Mimic (film)

Mimic
Film poster for Mimic.
Directed by	Guillermo del Toro
Written by	Donald A. Wollheim Matthew Robbins Guillermo del Toro
Produced by	Ole Bornedal Bob Weinstein Harvey Weinstein B.J. Rack
Starring	Mira Sorvino Jeremy Northam Alexander Goodwin Giancarlo Giannini Josh Brolin
Cinematography	Dan Laustsen
Edited by	Patrick Lussier
Music by	Marco Beltrami
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release dates	August 22, 1997
Running time	105 min.
Language	English
Budget	$25,000,000 (est.)

Mimic is a 1997 science fiction horror film, directed by Guillermo del Toro, with a script inspired by a short story of the same name by Donald A. Wollheim. The movie was followed by two direct-to-video sequels: Mimic 2 (2001) and Mimic 3: Sentinel (2003).

Plot

In Manhattan, cockroaches are spreading a deadly disease that is claiming hundreds of the city's children. Entomologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) uses genetic engineering to create what she and her colleague (and husband) Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) call the Judas Breed, a large insect (looking like a cross between a termite and a praying mantis) that releases an enzyme that kills off the disease carrying roaches. The Judas work spectacularly and the crisis is abated. Since the Judas bugs have also been designed to be sterile and unable to breed, the hybrid species should die out in a matter of months.

Some years later, people begin to go missing in the subways and tunnels under the city. Susan, Peter, and their staff learn that they severely underestimated the creature's ability to adapt to its conditions. The Judas Breed has found a way to reproduce itself and has evolved in order to better hunt a new food source. To everyone's horror, they discover that the Judas' new food source is humans, and now the insects have grown to be as big as people and can mimic the appearance and behavior of humans with uncanny accuracy. Susan and Peter have learned that huge swarms of the Judas Breed are living beneath the city in the subway system, and with the help of Leonard (Charles S. Dutton), a transit system security guard who knows the labyrinth of subway tunnels like the back of his hand, they search out the insects, whose quick evolution (one fertile male and hordes of females) also made them humanoid, before they can take over the city and from there the world.

Trivia

• Armory Station is completely fictional, however it borrows heavy inspiration from the real IRT subway station, City Hall (IRT Lexington Avenue Line).
• During production, del Toro and Bob Weinstein of Miramax argued over creative differences in the film, eventually leading to Weinstein temporarily firing del Toro before hiring him back several days later. Del Toro was very unhappy with the film upon its release and has spoken about his displeasure publicly on numerous occasions. He described the film as "like having a beautiful daughter whose arms are chopped off."
• Acclaimed writer-director John Sayles, who worked on genre films early in his career, performed an uncredited script rewrite.
• This film was planned to form part of a science fiction anthology before it was decided to expand the screenplay into a feature. Another went on to become the film Impostor, and Alien Love Triangle remained unreleased.
• Despite being set in Manhattan, the movie was actually filmed in Toronto and Los Angeles.

External links

• Mimic at IMDb
• Mimic at Rotten Tomatoes