Jack DeVries (Chris Mulkey), an average ordinary citizen with no prior history of violence or criminal activity, has suddenly gone on a massive crime spree, shooting, killing and robbing a bank. A high speed chase ensues which ends with DeVries wounded and taken to the hospital.
Strange FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan) arrives at the police station demanding to see DeVries and Detective Thomas Beck (Michael Nouri) infroms Gallagher that DeVries might not survive the night. Gallagher panics and demands that they go to the hospital immediately. Meanwhile a dying DeVries coughs out a giant space slug that leaves his body and moves into the patient beside DeVries, Jonathan Miller (William Boyett). Miller then proceeds to go on a murderous rampage.
The alien slug jumps into several more bodies and has several more chases and gunfights before Gallagher informs Beck of what’s going on. Yes an alien outlaw slug is taking over host bodies and then going a crime spree and stealing Ferraris. Fortunately Gallagher is also an alien, an alien law enforcement officer who is here on Earth to stop the evil slug.
As silly as all this sounds director Jack Sholder (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge) manages to keep things less hokey than it could have been. Instead the movie is more of a cop thriller in the vein of the standard ’80s buddy cop formula, it’s just the suspect keeps changing because of a slug. Despite positive reviews when the movie was released in theatres it only did OK at the box office. It’s slowly developed a cult following since.