Outbreak (film)
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| Outbreak | |
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 The movie poster for Outbreak |
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| Directed by | Wolfgang Petersen |
| Produced by | Duncan Henderson Anne Kopelson Gail Katz |
| Written by | Laurence Dworet Robert Roy Pool |
| Starring | Dustin Hoffman Rene Russo Morgan Freeman Kevin Spacey Cuba Gooding Jr. Donald Sutherland |
| Music by | James Newton Howard |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
| Release date(s) | March 10, 1995 |
| Running time | 127 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Outbreak (1995) is a suspense film starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey. The film was directed by Wolfgang Petersen. In addition, Outbreak features Cuba Gooding Jr., Donald Sutherland, and Patrick Dempsey.
The film focuses on an outbreak of a fictional Ebola-like virus called Motaba. Its primary settings are government disease control centers USAMRIID and the CDC, and the fictional town of Cedar Creek, California. Outbreak shows how far the military and civilian agencies might go to contain the spread.
The film was released in March 1995 and proved a moderate box office success. The film was nominated for various awards but failed to garner any major award nominations. It also raised various "what-if" scenarios: media outlets began to question what the government would really do in a similar situation and the CDC has plans in case an outbreak ever does occur.
The film was shot at various locations in California and Hawaii. The locations used in California include Eureka, Ferndale, Los Angeles, and Pasadena. The lone spot used in Hawaii was Kauai, which was used to film some of the scenes that were supposed to be in Africa.
The film was inspired by a rival, never-produced virus outbreak movie, Crisis in the Hot Zone, an adaptation of Richard Preston's factual 1994 best-seller The Hot Zone.
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[edit] Synopsis
The Motaba is discovered in the African jungles in 1967 and kept top-secret. The discovery is covered up by two army men, who destroyed the mercenary camp where the virus was discovered with a fuel-air bomb, a specially-designed conventional weapon capable of very high explosive yields.
Twenty-five years later, it resurfaces in Africa again. Col. Sam Daniels (Hoffman), an USAMRIID virologist is sent to investigate the Motaba case with his crew. He and his crew contain the virus and return to the United States where he asks his superior, General Ford (Freeman), to put out an alert for the virus. Ford, who knows the virus is not new, tells Daniels that it is unlikely to show up. What neither of the men knows is that the host animal, a White-fronted Capuchin Monkey, has been brought to the U.S. on a ship to be sold illegally in the pet trade. Jimbo Scott (Dempsey) bribes a guard at the shipping location and takes the monkey to Cedar Creek to sell for breeding. On the trip, the monkey spits in Jimbo's face, infecting him.
Once Jimbo arrives at the pet store in Cedar Creek, the owner of the store tells him he got the wrong sex but only after the monkey has scratched him, infecting him. Jimbo then takes the monkey and releases him into the woods of California. Jimbo starts to show signs of infection on his plane trip to Boston where he gets off the plane and kisses his girlfriend, infecting her. They are both hospitalized and Daniels' ex-wife, Robby (Russo), is called in to investigate this infection. While all of this is going on, the owner of the pet store in Cedar Creek begins to show signs of infection as well. All three of them later die. Robby investigates and concludes that everybody in Boston checked out all right.
While the techs in the hospital are running tests on the pet store owner's blood, a vial in a centrifuge breaks and splatters blood on Henry Seward, infecting him. Later on, he goes to a packed movie theater and coughs, expels, and exposes hundreds of citizens of Cedar Creek to the virus and thus starts the massive Cedar Creek outbreak. Col. Daniels learns of the infection and that it has mutated and became airborne. He wants to be sent to Cedar Creek but has been ordered to go to New Mexico, the site of an outbreak of Hantavirus by Ford (to prevent Daniels from learning too much on the Motaba virus). Daniels disobeys orders and flies to Cedar Creek where he joins Robby and the rest of the crew. They work on isolating the town, especially the sick, and finding out where the virus came from. They find out about the pet store owner and believe that a host animal at the store may be carrying antibodies. They search the store and find a monkey; the monkey is already sick but they contain it and examine it. It is also apparent that a state of martial law has been declared in Cedar Creek as the army controls everything from rounding up the sick to setting a curfew.
While in Cedar Creek, several accidents happen. Casey's (Spacey) protective suit tears and he is infected with the virus. While treating Casey, Robby pokes herself with a dirty needle infecting herself. Several citizens of Cedar Creek try to escape in two vehicles and three men in the lead vehicle are killed when a helicopter fires at one of the trucks; the second vehicle, a family with children, is surrounded by armed troops wearing MOPP gear. A mystery serum, E-1101, is introduced to those suffering from Motaba. Daniels wonders what this is and administers it to the infected monkey obtained from the pet store. The monkey gets better but the citizens of Cedar Creek do not; Daniels realizes that E-1101 is not experimental and people knew about this virus beforehand. He confronts Ford about the serum and learns about his involvement in the African village. Ford admits that he withheld the information on the virus due to national security: its potential of being turned into the perfect biological weapon for the U.S. Military. E-1101 worked on the monkey because it was infected with the original virus not the mutated airborne one, which means that the host monkey is carrying both strains of the virus.
