OUTBREAK (FILM)

'''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''.

Contents

Synopsis

Awards & Nominations

Box office

Cast

Trivia

External links

Synopsis

A virus similar to Ebola & Lassa is discovered in the African jungles in 1967 and is kept top-secret by those who know about it. The discovery is covered up by destroying the mercenary camp where it is 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) of the U.S. Army 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 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 into Jimbo's mouth, 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. 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 Henery Seward (USAMRIID), infecting him. Later on, he goes to a packed movie theatre and coughs, expels, and exposes hundreds of citizens of Cedar Creek to the virus and this starts the massive Cedar Creek outbreak. Col. Daniels learns of the infection and wants to be sent there but is being sent to New Mexico. He 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. This tells Daniels that E-1101 is not experimental and people knew about this virus beforehand. He confronts Ford about the serum and he says it was not revealed due to national security.
Daniels then learns of Operation Clean Sweep, a plan by the U.S. military to destroy the town of Cedar Creek by bombing it, led by Maj. Gen. Donald McClintock (Sutherland), again using a fuel-air bomb. This leads him on a frantic search to find the host animal to save the town, Casey, and Robby. Daniels learns about the shipping location where the monkey was picked up from and finds out about the ship that brought it in. He flies to this ship and obtains a picture of the host monkey and broadcasts it on the news, when a mother watches and realizes her daughter plays with the monkey in their backyard. Daniels arrives at the family's house and asks the daughter to coax out the monkey, and then shoots it with a tranquilizer. He obtains the monkey and begins back to Cedar Creek to obtain antibodies for treatment. Once in Cedar Creek, Salt creates the anti-serum and Daniels learns Operation Clean Sweep is in progress and flies in the way of the bomber to stop it. He successfully stops the bombing as the bombers drop the weapon over water and not the town. Ford then places McClintock under arrest for withholding information from the President. Daniels makes up with his wife and the town is treated for Motaba.

Awards & Nominations

;ASCAP Award

★ Top Box Office Film (Won)
;Saturn Award

★ Best Science Fiction Film (Nominated)
;NAACP Image Award

★ Cuba Gooding Jr. - Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Nominated)
;New York Film Critics Circle Awards

★ Kevin Spacey - Best Supporting Actor (Won) - This nomination also included the film Swimming with Sharks, Se7en, and The Usual Suspects.

Box office

US Gross Domestic Takings: US$ 67,659,560
:+ Other International Takings: $122,200,000
= Gross Worldwide Takings: $189,859,560

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

Trivia

★ 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).

★ Katie, the white-headed capuchin Monkey, also appeared in the sitcom Friends as Marcel, Ross' pet. Additionally, Marcel was supposed to star in the fictional Outbreak 2: The Virus Takes Manhattan in the show.

★ The Biological-Chemical protective suits that the soldiers wore were actually real and not props. The masks were also real, known as the M-17. 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".

External links

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★ Boxoffice information