A man who calls himself Prot is committed to a psychiatric institute in Manhattan after claiming he is an extraterrestrial from K-PAX, a planet about a thousand light years away in the constellation Lyra. Psychiatrist Mark Powell takes on his case and tries to bring him back to reality, but Prot answers questions with a clarity that unsettles the staff and the other patients, several of whom he seems to help. The film keeps viewers suspended between mental illness and the unexplained, while the doctor is drawn into investigating his patient's past.

How it was made

The project grew out of Gene Brewer's 1995 novel K-PAX, and Brewer wrote the screenplay with Charles Leavitt. Iain Softley directed, and the film was a co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, produced by Lawrence Gordon, Robert F. Colesberry and Lloyd Levin for Intermedia. Kevin Spacey played Prot and Jeff Bridges played Dr. Powell. Will Smith had been offered the role of Prot, and Spacey was first offered Powell before landing Prot. John Mathieson shot the film, Craig McKay edited it and Ed Shearmur composed the score.

Reception and legacy

Universal opened the film in American theaters on October 26, 2001, and it topped the box office in its opening weekend with $17.5 million. It finished with about $65 million worldwide against a $68 million budget, which made it a commercial disappointment. Critics were divided. Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four, while A. O. Scott called it a draggy exercise in pseudo-spiritual uplift and Claudia Puig found it misguided. Nominations included a Saturn Award for best actor and a NAACP Image Award. Argentinian director Eliseo Subiela, whose 1986 film Man Facing Southeast he considered the source, sued over plagiarism; the complaint was withdrawn after the case dragged on and he lacked funds to continue, but he maintained the accusation until his death in 2016.