Daniels then learns of Operation Clean Sweep, a plan by the U.S. military to destroy the town of Cedar Creek by bombing it, again using a fuel-air bomb, with approval from the president. Maj. Gen. Donald McClintock (Sutherland), who was Ford's partner in the African camp and the one responsible for its destruction, is discreetly planning to use the bombing of Cedar Creek to cover up the virus's existence and to prevent Daniels from finding a cure, has him placed under arrest by falsely implicating Daniels as the carrier of the virus. This leads Daniels and Major Salt (Gooding) on a frantic search to find the host animal to save the town, Casey, and Robby: Flying by helicopter to the shipping location where the monkey was picked up, Daniels obtains and broadcasts on the news a picture of the host monkey, which a viewer realizes her daughter is playing with in their backyard. She calls the station and Daniels and Salt arrives at the family's house; he asks the daughter to coax out the monkey, which Salt shoots with a tranquilizer gun.
On the way back the two deal with McClintock (who had also come by helicopter to prevent them from returning to Cedar Creek), but Daniels has Salt fire a missile in the trees to trick McClintock with a decoy helicopter crash, and give them time to escape. Upon returning to Cedar Creek, Salt uses the monkey's antibodies with the E-1101 to create an anti-serum, in time to save Robby but not Casey, who succumbs to the virus. Meanwhile, Daniels discovers Operation Clean Sweep is in progress; aware that his superiors are covering up the virus, he takes it upon himself to fly in the way of the bomber to stop it. Convinced by Daniels that vital information was deliberately withheld from him, the pilot detonates the bomb over water and not the town. Ford, realizing that McClintock has gone too far with handling the virus, relieves him of command and then places McClintock under arrest for withholding vital information from the President. McClintock promises to take Ford down with him, a threat Ford ignores. Daniels makes up with his wife, and the town is successfully treated for Motaba.
[edit] Awards & Nominations
- ASCAP Award
- Top Box Office Film (Won)
- Best Science Fiction Film (Nominated)
- Cuba Gooding Jr. - Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Nominated)
- Kevin Spacey - Best Supporting Actor (Won) - This nomination also included the film Swimming with Sharks, Se7en, and The Usual Suspects.
[edit] Box office
US Gross Domestic Takings: US$ 67,659,560
- + Other International Takings: $122,200,000
= Gross Worldwide Takings: $189,859,560
[edit] Cast
- Dustin Hoffman as Col. Sam Daniels
- Rene Russo as Robby Keough
- Morgan Freeman as Brig. Gen. Billy Ford
- Kevin Spacey as Casey Schuler
- Cuba Gooding Jr. as Maj. Salt
- Donald Sutherland as Maj. Gen. Donald McClintock
- Patrick Dempsey as Jimbo Scott
- Zakes Mokae as Dr. Benjamin Iwabi
- Malick Bowens as Dr. Raswani
- Susan Lee Hoffman as Dr. Lisa Aronson
- Benito Martinez as Dr. Julio Ruiz
- Bruce Jarchow as Dr. Mascelli
- Leland Hayward III as Henry Seward
- Daniel Chodos as Rudy Alvarez
- Dale Dye as Lt. Col. Briggs
- Johnny Kim as Seaman Chulso Lee
- Katie as Betsy the infected monkey.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Hoffman's role was originally written for Harrison Ford.
- The monkey shown as the host is a White-headed Capuchin, a species native to Central and South America. This conflicts with the setting of the original virus (Zaire, Africa).
- Betsy, the white-headed capuchin Monkey, also appeared in the sitcom Friends as Marcel, Ross' pet. The monkeys prior role in Outbreak was spoofed by a poster showing Marcel as the star in the fictional movie "Outbreak 2: The Monkey Takes Manhattan," starring Jean-Claude Van Damme who guest appeared on the same episode as himself playing a fictional role in the movie.
- The Biological-Chemical protective suits that the soldiers wore were actually real MOPP gear and not props. The masks were also real, known as the M17 Gas Mask. The suit that Hoffman wore is now displayed in the Planet Hollywood restaurant in the Disney Village section of Disneyland Resort Paris.
- Outbreak is referenced in Chasing Amy when Banky Edwards says the line: "I'm telling you that chick is probably a bigger germ farm than that monkey in Outbreak".
- The film was also the inspiration for one episode of Clerks: The Animated Series, when Randal Graves fears that the monkey in the new pet shop next door will carry the deadly motaba virus and attempts to assassinate it.
[edit] External links
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