Hollow Man

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Paul Verhoeven directs. Jost Vacano behind the camera. Jerry Goldsmith scores. Ron Vignone cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in Germany, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Mid-budget at $95M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
• 226 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 3International production across 2 countries: Germany, United States of America.
• 4Part of the "Hollow Man Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 5Directed by Paul Verhoeven, shot by Jost Vacano. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by Jerry Goldsmith. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor Ron Vignone shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Kevin Bacon and Elisabeth Shue and Josh Brolin carry the top of the cast.
• 9Marketing tagline: "Think you’re alone? Think again.".
• 10IMDB entry: tt0164052 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 11Classified under 9 themes, including "experiment", "killing", "villain", "slasher".
• 12Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography

Jost Vacano

Original score

Jerry Goldsmith

Editing

Ron Vignone

Production design

Allan Cameron

Costume design

Ellen Mirojnick

Makeup / hair

Luisa Abel

VFX supervisor

Craig Hayes

Stunt coordinator

Gary Combs

Runtime

112 min · 1h 52m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$95,000,000

Box office

$190,213,455

Return

200% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Hollow Man (2000) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

25% 🥫 Rotten

Metacritic

24/100

IMDB rating

5.9/10 · 144,058 votes

MPAA

R

Part of

Hollow Man Collection

A science fiction film series about an invisible man.

• 
  Hollow Man

  2000 · this one
• 
  Hollow Man II

  2006

Also by

Paul Verhoeven

• 
  Portrait of Anton Adriaan Mussert

  1970 · ★ 8.0
• 
  Le court des grands

  2005 · ★ 8.0
• 
  Floris

  1969 · ★ 8.0
• 
  Black Book

  2006 · ★ 7.4
• 
  RoboCop

  1987 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Total Recall

  1990 · ★ 7.3

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  McKay's Disturbing Nightmare Scene - HOLLOW MAN (2000)

  Clip
• 

  ▶
  McKay's Nightmare Scene - Hollow Man (2000)

  Clip
• 

  ▶
  Making A Monster: Hollow Man

  Featurette · Official
• 

  ▶
  Falling Down The Elevator

  Behind the Scenes · Official
• 

  ▶
  Flaming Sebastain

  Behind the Scenes · Official
• 

  ▶
  The Gorilla Suit

  Behind the Scenes · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Dark Jedi2013-05-09
  ★ 6/10

  I have been unusually lucky with my SyFy-channel movie watching lately. I had no idea what this movie was really but there was nothing else on last night and I also noticed that it was directed by Paul Verhoeven which have directed quite a few movies that I really liked so I decided to give it a try. As it turned out, this is another movie that is somewhat above the usual standard for movies given on SyFy. It has a rating on 27% on Rotten Tomatoes which is just bullshit. But then, the so called “professional critics” used by the Rotten Tomatoes are dimwits who trash every movie that is not “intellectual” enough for their self-imagined refined tastes. I do not know why they continue to use these clowns for their official rating system instead of the real audience? On IMDb it holds a 5.6 out of 10 rating which is more realistic. I was hesitating between 7 and 6. In the end I gave it a 6 because, as I said in the title, it is a quite okay movie but not a fantastic one. The story of the movie is a fairly standard one. Scientist experiments on himself, experiment goes wrong, scientist goes mad, hack hack, chop chop, scientist dies, happy ending for the remaining survivors. Thus the movie pretty much relies on its special effects which are indeed quite good. The various invisible effects, not to mention the scenes where Caine is partially visible due to smoke or water effects, are quite enjoyable to watch. Kevin Bacon is making quite a performance as a very disagreeable fanatic scientist. He is doing a remarkably good job of it even when he is covered by a latex mask which of course is quite a feat being deprived of any facial expressions. The rest of the cast was fairly standard Hollywood fare, that is, fairly bland. On the whole I found the movie quite enjoyable. It was perhaps a bit slow at the beginning and Cain’s show of megalomaniacal attitudes was indeed becoming a bit tiresome after a while. As I said, his roles was a very disagreeable one. Once he became invisible things started to become more interesting although it took a wee time for things to speed up even then. It was certainly not a wasted movie evening and the movie is worth at least 6 out of 10 stars.

