The Imposter is a story by Philip K. Dick, about a man suspected of being replaced by aliens against a backdrop of a desperate future war, where the aliens fight using stealth operatives. These operatives are actually advanced robots with internal bombs, often made nearly indistinguishable from normal people. They are designed to get into important areas and self-destruct.
The short version is that the protagonist, Spence Olham, is accused of being such an agent. Of course, he doesn’t think so, but the authorities agree that he was replaced and the robot simply has been programmed to think it was him.
possible spoilers
I think the actual suidice-bot was his wife. I looked at the trailers and the synopsis, and noted that there were two people who could have been killed and replaced. I figure that Spence Olham does find the alien ship which killed his wife and finds her remains, not “his” inside it. He then has to kill his “wife.”
Crap, I don’t remember who the bomb was. I do remember the look on Gary Sinises’ face though. A little later today I’ll throw in the DVD and give you the accurate answer. It is a pretty decent movie.
I just watched the last chapter of the DVD and here goes:
Spence convinces his wife to meet him at the campsite. They meet and shortly afterwards the main antagonist (Vincent D’Onofrio) and a bunch of para military show up.
Spence and Maya come across the crashed ship and Spence, eager to prove his innocence, starts looking through the wreckage for bodies.
Hathaway (D’Onofrio) arrives on the scene and tells Spence that he now believes him. The aliens hit list was further researched and they realize that it wasn’t Spence the aliens were after. He tells them to stop digging and they wouldn’t like what they found. He keeps calling Spence to come over and step away from Maya. Of course at that moment a big piece of wreckage shifts and you see a dead Maya underneath. She gets shot down. Spence mourns the loss of his wife while the soldiers continue to root around. At some point somebody uncovers the remains of the real Spence. When robot Spence sees his dead self he says “Oh God, if that is Ohlem…” Then there is an earth shattering kaboom.
Considering how impressive the explosion was, I always wondered why it was necessary to get an android at the same social function as the President. Seems to me getting anywhere ten city blocks would suffice.
[spoiler]So the aliens kileld them both, but replaced them with robots which believed they were people, and explode when they realize they are not people, and must get close to someone important, except that they’re micro-nuclear bombs and will easily blow up anything around.
…
I can see why this is not considered a great classic piece of sci-fi. It suffers from idiot-monster syndrome. The mysterious antogonsts do things which make no logical sense so the author can make some weird point. Or something.
The thing is other than the aliens angle the movie isn’t really Sci-Fi to me. Dick wrote a bunch of stuff that mistakenly gets classified as sci-fi. I don’t remember the story so I just pulled it out to re-read it.
It suffers from idiot-monster syndrome. The mysterious antogonsts do things which make no logical sense so the author can make some weird point. Or something.