Although heavily flawed, Split Second still manages to be entertaining thanks to Rutger Hauer’s performance.
In 1992, 2008 must have seemed far enough into the future to posit that global warming and monsoon-like rain would cause London to flood. So, that’s how Split Second, a 1992 dystopian science fiction thriller starring Rutger Hauer, begins its story.
Detective Harley Stone (Hauer) has been haunted by guilt since the murder of his partner, Foster. He rarely sleeps, consumes coffee and chocolate like a fiend, and chain smokes so much my lungs began to ache every time he lit up. Foster was killed by a serial murderer. Or at least that’s the story we’re told. Stone has been doggedly pursuing the killer but his erratic behavior has gotten him suspended from the force. When the murders begin anew, Stone is inexplicably reinstated to the case with a new partner: Dick Durkin (Alastair Duncan,) a psychologist with an extensive education in serial homicide but no field experience.
As the killer plows through new victims, we learn that he may not be human and possesses an obsession with the occult. How we find out and other revelations about his connection to Stone make little to no sense. A curve-ball romantic relationship is introduced via Michelle (Kim Cattrall,) Foster’s ex-wife. Stone and Michelle had an affair prior to Foster’s death apparently fueling more of Stone’s guilt. (Which might sound like character development but, in reality, the character of Michelle does little more than bare her breasts in a shower scene and provide an excuse for Stone to save someone during the film’s climax.)
The inhuman killer that is pursued throughout the film is never sufficiently explained. Why does the killer look like a dime-store version of Venom? Why does Stone have some sort of psychic connection with the beast? We’re told something about recombinant DNA but there’s never a true origin given for the creature.
Although heavily flawed, Split Second still manages to be entertaining thanks to Rutger Hauer’s performance. Hauer is clearly having a good time playing the tortured Stone. Firing off one-liners as often as he pops chocolates into his mouth, Hauer is in action hero mode and relishing every moment. His partnership with the bookish Durkin benefits from excellent on-screen chemistry with Alastair Duncan (billed here as Neil Duncan). There’s a scene late in the movie where Duncan clearly cracks up and breaks character in a testy exchange with Hauer. Hauer stays in character and what should have been a blooper solidifies the good-natured relationship that has developed between the characters.
Split Second will never be mistaken for a great action movie but it remains an enjoyably silly vision of the future that should be seen at least once. Maybe more often if you’re a big Rutger Hauer fan.
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
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