Synopsis
Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth, Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. While developing a method to transport water, Thomas meets Mary-Lou, a quiet hotel clerk, and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the U.S. government, and his entire plan is threatened.
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Cast
- David BowieThomas Jerome Newton
- Rip TornNathan Bryce
- Candy ClarkMary-Lou
- Tony MasciaArthur
- Buck HenryOliver Farnsworth
- Bernie CaseyPeters
- Adrienne La RussaHelen
- Claudia JenningsPeters' Wife
- Rick RiccardoTrevor
- Jim LovellJames Lovell
Recommendations
- 100
Time Out
It may be time to stop calling Nicolas Roeg's sexed-up sci-fi film that vaguely demeaning term - a cult classic - and start addressing it as what it is: the most intellectually provocative genre film of the 1970s. - 100
The Guardian
The story unfolds in a daring sequence of narrative leaps. - 100
Total Film
It’s ambitious, artful and unique. As for Bowie… what a star, man. - 80
Time Out London
Bowie’s performance is riveting, drawing on his history of mime to play a man who is almost, but not quite, one of us. - 80
CineVue
The choice of casting Bowie as Newton is inspired - the androgynous star perfectly suiting the role of the space visitor. Bowie - in his first silver-screen appearance - excels, creating a perfectly suited sense of tragedy and melancholic ambiguity. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
Bowie, slender, elegant, remote, evokes this alien so successfully that one could say, without irony, this was a role he was born to play. - 75
Philadelphia Inquirer
It's not just the grainy stock and bad sound - technically, we've come a long way. It's the cheesy sex, the awkward edits, the hammy symbolism, the mix of art-house aesthetics and exploitation cliché. Strange creature, this is. - 75
Portland Oregonian
There's an inherent contradiction at the film's core: this sexually explicit motion picture, seemingly made by and for altered consciousnesses, is all about how an innocent newcomer falls prey to gin, sex, and television.
