In July of 1967 at the mercenary camp in the Motaba River Valley of Zaire, fighting is continuous and casualties are high. But it’s not the injuries that worry the local medics; it’s the unknown disease that has been spreading throughout the facilities, killing off the soldiers like a wildfire. After a few initial blood samples from the wounded and examinations of corpses, it’s determined that the entire site should be bombed from the air.

In the present day, at the United States Army Medical Research Institute, scientists Colonel Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman), Roberta “Robby” Keough (Rene Russo), and Lieutenant Colonel Casey Schuler (Kevin Spacey) conduct experiments in the maximum security Biosafety Level 4 area, where extreme biohazards like the infectious agents Ebola, Lassa, and the Hanta viruses are stored. When Brigadier General Billy Ford (Morgan Freeman) alerts Sam about a new threat reported in Zaire, his team – minus Robby, who is transferring to the CDC, partly as a way to get away from Sam, her ex-husband – including fresh recruit Major Salt (Cuba Gooding Jr.), is immediately sent in to collect specimens and report on the grisly situation. “Looks like we have a Level 4.”

With a short incubation period, 100% mortality rate, and death occurring in 2-3 days, Sam and his crew have stumbled upon the most terrifying virus of their careers. But they’re hopeful it’s contained, especially with the speed of its lethality. But, thanks to politics, which always interfere with the best courses of action and most practical decisions, things are about to get out of hand. And with director Wolfgang Petersen at the helm, it will be the specifics of red tape, the money involved in precautions, and scientific procedures and routines that are soon dispensed with in favor of a sense of adventure and thrills. Despite tackling a very serious subject – which would become reexamined and reanalyzed with the rise of the 2020 pandemic – this picture opts for exaggerations and coincidences for optimal suspense.

“I hate this bug.” Following along with that blockbuster design, there’s a love story at play, too, since Sam still harbors feelings for Robby. But although it lingers in the background, more dramatic components take center stage, including panicked, convulsing, screaming, crying, cursing patients overloading hospitals as a full-blown outbreak of hemorrhagic fever spreads (amplified further by James Newton Howard’s energetic music). Adding to that are courageous acts of disobeying orders, high-budget sets and props and equipment, and the overenthusiastic portrayal of military interventions and governmental cover-ups. Moral corruption is significant when it comes to bigwigs protecting secrets. Like many movies that involve such crises, human villains tend to be just as prevalent as the external, nonhuman kind.

While “Outbreak” is most invested in pure entertainment (utilizing star power and an extensive supporting cast, computer animation, action sequences, and other big-budget options), it’s nevertheless moderately educational, exhibiting not only the ways in which viruses can spread and mutate, but also the measures taken by authoritative bodies to contain them. Of course, here those measures involve curfews, lockdowns, and quarantines by armed troops, to increase the tension and anxiety (alongside the public distrust that arises from lack of information and cryptic orders, the lead doctors’ frustrations and denials, and outraged officials giving impassioned speeches about the considerable stakes). Biological weapons and national security implications similarly play a role; enemies beyond the virus and forces working against Daniels generate a series of sensational moments, shifting far away from the realism of the introductory premise. Effective humor even weaves its way through the script.

By the end, though the runtime is slightly overlong and the narrative is overly cinematic (full of thriller movie tropes and unlikely odds, like cop cars careening around corners, army vehicles speeding across roads, last-second revelations and confrontations, tearful reunions, and violent showdowns [including protracted aerial combat, no less!], resembling a Michael Crichton approach to pandemics), the intensity and the emotional moments are entirely winning (the cast does an exceptional job). It’s difficult to appreciate the prescience of the film and its unending relevancy, thanks to the theatrics and excitement and nearly laughable finale (full of extreme improbabilities), but it’s still mostly entertaining. “It’s like a war zone out here!”

– Mike Massie