A NASA Antarctic Station which is working on an experiment with corn have discovered a "vessel" of some sort encased in ice and store it inside a docking area for further study. "Language expert" and cryptologist ( a professor who had ties to a NASA project dedicated to extraterrestrial life which was shut down) Julian Rome is sent to the station to see if he can "uncode" a form of language emanating from whatever is inside the quickly-melting ice. Spader does so by using mathematics and eventually succeeds making a startling discovery which says not to open the vessel which contains an alien life form that has a pathogen which infects humans. Unable to stop crew members who did not know what was awaiting them inside that vessel, open it with a cutting blade unleashing the pathogen which kills some immediately while others' immune systems develop resistance to the infection. But, the US government could not take the chance of total annihilation of the earth and so must fire a nuclear weapon into the Antarctic Station, informing Julian and the remaining survivors that they have three hours before the weapon blasts them to kingdom come. While "Alien Hunter" does "borrow" material from other science fiction from the past, it is not a complete replica of "The Thing" or "Alien". The Alien inside the space pod which crash landed on Earth isn't a menace, but there were plans to "integrate" with the human race. It is recognized in the dialogue of Julian's mentor, Dr. John Bachman (Roy Dotrice), that Mars suffered extinction because of the Alien race which threatens Earth in the plot. A fascinating conclusion, however, offers a chance for that integration, as well as, grants a possible reprieve to condemned members of the crew as the time for the station's bombing looms near. Janine Eser is Dr. Kate Brecher, once a student—and lover—of Julian's, wanting him to put aside their past feelings in order to work together on board the station. John Lynch is brilliant geneticist, Dr. Michael Straub, who becomes a hindrance because he does not want to die and the notion of awaiting his death inside the station causes him to act irrationally, leading to a gun going off (after it is stolen from a crew member during an altercation, with the use of a fork leading to Straub getting a hold of the gun and shooting frantically at anyone who threatens to stop him from trying to escape), with victims caught in the crossfire. Nikolai Binev is geneticist Dr. Alexi Gierach, an old colleague of Julian's, the wise scientist whose opinion is of the utmost importance to those around him. Leslie Stefanson is Nyla Olson, a member of the crew along with Aimee Graham, which also includes Carl Lewis as the radio operator and Anthony Crivello as a helicopter pilot forming an alliance with the frightened Straub (the one responsible for the fork attack towards the end during his attempted escape with Straub).Some of the special CGI effects are decent for what is basically a syfy channel product. Of course, Spader's presence in the cast adds major star power to a film—he must've agreed to perform in the film when he read the script and noticed dialogue of a sexual nature (with subtle innuendo included), along with how women are drawn to him. I don't necessarily mean that as a slight against him, but most of his films always feature a college girl desiring him or other women attracted to him. "Alien Hunter", though, doesn't develop any sexual complications, settling into a sci-fi story about possible apocalyptic gloom and doom for humankind if the alien pathogen is released into the earth's atmosphere. Spader's characters often keep their cool, are rational and logical, approach difficult situations without indulging in histrionics, and that is no different here. Julian, such as when he meets the freed alien on the loose somewhere in the station, doesn't wish to harm it but greet the life form, as others, like Straub, want to kill it out of fear. The screenplay, written by JS Cardone, does seem to carry an influence from 50s sci-fi, while containing modern techno-babble we are accustomed to in the "X Files age".

Just woke up on a Saturday morning and this movie was just beginning on SciFi... I'd seen the name before, but honestly did not expect much, specifically because of the name, it's terrible and does not describe this movie at all. So not expecting much, I was more than pleasantly surprised! I had no idea James Spader was in it and he played the role well, mainly because he didn't need to act much. The plot was similar to a number of other films as folks have mentioned, but sufficiently different enough to keep you guessing. For a made for TV movie, I thought it was well done and would recommend it to anybody who is looking for some decent scifi. While it would have been much better broadcast in HD (the channel was, the movie wasn't), it was good entertainment with which to start the weekend. Now if they'd just change that frackin' name...

James Spader plays a floppy haired "communications expert" who used to work for SETI. When a strange object is found in the Arctic he's sent out to a research station to investigate. Our floppy haired hero discovers that none other than his ex is there and she's hooked up with someone else with floppy hair. Luckily he's irresistible to women judging by the way they start flirting with him "I'm going for a shower, want to join me?" and "I work naked" being two of the most memorable lines. Male writer by any chance? Male writer with not a huge amount of experience writing for or having intercourse with women? I think so. It's kind of hard to buy into this guy as being a chick magnet especially when he titters like a nervous young girl being teased by her friends over someone she has a crush on.He decodes a signal being broadcast from the thing and discovers it is a warning not to open the object up.Unfortunately they've pretty much jimmied it open by this point and find an alien inside and the bad news is it doesn't have floppy hair, though it does seem drawn to Spaders so it's not all bad. They quickly switch the lights off so they can stumble around in the dark for a bit.Alien Hunter isn't that bad, it obviously rips its best bits out of other movies and has only a couple of genuinely interesting ideas neither of which come to much. I totally agree with this movies current rating, a 5 seems fair as it has nothing new to show you but it's not terrible either.And there's two guys with floppy hair at odds with each other and a nice spaceship, if that's your idea of a good movie you're going to love it - everyone else is going to quickly forget this one. What I can't understand though is why anyone would make this movie, it has no ambition and so many scenes seem to be time fillers. I wouldn't be surprised if parts of the script were simply titled "pointless dark stumbling scene 49" and none of the characters seem to show any emotions at all. And more to the point why are they growing GM crops in the Arctic in their underwear? Why does the scientist who is about to win a Nobel prize seem to know nothing whatsoever about science, including science related to plants when he's supposed to be the expert? We will never know..but you really won't care either.

I would not necessarily consider this to be just a throw-a-way Sci Fi flick only suitable to pass the time and consume your popcorn. I agree that the plot definitely "borrowed" from several other movies, some of which were no where near as good as this one. Among these of course were "Alien"; "The Thing" and "Cocoon". There are, in my humble opinion, only so many plausible or semi-plausible plots in any movie and this especially holds true for a Science Fiction movie. Having this in mind, it is rare if not impossible to write about something that has not been written about before. I feel that this movie was excellent for what it was trying to accomplish, was well written, acted and photographed. It was well paced and exciting. And the special effects were first rate. I think most viewers have given an excellent movie a bad rap.