Virus (1999 film)
Encyclopedia
Virus is a 1999
science fiction
-horror film
directed by visual effects artist John Bruno and starring Jamie Lee Curtis
, William Baldwin
and Donald Sutherland
. The film is based on a Dark Horse
comic book of the same name by Chuck Pfarrer
.
conducting a transmission with a research ship in the South Pacific, Akademik Vladislav Volkov. While the crew of both the space station and the ship converse, a large electrical storm from deep space strikes the Mir. The electrical surge hijacks the Mirs electronics and beams itself to Earth by entering the ship, disabling it in the process. The crew of Mir are apparently killed, while the large research vessel's crew suffer an unknown fate.
Eight days later, during a typhoon, the tugboat
Sea Star, captained by Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland
), loses its uninsured cargo, which was the captain's last chance to get out of debt. Sea Star's crew, led by Kelly Foster (Jamie Lee Curtis
) and Steve Baker (William Baldwin
) discover the tug taking on water in its engine room; Foster suggests to Everton that they take refuge in the eye of the storm to make repairs. Everton agrees, but while Sea Star rests in calm waters, he puts a bullet in his pistol and contemplates committing suicide. At that time, the Akademik Vladislav Volkov appears on Sea Star's radar, and upon realizing that it could be worth many millions in salvage
, Everton orders his crew aboard.
All transmission equipment on the ship is destroyed and most wires are slashed; even more strangely, several areas of the ship are riddled with bullet holes, suggesting a struggle. However, no crew appear to be present, much to Everton's delight (as if any crew were surviving, his salvage would be worth much less than the $30 million he envisioned.) Everton orders Steve to go with another crewman, Squeaky (Julio Oscar Mechoso
) and restore power to the ship so that it can be moved. They do so, but almost immediately, the ship's anchor drops seemingly on its own, sinking the Sea Star and wounding its deckhand Hiko (Cliff Curtis
). Steve leaves Squeaky behind to guard the engine room but he is soon lured to his death by a strange, robotic, spider-like creature.
Afterward, as Foster treats Hiko's injured leg in the ship's sick bay, a figure in a gas mask bursts out of one of the medical cabinets and fires a Škorpion vz. 61 at the crew. Baker subdues the figure and removes the gas mask to reveal Chief Science Officer Nadia Vinogradiya (Joanna Pacuła), the sole survivor of the Russian ship's crew. Nadia rants hysterically about "it" needing power to travel through the ship, strikes Everton and attempts to wield an axe against Foster, but Foster succeeds in subduing her long enough for them to take her to the bridge.
When Squeaky does not respond to Steve's calls, he sets out to check the engine room and orders his crewmates Richie Mason (Sherman Augustus
) and J. W. Woods, Jr. (Marshall Bell
), to come and help him. Richie and Woods, who were sent elsewhere in the ship prior, encounter another of the strange robots and soon find a fully automated workshop producing them. When Richie prods a newly-created machine creature, it shoots Woods with a nail gun, then the pair are attacked by what appears to be a gun-wielding Russian crew member.
Eventually, Richie and Woods catch up with Steve, who has found the engine room abandoned with its door welded shut. They are suddenly attacked again by the Russian crewman, who is revealed to be a cyborg
. As Richie and Woods lifted a stock of weaponry from the ship's munitions depot, the trio are able to battle the cyborg.
At the bridge, Everton accuses Nadia of being the one who dropped the anchor and sank the Sea Star. He threatens to shoot her if she doesn't give him Squeaky's whereabouts, but realizing this makes no sense as Nadia was hiding in the sick bay, Foster stops him. Woods, Steve and Richie arrive with the apparently dead cyborg and display it on a table; beginning to connect the dots, Foster asks Nadia to tell them fully what happened. She explains that the electrical energy from the Mir boarded the ship eight days prior, and it was not just energy but a highly intelligent lifeform. It scanned all the data on the ship's computers in order to learn how to kill humans, then set about using the ship's machine shops - first, it built the smaller robots, the "gatherers". After that it began giving itself the body it lacked by killing the crew and converting them into cyborgs; the one that Sea Stars crew killed was Nadia's captain and husband Alexi.
