Virus

USA 1998

Reviewed by Philip Strick

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

As the Mir space station prepares an alignment with the satellite-tracking research ship Volkov, a vast energy mass approaches suddenly from outer space. Enveloping Mir, the entity flashes down to the data receptors on the Volkov, engulfing the ship's electrical systems. A week later, as a typhoon rages in the area, the tugboat Sea Star finds the Volkov drifting lifelessly. Boarding her, the Sea Star's Captain Everton realises that a possible $30 million salvage fee awaits him and his crew.

When the Sea Star is sunk in an accident the crew begin to explore their derelict discovery. They soon find a survivor, Nadia, who claims that a malevolent force has taken over the ship; she warns them, too late, not to turn on the power system. Reactivated, the ship's workshops resume a host of mysterious projects, assimilating components of human captives in a fusion of flesh and metal. Nadia recognises the remains of her husband among the new lifeforms. Through the ship's computer the alien presence announces that the humans are a virus that will be eliminated and used for spare parts.

While Everton tries to bargain for his own survival, Sea Star navigator Kit Foster realises that the Volkov is being steered towards a satellite- monitoring centre with a global link-up. Kit and Nadia prepare to blow up the ship with the help of engineer Steve Baker. They are attacked by Everton, now a biomechanoid, but blow him apart. Kit is trapped by the entity but released by fellow crewman Richie who has been developing an escape rocket. Sole survivors, Kit and Steve cling to the rocket as its take-off detonates the destruction of the Volkov. A helicopter rescues them.

Review

Adapted by Chuck Pfarrer from his own four-part Dark Horse comic book series, Virus is a haphazard collection of emergencies ranging from typhoons to zombie attacks, from would-be suicide to first-aid surgery, from computerised sadism to last-minute just-for-the-hell-of-it hallucination. Negotiating the risks is the usual handful of expendables, gamely portrayed by players hoping to impress in the brief moments before something more memorable chops them down. But this erratic adventure is not really about them: it's about the concerted skills of a special-effects team that has dominated fantasy film-making for more than a decade.

The assembled production talent for Virus could hardly be bettered, headed by Mike Richardson, owner of Dark Horse Comics and producer of The Mask, by the Levinsohn-Gordon partnership responsible for Saving Private Ryan, and by Gale Anne Hurd, launcher of James Cameron and The Terminator. At the sharp end of design and animation for the film's delirious array of mechanoid killers are specialists like Eric Allard (Short Circuit), Steve Johnson (Species) and near-legendary Oscar-winner Phil Tippett (the Star Wars trilogy, RoboCop). And although John Bruno at last makes his debut as feature director here, his 30-year career seems to have involved every possible role in the visual-effects business from Disney animation to co-direction with James Cameron of the Terminator 2-3D theme park. Awarded an Oscar for The Abyss, followed by five subsequent nominations, he was immersed in pre-production for Titanic when Virus staked its claim.

Given that Bruno's experiences when working on Titanic included two hurricanes endured aboard a Russian research vessel, events which became integrated into the Virus script, it is tempting to glimpse in his film a private subtext, something about the traps and tortures of inventing fresh technology in a desperate struggle to meet the extravagant demands of James Cameron.

In parallel, Virus is also a seafaring yarn, not too many leagues away from Titanic itself or from The Abyss with its vulnerable cargo of lost souls: setting aside such distractions as alien invasion and berserk equipment, the film offers a series of maritime contests from the effort to control one salvaged ship to the race to destroy another. At the epicentre is the discovery of the derelict ship, approached in wonder by the tugboat crew. Savouring a classic moment, Bruno floats his camera above as the search party gingerly makes its way across the decks.

Plunging from this pinnacle into a formulaic series of duels, Virus either sinks or swims according to one's taste for ingenuity. The skills at work are enthralling but the concepts familiar, from the scuttling insectoid emissaries (Runaway, 1984) to the giant Proteus-voiced computer that once, similarly, had its way with Julie Christie in Demon Seed (1977).

