Split Second

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🎙️ EPISODE 663: 03.13.23 There's some fun visual elements here and Rutger is pretty good in the lead role of demented cop, constantly smoking and devouring sugar and coffee, but as a movie this is a mess, both structurally and tonally. Maybe if it had leaned into the darker elements and not — for some strange reason — tried to ALSO be a buddy comedy, it would have worked better, because there’s a few interesting (if not a little silly) ideas and this nearing-Apocalyptic, waterlogged version of London 2008 is a striking backdrop. But the whole schtick is imitative to a ridiculous degree, biting off little pieces of successful sci-fi classics that came before it. Still, a rip-off is one thing and you can’t make those relatively entertaining if you do it well. Split Second’s (which btw, as a title, is just as lazy and bad as the movie) major flaw is that the humor doesn't work AT ALL set against the dark and gritty (and literally satanic!) world this takes place in.

Rutger Hauer does talk directly to a random dog who belongs to a nightclub owner as if it’s a person multiple times, though… An actor named Neil Duncan plays the nerdy yin to Rutger Hauer’s yang and this character is straight-up THE PITS. He’s supposed to be annoying but it’s never a good idea to actually annoy your audience to this degree. (His personality/heel turn into a psycho like Hauer is somewhat rewarding, but it’s too little too late.)

Much of the shoot-em-up action is alright and the creature design (kept hidden until the very end) is fine. It looks exactly like if Venom and Alien had a baby…


All the satanic/soul-eating stuff is beyond undercooked, though. This has ideas for like five or six different movies jammed into one and none of them are flushed out properly. This paragraph from Wiki tells you all you need to know…

During production, the script was changed several times; there were many discussions about what the main villain/creature should look like and what it would be, which left Stephen Norrington with three weeks to design the creature. The ending was also changed several times; Thompson re-writing it during filming. Hauer told him to re-write the script to make it more physical and with more focus on the psychic link that his character has with the creature. Due to all the stress during production, Maylam stepped back from finishing the film, so Ian Sharp and others involved in the film joined up to finish it. Sharp directed the finale which takes place in a flooded subway along with some other additional scenes and is credited as co-director in the ending credits. The movie was filmed in eight weeks, between June 17 and August 9 of 1991 and was widely released in April 1992. Although it was re-titled again sometime during production from ‘Black Tide’ to ‘Split Second’, the movie had different titles in other countries, like ‘Killer Instinct’ (in France) and ‘Detective Stone’ (in Italy). Despite an exciting ad campaign and good word of mouth, the movie underperformed at the box office because it was released during the Los Angeles riots.

Look, it’s far from the worst thing I’ve ever seen and it’s occasionally fun in a vague cyberpunk kinda way, but I can’t recommend it in good faith.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 662C - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 664 ⫸

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Split Second is a 1992 science fiction action horror film directed by Tony Maylam and Ian Sharp, and written by Gary Scott Thompson. A co-production between the United States and the United Kingdom, the films stars Rutger Hauer as a burnt-out police detective obsessively hunting down the mysterious serial killer who killed his partner several years prior. The film also features Kim Cattrall, Alastair Neil Duncan, Pete Postlethwaite, Ian Dury, and Alun Armstrong. It was released on May 1, 1992.