When the eye of the storm passes away from the ship and violent seas return, the crew decides over Everton's objections to find a way to destroy the creature. They head for the computer room but are ambushed by Squeaky, who has been converted into a cyborg, and also by a gigantic robot that kills Woods. The surviving crew flee into and barricade themselves inside a communications room where Richie manages to send out a mayday; however, Everton shoots out the communicator, unwilling to let anyone else in on his salvage. Foster punches Everton in the face and declares him removed from command. Richie comes up with an idea: the alien lifeform is electrical and inside the computers, so they can speak to it using a computer. It replies that it is "aware" when asked who it is, then declares that mankind is a species harmful to the body of the whole, a virus. When asked what it wants, it replies with various tissues and nerves - humanity is only useful for spare parts, which causes Richie to go insane. He brutally kills the cyborg Squeaky as it breaks into the room, then uses a grenade launcher to escape.
Everton, who stayed behind in the communications room while the rest of his mutinous crew decided to go find the computer and sink it, realizes that the alien is interested in him. He uses the computer to tell the alien that he is the "dominant lifeform" and offers to help it reach any port it desires in exchange for the salvage. He is told to go to Workroom 14 on the E Deck.
The crew finds the computer room empty with a number of the spider robots crawling around; the alien moved the computer elsewhere in the ship. Realizing that the ship is taking them somewhere, they struggle back to the bridge, but Hiko is blown overboard. Meanwhile, Everton enters the workshop and finds the robots mutilating and dissecting a number of men including Woods. Impressed with the alien's work, he bargains with it, and it asks him to help it survive.
Foster identifies Lord Howe Island
as the ship's destination. Steve realizes that the alien wishes to reach the island because of the British intelligence installation there, which would allow it to beam itself anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere. The crew agree to sink the ship, but then a new cyborg appears in the room - made from a Russian sailor's torso, with Everton's disembodied head. Cyborg Everton attacks his crew, and the alien takes over his body to declare that there is "a whole world waiting out there". Nadia manages to kill Everton by using a thermite
hand grenade
, but the crew realizes time is running out. They decide to sink the ship by flooding the hold with fuel and detonating it.
A bomb is placed in the hold as the crew empty all the fuel tanks. Foster and Steve run into Richie, who fled them earlier. Suddenly, the giant robot from earlier - named the "Goliath Machine" - appears and injures Richie. It captures Foster and tortures her so she will reveal where the bomb is. Richie reveals to Steve that he has prepared an escape route in the ship's missile room. Nadia and Steve manage to rescue Foster from the Goliath Machine and Nadia sacrifices herself to detonate another grenade at point blank range and kill the Goliath Machine, but the creature survives. As Foster and Steve make it out to safety, their escape device triggers an explosion which causes the ship to sink. Foster and Steve eventually get picked up by a helicopter.
USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10)
. One of the ship's satellite dish antennas was intentionally damaged for the movie's final scene where the ship was destroyed. Some of the Cyrillic lettering applied for the film was still visible on the hull before it was sunk on May 27, 2009.
.
Jamie Lee Curtis
herself also did not think highly of the movie. In an IGN.com interview, Curtis had the following to say about Virus: "Rob Reiner
for his 40th birthday had a bad show business party where everybody brought show business clips... Rob's was playing a hippie on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
singing "Blowin' in the Wind"... Virus is so bad that it's shocking... That would be the all time piece of shit...It's just dreadful... That's the only good reason to be in bad movies. Then when your friends have [bad] movies you can say 'Ahhhh, I've got the best one.' I'm bringing Virus."
1999 in film
The year 1999 in film involved several noteworthy events and has been called "The Year That Changed Movies". Several significant feature films, including Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut, Pedro Almodóvar's first Oscar-winning film All About My Mother, science fiction The Matrix, Deep...
science fiction
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
-horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by visual effects artist John Bruno and starring Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...
