EDITOR’S NOTE: I watched this originally during Cannon Month, but took another look after reviewing all of Phillip Cook’s movies. 

Directed and written by Phillip J. Cook, Invader was produced independently by Cook and John Ellis. Cook shot all the inexpensive dialogue sequences and what he did impressed Menahem Golan so much that he financed the rest of the movie through his 21st Century Film Corporation.

After watching four soldiers fail to escape from Clark Air Base, we meet Frank McCall (Hans Bachmann), a reporter for the National Scandal. When one of the soldier’s burned bodies is found, he starts to look into the story and comes up against government agents who want it silenced. McCall sneaks into the base on the night that a plane with an experimental software system called A.S.M.O.D.S. is being tested and ends up being held by Captain Anders (A. Thomas Smith) and Colonel Faraday (Rick Foucheux).

Before they can even interrogate him, men in black and a UFO attack the base. It turns out that the A.S.M.O.D.S. system uses alien technology recovered from the Roswell crash. As the alien soldiers finally catch up to McCall, he’s saved by Anders and the two take off in a stealth fighter. They’re attacked by several F-16s and only survive due to help from the Pentagon. They’re able to convince General Anheiser (John Cook) that aliens are brainwashing soldiers — including Faraday — and that they have to do something about it.

Now, the aliens have unleashed their HARV robot, which has become a totally American monster, preparing to nuke China and Russia off the globe and then destroying everything else. But the general has a gleam in his eyes and two rockets left to save the world.

Invader is a blast, a movie that may be limited in its budget but totally filled with big ideas, like the HARV robot that is filled with rhetoric and madness. The heroes — outside of reporter McCall — are all uniformly capable and devoted to the job even when they face impossible odds and deadly situations. And the effects are really intriguing, especially when you realize that there are no actual planes or helicopters here. These are all miniatures and sure, sometimes you can tell, but I love the look of stop motion over CGI.

Cook would go on to do lots more, especially another low budget, high-concept film Despiser.

You can watch this on Tubi.