The part-flesh, part-transistor phenomenon, at its cleanest in RoboCop, its most brutal in Hardware, its most disgusting in Tetsuo, reaches its apotheosis in the well-wired form of Donald Sutherland wandering in as if recruited by the Borg in Star Trek and looking irremediably silly. Having hewn out for himself a fair chunk of the film's early exchanges in which, with a gleefully sea-doggish accent, he establishes the tugboat captain as a raving nutter, he plainly finds the rest of his role ridiculous but enjoys it to the full. Alongside, Jamie Lee Curtis and Joanna Pacula form a macho team with enough spirit to fight off all contenders, metallic or otherwise. While never entirely explaining why a lifeform of pure energy needs to encumber itself with bits of flesh and scrap metal, Virus makes another loud and colourful case for the special-effects epidemic.

Credits

Producer
Gale Anne Hurd
Screenplay
Chuck Pfarrer
Dennis Feldman
Based on the Dark Horse comic book series by
Chuck Pfarrer
Director of Photography
David Eggby
Editor
Scott Smith
Production Designer
Mayling Cheng
Music/Music Conductor
Joel McNeely
©Universal City Studios, Inc
Production Companies
Universal Pictures and Mutual Film Company present a Dark Horse Entertainment/Valhalla Motion Pictures production
Executive Producers
Mike Richardson
Chuck Pfarrer
Gary Levinsohn
Mark Gordon
Co-producers
Todd Moyer
Dennis E. Jones
Bud Smith
Production Co-ordinator
Shannon Dayton-Rippy
Location Manager
Charley Baxter
Locations Co-ordinator
William Dean
Post-production Supervisor
Doreen A. Dixon
2nd Unit Directors
Bud Smith
Virginia:
Todd Hallowell
Assistant Directors
Carla Brand Breitner
Stephanie O'Brien
2nd Unit:
J. Michael Haynie
Frank Waldeck
Virginia 2nd Unit:
Douglas S. Ornstein
Kenneth G. Brown
Script Supervisors
Deirdre Horgan Aska
2nd Unit:
Jennifer Opresnick
Casting
Pam Dixon Mickelson
Associate:
Amy Gerber
Locations:
Fincannon & Associates, Inc
ADR Voice:
Barbara Harris
2nd Unit Director of Photography
Virginia:
David M. Dunlap
Aerial Director of Photography
Virginia 2nd Unit:
Michael Kelem
Camera Operators
David Knox
Jeff Moore
2nd Unit:
Malcolm MacIntosh
Virginia 2nd Unit:
Bruce MacCallum
Steadicam Operator
David Knox
Wescam Technician
Virginia 2nd Unit:
Derek Lovie
Gyrosphere Technician
Virginia 2nd Unit:
J.P. Beeghly
Visual Effects
Producer:
Michele C. Vallillo
Editor:
Miller Drake
Co-ordinators:
David B. Moulder
Kristin Hansen
Production Supervisor:
Rick Murken
Associate Producer:
Clive Milton
Visual Effects
Fantasy II Film Effects, Inc
Visual Effects Supervisor:
Gene Warren Jr
Visual Effects Producer:
Leslie Huntley
Miniature Photography:
Christopher Warren
John Huneck
Pyrotechnics Supervisor:
Joseph Viskocil
Set Designer:
Dorn Kennison
Model/Crew:
Kento Gebo
Dale Gordon
Donn Gunnett
Hacene Haouas
Matt Haslam
Scott Beverly
Anita Osterhage
Michael Persion
Gary Rhodaback