, William Baldwin
William Baldwin
William Joseph "Billy" Baldwin is an American actor, producer, and writer, known for his starring roles in such films as Flatliners , Backdraft , Sliver , Fair Game , Virus , Double Bang , as Johnny 13 in Danny Phantom , Art Heist , The Squid and the Whale , as himself...
and Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
. The film is based on a Dark Horse
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
comic book of the same name by Chuck Pfarrer
Chuck Pfarrer
Charles Patrick "Chuck" Pfarrer, III is an American novelist, screenwriter, and former U.S. Navy SEAL from Biloxi, Mississippi.-Biography:...
.
Plot
The film opens with the Russian space station MirMir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...
conducting a transmission with a research ship in the South Pacific, Akademik Vladislav Volkov. While the crew of both the space station and the ship converse, a large electrical storm from deep space strikes the Mir. The electrical surge hijacks the Mirs electronics and beams itself to Earth by entering the ship, disabling it in the process. The crew of Mir are apparently killed, while the large research vessel's crew suffer an unknown fate.
Eight days later, during a typhoon, the tugboat
Tugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
Sea Star, captained by Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
), loses its uninsured cargo, which was the captain's last chance to get out of debt. Sea Star's crew, led by Kelly Foster (Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...
) and Steve Baker (William Baldwin
William Baldwin
William Joseph "Billy" Baldwin is an American actor, producer, and writer, known for his starring roles in such films as Flatliners , Backdraft , Sliver , Fair Game , Virus , Double Bang , as Johnny 13 in Danny Phantom , Art Heist , The Squid and the Whale , as himself...
) discover the tug taking on water in its engine room; Foster suggests to Everton that they take refuge in the eye of the storm to make repairs. Everton agrees, but while Sea Star rests in calm waters, he puts a bullet in his pistol and contemplates committing suicide. At that time, the Akademik Vladislav Volkov appears on Sea Star's radar, and upon realizing that it could be worth many millions in salvage
Marine salvage
Marine salvage is the process of rescuing a ship, its cargo, or other property from peril. Salvage encompasses rescue towing, refloating a sunken or grounded vessel, or patching or repairing a ship...
, Everton orders his crew aboard.
All transmission equipment on the ship is destroyed and most wires are slashed; even more strangely, several areas of the ship are riddled with bullet holes, suggesting a struggle. However, no crew appear to be present, much to Everton's delight (as if any crew were surviving, his salvage would be worth much less than the $30 million he envisioned.) Everton orders Steve to go with another crewman, Squeaky (Julio Oscar Mechoso
Julio Oscar Mechoso
Julio Oscar Mechoso is an American actor. He is occasionally credited as Julio Mechoso.Mechoso is a character actor in both television and film. He has appeared in several high-profile films, such as Grindhouse, Bad Boys and the controversial Ken Park. His television credits include Miami Vice,...
) and restore power to the ship so that it can be moved. They do so, but almost immediately, the ship's anchor drops seemingly on its own, sinking the Sea Star and wounding its deckhand Hiko (Cliff Curtis
Cliff Curtis
Clifford Vivian Devon "Cliff" Curtis is a New Zealand actor who has had major roles in film, including The Piano, Whale Rider, and Blow, and most recently has appeared in NBC's television series Trauma. He is also co-owner of independent film production company Whenua Films...
). Steve leaves Squeaky behind to guard the engine room but he is soon lured to his death by a strange, robotic, spider-like creature.
Afterward, as Foster treats Hiko's injured leg in the ship's sick bay, a figure in a gas mask bursts out of one of the medical cabinets and fires a Škorpion vz. 61 at the crew. Baker subdues the figure and removes the gas mask to reveal Chief Science Officer Nadia Vinogradiya (Joanna Pacuła), the sole survivor of the Russian ship's crew. Nadia rants hysterically about "it" needing power to travel through the ship, strikes Everton and attempts to wield an axe against Foster, but Foster succeeds in subduing her long enough for them to take her to the bridge.
When Squeaky does not respond to Steve's calls, he sets out to check the engine room and orders his crewmates Richie Mason (Sherman Augustus
Sherman Augustus
Sherman Augustus is an American actor. Augustus played professional football with the San Diego Chargers and Minnesota Vikings...
