The Invisible Man (2020 film)

Cecilia Kass is trapped in a violent and controlling relationship with wealthy optics engineer and businessman Adrian Griffin, the founder and CEO of the human-computer augmentation company Cobalt. One night, Cecilia drugs Adrian with her diazepam and escapes his highly secured house with the assistance of her younger sister, Emily.

Cecilia hides out in the home of her childhood friend, Detective James Lanier and his teenage daughter, Sydney. Two weeks after Cecilia's escape, Adrian seemingly commits suicide and leaves her $5 million. His lawyer brother, Tom, handles the arrangements. Cecilia suspects another presence in the house after several strange events, but James assures her she is just traumatized and paranoid. During a job interview, she finds her work portfolio's contents removed, then faints. The doctor says high levels of diazepam were found in her system. In her bathroom, she finds the same bottle of bloodied diazepam with which she drugged Adrian during her escape.

Cecilia, accompanied by James, meets with Tom. She believes that Adrian faked his death and used his optics expertise to become invisible in order to torment her, but this idea is rebuffed. Later, Sydney is hit by an unseen force while comforting Cecilia; assuming that Cecilia did it and is becoming unbalanced, she and James leave. Alone at the house, Cecilia tries various tactics to catch the figure she believes hit Sydney. She finds Adrian's phone in the attic, on which she immediately receives a text saying "surprise". Cecilia dumps paint down the attic trap door and it coats a previously invisible figure. A violent struggle ensues but she escapes. She goes to Adrian's home to investigate his lab, where she finds an additional invisible bodysuit, confirming her suspicions. Right after she hides the suit in their former bedroom's closet, the invisible figure attacks again, so she flees and contacts Emily. The pair meet at a restaurant, where the invisible figure slits Emily's throat and places the knife in Cecilia's hand, framing her for murder.

While awaiting trial, Cecilia is remanded to a psychiatric hospital, where she learns she is pregnant. Tom offers to get her charges dropped if she agrees to "return to him" and raise the child, implying that Tom helped stage his brother's suicide. He reveals Adrian tampered with her birth control to impregnate her. Cecilia refuses the offer and steals a fountain pen from him. That night she attempts suicide and lures out the invisible figure. When the figure tries to stop her, she stabs him repeatedly with the pen, causing the suit to malfunction. The security team arrives, but the figure incapacitates them before fleeing the hospital, with Cecilia in pursuit. To protect her unborn child, the figure instead threatens to attack those she loves.

Cecilia races to James's house and finds the figure attacking him and Sydney. She shoots the figure to death but finds Tom in the suit. Police storm Adrian's house and find him alive, tied up and claiming that Tom held him prisoner. They conclude that Tom killed Emily as well, but Cecilia believes that Adrian set his brother up as the scapegoat for his crimes.

To get Adrian's confession, a now exonerated Cecilia meets him at his house secretly wearing a wire, while James listens in from a few blocks away. She agrees to mend their relationship, but only if he confesses to killing Emily. Adrian insists that Tom was responsible, but claims that the experience changed his outlook on life and how he treated her. After Adrian says the word "surprise", Cecilia excuses herself. Moments later, the security camera captures Adrian seemingly slitting his own throat. Cecilia returns and calls 911, apparently distraught. Out of the camera's sight, however, she coldly stares at a dying Adrian and taunts him, indicating that she had used the spare bodysuit to kill him. Cecilia leaves as Adrian dies on the floor.

When James arrives, Cecilia confirms what the camera captured. He notices she is carrying the suit, but agrees to keep silent and allows her to leave.

• Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia "Cee" Kass, an architect
• Aldis Hodge as James Lanier, a San Francisco police detective, Sydney's father, and Cecilia's childhood friend
• Storm Reid as Sydney "Sid" Lanier, James's teenage daughter
• Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Adrian Griffin, a mad scientist and the CEO of Cobalt, a company from Whannel's previous film Upgrade (2018).[6]
• Harriet Dyer as Emily "Em" Kass, Cecilia's younger sister
• Michael Dorman as Tom Griffin, Adrian's brother and lawyer

Additional cast members include Renee Lim as Doctor Lee, Nicholas Hope as the head doctor at the psychiatric hospital, Nash Edgerton as a security guard, and Anthony Brandon Wong as a motorist whose vehicle is taken by Cecilia. Benedict Hardie, who appeared in director Leigh Whannell's previous film Upgrade as Fisk Brantner, plays Marc Brantner, an architect at a firm that Cecilia interviews for.

