Alien Nation is a 1988 American buddy cop neo-noir science fiction action film directed by Graham Baker.
Plot[]
In 1988, a spaceship bearing 300,000 enslaved aliens known as "Newcomers" lands in the Mojave Desert. By 1991, they have settled in Los Angeles and some of them have joined the Los Angeles Police Department. Detective Matthew Sykes' partner is killed in a shootout with several Newcomers who are robbing a store; they also kill the store owner, the Newcomer Cecil Porter. Sykes' superior, Captain Warner, informs his squad that they will work with the newly promoted Newcomer detective Sam Francisco. Sykes volunteers to team up with Francisco to investigate the homicide of Newcomer Warren Hubley, hoping to also be able to investigate his partner's death, something he is officially barred from doing. The two do not work well: Sykes refuses to call him "Sam Francisco" and opts to call him "George" instead, and Francisco predicts Sykes will have difficulties due to his last name sounding like "sai k'ss" – "shit head" in the Newcomer language.
While at a crime lab, Francisco detects an abnormality on the body of one of the Newcomer criminals who was killed in the robbery. This leads Sykes and Francisco to a nightclub to question Newcomer Joshua Strader, but Strader is murdered by a criminal ring led by Newcomer businessman William Harcourt and his henchman Rudyard Kipling.
While investigating, the men find themselves becoming friendlier to each other. Francisco informs Sykes of a part of the Newcomer body to strike for maximum pain, which Sykes uses later; after discovering Newcomers get intoxicated on spoiled milk, they get drunk together, and Francisco confesses about not understanding the high ideals humans set without being able to attain them, and advises Sykes to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Harcourt is in the advanced stages of launching a scheme to exploit the Newcomers by mass-producing Jabroka, a drug which was used to pacify Newcomers when they were slaves but has no beneficial effect on humans. The abnormality noticed by Francisco on the body of the Newcomer criminal turns out to be a visual sign of the drug's influence. The Newcomers Hubley, Porter, and Strader were involved in the planning phases of the operation, but were later murdered due to Harcourt's desire to exclude them from any future profits. When Sykes and Francisco locate the drug lab, Francisco displays a sudden fury at the thought of Jabroka being re-introduced to his people and destroys the lab. Francisco explains that it must be destroyed, and the mere existence of the drug must never be revealed, as it would risk the tenuous existence of every Newcomer on Earth.
Ultimately, Sykes and Francisco track down Harcourt, who is negotiating a timetable for the release of Jabroka. The detectives engage in a car chase with Harcourt and Kipling, ending in a head-on collision that leaves both parties injured. Harcourt escapes on foot; when cornered by Sykes, he takes an overdose of Jabroka that causes him to collapse, seemingly dead. The remaining Jabroka is destroyed, but Francisco reacts in shock when Sykes reports he overdosed; he explains that an overdose would cause a Newcomer to mutate in a larger, more dangerous form, and that humanity must never know Newcomers are capable of this.
Sykes and Francisco pursue Harcourt after he escapes from the coroner's vehicle, catching up with him near a fishing pier, and Sykes fights him hand-to-hand on the open sea, eventually knocking him into the water; however, Sykes is pulled into the water as well. Harcourt's body disintegrates due to direct contact with salt water, which is hazardous to Newcomer physiology. Francisco commandeers a police helicopter and rescues Sykes even though his arm suffers damage. When the pilot asks what was in the water with Sykes, Sykes responds that it was "just another Slag" - a pejorative term for Newcomers - protecting the secret.
Sykes and Francisco, now friends, attend Sykes's daughter's wedding together. Sykes has accepted Francisco as his partner and asks him to forgive Sykes for all the stupid things he will do and say in the years to come. Francisco reassures Sykes that he will - "After all...you're only human."