Tank Crew Foreman:
Frank Sutton
Pyrotechnics:
Robert Hutchins
Thomas Seymour
Charles Cooley
Optical Supervisor:
Betzy Bromberg
Camera Operator:
David Tucker
Roto Supervisor:
Bret Mixon
Digital Supervisor:
Tim Molinder
Digital Artist:
Roberta Kirkpatrick
Digital Visual Effects
Cinesite
Visual Effects Supervisor:
Jay Riddle
Digital Effects Producer:
Ariana Lingenfelser
Digital Composite Supervisor:
Carol Ashley
Digital Matte Painting Supervisor:
Charles Darby
Digital Paint Supervisor:
Joe Dubs
Rotoscope Supervisor:
Karen D. Klein
Digital Compositors:
Sean O'Connor
Sean MacKenzie
CGI Animators:
Erik Krumrey
Jamie Pilgrim
Allen Ruilova
Digital Matte Painting Artist:
Roger Kupelian
Digital Artists:
Corinne Pooler
Susana Slaughter
Andrew Goldstein
Chris Wood
Mike Frevert
Rotoscope Artists:
Tim Gibbons
Erin M. Cullen
George Edwin Oliver Jr
Water/Cloud R & D:
Jerry Tessendorf
Digital Effects Co-ordinator:
Jessica Trento
Digital Production:
Timothy T. Cunningham
Visual Effects Editor:
Shawn J. Broes
Scanning/Recording Co-ordinator:
Sly West
Digital Effects
Visionart
Digital Effects Supervisor:
Joshua D. Rose
Digital Effects Producer:
Robert D. Crotty
Animation Supervision:
Todd Boyce
Compositing Supervisor:
Dorene Haver
Lead CG Artist:
Daniel Naulin
Lead Compositor:
Alette Vernon
CG Artists:
Carl Hooper
John Peel
Chris Greenberg
Concept Artist:
Robert Tom
Data Administrator:
Jeffrey L. Pohl
Digital Film I/O Supervisor:
Jeff Pierce
Digital Film I/O:
Celine Jackson
Paul Simon
Visual Effects
Pacific Title/Mirage Digital
Executive Producer:
Joe Gareri
Digital Effects Supervisor:
David Sosalla
Technical Supervisor:
Patrick Phillips
Digital Effects Artists:
Oliver Sarda
Michael Degtjarewsky
Jeff Wells
Jennifer Law-Stump
Tom Lamb
Digital Co-ordinators:
Jason Hanel
Stacey Board
Robotics
Effects Designers:
Steve Johnson
Eric Allard
Creature Design:
Steve Burg
Taishiro Kiya
Art Director:
Chris Ross
Robotic Effects
All Effects Company, Inc
Effects Supervisor:
Bud McGrew
Robotics Co-ordinator:
Cory Faucher
Foreman:
Ron Bawden
Animatronics Programmer:
Mark W. Spivey
CAD Designer:
Neil Johnson
Model Makers:
Scott Acosta
Erik Stohl
Anthony Cook
Kenneth Walker
Stacy Henning
Mold Maker:
Susan La Prelle
Robotic Effects
XFX, Inc
Production Co-ordinator:
Joe Fordham
Administrator:
Jackie Caydam
Supervisor Animatronic Design:
Eric Fiedler
Key Animatronic Supervisor:
Jim Kundig
Bio-Bob Supervisor:
Joel Harlow
Bio-Alexi Supervisor:
Dave Snyder
Bio-Alexi Design:
Scott Patton
Bio-Squeaky Supervisor:
Mark Garbarino
Droid Supervisor:
Brian Bero
Droid Motion Co-ordinator:
Mark Bryan Wilson
Bio-Alexi Design:
Leon Laderach
Bio-Spine Mechanical Design:
Christian Carlberg
Cosmetics Supervisor:
Leonard MacDonald
Key Cosmetic Design:
Mark Killingsworth
Additional Cosmetic Design:
Dave Dupuis
Key Hair Design:
Mark Boley
Supervising Moldmaker:
Paul Barnes
Foam Latex Supervisor:
