Virus (1999 film)

Infobox Film
name = Virus

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caption =
director = John Bruno
producer = Gale Anne Hurd

writer = Chuck Pfarrer
starring =
music = Joel McNeely
cinematography = David Eggby
editing = Scott Smith
distributor = Universal Pictures
released = January 15, 1999 (theatrical); July 20 1999 (USA)
runtime = 100 min.
country = United States
awards =
language = English
budget = $75,000,000
amg_id = 1:174354
imdb_id = 0120458

"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.

Overview

The film is about an alien lifeform which primarily inhabits electronic devices. The lifeform invades "Mir" (the Russian space station) and is transmitted to a Russian research ship, and sets out to exterminate the crew of a tugboat who find the derelict ship. To do this, the alien creates cyborgs by fusing the corpses of its victims with various electronic parts. These creations are manufactured in a mini-factory it built in the ship.

Kelly Foster (Jamie Lee Curtis) is part of a salvage crew. During a hurricane they lose the large cargo they were hauling, which was apparently the captain's last chance to get out of debt. Capt. Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland) is ready to commit suicide, but then the crew happens upon the Russian ship. Hoping to recoup their losses, they decide to salvage the apparently abandoned ship, equipped with large amounts of high-tech equipment, and bring it in to sell back to Russia for a massive profit.

However, they find a surviving female crewmember, Nadia Vinogradiya (Joanna Pacula), ruining their chance of salvaging the ship (it would have to be completely abandoned for their plan to work legally). Also, they manage to turn the ship's power back on, against the woman's protestations-- and the alien lifeform begins its construction again.

Several members are killed and converted into cyborgs. Another, Hiko (Cliff Curtis) is washed overboard. Another, Richie Mason (Sherman Augustus), hides in the bowels of the ship and begins constructing weaponry from the various parts and ammunition he finds. Captain Everton allies himself with the alien and becomes a cyborg. Foster and Baker (William Baldwin) manage to kill him, but are pursued by a large robotic construct, the Goliath Machine. It is revealed by the alien that it, in fact, is not the Virus of the film title-- instead, it considers humanity a virus, using the definition it found in the ship's databanks, "SPECIES IS DESTRUCTIVE, INVASIVE, NOXIOUS, HARMFUL TO THE BODY OF THE WHOLE", etc.

Nadia sacrifices herself in an attempt to destroy the robot by exploding a nearby gas tank, but it is in vain. It pursues Foster and Baker to a missile deck, where they encounter Mason. The two escape on a rocket sled construct Mason was working on while he, fatally wounded, stays behind and makes sure a huge bomb explodes, destroying the entire ship. Foster and Baker escape the explosion, the sled parachuting them into the water.

The movie ends with Foster waking up floating in the debris of the ship, clinging to a piece. She spots Hiko floating nearby, lifelessly, head hanging down. She swims over, and lifts up his head, only to see his face is nearly torn-off and he is dead. She turns away-- only for Hiko's supposedly lifeless corpse to reach out and attack her.

Foster wakes up screaming, and realizes she was merely dreaming, as she is safe on a rescue helicopter with Baker.

External links

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* [http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-now-vandenberg.m29,0,4373768.story?track=rss Newport News Daily Press story on scrapping of the USS Vandenberg.]