Covert One: The Hades Factor

If you enjoyed the Dustin Hoffman movie Outbreak, the TV series 24 and X-Files and the HBO/BBC series TheCell, and wondered what would happen if you mixed them altogether, then this is the result.

It trundles along at the usual pace of all the above, with Stephen Dorff doing his best Jack Bauer impersonation, in both looks and personality. Naturally the love of his live is offed fairly early on and that sets up the lone-agent working to recover the truth. Very 24'esque.

The X-Files element is all the government conspiracies that are woven into the plot and that makes for more distraction than anything else. The story is a good one on its own merit, no need to keep mixing in nonsense that really only serves to bog down the movie.

But on the whole it is a good watch.

Horrible movie. The production values and acting are decent which don't help much to hide the stupid clichéd dialog, the illogical plot, and the ridiculous focusing on faces and looks that are irrelevant and gratuitous. So many red herrings. Danny Huston is all wrong for this role. No credibility here. It's the writing that does him in. Why suspect John Smith. No reason at all. Why would he allow his girl friend to die. More stupidity, and all taken so damn seriously. This movie makes me so mad. It just makes no sense. And that customs guy gets a red flag and lets the lingerie salesman go. No questions, and wouldn't there be a full alert during this time where the slightest suspicion would at least require further investigation? So many unrealistic plot lines. It's like a caricature of a spy movie. A spy running around in spike heels? Come on. Oh look at the bruises on Sophie's body...Oh no that's nothing. Are these people supposed to be pros? And that Russian style spy/gangster with the punk haircut that no one notices? Oh yeah he looks so cool and just blends in. What idiocy. Yeah lets hire an agent that looks like that. That will be real successful. And then he's on the train platform, leans over without checking under the edge. I guess he's not very well trained or just has a death wish. And more and more crap.

Great literature its not, but Robert Ludlum is hard to beat as a writer of suspense thrillers and COVERT ONE: THE HADES FACTOR is no exception. Writing the screenplay with Ludlum is Elwood Reid and together they have created a very fast moving tale of the threats of bio-terrorism, found in Mick Jackson a perfect match for a director, and gathered an exciting cast to make this 160 minute made-for-television movie fly by at tremendous speed.

The premise of the film involves the worst of all 'weapons of mass destruction' - biological warfare - and here the topic is dealt with in a fascinating manner that pulls the US Government into the fold as implicated in the feasibility of such warfare. Not possible? Well, watch the film and make up your own mind.

Stephen Dorff plays Jon Smith, a one time covert agent for the White House, who becomes ensnarled in a plot to release the Hades Virus (a hemorrhagic lethal variant of the Ebola virus) to destroy the US. Smith's girlfriend Dr. Amsden (Sofia Myles) works for the government in the department that watches for measures just such as this. When the plot to sell the virus (is it possibly a virus known to the US government as the Scimitar project?) falls into the hands of an agent Rachel Russell (Mira Sorvino), the confusion of who is working for whom unfolds and all manner of agents and FBI, CIA, etc agents tumble around the President (Anjelica Huston) trying to identify the true culprits and the race to stop the dissemination of the deadly virus. In the many roles of varying consequence are actors Blair Underwood, Danny Huston, Colm Meaney, Josh Hopkins, etc.

The film is not without its gruesome elements: what depiction of bio-terrorism could avoid that? But the pace and the action sequences and the many locations of the film make the story propel along at a fascinating pace and the actors hold their own despite some predictable moments. Though this obviously is a fiction novel and a good one at that, there is a degree of truth in all fiction and any time writers and artists can help us understand possibilities, we are the better informed for it. Recommended viewing.

The first part of the series was good as a movie in general. But I, being a fan of the book, was disappointed that the story was loosely based on the Gayle/Ludlum work. I have wanted them to make a movie out of this series of books for some time now. And I guess in my anticipation and already thinking about how the movie would be, I was a little angry. I can understand the director fast forwarding to recent events, but changing some of the backgrounds of the characters and COLONAL John Smith being out of USAMRID. But again, as a movie, without reading the book, this was a good story. Sorry, I just had to find a faucet to vent my thoughts.

While in a retrieve operation of a virus in Berlin, the Covert One agent Rachel Russell (Mira Sorvino) is double-crossed by two dirty agents; she kills them and escapes, trying to find a hiding place and someone to trust to protect the vials. Meanwhile, the former Covert One agent Dr. Jon Smith (Stephen Dorff) is also in Berlin with his beloved fiancée Sophie Amsden (Sophie Myles) participating in a congress. When three persons die with bleeding, the doctors disclose a Hades virus outbreak, an extreme rare Ebola variant. Jon and Sophie return to the USA to research a cure, and Jon discovers a huge combination of bio-terrorism and conspiracy.

"Covert One: The Hades Factor" is a long full of action thriller with conspiracy, terrorism, corruption and betrayal. The complex story is very well-developed along 165 minutes running time and very well acted. Mira Sorvino has specialized in the role of detective or agent, following brilliantly the steps of her father. Stephen Dorff is also excellent and the gorgeous Sophie Myles of "Tristan + Isolde" has a short but effective participation. The conclusion is not predictable but has nor surprised me. In the end, it is a story about the good old-fashioned American capitalism in times of terrorism and intolerance. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): 'O Fator Hades" ("The Hades Factor")