Outbreak
Short description
Outbreak follows a lethal virus carried from Africa into the United States by an infected monkey. When the disease surfaces in the small California town of Cedar Creek, army medical researcher Colonel Sam Daniels pushes for action while his superiors withhold what they know about the pathogen. The outbreak spreads quickly, and Daniels works to trace the original carrier and halt the infection before it reaches the rest of the country.
Wolfgang Petersen directed the film, his seventh feature and the one that followed In the Line of Fire. Robert Roy Pool and Laurence Dworet wrote the screenplay, and Petersen produced alongside Arnold Kopelson and Gail Katz. Dustin Hoffman plays Daniels, with Rene Russo as Robby Keough, Morgan Freeman as General Billy Ford, Kevin Spacey as Casey Schuler, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Major Salt and Donald Sutherland as General Donald McClintock. The large credited cast and crew reflect the scale of the production.
Made for about 50 million dollars, the film returned roughly 190 million worldwide, a substantial profit that placed it among the bigger hits of its year. On IMDb it holds 6.6 from around 145,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.6 from a much smaller base of 2,592 votes, figures indicating a generally favourable but not enthusiastic audience response. A critics' rating of 6 out of 10 from 62 reviews sits close to those audience scores, suggesting reviewers and viewers judged the film similarly.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on Richard Preston's book "The Hot Zone".
- The role played by Dustin Hoffman was originally intended for Harrison Ford.
- During the film's computer processing at Boss Film Studios laboratories, a note was added to the bomb in one shot: "To Ferndale with love. Boss Film Studios." Many episodes of the film were shot in the city of Ferndale, California.
- The "Cedar Creek" locations were filmed for two months in the city of Ferndale. Filming also took place at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah and the island of Kauai.
- According to the script, the bomb was supposed to explode over the city. The studio had already devised and filmed special effects showing the city's destruction, but the ending was ultimately reshot and the bomb was dropped into the water.
- The virus in the film, supposedly more dangerous than Ebola, is called Motaba, but the Ebola strain is shown on screen.
- A white-faced capuchin monkey is depicted as the virus carrier in the film. These primates inhabit Central and South America, while the film's action takes place in the jungles of Zaire, i.e., in Africa.
- The film's plot is based on the comic book series of the same name by Chuck Pfarrer, who is also a co-writer of the film's screenplay.
- The "Goliath" robot was approximately three meters tall and weighed about two tons. The special effects company hired to create Goliath had only three and a half months to produce the robot.
- Chuck Pfarrer explained in an interview that the comic was based on a screenplay he wrote in the early 90s. Due to the special effects the script required, it was impossible at the time to turn the script into a film, and he gave it to Dark Horse Comics, which published it in 1995. Several years later, when special effects technology became more advanced, Pfarrer reworked the original script.
- The American fleet vessel 'General Vandenberg', decommissioned, 'played the role' of the Russian research vessel 'Academician Vladislav Volkov'. At the time of filming, the ship had been retired since the mid-80s and was mothballed in the James River Reserve Fleet, Virginia. On May 27, 2009, it was scuttled near Key West, Florida, USA, to be used as an artificial reef and for recreational diving. Until its sinking in 2009 off the coast of Florida, Cyrillic inscriptions could still be read on its sides.
- In a village in Zaire, several huts are being burned. This is how the spread of disease is prevented in many parts of the world. People are not allowed to leave their huts. Water and food are left near the entrance to the dwelling, and if the provisions remain untouched for three or four days, the dwelling is burned to stop the spread of infection.
- In one scene, a monkey is caught in a net. For the filming, the animal was specifically trained to be comfortable with the net so it wouldn't experience fear.
- (The film won out over a similar project on the subject of a viral epidemic, which Ridley Scott was reportedly going to film with Robert Redford and Jodie Foster. However, it ran into script problems.) When producer Arnold Kopelson tasked Ted Tally with writing the script, he liked the result so much that he immediately sent the script to Harrison Ford. Ford declined to participate in the project, but Dustin Hoffman and Wolfgang Petersen (as the lead actor and director, respectively) signed on, and Warner Bros. gave the green light to film the movie for release in 1995.
- In a pet store, the heroine, played by Rene Russo, notices a dying monkey. Before filming this scene, the trainer applied a non-toxic substance to the animal's eyes to make them appear red.
- In scenes where Dustin Hoffman's character is in uniform, he is shown without a cap, which is a violation of regulations. The reason was simply that the actor didn't like how he looked in a cap.
- In the car scene, the monkey is shown in a cage in the back seat. In reality, this scene was filmed on a soundstage, so the car remained stationary. The cage had no bottom to give the animal more freedom. Before the scene where the monkey spits at the man, water was injected into the animal's mouth with a syringe, and then the trainer gave the command to spit it out.
- When Dustin Hoffman's and Cuba Gooding Jr.'s characters shoot the monkey with a tranquilizer, the animal slowly retreats into the undergrowth and lies down. This scene was filmed in parts. First, Gooding Jr.'s character aimed and fired, but whether he hit or not is unknown to the viewer. For the filming, the trainer attached a soft rope to a dart on the animal's paw, then placed it in position and gave the command to lie down. For close-ups, the trainer put the monkey on the ground and signaled it to stay. For filming the animal from other angles and with different cameras, an animatronic monkey was used. It was also used for filming the scene where Hoffman and Gooding Jr. lift the animal and place it in the helicopter.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
