{"id":68883,"date":"2025-08-15T12:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/68883\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T12:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:47:07","slug":"paul-verhoevens-hollow-man-predicted-the-internet-manosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/68883\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man Predicted the Internet Manosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even under the loose prosthetic skin that Caine at this point wears while invisible\u2014a visual effect that remains impressive even today\u2014we can tell that he\u2019s smirking. Little does Carter know that Caine\u2019s already done so much, including sexually assaulting his neighbor and spying on his fellow researcher Linda McKay (Elisabeth Shue), an ex-girlfriend now dating their colleague Matt Kensington (Josh Brolin<\/a>).<\/p>\n

To Hollow Man\u2018s original audiences in 2000, Carter\u2019s attempted bromancing was just another example of Verhoeven\u2019s cynical worldview. After all, the filmmaker had already given viewers a pro-fascist satire in Starship Troopers<\/a> and a dark inversion of the American Dream with Showgirls. He excels at provoking audiences, and by 2000 Hollow Man\u2018s offenses felt empty and obvious. Yet today the specific nature of Caine\u2019s crimes feel well-observed and all too accurate. Take one of the first things Caine does when invisible: he immediately sneaks out into the main observation lab where his colleague Sarah Kennedy (Kim Dickens) is sleeping. After confirming that she\u2019s in a deep sleep, Caine unbuttons Kennedy\u2019s blouse and begins fondling her.<\/p>\n

Given how much the screenplay, written by Andrew W. Marlowe (who shares a \u201cStory By\u201d credit with Gary Scott Thompson), foregrounds the clashes between Caine and Kennedy, it\u2019s clear that this is more than sexual leering on his part. He assaults her because she dared to challenge him, because he wants to exert his will over someone who tried to reject it. Most movies would keep such a blatantly disgusting act until later in the movie, so that we see tragedy in Caine\u2019s downfall. But not Hollow Man. Verhoeven doesn\u2019t see anything admirable in the character\u2014or in anyone else onscreen.<\/p>\n

A Visible Problem<\/p>\n

When Caine first turns himself invisible, his colleagues gather around to celebrate. Although he can\u2019t be seen, Caine certainly can be heard, as demonstrated by his constant boasting. \u201cI see that the procedure hasn\u2019t changed your personality,\u201d snipes fellow researcher Janice (Mary Randle), delivering the line not so much with disgust but with grudging admiration. Janice\u2019s feelings are hardly an anomaly. Even if Kennedy and Kensington clash with Caine, they always respect him. That\u2019s even more true of Shue\u2019s McKay, as the movie often finds ber grinning at Caine, revealing lingering feelings.<\/p>\n

Moreover we believe that they would admire Caine precisely because Kevin Bacon\u2019s so charismatic. Verhoeven takes full advantage of Bacon\u2019s considerable charm, giving him plenty of space to smile and celebrate at his own achievements, and even to suggest that he\u2019s harder on himself than he is on anyone else. But because this is a Verhoeven movie, it\u2019s clear that Hollow Man never shares the character\u2019s love of Caine. People around him love Caine for his hard work, his technological brilliance, and his boldness. But the movie, appropriately enough, sees right through him for the despicable person he is.<\/p>\n

That ability to see the horrible person within boasting and success makes Hollow Man imperative today in a way it wasn\u2019t a quarter of a century ago. Today we\u2019re inundated with men whose boasts and success\u2014whether it be the popularity of their podcast, the fact that they\u2019ve become president, or simply their physical attributes\u2014are met with uncritical adoration. These influencers and grifters point to that success to gain followers, who want to learn how to be just like them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even under the loose prosthetic skin that Caine at this point wears while invisible\u2014a visual effect that remains…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-68883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}