The Ultimate Impostor (1979)
A series pilot about a secret agent who is armed with skills learned by a computer-brain link-up -- lasting only 72 hours at a time -- and is sent to rescue a Russian submarine commander, a defector who has been kidnapped by an agent for another nation.
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Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
American spy Monahan (Joseph Hacker) is captured in China and, after 4 weeks of detainment, is returned to US officials with his memory wiped clean. Boss Eugene Danziger (Keith Andes) sees him as the perfect guinea pig for an experiment by Dr. McKeever (Macon McCalman) where computer information is fed into his brain. Feed him 16MB (!) of info and he can learn anything in 11 minutes. It works, but with a catch in that he can only retain the info for 72 hours. That is good enough for Government work and they send him out on his first mission to save a captured Russian sub captain who wanted to defect. This was a pilot from the team behind THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN that never got to go to a series. It is pretty entertaining and I like the learn anything from a computer and the 72 hour concept. Unfortunately they don't seem to know how to properly exploit it in this feature. For example, the big drama on his first mission is they forgot to program how to drive into his brain. Doh! Hacker also does the strangest English accent that he goes in-and- out of while undercover. The supporting cast is good though and you get Erin Gray as concerned girlfriend Beatrice "Bucky" Tate.