Amazon Studios' Encounter opens like an alien invasion movie: a mysterious object enters Earth's atmosphere, flies over a sleepy suburb, and lands in a field. A microscopic creature emerges and is picked up by a mosquito and then unknowingly injected into a person's bloodstream. Military veteran Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed) wakes up in a motel room, preparing himself for the dangerous world outside. He sprays himself with bug repellent while footage of rioting plays on the TV news. He gathers up his files on "mind control parasites" and heads out to rescue his children.
But Encounter isn't an alien invasion movie. If mind control parasites from space have taken over the Earth, then Malik seems to be the only one who knows about it. Director and co-writer Michael Pearce (Beast) creates an eerie atmosphere in Encounter's first third or so, with creepy close-ups of insects that pose a constant threat of invasive organisms. Early on, Encounter plays like a modern-day version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with Malik as the lone doomsayer whose warnings go unheeded.
Malik's young sons Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada) have been living with their mother and her boyfriend while Malik is deployed. The status of his parental rights is unclear. When he arrives at their house in the middle of the night and rushes the kids away in his car, it's obviously not because he's arranged for a weekend getaway. He frames the urgency in terms of the impending alien invasion, but even the kids aren't entirely convinced. The older Jay is especially suspicious, even as Malik charges him with responsibility for his younger brother.
For a while, Pearce keeps up the ambiguity over whether the alien invasion is real or all in Malik's mind, but after Encounter's striking opening scenes, the balance tips heavily in favor of mental-illness drama rather than sci-fi. As Malik goes on the run with his kids, traveling from Oregon to what he claims is a secure base in Nevada, he's trailed by sympathetic parole officer Hattie (Octavia Spencer) and some decidedly less sympathetic FBI agents. Pearce briefly captures the feel of family-focused sci-fi thrillers, from 1980s movies like Firestarter to Jeff Nichols' underrated Midnight Special.
Over time, though, Encounter switches gears, becoming a mawkish drama about PTSD and parenthood, held together only by its strong lead performances. Ahmed brings some cohesion to a difficult role as Malik, who's either a brave freedom fighter or a deluded fugitive, depending on who you ask. Those perspectives change as Encounter progresses, and Ahmed reveals more dimensions to Malik. The character doesn't fully hold together, especially as Pearce reveals more about his background, but there's empathy found in Ahmed's performance.
Both of the child actors give nuanced performances as well. Chauhan is excellent as Jay, who's forced to be the grown-up in this situation as his father falls to pieces. Chauhan conveys Jay's maturity while also never letting viewers forget that he's still a child. Pearce relies a bit too heavily on that father-son bond in the overly sentimental finale, but the actors do everything they can to make it feel real. By that point, Encounter has drifted far from its compelling sci-fi opening, turning into an entirely different and much less interesting movie. Plenty of thrillers have effectively played with the idea of fantastical events that may or may not be real, but Pearce loses that balance early on and never regains it.
Once Pearce lays out the truth of what's happening, there isn't much to Encounter's story. He makes a clumsy attempt to generate new suspense by pitting Malik and his sons against a pair of bumbling militia members. Malik inadvertently invokes their anger when he breaks into their militia-leader father's house and engages in a violent confrontation. If there's meant to be a connection to Malik's paranoia about government cover-ups or an exploration of the racial aspect of Malik's treatment, Pearce never finds a way to express it.
Ultimately, Encounter is full of missed opportunities. Pearce raises potentially intriguing and complex ideas and then reduces them to simplistic interpersonal drama. It's a disappointing approach to what initially looks to be an ambitious film.
Encounter opens Friday, Dec. 3 in select theaters and premieres Dec. 10 on Amazon Prime Video.
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