Virus (1999 film)

Virus
Directed by	John Bruno
Written by	Chuck Pfarrer
Produced by	Gale Anne Hurd
Cinematography	David Eggby
Edited by	Scott Smith
Music by	Joel McNeely
Distributed by	Universal Studios
Release dates	January 15, 1999 (theatrical); July 20 1999 (USA)
Running time	100 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$ 75,000,000

Virus is a sci-fi/horror film released in 1999. 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 freak storm 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 hightech 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. The Captain (Donald Sutherland) 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, "Poisonous, destructive to the larger ecosystem as a 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.

Cast

Actor	Character
Jamie Lee Curtis	Kelly Foster
William Baldwin	Steve Baker
Donald Sutherland	Captain Robert Everton
Joanna Pacula	Nadia Vinogradiya
Marshall Bell	J.W. Woods Jr.
Sherman Augustus	Richie Mason
Cliff Curtis	Hiko

Trivia

• The ship used for the film is actually the USNS Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10), part of the James River Reserve Fleet. This ship is being removed from the fleet to be sunk as an artificial reef.

• In the scene that shows the captain preparing to commit suicide, a Red Ensign is spotted hanging off a wall of the tugboat. Based on the accents used in this movie, this suggests that the tugboat and its crew are Canadian.

• Jamie Lee Curtis has stated previously in interviews that this film is in her opinion the worst film she has starred in.

• The cyborgs depicted in the film bear slight resemblance both to those of The Borg and to those of The Strogg.

External links

• Virus at IMDb
• Newport News Daily Press story on scrapping of the USS Vandenberg.