Nomads

Nomads (1986) is a supernatural thriller you can watch online on iFILM — the feature debut of director John McTiernan, who would go on to make Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October. It stars Pierce Brosnan as a French anthropologist and Lesley-Anne Down as the Los Angeles emergency room doctor who becomes entangled in his final hours.

Jean Charles Pommier has spent years studying nomadic peoples of the Arctic and has just settled in Los Angeles with his wife. Almost immediately a gang begins circling their home — leather jackets, chains, motorcycles — but their movements feel wrong in ways that are hard to name. When Pommier ends up in the ER, delirious and dying, he grabs Dr. Flax and whispers something in French that transfers his experience into her memory. The story unspools in reverse, moving from what happened to why. McTiernan builds dread through suggestion rather than gore, which makes this an interesting early look at a director who knew how to control the frame before anyone gave him a blockbuster budget. Watch Nomads (1986) online on iFILM.