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OUTBREAK

Trekker4747

Trekker4747

Boldly going...
Premium Member
With the hub-bub over Swine Flu, excuse me, 2009 Influenza Virus H1N1, I decided to get a movie I remember from the late 90s that deal with a biological viral disaster - Outbreak starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and featuring Cuba Godding, Jr. (before he vanished off the face of the planet never to be seen again.)

This movie is pretty typical 90s "disaster" flair int he same vain as "Twister", "Volcano", "Dante's Peak" and many others with a manufactured "natural" disaster situation, but it's a movie I like well enough to just sit back and enjoy it.

Anyone else remember this movie?
 
Trekker4747 said:
With the hub-bub over Swine Flu, excuse me, 2009 Influenza Virus H1N1, I decided to get a movie I remember from the late 90s that deal with a biological viral disaster - Outbreak starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and featuring Cuba Godding, Jr. (before he vanished off the face of the planet never to be seen again.)

This movie is pretty typical 90s "disaster" flair int he same vain as "Twister", "Volcano", "Dante's Peak" and many others with a manufactured "natural" disaster situation, but it's a movie I like well enough to just sit back and enjoy it.

Anyone else remember this movie?
Click to expand...

Good beginning, but it builds up to an anticlimactic ending.
 
"We've got to find this monkey!" (I think the line was cut from the final movie, but it provoked a laugh in the trailer - probably why it was cut).
 
Trekker4747 said:
With the hub-bub over Swine Flu, excuse me, 2009 Influenza Virus H1N1, I decided to get a movie I remember from the late 90s that deal with a biological viral disaster - Outbreak starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and featuring Cuba Godding, Jr. (before he vanished off the face of the planet never to be seen again.)

This movie is pretty typical 90s "disaster" flair int he same vain as "Twister", "Volcano", "Dante's Peak" and many others with a manufactured "natural" disaster situation, but it's a movie I like well enough to just sit back and enjoy it.

Anyone else remember this movie?
Click to expand...

I remember it coming out just as the craze was building over Richard Preston's novel, The Hot Zone, corresponding with the media turning to Ebola as the virus du jour. In fact, I think that Warner Bros. scrambled to get this movie into production before a competing (Robert Redford?) project actually based on Preston's novel got off the ground.

As you said, typical '90s disaster junk, but without nearly as much entertainment value.
 
JKTim said:
I remember it coming out just as the craze was building over Richard Preston's novel, The Hot Zone, corresponding with the media turning to Ebola as the virus du jour. In fact, I think that Warner Bros. scrambled to get this movie into production before a competing (Robert Redford?) project actually based on Preston's novel got off the ground.
Click to expand...
Yeah, The Hot Zone was initially developed as a Jodie Foster/Robert Redford film, with Ridley Scott signed as director.
 
I also loves me some Rene Russo. :drool:

And... a red-haired blading Kevin Spacey. :wtf: :lol:

And young(er) Donald Sutherland.

And is Morgan Freeman just awesome in EVERYTHING he's in or what?

:lol:
 
I remember this one. It was ok. But I remember being disappointed back in the day. It was directed by Wolfgang "Das Boot" Petersen who'd produced the IMHO excellent "In the Line of Fire" directly prior to this one. Little did I know how disappointed (that doesn't really express it, actually) I'd be by the movie after "Outbreak"...
 
This is one of those movies that has worked it's way into the lexicon. Everyone knows what the "outbreak monkey" is. I've never even seen the movie and I know what it means.
 
To me, the most frightening scene in that movie was when one of the infected people goes to a movie theatre and the camera follows his cough from his mouth into the mouths of all of the other movie patrons as they are laughing. To this day, whenever I hear anyone cough in a movie theatre I immediately think "Outbreak"!
 
Dave.Bowman said:
To me, the most frightening scene in that movie was when one of the infected people goes to a movie theatre and the camera follows his cough from his mouth into the mouths of all of the other movie patrons as they are laughing. To this day, whenever I hear anyone cough in a movie theatre I immediately think "Outbreak"!
Click to expand...

Therapy. Get some. :lol:
 
It's kind of a fun movie. I don't remember hating it or anything. Wasn't that great though. Ended up with the cliche good guy scientists who want to save everyone facing off against the mean/evil military general who just wants to blow everyone up.

The thing I remember most about the movie though is when they have a briefing at the White House or somewhere and are explaining how fast the virus spreads. He(Donald Sutherland) has a white map of the United States with major cities labeled. Then red dots appear to show the virus. In no time he shows that the virus will turn the entire US red with the virus in just 48 hours! OH NOES!!!
 
I remember going to see this as a kid with my family when we were vacationing in Hawaii. As I recall, I liked it well enough, but my pre-teen self wasn't always the best judge of movies. Hell, my current self might not be either. :lol:

I occasionally see snippets of it on TV every now and then. I agree, it seems like pretty standard 90s-disaster movie fare -- fairly forgettable, but the top-notch cast keeps it watchable.
 
I love it. I mean, it's not great science or anything but it's a fun movie and one I enjoy re-watching.

"You have flown through fog, haven't you Salt?"
"Read about it, sir!"
 
Out Of My Vulcan Mind said:
Yeah, The Hot Zone was initially developed as a Jodie Foster/Robert Redford film, with Ridley Scott signed as director.
Click to expand...

According to Preston, supposedly it got rewritten to the point where Redford's role became super big and Foster's role became super meaningless, and then the whole project fell apart.

A couple years later Tom Cruise was interested in The Cobra Event, but Fox 2000 won the bidding rights and... nothing ever happened.
 
bigdaddy said:
Dave.Bowman said:
To me, the most frightening scene in that movie was when one of the infected people goes to a movie theatre and the camera follows his cough from his mouth into the mouths of all of the other movie patrons as they are laughing. To this day, whenever I hear anyone cough in a movie theatre I immediately think "Outbreak"!
Click to expand...

Therapy. Get some. :lol:
Click to expand...

Maybe we can get a package deal - I guess I need it too!
 
I had a prof who was into biological science movies, so I watched this movie "seriously" for the first time in that class.
What I got out of it was how the military was represented in the film. It was interesting how it turned out to be another military is evil flick.
 
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