Plague (1978 film)
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Plague is a 1978 science-fiction genre film, depicts a genetic engineering accident, a fertilizing bacterium that escapes from a laboratory in Canada. The films is also known internationally as Induced Syndrome (UK), M-3: The Gemini Strain or Mutation (USA).
[edit] Plot
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The producers, Harmony Ridge Holdings Ltd., have a disclaimer in the beginning, white text on a black background, saying they do not wish to unduly alarm the public, because genetic engineering does hold promise for the human race. Nevertheless, some caution is always important in genetic research.
Dr. Celia Graham (Brenda Donohue) and Dr. Bill Fuller (Daniel Pilon) are genetic engineering scientists at the McNaughton Research Laboratory. They are upset that the potential benefits of genetic engineering are being overlooked, others, such as Dr. Allen Saunders of the Public Health Service (Jonah Royston) are upset that the potential risks are understated.
Dr. Graham is working late in the evening when power is accidentally disrupted by staff who do not know she is still at work. This is dangerous because it compromised the negative air pressure safeguard of the laboratory. She realizes that the bacterium she developed to improve plant growth has accidentally killed the test animals. She immediately informs her colleague, Dr. Fuller, and subsequently dies, dying a horrible, painful death from a massive discharge of acetylcholine, which looks like a severe epileptic seizure. The film repeats her death sequence and this can be confusing for some viewers.
Dr. Fuller advises his wife, Joan (Barbara Gordon) to take their daughter to London at once, but cannot come out and say why. They obey and coincidentally meet Dr. Fuller's colleague Dr. Liebowitz (Joseph Golland), who, as he was leaving the McNaughton lab, did a charitable act of putting a baby bird back in its nest, which the mother bird had built in the air outflow pipe of the laboratory.
It isn't very long before the mother bird dies on a school playground, easily highlighted by a layer of snow underneath. A little girl, Jill (Renata Bosacki), insists that the bird be given a proper burial, which Roger (Trevor Rose) arranges, plus a neat little cross on top. Their teacher, Margo Simar (Céline Lomez) calls them back into class, but it isn't long before Roger dies the same death Dr. Graham had. Margo and her class are taken to the hospital. Margo quickly finds out that she is being quarantined and she does not want to be. More children die as time passes, and one mother hysterically shouts that this is not the flu, this is much worse.
Margo takes a light bulb from a lamp and manages to sweet talk one of the police guarding the ward (John Kerr). Her feminine charm will help her escape more than once, but she quickly brings the pleasantries to an end by smashing the light bulb in the face of the officer, and successfully escaping into the subway. Her hand is also bloody, and she hands the faremaster a bloody Canadian bill. She manages to lose the officers by taking a subway to the next station, getting out, and disappearing into Metro City (Toronto). Later, as the military seals off the hospital, the officer and his partner get the same idea as Margo. They distract the military and try to escape, but as the troops discover the diversion they return and force the police to stop. One shoots at the troops, who return fire, killing both, one of whom falls dead on the horn.
Meanwhile, Dr. Fuller deliberately enters the laboratory where Dr. Graham died, exposing himself. He is trying to find an antidote to the bacterium. Meanwhile, McNaughton's director, Dr. Jessica Morgan (Kate Reid) is with Dr. Saunders trying to treat the epidemic via the Public Health Service.
Joan Fuller and her daughter land in London and arrive at their hotel. Joan cannot reach her husband back at McNaughton and threatens to tell the media if she cannot talk to him. But she has worse problems: Liebowitz brought the bacteria, now named M-3, to London, and infected them.
Margo gets a submarine sandwich, paying with another Canadian bill. The cashier/food handler later dies, too, while taking out the trash, in the same violent, painful manner. She hitchhikes, getting the attention of a man driving a station wagon (Jack Van Evera). They stop for a submarine sandwich. At some point, she is able to distract him with a vague sexual invitation so that he makes the mistake of leaving his keys in the ignition, at which point she steals the car. She manages to elude a police car on a one-lane bridge. Eventually, she learns from the car radio that she has inadvertently been responsible for a significant number of infections and some deaths, and is strenuously urged to surrender to authorities. Instead, she drives off a cliff, and is burned in the wreckage of the car.
Germ samples and experimental drugs are flown by military aircraft, including the Mach 2.5 F-15 Eagle, between the Centers for Disease Control and McNaughton. Dr. Dave McKay from CDC (Michael J. Reynolds) is also helping Dr. Fuller and others fight the infectious agent, as more and more medicines are tried. The infection has entered the United States northeast as well as Canada and Britain. By now, Joan Fuller and her daughter have been quarantined at Knightsbridge Infirmary, and seen one person with the infection die.
The military seals off Metro City: airports, train stations, bus stations, and roads. A convoy of panicked civilians approaches a Canadian Army checkpoint: an officer fires his handgun in the air. One of the civilians fires back, hitting him. The civilians, some with apparent military experience, fight back, hiding behind trees and cars, as the officer is dragged away and the troops also take cover. A helicopter gunship has to be called in to fire missiles on the automobiles, much like the comparable scene in Outbreak (film). Civilians are killed, a spouse is shown rushing to a fallen civilian, and one or more children in one vehicle are dead, either by disease or by the weapons fire.
Dr. Morgan and Dr. Saunders have been subsisting on sub sandwiches and the like prepared by human beings, some of whom became exposed. Dr. Saunders notices he is ill and dying, and tells Dr. Morgan to leave at once. She notes that it is too late for her to leave. Dr. Saunders asks Dr. Fuller how he his doing. Dr. Fuller says not very well, and realizes that Dr. Saunders is dead.
Some time later, it is Dr. Morgan's turn. Dr. Fuller cannot bear to let her die, too. He has been working on a modified version of M-3 called M-4. It seems to work. Dr. McKay begs Dr. Fuller not to use the M-4 on Dr. Morgan, saying that a certain drug may prove successful, and that M-4 has unknown effects on humans. Dr. Fuller leaves the TV set and administers M-4 to Dr. Morgan, saving her life. Before he crashes from exhaustion, he sends samples of M-4 to the CDC.
But Dr. McKay was correct, the medicine worked. Only Dr. Fuller won't know until he wakes up. He sees his colleague Celia Graham and his wife and daughter in his dream, apparently in the hereafter.
When Dr. Fuller awakens from his sleep, he talks with his wife and daughter in London, who are coming home because they have been successfully treated. But not by the M-4, Dr. Morgan tells him. The medicine worked and the samples he sent were destroyed. Three thousand have died. She continues that they are the only people in the world exposed to M-4, and will remain so. They have been quarantined indefinitely inside the McNaughton lab, and as she adds, will probably face charges of criminal negligence if they ever do get out. But Dr. Fuller can take some small comfort in Dr. Graham's beautiful potted plant. The M-3 had been an excellent fertilizer after all.
