Instinct

Inside a high security hospital for the criminally insane, a celebrated anthropology professor named Ethan Powell becomes the focus of a determined young psychiatrist. Theo Caulder, hungry for a breakthrough, presses Powell for explanations about the doctor’s troubling past and the oddities surrounding his behavior. As sessions progress, the dynamic grows colder and more destabilizing, with the doctor offering fragments of recollection that hint at a deeper history. The psychiatrist risks his career and his safety to uncover the truth, testing the limits of trust, sanity, and what science can truly know about the human mind. Caulder's resolve is tested as Powell resists, hinting at a past too dangerous to reveal.

Released in 1999, the drama is directed by Jon Turteltaub from an original screenplay by Gerald Di Pego. It stars Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr., with Donald Sutherland, Maura Tierney, and George Dzundza in supporting roles, and a tense mood throughout.

Box office sales totaled 34,105,207 worldwide. Against an 80 million budget, the gross reflects a modest performance relative to its production costs, and the film has spent years finding a quieter life on home video.

Instinct is remembered more for Hopkins's restrained, intense portrayal than for lasting catchphrases or pop culture moments. The film raises questions about intellect and primal impulses, confinement and the ethics of observation, leaving audiences debating what counts as sanity, and offering a tense model for late 1990s psychological thrillers.

Critics offered mixed reactions, praising Hopkins's performance and the film's psychological tension while noting pacing that lingers, at times uneven. The story probes themes of isolation, scientific curiosity, and the boundaries between human intellect and animal instinct, prompting debate about power, confinement, and responsibility in medicine. Its themes remain surprisingly relevant to debates about ethics in science and the treatment of those deemed dangerous.