Janet Evaschuck
Conceptual Designs:
Kerry Gammill
Taishiro Kiya
Lead Mechanical Design:
Bob Newton
Droid Mechanical Design:
Clint Lynch
Nailgun Droid Design:
Nori Honda
Mechanical Design:
Brian Poor
Patrick Gerrety
Brian Roe
Animatronic Controller Design:
Jon Higgins
Robot Cosmetic Design:
Michael Morgan
Special Effects
Supervisor:
Chuck Gaspar
Set Co-ordinator:
Mike Edmonson
Foremen:
Terry Chapman
Richard Cory
Mark Blatchley
Crew:
Vincent L. Ball
Scott Blackwell
Randall Chapman
Billy Daniel
Phil H. Fravel
Bill Greene
David Hill
Gregory Hull
Randy Kenan
James La Croix
Robert Lefever
Tye Lewis
Jeffery L. McKay
Wesley N. Perry
Gus Ramsden
Joseph Simpkins
Harry Smith Jr
Billy Swafford
Hari Volikas
John Weeks
Christian D. Zearfoss
2nd Unit Co-ordinator:
Dick Wood
Virginia 2nd Unit Supervisor:
Philip Cory
Virginia 2nd Unit Co-ordinator:
Dave Simmons
Virginia 2nd Unit Technicians:
Walter Garrett
Mark Wick
Richard Mulcahy
Gary Pilkinton
On-set Video/Graphics Co-ordinator
Robert Chartier
On-set Video/Graphics
Roy Meyers
Tony Rudenko
Forrest Maready
Computer Graphic Visual Displays
Video Image
Video/Graphics Supervisor:
Scott M. Warner
Computer Graphics Director:
Thomas M. Conroy
Video/Graphics Team:
Alan Landaker
Bill White
Eric Schmidt
Heidi Rae
Jim Mcdonald
Pitou
Thad Mercer
Additional Miniatures
Acme Models, Inc
Model Maker Supervisor:
Michael Joyce
Giant Robot Animation
Tippett Studio
Robot Visual Effects Supervisor:
Craig Hayes
Robot Animation Supervisor:
Phil Tippett
Visual Effects Producer:
Alonzo Ruvalcaba
Character Animation Supervisor:
Thomas Schelesny
CG Supervisor:
Doug Epps
Digital Lighting Supervisor:
Julie Newdoll
Supervising Compositor:
Zoe Peck
Character Animators:
Bobby Beck
Tom Gibbons
Peter Konig
Randy Link
Joseph Littlejohn
Robin Watts
Art Department Supervisor:
Paula Lucchesi
Lead Digital Painter:
Joel Friesch
Digital Modelmakers:
Merrick Cheney
David Woolsey
Digital Lighting:
Kent Estep
James Flux
Sara Mathew
Saba Rofchaei
Scott Souter
Bart Trickel
Mathew Welker
Digital Effects Animator:
Darby Johnston
Digital Compositors:
Bill Eyler
Charles Granich
Peter Juneau
Alfred Murrie
Russ Sueyoshi
Executive Producer:
Jules Roman
Lead Visual Effects Co-ordinator:
Ken Kokka
Visual Effects Co-ordinator:
Eve Sakellarjou
Operations Manager:
Jeff Stringer
Match Move Supervisor:
Desirée Mourad
Digital Roto Supervisor:
Joanne Ladolcetta
Film I/O Supervisor:
David Rosenthal
Digital Scanner Operator:
Stephen Stanton
Colour Correction:
Page Frakes
Haunt Rama
Film I/O Co-ordinator:
Vicki Wong
Visual Effects Editor:
Kevin Rose-Williams
Systems Manager:
Xian Rice
Puppeteers
Bud McGrew
Eric Fiedler
Joshua M. Logan
Brian Bero
Christopher Bergschneider
Mark Bryan Wilson
James L. Kundig
Elizabeth Osterman
Sebastien Caillabet
Trevor Murray
John D. Snyder
Mark D. Hull
Leonard Gregory MacDonald
Ron Pastucha
Christian Carlberg
Brett Tyler Johnson