Development of a new The Invisible Man film began as early as 2006 when David S. Goyer was hired to write the screenplay.[7] Goyer remained attached to the project as late as 2011, with little to no further development on the film.[8] In February 2016, the project was revived with Johnny Depp cast as the titular character and Ed Solomon writing the screenplay.[9] It was revealed to be part of an intended cinematic universe featuring Universal Pictures' modern-day reboot of their classic monsters. The would-be film series was set to begin in 2017 with The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, and Russell Crowe. The Mummy director Alex Kurtzman stated that fans should expect at least one film per year from the series.[10] However, once The Mummy was released to negative critical reception and box office returns deemed by the studio as insufficient, changes were made to the Dark Universe to focus on individual storytelling and move away from the shared universe concept.[11]

Writer and director Leigh Whannell

In January 2019, Universal announced that all future movies on their horror characters would focus on standalone stories, avoiding inter-connectivity.[12] Successful horror film producer Jason Blum, founder of production company Blumhouse Productions,[13] had at various times publicly expressed his interest in reviving and working on future installments within the Dark Universe films. The Invisible Man was set to be written and directed by Leigh Whannell and produced by Blum, but would not star Depp as previously reported.[14] Whannell said the film was never planned to be a part of the Dark Universe.[15] In March 2019, Elisabeth Moss entered early negotiations to star,[16] with her official casting the following month.[17] Storm Reid, Aldis Hodge, and Harriet Dyer later joined the cast,[18] with Oliver Jackson-Cohen set to play the titular role in July.[19] Jessica McNamee auditioned for Dyer's role.[20] Principal photography began on July 16, 2019, and ended on September 17, 2019, in Sydney, Australia.[21] The filming location used for Adrian's highly secured house was Headland House in Gerringong, Australia.[22] During production, Whannell would work with Moss to make adjustments to the script to better portray a woman's perspective.[23]

Benjamin Wallfisch composed the music for the film.[24] The score album was released on February 21, 2020 by Back Lot Music, a week before the film's release. It was released in double LP vinyl formats on June 5, 2020 by Mondo.[25]

The Invisible Man was theatrically released in the United States on February 28, 2020, by Universal Pictures.[26] It was originally scheduled for release on March 13, 2020, but in August 2019 was moved up two weeks.[27] As pandemic restrictions were loosened, the film was released in three Santikos Theatres locations in San Antonio, Texas on May 1, 2020.[28][29] The film was released in Mainland China, on December 4, 2020.[30]

On March 16, 2020, Universal Pictures announced that the film would be released digitally in the United States and Canada through Premium VOD on March 20, just three weeks after the film's theatrical debut and before the end of the usual 90-day theatrical run.[31] This was because of movie theater closures that started in mid March because of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Other films distributed by the studio, such as The Hunt and Trolls World Tour, were also released earlier than expected for the same reason.[32][33]

• The Invisible Woman: In November 2019, it was announced that a spin-off film centered around the female counterpart to Invisible Man was in development. Elizabeth Banks was set to star in, direct, and produce a new adaptation of The Invisible Woman (1940), based on her own original story pitch. Erin Cressida Wilson will write the script for the reboot of the female monster, while Max Handelman and Alison Small will serve as producer and executive producer, respectively.[79] Banks was allowed to choose a project by Universal Pictures from the roster of Universal Classic Monsters, ultimately choosing The Invisible Woman.[80]
• Untitled sequel: In February 2020, after the release of the first film, Whannell and Moss stated that the movie was standalone with a definitive ending. Whannell explained that once the movie is released, and some time passes he may consider working on a follow-up film.[81] In May, Whannell and Blum stated that discussions regarding a sequel were ongoing.[82] By June when asked about a sequel, Moss stated: "Look, if people want it that's kind of a big part of what we need in order to do it. So put the word out there that YOU want it and then I'll help!"[83] In July 2020, it was officially announced that Whannell is working on a sequel to The Invisible Man.[84]

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• Official website
• The Invisible Man at IMDb
• The Invisible Man at AllMovie
• The Invisible Man at the TCM Movie Database