After outrunning a typhoon at sea, a strong-willed tugboat navigator and her crew discover a high-tech alien life form that's taken control of a Russian research vessel and aims to destroy o... Read allAfter outrunning a typhoon at sea, a strong-willed tugboat navigator and her crew discover a high-tech alien life form that's taken control of a Russian research vessel and aims to destroy on a massive scale.After outrunning a typhoon at sea, a strong-willed tugboat navigator and her crew discover a high-tech alien life form that's taken control of a Russian research vessel and aims to destroy on a massive scale.
Joe McDuffie
- Asbury - Villager
- (uncredited)
Matthew Sullivan
- Coast Guard Man
- (uncredited)
Featured reviews
Missed viewing this film and greatly enjoyed the film from beginning to the very end. The actors all did a fantastic job and the special effects were outstanding. Jamie Lee Curtis,(Kelly Foster),"Drowning Mona",'2000, for a while played the only female with quite a few men on a simple tug boat. However, Kelly was the daughter of an Admiral in the US Navy and could handle herself quite well. The captain of the tug boat was Donald Sutherland,(Capt. Robert Everton),"An American Hauting",'05 who drank most of the time, but still was capable of handing his Tug. There is also a Russian Space Ship that is involved in the film along with some very unusual Aliens who cause havoc on a very large Russian ship. William Baldwin,(Steve Baker),"Last Hour",'06, gives a great supporting role, acting as a know it all, and is taught some very serious lessons. Great Sci-Fi, considering it was produced in 1998 or 1999.
Don't take this movie too seriously, and Virus is actually an enjoyable romp, that pays homage, excuse me, rips off many venerable movies from the same and similar genres.
It starts of as an X-Files episode, turns into The Perfect Storm, Sutherland is clearly inspired by mad Quint in Jaws, then the movie becomes Johnny 2.0 meets Robocop and Alien II.
The drawbacks are of course obvious - the Life Form behaves more like a space moron, than a higher form of intelligence. If it was the latter, it would simply have the entire crew set port in Australia and have taken it from there. Instead, the "humans are viruses" approach simply brings it down. Bummer. Billions of miles of space travel, and it gets bested by the motley crew of a tugboat with a demented skipper.
Anyway, 21 years after Halloween, Jamie Lee still looks delectable with a perfect figure. The rest of the crew are funny and charming, in a forgettable way. Sutherland puts in the best acting he has in years, which isn't saying too much as he has been phoning his performances in since JFK.
Anyway, this movie is low on originality, but if you like the genres above, it is a pretty nice diversion.
It starts of as an X-Files episode, turns into The Perfect Storm, Sutherland is clearly inspired by mad Quint in Jaws, then the movie becomes Johnny 2.0 meets Robocop and Alien II.
The drawbacks are of course obvious - the Life Form behaves more like a space moron, than a higher form of intelligence. If it was the latter, it would simply have the entire crew set port in Australia and have taken it from there. Instead, the "humans are viruses" approach simply brings it down. Bummer. Billions of miles of space travel, and it gets bested by the motley crew of a tugboat with a demented skipper.
Anyway, 21 years after Halloween, Jamie Lee still looks delectable with a perfect figure. The rest of the crew are funny and charming, in a forgettable way. Sutherland puts in the best acting he has in years, which isn't saying too much as he has been phoning his performances in since JFK.
Anyway, this movie is low on originality, but if you like the genres above, it is a pretty nice diversion.
This is a terribly great film, everything that is wrong with this flick just couldn't stop me from laughing, got to love 90s sci fi sorta b movie level, though we do have quite the cast everything just feels very off with the film, yet if you want to enjoy something for a laugh this would be the film, the effects are poor, the acting is very wooden, and the plot is well been done many times before. I first court this film on late night tv in the uk back when channel 5 used to do there late night films that were always guaranteed to be a terrible movie and had the wonderful pleasure to rewatch the film found on YouTube, this is a little bit of a guilty pleasure. Enjoy!
Washed up captain of Sea Star, Robert Everton( played by Donald Sutherland) and his crew of 5 fail to transport their cargo due to a big storm that leaves their ship heavily damaged. They find hope in a high-tech Russian ship that seems abandoned at first. They decide to board the ship and start looking for any crew members. Unfortunately things don't go as planned and they soon find out that they are not alone. Virus is based on a dark horse fiction novel baring the same title. The movie tries a lot to recreate the atmosphere of the movie alien by isolating people with a dangerous extraterrestrial force. The alien itself has no physical form which is a new touch at least for the movie era and consists mainly of electric energy. So in order to survive on the ship it needs to live inside electric devices or create hybrid humanoids with the flesh from the crew. The movie has some gory scenes but it can't be classified as true horror genre since the alien takes the form of robots meaning it bares more resemblance to an action movie like terminator rather than alien. Jamie Lee Curtis plays the role of the good protagonist while William Baldwin does a mediocre job as the hero who tries to save the girl from harm. Once again Donald Sutherland steals the show as a washed up captain who sees an opportunity to make a fortune while your typical black guy in a horror movie, Richie played by Sherman Augustus is the smartest and funniest character by far. Virus doesn't deserve all the bad reputation it has gotten over the years but make no mistake it is not gold stuff also. Some characters exist just to die easily with no background story making us not care at all. One thing that bugged me is that one character's decision near the end of the film makes no sense at all. I must say the special effects of the humanoid- robots get the job done and are surprisingly good for a 1995 movie. Overall virus won't bore you or leave you unsatisfied. It has a semi-decent plot for a horror movie and it's the closer you can to a good alien movie on a ship. It has its flaws but It makes for an easy watch if you are bored or have some time to waste.
"The Terminator" meets "The Predator" and "Alien", and what we get is this routine but moderately effective horror thriller, which isn't quite as bad as its reputation might lead you to believe. Sure, it lacks substance and (except for a few details)originality, but the energetic direction, the fast pacing and some impressively filmed explosions keep it painless. Effects aren't particularly outstanding, though.
Did you know
- TriviaBecause the ship had been mothballed in the James River Reserve Fleet (on the border of Isle of Wight County and the city of Newport News), it was covered in rust and in disrepair when the filming started. One side of the ship was painted and dressed up for the movie, leaving the other half in poor condition. Hence, only one side of the ship was ever filmed on camera for the movie.
- GoofsThe tug shown is one that would be used in a harbor or perhaps for short-distance towing, not in the open ocean. Furthermore, the short-chain method shown is not suitable for ocean towing. It would have snapped in any decent roller, and would not have lasted for more than a few minutes in the storm shown.
- Quotes
Goliath Machine: You are virus!
- Alternate versionsThe DVD contains three deleted scenes:
- a discussion between Foster and Richie, in which Richie says he doesn't like Foster aboard a ship, which is followed by a discussion of Hiko's tattoos. Then Hiko tells Baker about his ancestors and his greatest fear.
- an extended version of the scene where Foster and Baker flee using the rocket motors.
- the original entrance of Everton into the Antenna Control room, which was changed in the theatrical release because the studio felt that adding computer generated robotic legs would cost too much and because the test audiences didn't like the line "It's me: Bob."
- ConnectionsEdited into The Thing Below (2004)
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Vi-rút không gian
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $75,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $14,036,005
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $6,013,640
- Jan 18, 1999
- Gross worldwide
- $30,657,854
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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