Split Second (1992)

Split Second is a 1992 science fiction action horror film directed by Tony Maylam, starring the Dutch actor, Rutger Hauer and also starring Kim Cattrall and Neil Duncan.

Plot
It is the year 2008. Global warming had caused very heavy rainfall for 40 days in 1999. Because of that, a large part of London is now flooded and full of rats and the flooding has not become less because frequent torrential rains have been occuring since then.

In this chaos Detective Harley Stone has the mission to hunt a serial killer who kills people by ripping their hearts out and eat them. The serial killer has murdered his partner Foster McLaine three years before and wounded him.

This event has haunted him ever since. It also causes him to feel the presence of the killer when it is nearby. When the serial killer acts again after not having acted for a while, he receives a new partner, Detective Dick Durkin, as support.

In time he discovers the killer is not human, extremely dangerous and also extremely strong. Additionally this serial killer has rat DNA and can change appearances because it also has the DNA strains of his victims and can therefore hide at will among the crowd.

Additionally it also has DNA of Stone he gained when he wounded him, which somehow explains the connection between them. Finally, because of traces it leaves at the new crime scenes, they come to the conclusion he believes it is the embodiment of Satan and mostly kill its victims in order to eat its hearts, so that, aditionally, it can also posess their souls.

It then kidnaps his girlfriend Michelle, who was his partenr´s wife, and lures him into the place where his previous partner was killed. The place, the now unuseable underground because of the flooding that happened, makes them realise it intends to kill Stone there, too, with the purpose of completing its killings on its beliefs and disappear again.

They decide to go there and deal with him once and for all. They arm themselves with heavy weapons and after a tremendous battle, in which they save Michelle. During the fight they realise the creature is a humanoid, but monstruos being with demonic appearance who is somehow a product of the global warming regarding water and rats.

They manage to kill it by hitting him with those weapons and then by ripping his heart out through Stone and then destroy it, which destroys the creature and somehow frees Stone and his victims by it.

After that the three go away from there and take a vacation to celebrate the outcome of the battle while it is implied there are more surprises regarding global warming awaiting all of them in time, as bubbles begin to rise, hinting at the possibility of more monsters lurking beneath.

Cast

 * Rutger Hauer as Harley Stone
 * Kim Cattrall as Michelle McLaine
 * Neil Duncan as Dick Durkin
 * Michael J. Pollard as The Rat Catcher
 * Alun Armstrong as Thrasher
 * Pete Postlethwaite as Paulsen
 * Ian Dury as Jay Jay
 * Roberta Eaton as Robin
 * Tony Steedman as O'Donnell
 * Steven Hartley Foster McLaine

Production
The script was changed several times before it turned into its final form which was later filmed. The film has often been regarded as an Alien/Predator/Blade Runner Hybrid movie, as it borrows elements from all three films, as well as the cyberpunk genre.

This is also actor Pete Postlethwaite's second sci fi movie, as he was working on another sci fi film, Alien 3, which is happened to be filmed next door at Pinewood Studios in England.

This also Rutger Hauer's second sci fi movie, his first being Blade Runner 10 years earlier with director Ridley Scott.

Reception
The movie was a box office failure, because it appeared during the L.A. riots of 1992. Additionally it was not very well received by the critics, and has gone on to become a cult classic