Of course when I first saw this movie when it first came out, I was unsure of the ending. In particular, it appears that Gallagher "enters the body" of Beck and so it is no longer the real Beck anymore at the end. But the way that Gallagher made the transfer seemed different from the evil alien. The evil alien physically moved from body to body. But Gallagher seemed to transfer his "lifeforce" to Beck. Possible that this is the real Beck, just revived?
sharenot to ruin it for you but the sequel will give you a final answer.
shareHonestly, I KIND of watched the sequel one Sat. afternoon and it was soooooo bad, I wasn't paying close enough attention. Usually, also, when the original is a really great film like this, I choose to let it stand on it's own and would rather infer from it what is going on.
shareI've never seen the sequel and don't plan on ever doing so. Can someone explain what exactly happened at the end of the first, with the "lifeforce" transfer?
shareI haven't seen the sequel either, nor have I watched the audio commentary yet. However, based solely on the film itself, I would say that Beck is still himself at the end. You may recall that when Gallagher first met Beck's daughter, she seemed to be creeped out by him. Later Gallagher commented that she was a very special girl. Then at the end, she seems initially reluctant to approach her father, but then takes his hand and smiles after sizing him up. I think she could tell that Gallagher was an alien, and her reaction at the end was supposed to inform us that she could tell that her father was still human.
shareI wish i could say do not watch the sequel but in this case, by Gallagher transferring what was inside him to Beck, it's actually the alien life force that re-animated Beck. Beck is dead in the end of the film & by the next one, by being inside a dead human being for so long, it took its toll on the body. If the sequel had never been made, then it could be left open for debate. I always thought it was life re-energizing Beck but since the sequel got made, it changed everything. Listen to the audio commentary. It is worth listening to, especially when it's revealed that the script was totally different in terms of what the ending was going to be as opposed to what you saw.
sharethey entered bodies differently because the aliens were either 2 different species of aliens or the same species but different race. it is pointed out in the jail shoot out between the lieutenant and gallagher.
i didn't see the sequel and don;t want to, but beck is dead and gallagher took over. he gave beck's family a chance for normalcy you can see it in the little girls eyes though, that she knows.
I am still not clear on this even after the lousy confusing post made by the person who say the sequel. To me it looked like the alien went into beck b/c beck was dead. Remember Beck specifically asked if the lieutenant was dead and gallagher answered yes. Then the little girl realized it was not her father which was why she was hesitant but she just went with it b/c Gallagher was a good guy or maybe for her mother's sake or maybe b/c she wasn't sure and just ran with it. I think that's what makes the ending sort of weird like. well Beck is still there for his family but it's not really beck so you feel like it's better than nothing but sort of a lie.
shareI hope it's not too late to warn you guys, but don't bother even thinking for another second about that sequel. It's absolute trash. It's nothing at all like 'The Hidden'.
As far as I'm concerned, there is no sequel. You'd all be best to accept that. How the rights were acquired and it was greenlit, I'll never know. My only guess is that it involved alien possession.