Sam Neill Brings Grizzled Gravitas to ‘Invasion’

Few actors have a body of work as eclectic as Sam Neill. Since his leading man debut in 1977’s Sleeping Dogs, a political thriller set in a dystopian near-future New Zealand, Neill’s done it all. He’s played the Antichrist, a spy going through a horrifying divorce, numerous Russian agents, a grieving evangelical, a vampire CEO, a metal-faced techno-priest, a deadbeat bar cook, a spacecraft engineer with dubious intentions, a grumpy hermit, Fake Odin, a father figure to Robot Robin Williams, the coolest insurance investigator ever, and—of course—a cranky paleontologist who hates kids. If you watch Neill’s filmography, you’ll see everything ranging from cultural resets like Jurassic Park to YA movies like Under the Mountain (Neill plays seemingly immortal alien hobo) and Aussie indies like Little Fish (Neill plays a bisexual gangster with a combover).

If it’s not clear: Sam Neill is my favorite actor and yes, I have spent a significant amount of quarantine watching all of his films. That’s why of the many, many things going on in Apple TV+’s new sci-fi drama Invasion, Neill’s performance as Sheriff John Bell Tyson captured my attention.

It’s not like Neill’s output has slowed down one bit over the course of his nearly 45 years in the business. His most recent work, like the charming dramedy Palm Beach and his breathtaking docuseries Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook with Sam Neill, rank among my fave Sam Neill projects. But his turn as a small town sheriff suffering an existential crisis as he faces retirement feels special. It feels like the kind of reminder that American audiences need of Neill’s grizzled greatness.

In Invasion, Neill delivers the kind of nuanced, everyman performance that he so excels at; it’s why unlikely action hero Dr. Alan Grant is such an enduring pop culture figure. Invasion makes Neill the point person between the viewer and impending alien doom. It’s a weighty role that Neill brings considerable gravitas and world-weariness to. It’s a role that also feels like it was tailor made for Sam Neill, even if Invasion creator Simon Kinberg insisted to me that he wrote the role without an actor in mind.

The first episode of Invasion knows exactly what to do with Neill. Audience surrogate? Check. Fedora? Check. The earnest vibes that make the actor’s Instagram a must follow? Check. But there are two scenes that really utilize Neill’s unique skills as an actor—and I’m not talking about the scene where Sheriff Tyson jabs that meth addict punk in the throat, although that was great.

The first is his big monologue while riding shotgun with his partner (played by DeWanda Wise). It’s the sheriff’s last day on duty and he has one final mystery to solve: where did two hillbilly hoodlums disappear to? And why is there a huge divot carved out of a cornfield? And why are all the birds and bugs freaking the hell out? In this monologue, Tyson talks about a case he never talks about—one where he rescued a kidnapped little girl only to have her die in a car accident days later. He’s lived his entire life, he’s served Idabel, Oklahoma for decades, and he believes he has nothing major to show for it—maybe until now.

It’s a heartbreaking scene carried by Neill’s uncanny ability to plow through pages of dialogue, making every syllable count. Watch 2008’s Dean Spanley wherein he plays a priest recalling his past life as a dog, or 1981’s Omen III: The Final Conflict wherein he plays the scenery-chewing son of Satan. Both films have stirring monologues from Neill; one envelopes you like a blanket (Dean Spanley is bizarre but very good!), the other jabs at you like daggers. His Invasion monologue exists between those two; it’s a speech that pulls you closer to the sheriff—and then starts to pull you down into his inner turmoil.

The other scene comes at the end of the episode—and here’s a SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t finished the premiere. Even though Tyson thinks this missing persons case could be the reason he put on the badge, he has to go through with the obligatory retirement ceremony. The town’s gathered to send him off in style, dedicating the day to him and giving him an award commemorating a life of meaning. They meant well, but those folks really pushed the wrong button.

The other thing that Neill excels at is depicting unhinged, unbridled, and/or unleashed emotion. Think of his wrecking ball of a wail on the bus in In the Mouth Of Madness, or him shouting over the sound of a stalking helicopter in A Cry In the Dark, or the entirety of Possession. The way that Neill is able to cut loose and lose touch with any recognizable humanity, cutting through any norms and hit something that feels nakedly human—it’s cathartic. Seeing Sam Neill lose it on screen makes me feel like I’m going through primal therapy.

After getting that award, Sheriff Tyson says nothing—so, the opposite of that guttural pile driver I just described but still an extension of it. We know how much the town loves Sheriff Tyson and we know they had no ill intent. The way he just walks away from this party in his honor, you can feel Tyson’s shame, embarrassment, and anger.

And then he returns to the cornfield and the mysterious, ominous sand trap. Neill lets go, but he adds decades of exhaustion and depression into the mix. Tyson falls to his knees and digs in the dirt, literally digging for a purpose and grasping at the fate that he’s waited his entire life for. He sees the shifting sand not as a threat (which we know it clearly is because, you know, aliens) but as a sign that he’s needed—a sign that he can help, if he just digs deeper.

And he dies, stabbed suddenly in the back of the head by a tentacle from a creature he never even saw. At least Tyson died quickly, and he died doing exactly what he wanted to do at the end: make a stand and not give up. It’s heartbreaking, partly because Tyson was our POV character and partly because I always want more Sam Neill. But it also feels like a massive sign of respect to Neill, a character actor who eschews stardom and focuses on the work. Invasion knew that we would have our heart broken by this character, and they knew Neill could deliver.

What Neill gave in this episode—it’s exactly what Neill does best. And this is the kind of role that, honestly, he couldn’t have played even 10 years ago. Now when Sam Neill takes on these roles, and specifically this role, he brings a lifetime of experience with him. As someone who’s spent the past year—or arguably my lifetime—following the man’s work, there is something beautifully resonant with Tyson and Neill’s trajectories. Like the sheriff, Sam Neill seems nowhere near ready to retire, always digging for new roles that will push him a little further. The main difference is, of course, that while Tyson was still searching for the one, Neill has a career full of the ones. Sam Neill could stop digging, but he clearly loves to get his hands dirty.

Stream Invasion on Apple TV+