Harbinger Down (also known as Inanimate in the United Kingdom) is a 2015 American independent science-fiction monster horror film written and directed by Alec Gillis and produced by Tom Woodruff Jr., the founders of the special effects company StudioADI, and starring Lance Henriksen.
The film follows a group of graduate students aboard the crabbing trawler Harbinger who are studying the effects of global warming on a pod of Belugas in the Bering Sea. They recover a crashed Soviet spacecraft encased in a block of ice that is apparently virulently infected with tardigrades, and after thawing, they are attacked by shapeshifting alien monsters.
Funded by fan donations through Kickstarter, the film predominantly features practical creature effects created by ADI, including animatronics, prosthetic makeup, stop motion and miniature effects. Computer generated imagery was used only to enhance these effects (such as digitally erasing control wires and gimbals).
Plot
In 1982, a Soviet moon lander crashes into the Bering Sea. In 2015, two biology graduate students, Ronelle and Sadie join their professor, Stephen, on an experimental tour to study the effects of global warming on whales. Sadie's grandfather, Graff, takes them to sea in his commercial fishing trawler, Harbinger, which is crewed by Bowman, Roland, Big G, Dock, Svetlana and Atka. Sadie declines when Graff encourages her to helm the boat as she has lost her nerve since losing her father at sea. After meeting the crew, Sadie, Ronelle and Stephen go to sleep.
That night, Sadie wakes as the crew catch a load of crab. Detecting that there is whale activity in the area, Sadie unsuccessfully attempts to wake the others, then investigates on her own. With sonar equipment she finds something large under the ice. The crew help to recover what proves to be the crashed Soviet lander, now frozen in ice. Ronelle and Stephen are awakened by the commotion and Stephen excitedly claims ownership of the lander. Graff disputes his claim and says the Russians will want their ship back. Sadie points out that the object was the property of the now-nonexistent Soviet Union, therefore maritime salvage law would give them the rights to it. Graff infuriates Stephen further by declaring that it belongs to Sadie. Ronelle tries to contact her sister Tamara to tell her about what they found to no avail.
Bowman encourages Sadie to investigate the moon lander before Stephen can find a way to claim it for himself. Bowman recruits Big G to distract Stephen while Sadie sneaks off. Sadie discovers that the Soviet cosmonaut died of an unknown infection and takes a skin sample to analyze. Stephen becomes further frustrated when he learns she has examined the spacecraft before him. He threatens to destroy her career unless she signs over the discovery to him. Graff threatens to take the issue to the courts but Sadie gives in. Meanwhile, Sadie learns that the moon lander was carrying tardigrades, a hardy terrestrial life-form that can survive in extreme conditions. However, cosmic radiation has caused them to mutate and become capable of shapeshifting.
When the cosmonaut's body goes missing, Stephen accuses Sadie of moving or hiding it. She denies this and Bowman defends her. When Stephen becomes belligerent, Graff threatens him. While examining the lander, Stephen becomes contaminated with the mutated tardigrades, and the cosmonaut's body kills Roland. Sadie finds Stephen on deck complaining that he can't breathe and sees him stripping his clothes off despite the sub-zero temperatures. The others drag him back in, after which several stalks sprout from his back and spray the area with a strange, dark liquid. Dock is sprayed in his mouth but Sadie confirms that they are all potentially contaminated. They make the liquid nitrogen portable by putting it into a scuba tank and proceed to freeze Stephen's body and the lander.