Invader
In the opening sequence, four airmen from Clark Air Base in Washington D.C. frantically attempt to escape the base. A contingent of soldiers soon blocks their path. Most of the escapees are shot, but one sees a flying saucer which burns him to a crisp with its energy weapon.
Frank Mccall (Hans Bachmann) is an overqualified photojournalist writing about two-headed dogs and alien abductions for the sleazy National Scandal tabloid. When the airman's charred corpse is found, he is assigned to the story. When government agents try to keep him out, he resolves to sneak into the airbase, where a top-secret fighter plane is to be demoed that night. The plane is equipped with an experimental software system called A.S.M.O.D.S, which suddenly malfunctions mid-demo, crashing the plane. As the disappointed top brass go home, Mccall is intercepted by Captain Anders (A. Thomas Smith), who orders him taken into custody and his camera seized.
Sinister men in black wrench Mccall away, taking him to a storage compartment to be injected with a glowing green substance and brainwashed with an electronic apparatus. Anders and Colonel Faraday (Rick Foucheux) arrive in time to stop them, and the men shoot themselves. Anders takes Mccall into custody himself, while Faraday returns to the base. Suddenly, the flying saucer from the opening appears. Anders shoots it, to no effect, while Mccall photographs it with his backup disc camera. Powerless against the invader, they drive away, dodging more men in black on the way, and lock themselves in the base.
Mccall's camera is again confiscated, its photos to be developed as evidence. Mccall manages to secure the prints, and also spies on Anders conversing with the General. He thus finds out that the A.S.M.O.D.S. system uses alien technology recovered from a crashed spaceship in the New Mexico desert, and this technology seems to have a mind of its own. The men in black break their way in, so Mccall escapes with Anders in the F-117 stealth fighter. They have a brief dogfight with some F-16s out of Clark, which ends when they manage to secure air support from the Pentagon.
Mccall and Anders are questioned, and eventually manage to convince General Anheiser (John Cook) that A.S.M.O.D.S. has taken over the base computers using the intranet, and brainwashed all of the soldiers into its control. They agree to go investigate the next day. In between time, Mccall quits his job at the Scandal, realizing he is onto the story of the century.
At the airbase, the trio is greeted by a now-brainwashed Faraday. His troops destroy their helicopter escort, and he takes them down to the subbasement, which has been excavated into a gaping cavern. There Faraday reveals the alien's plan: it cannibalized the base hardware to build a giant robot, HARV, with which to conquer the world after nuking China and Russia. Mccall realizes that just as the alien programming seeped into A.S.M.O.D.S., so A.S.M.O.D.S. has seeped into the alien, arming it with a nationalistic impulse to destroy America's enemies.
The protagonists manage to shoot Faraday's guards. HARV tries to stop them, but only succeeds in killing Faraday. They search the basement for weapons with which to destroy HARV and avert World War III. They find a rocket launcher and two rockets; their first attempt misses, but the second is a direct hit, with one second to spare before HARV would launch the missiles. The ending sequence shows several newspapers honoring Mccall for his heroics, while the National Scandal claims the alien invasion was a hoax.
brainwashing