  Read full review ↓
• John Chard2015-07-01
  ★ 6.5/10

  It's amazing what you can do... when you don't have to look at yourself in the mirror any more. It was the film that convinced director Paul Verhoeven to leave Hollywood and take a break from film making. His reasoning being that any Hollywood director could have made Hollow Man, a big effects led movie that made a lot of cash at the box office. It's this that is the main problem with the picture, it lacks some of the director's bite and satirical savagery, even the souped up sex (natural or deviant) that often comes with his productions. Yet devoid of expectations of a Verhoeven masterpiece, and the crushing realisation that it basically wastes its potential and plays out as a haunted house stalk movie - it's a good enough energetic popcorner. It quickly becomes obvious that we are entering special effects extravaganza, the opening credits are dynamite, sci-fi sexy, then the opening gambit sequence literally grabs us - and a rodent - by the throat. From here on in we are treated to grade "A" effects and some genius ways of exposing "the invisible" Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) to us and the prey he soon comes to hunt. Unfortunately the whole cast performances are a much of a muchness, and playing a roll call of sci-fi stereotypes. All involved here have done much better work in their sleep, but they put the bums on theatre seats and ultimately this works as one of those movies designed to thrill and awe the senses - but sadly not the brain. 6.5/10

  Read full review ↓
• Gimly2020-05-19
  ★ 6/10

  Some pretty impressive effects for the era, and a pretty cool (if not original) core concept, but what's most intriguing about Hollow Man is the hero's journey, or more accurately, the absence of it. The inverse of it. I don't feel like it's fair to even say that it's a villain's journey. Assuredly, by the end of the movie, it is very clear who our villain is, but given that he starts out such a dick anyway, the intriguing thing is not so much that he necessarily changes, but the idea that his character is maybe just "revealed". To become the type of prick he always could have been, if only had the power to be so. The thing is, he starts this movie a pretty archetypal protagonist. His role is seen almost identically across any number of movies for decades before Hollow Man was released, and one that we honestly still see today. And this archetype is almost always beloved! "Sure he's a bit cheeky, but that's why he's such a great character". It's very confronting to think about what this archetype is so close to being, and I think maybe that's kind of the point of this whole thing. Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Columbia Pictures

  US

• 

  Red Wagon Entertainment

  US

• GL

  Global Medien KG

  DE

Key crew

• EditorRon Vignone
• ProducerAlan Marshall
• ProducerDouglas Wick
• EditorMark Goldblatt
• Executive ProducerMarion Rosenberg
• Costume DesignEllen Mirojnick
• CastingHoward Feuer
• Co-ProducerStacy Lumbrezer
• Associate ProducerKenneth Silverstein
• Stunt DoubleLisa Hoyle
• Assistant Art DirectorSue Chan
• Costume SupervisorJames W. Tyson
• Post Production AssistantKevin Flatow
• Visual Effects EditorPeter S. Elliot
• Production AccountantChris Silver Finigan
• Art Department CoordinatorKatherine Lambert
• First Assistant CameraGregory Irwin
• Conceptual DesignMiles Teves
• SculptorDon Lanning
• Set DesignerDaniel R. Jennings
• Set CostumerCarrie Bauer
• Makeup ArtistLuisa Abel
• Set Dressing ArtistJim Husbands
• Stand InMichael Haboush

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• experiment
• killing
• villain
• slasher
• scientist
• survival horror
• invisible person
• voyeurism
• invisibility

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2000-08-02· Los Angeles, California
• Theatrical2000-08-04R
• Physical2001-01-02R· Columbia/TriStar Home Video #04956 [𝐕𝐇𝐒📼] / [𝐃𝐕𝐃📀] 𝟭𝟭𝟯 mínutєѕ
• Physical2007-10-16NR· Blu-ray

Also known as

International titles

• Человек невидимкаRU
• Mees ilma varjutaEE
• Maya ManithanIN
• Czlowiek widmoPL
• Njeriu i PadukshëmAL
• Žmogus be šešėlioLT
• Людина невидимкаUA
• 할로우맨KR
• El hombre sin sombraES
• איש חלולIL