) and J. W. Woods, Jr. (Marshall Bell
Marshall Bell
Archibald Marshall Bell is an American actor. He has appeared in many character roles in movies and television. His best-known movies are probably A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge , Stand by Me , Twins and Total Recall .-Early life:He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he lived until...
), to come and help him. Richie and Woods, who were sent elsewhere in the ship prior, encounter another of the strange robots and soon find a fully automated workshop producing them. When Richie prods a newly-created machine creature, it shoots Woods with a nail gun, then the pair are attacked by what appears to be a gun-wielding Russian crew member.
Eventually, Richie and Woods catch up with Steve, who has found the engine room abandoned with its door welded shut. They are suddenly attacked again by the Russian crewman, who is revealed to be a cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
. As Richie and Woods lifted a stock of weaponry from the ship's munitions depot, the trio are able to battle the cyborg.
At the bridge, Everton accuses Nadia of being the one who dropped the anchor and sank the Sea Star. He threatens to shoot her if she doesn't give him Squeaky's whereabouts, but realizing this makes no sense as Nadia was hiding in the sick bay, Foster stops him. Woods, Steve and Richie arrive with the apparently dead cyborg and display it on a table; beginning to connect the dots, Foster asks Nadia to tell them fully what happened. She explains that the electrical energy from the Mir boarded the ship eight days prior, and it was not just energy but a highly intelligent lifeform. It scanned all the data on the ship's computers in order to learn how to kill humans, then set about using the ship's machine shops - first, it built the smaller robots, the "gatherers". After that it began giving itself the body it lacked by killing the crew and converting them into cyborgs; the one that Sea Stars crew killed was Nadia's captain and husband Alexi.
When the eye of the storm passes away from the ship and violent seas return, the crew decides over Everton's objections to find a way to destroy the creature. They head for the computer room but are ambushed by Squeaky, who has been converted into a cyborg, and also by a gigantic robot that kills Woods. The surviving crew flee into and barricade themselves inside a communications room where Richie manages to send out a mayday; however, Everton shoots out the communicator, unwilling to let anyone else in on his salvage. Foster punches Everton in the face and declares him removed from command. Richie comes up with an idea: the alien lifeform is electrical and inside the computers, so they can speak to it using a computer. It replies that it is "aware" when asked who it is, then declares that mankind is a species harmful to the body of the whole, a virus. When asked what it wants, it replies with various tissues and nerves - humanity is only useful for spare parts, which causes Richie to go insane. He brutally kills the cyborg Squeaky as it breaks into the room, then uses a grenade launcher to escape.
Everton, who stayed behind in the communications room while the rest of his mutinous crew decided to go find the computer and sink it, realizes that the alien is interested in him. He uses the computer to tell the alien that he is the "dominant lifeform" and offers to help it reach any port it desires in exchange for the salvage. He is told to go to Workroom 14 on the E Deck.
The crew finds the computer room empty with a number of the spider robots crawling around; the alien moved the computer elsewhere in the ship. Realizing that the ship is taking them somewhere, they struggle back to the bridge, but Hiko is blown overboard. Meanwhile, Everton enters the workshop and finds the robots mutilating and dissecting a number of men including Woods. Impressed with the alien's work, he bargains with it, and it asks him to help it survive.
Foster identifies Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...
as the ship's destination. Steve realizes that the alien wishes to reach the island because of the British intelligence installation there, which would allow it to beam itself anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere. The crew agree to sink the ship, but then a new cyborg appears in the room - made from a Russian sailor's torso, with Everton's disembodied head. Cyborg Everton attacks his crew, and the alien takes over his body to declare that there is "a whole world waiting out there". Nadia manages to kill Everton by using a thermite
Thermite
Thermite is a pyrotechnic composition of a metal powder and a metal oxide that produces an exothermic oxidation-reduction reaction known as a thermite reaction. If aluminium is the reducing agent it is called an aluminothermic reaction...
hand grenade
Hand grenade
A hand grenade is any small bomb that can be thrown by hand. Hand grenades are classified into three categories, explosive grenades, chemical and gas grenades. Explosive grenades are the most commonly used in modern warfare, and are designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time...
