: Caine has a small one right when he decides to inject himself with the serum so that the rest of team won't be held accountable if anything goes wrong.

* SlasherMovie: This film becomes this when Caine becomes AxCrazy and started killing people one by one.

** Sebastian's employer finds the phone line mysteriously cut and doors in his house mysteriously moving right after he's told about the invisible man and isn't even slightly suspicious, but he might be excused since they might not have told him that Sebastian escaped the laboratory, but Sebastian's colleagues have no excuse.
** When Sebastian escapes the first time they don't revoke his access code, and don't do it the second time either despite him showing to be willing and able to sabotage their tech, making it easy for Sebastian to trap them by revoking theirs.
** In the climax they keep splitting the party, even after it starts resulting in their deaths, and they only sporadically check their thermal visors instead of putting them on immediately, even when they are actively hunting Sebastian (noticeably they are specifically made so they can switch between normal and thermal vision, so there's just no reason not to put them on), and by the time Matt realizes it Sebastian heated the room so that they are no longer effective, and for some reason after leaving the room he doesn't put it on again despite it being reliable once again.
** Frank takes the cake, being impaled by a crowbar he could have easily seen because he turned his back on the door he had to watch and didn't turn back despite his colleagues screaming about the danger.

-->'''Matt''': A ''true'' genius, like Sebastian, can get from A to D without the B and C; ''I gotta'' have the B and C.

-->'''Matt''': A ''true'' genius, like Sebastian, can get from A to D without the B and C; ''I'' gotta have the B and C.

* CatapultBightmare: Linda when waking from a bad dream she was having about Caine invading her bedroom.

-->'''Matt''': Genius is getting from A to D without needing the B and C. Sebastian can that; I gotta have the B and C.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Sebastian to Matt, which the former loves to rub the latter's face in. Not that Matt seems to disagree.
-->'''Matt''': Genius is getting from A to D without the B and C. Sebastian can that; I gotta have the B and C.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: If someone had mentioned the access ladder at the start of Sebastian's rampage, the whole team might have gotten out alive.

* ImStandingRightHere: Inverted. Caine's coworkers are finishing lunch and chatting about what they'd do if they were invisible (or what they think Sebastian Caine would do), complete with misgivings about the project, this experiment, and so on. After they've all left, one empty chair turns and rolls back from the table, [[ParanoiaFuel exactly as if, say, an invisible man had just stood up from it.]]

* TooDumbToLive: People act like they ''want'' to be killed. Sebastian's employer finds the phone line mysteriously cut and doors in his house mysteriously moving right after he's told about the invisible man and isn't even slightly suspicious, but he might be excused since they might not have told him that Sebastian escaped the laboratory, but Sebastian's colleagues have no excuse. When Sebastian escapes the first time they don't revoke his access code, and don't do it the second time either despite him showing to be willing and able to sabotage their tech, making it easy for Sebastian to trap them by revoking theirs. In the climax they keep splitting the party, even after it starts resulting in their deaths, and they only sporadically check their thermal visors insted of putting them on immediately, even when they are actively hunting Sebastian (noticeably they are specifically made so they can switch between normal and thermal vision, so there's just no reason not to put them on), and by the time Matt realizes it Sebastian heated the room so that they are no longer effective, and for some reason after leaving the room he doesn't put it on again despite it being reliable once again. Frank takes the cake, being impaled by a crowbar he could have easily seen because he turned his back on the door he had to watch and didn't turn back despite his colleagues screaming about the danger.

''Hollow Man'' is a 2000 {{science fiction}} {{thriller}} {{film}} directed by Creator/PaulVerhoeven, inspired by Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheInvisibleMan''. It stars Creator/ElisabethShue, Creator/KevinBacon, and Creator/JoshBrolin as a team of scientists trying to perfect the formula for an invisibility serum for the military. Initially, the only remaining snag is reversing the invisibility effect, but when Dr. Sebastian Caine (Bacon) discovers the key, the team eagerly anticipates gaining clearance for human trials.

The film was nominated for an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Visual Effects in 2000. The direct-to-video sequel, ''Hollow Man 2'', was released in 2006.

* AxCrazy: Caine becomes this when his megalomaniac tendencies begin to emerge.

* TheSociopath: Caine was initially a brilliant but extremely arrogant and selfish scientist. After becoming invisible, having no need to worry of his acton's consequences since he can't be seen, he turns into a ruthless, psychopathic and petty murderer and it's strongly implied that in case he had gotten away at the end he'd have become a SerialKiiler and/or a SerialRapist.

* TheSociopath: Caine was initially a brilliant but extremely arrogant and selfish scientist. After becoming invisible, having no need to worry of his acton's consequences since he can't be seen, he turns into a ruthless, psychopathic and petty murderer and it's strongly implied that in case he had been get away at the end he'd have become a SerialKiiler and/or a SerialRapist.