Mark Garbarino
A. Brent Armstrong
Terry Chapman
Thomas A. Holland
Bob Davidson
Phil H. Fravel
Doug Passarelli
Kenneth Walker
Robert Rieker
David Hill
Scott Blackwell
Brent W. Bell
Additional Editing
Jere Huggins
Art Directors
Donald B. Woodruff
Jay Hinkle
Robert J. Quinn
Set Designers
Daniel Jennings
Dale Allan Pelton
Geoffrey S. Grimsman
Domenic Silvestri
Bill Taliaferro
Patte Strong
Charlie Vassar
Alan Au
Allan Hook
William Davis
Set Decorator
Donald Krafft
Illustrator
Vladimir Spasojevic
Storyboard Artists
Thomas R. Cranham
Rodolfo Damaggio
Leo Duranona
Darryl Henly
Phillip Norwood
Mike Swift
Costume Designer
Deborah Everton
Costume Supervisor
Frank Perry Rose
Make-up
Supervisor:
Jeff Goodwin
Artists
Rick Pour
Sandra Orsolyak
2nd Unit Artist:
Christina Harrelson
Virginia 2nd Unit Artist:
Marianna Alacchi
Special Make-up Effects
2nd Unit:
Vincent J. Guastini
Additional Make-up Effects
Transformations Makeup FX Lab
Hair
Supervisor/Designer:
Emanuel Millar
Key Stylist:
Pamela Priest
2nd Unit Stylist:
David Halsey
Virginia 2nd Unit Stylist:
Rob Magnus
Titles/Opticals
Pacific Title/Mirage
Synthesizer
Judd Miller
Electronic Percussion
Ron Aston
Orchestrations
David Slonaker
Music Editors
Johnny Caruso
Craig Pettigrew
Temp:
Richard Bernstein
Engineer
Shawn Murphy
Re-recording Music Mixer
Mark Smith
Sound Design
John Pospisil
Eric Lindemann
Sound Mixers
Jay Meagher
2nd Unit:
Robert Maxfield
Virginia 2nd Unit:
Larry Long
Re-recording Mixers
Mike Casper
Daniel J. Leahy
Rick Kline
Dubbing Recordist
Charlie Ajar
Supervising Sound Editors
Richard L. Anderson
George Simpson
Sound Editors
Michael Chock
John Dunn
Julia Evershade
Donald Flick
Aaron Glascock
David A. Whittaker
Supervising Dialogue Editor
Elliott Koretz
ADR
Recordist:
Rick Canelli
Mixer:
Thomas J. O'Connell
Supervising Editor:
Chris Jargo
Editor:
Michelle Pazer
Foley
Artists:
John Roesch
Hilda Hodges
Recordist:
Carolyn Tapp
Mixer:
Mary Jo Lang
Editor:
Solange S. Schwalbe
Advisers
MIR Station:
Dr Norman Thagard
Navy Technical:
Laura Astor
Marine Co-ordinator
Virginia 2nd Unit:
C. Ransom Walrod
Aerial Co-ordinator
Virginia 2nd Unit:
David Paris
Digital Muse
James Cameron
Stunt Co-ordinator
Joel Kramer
Bird Wrangler
Alicia Rudd
Helicopter Pilots
Virginia 2nd Unit:
Robert Zajonc
Alan Purwin
Keith Smith
Andrew Erdle
 
Cast
Jamie Lee Curtis
Kit Foster
William Baldwin
Steve Baker
Donald Sutherland
Captain Everton
Joanna Pacula
Nadia
Marshall Bell
J.W. Woods Jr
Julio Oscar Mechoso
Squeaky
Sherman Augustus
Richie
Cliff Curtis
Hiko
Yuri Chervotkin
Colonel Kominski
Keith Flippen
Captain Lonya Rostov
Olga Rzhepetskaya-Retchin
female cosmonaut
Levani
Captain Alexi
David Eggby
Norfolk captain
Certificate
18
Distributor
United International Pictures (UK) Ltd
8,934 feet
99 minutes 16 seconds
Digital DTS sound/SDDS/Dolby digital
Colour by
DeLuxe
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011