Back in 2020, when the COVID pandemic was still new, everyone was “sheltering in place” and bingeing films and television. Pandemic-related fare proved especially popular, including the 1995 medical disaster-thriller Outbreak, starring Dustin Hoffman. Chalk it up to morbid curiosity, which some researchers have suggested is an evolved response mechanism for dealing with threats by learning from imagined experiences. Outbreak turned 30 this week, making this the perfect time to revisit the film.
(Spoilers for Outbreak abound below.)
Outbreak deals with the re-emergence of a deadly virus called Motaba, 28 years after it first appeared in an African jungle, infecting US soldiers and many others. The US military secretly destroyed the camp to conceal evidence of the virus, a project overseen by Major General Donald McClintock (Donald Sutherland) and Brigadier General William Ford (Morgan Freeman). When it re-emerges in Zaire decades later, a military doctor, Colonel Sam Daniels (Hoffman), takes a team to the afflicted village to investigate, only to find the entire town has died.
Daniels takes blood samples and realizes the villagers had been infected by a deadly new virus. But Ford shrugs off Daniels’ concerns about a potential global spread, not wanting the truth to come out about the bombing of the village nearly 30 years ago. Daniels alerts his estranged ex-wife, Dr. Roberta “Robby” Keough, who works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about the virus, and she, too, is initially concerned.
Meanwhile, a local monkey is captured and brought to the US as an exotic pet. A smuggler named Jimbo (Patrick Dempsey)—who works at an animal testing facility—tries to sell the monkey to a pet shop owner named Rudy (Daniel Chodos) in the fictional town of Cedar Creek, California. The monkey bites Rudy. Unable to sell the monkey, Jimbo lets it loose in the woods and flies home to Boston. Both Jimbo and his girlfriend (who greets him at Logan Airport and passionately kisses a feverish Jimbo right before he collapses) die from the virus.
Warner Bros.
Such an innocent-looking monkey to bring so much death.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Col. Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) and Dr. Robby Keough (Renee Russo) examine an early victim.
Warner Bros.
Such an innocent-looking monkey to bring so much death.
Warner Bros.
Col. Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) and Dr. Robby Keough (Renee Russo) examine an early victim.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Brig. Gen. William Ford (Morgan Freeman) knows more about the virus than he’s letting on.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Major General Donald McClintock (Donald Sutherland) is almost cartoonish in his villainy.
Warner Bros.
Brig. Gen. William Ford (Morgan Freeman) knows more about the virus than he’s letting on.
Warner Bros.
Major General Donald McClintock (Donald Sutherland) is almost cartoonish in his villainy.
Warner Bros.
Naturally Keough hears about the Boston cases and realizes Daniels was right—the new virus has found its way to American soil. Initially she thinks there aren’t any other cases, but then Rudy’s demise comes to light, along with the death of a hospital technician who became infected after accidentally breaking a vial of Rudy’s blood during testing. When the virus strikes down a cinema filled with moviegoers, Daniels and Keough realize the virus has mutated and become airborne.