, but the crew realizes time is running out. They decide to sink the ship by flooding the hold with fuel and detonating it.
A bomb is placed in the hold as the crew empty all the fuel tanks. Foster and Steve run into Richie, who fled them earlier. Suddenly, the giant robot from earlier - named the "Goliath Machine" - appears and injures Richie. It captures Foster and tortures her so she will reveal where the bomb is. Richie reveals to Steve that he has prepared an escape route in the ship's missile room. Nadia and Steve manage to rescue Foster from the Goliath Machine and Nadia sacrifices herself to detonate another grenade at point blank range and kill the Goliath Machine, but the creature survives. As Foster and Steve make it out to safety, their escape device triggers an explosion which causes the ship to sink. Foster and Steve eventually get picked up by a helicopter.
The ship
The ship used as the Akademik Vladislav Volkov was the retired Missile Range Instrumentation ShipMissile Range Instrumentation Ship
Missile Range Instrumentation Ships, Range Ships, or Tracking Ships, are ships equipped with antennas and electronics to support the launching and tracking of missiles and rockets...
USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10)
USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145)
USS General Harry Taylor was a in the United States Navy in World War II named in honor of U.S. Army Chief of Engineers Harry Taylor. She served for a time as army transport USAT General Harry Taylor, and was reacquired by the navy in 1950 as USNS General Harry Taylor .Placed in reserve in 1958,...
. One of the ship's satellite dish antennas was intentionally damaged for the movie's final scene where the ship was destroyed. Some of the Cyrillic lettering applied for the film was still visible on the hull before it was sunk on May 27, 2009.
Cast
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Jamie Lee Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many... |
Kelly "Kit" Foster |
| William Baldwin William Baldwin William Joseph "Billy" Baldwin is an American actor, producer, and writer, known for his starring roles in such films as Flatliners , Backdraft , Sliver , Fair Game , Virus , Double Bang , as Johnny 13 in Danny Phantom , Art Heist , The Squid and the Whale , as himself... |
Steve Baker |
| Donald Sutherland Donald Sutherland Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the... |
Captain Robert Everton |
| Joanna Pacuła | Nadia Vinogradova |
| Marshall Bell Marshall Bell Archibald Marshall Bell is an American actor. He has appeared in many character roles in movies and television. His best-known movies are probably A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge , Stand by Me , Twins and Total Recall .-Early life:He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he lived until... |
J. W. Woods Jr. |
| Sherman Augustus Sherman Augustus Sherman Augustus is an American actor. Augustus played professional football with the San Diego Chargers and Minnesota Vikings... |
Richie Mason |
| Cliff Curtis Cliff Curtis Clifford Vivian Devon "Cliff" Curtis is a New Zealand actor who has had major roles in film, including The Piano, Whale Rider, and Blow, and most recently has appeared in NBC's television series Trauma. He is also co-owner of independent film production company Whenua Films... |
Hiko |
| Julio Oscar Mechoso Julio Oscar Mechoso Julio Oscar Mechoso is an American actor. He is occasionally credited as Julio Mechoso.Mechoso is a character actor in both television and film. He has appeared in several high-profile films, such as Grindhouse, Bad Boys and the controversial Ken Park. His television credits include Miami Vice,... |
Squeaky |
Reception
Overall the movie received poor reviews. Based on 41 reviews, the film scored a 10% approval rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...
herself also did not think highly of the movie. In an IGN.com interview, Curtis had the following to say about Virus: "Rob Reiner
Rob Reiner
Robert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie and Edith Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s...
for his 40th birthday had a bad show business party where everybody brought show business clips... Rob's was playing a hippie on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.The show renders the title as Gomer Pyle - USMC. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot was aired as the finale of the fourth season of The Andy...
singing "Blowin' in the Wind"... Virus is so bad that it's shocking... That would be the all time piece of shit...It's just dreadful... That's the only good reason to be in bad movies. Then when your friends have [bad] movies you can say 'Ahhhh, I've got the best one.' I'm bringing Virus."