The film begins with a quote from Nobel laureate Joshwa Lidberg: "The greatest threat to human domination of the planet is a virus."
This sentence should be more deeply understood by us who are experiencing the new crown epidemic, and after reading this "Extreme Panic" will once again make us feel the horror of the virus.
After the opening of the film, the first thing that catches the audience's eyes is a vibrant Central African tropical rainforest.
Then suddenly it turned to a battle scene.
The human war has destroyed the natural environment and disturbed the animals in the rainforest. The screams of monkeys also add a sense of horror to the film.
I don’t know whether the virus mutated due to the harsh environment of the war, or whether humans infested wild animals and became infected with ancient viruses. In short, continuous wars are often accompanied by the arrival of plagues.
In 1965, the five-year-long Congo war ended, Mobutu won the final victory with the support of the United States, and took control of the Congo (Kinshasa) regime.
In 1967, some white mercenaries who had participated in the Congo War launched a rebellion and an armed conflict broke out with the Mobutu regime. It was during this period that the Motaba virus in "Extreme Panic" was first discovered.
Due to the high pathogenicity of the virus, the U.S. Army Infectious Disease Research Center decided not to treat the patients in the mercenary camp, but to bring back virus samples to develop biochemical weapons and blow up the entire camp to block the news.
After that, from 4 minutes 9 seconds to 7 minutes 5 seconds, the film is a long shot of the US Army Infectious Disease Research Center. This shot shows the BL1, BL2, BL3, and BL4 four-level microbiological laboratories in turn. The protective measures of the laboratory follow. The level is gradually upgraded, so that the audience feels that the danger of the microorganisms studied by each laboratory is also gradually increasing.
The famous Ebola virus belongs to the BL4 level, with a mortality rate of 50% to 90%, and the Motaba virus in this film is more deadly than the Ebola virus.
The Motaba virus reappeared in the film in 1995, when the name of Congo (Kinshasa) was Zaire (1971-1997). The direct cause of this outbreak is the destruction of tropical rain forests by humans, which has infested wild animals living in them, and then infected with viruses carried by wild animals.
The virus has nearly wiped out a small local village.
The protagonist of the film, Colonel Medic Sam (Dustin Hoffman) of the U.S. Army Infectious Disease Research Center, was ordered to lead a team to the Congo to investigate the epidemic.
What is terrifying is that the fatality rate of this virus is almost 100%; but in turn, this virus has a short incubation period, deteriorates rapidly, and cannot be spread through the air.
However, the possibility that the virus will not spread is only out of common sense, and Sam and his boss, General Ford, never dreamed that someone would smuggle wild monkeys carrying the virus from Africa to the United States.
The study found that the virus sample that Sam brought back was the Motaba virus that Ford and his boss, General McClintock, brought back 28 years ago and had been concealing it, so the two decided to transfer Sam away to prevent him from continuing to study the virus.
At the same time, the Motaba virus has crossed the ocean and began to spread silently in the United States.
Gilber, a San Francisco customs officer who was smuggling wild monkeys, was the first to contract the virus, and then he flew to Boston and passed it on to his girlfriend.
Since the motaba virus can only be transmitted through direct contact, and the incubation period is very short, after strict tracking and isolation measures, no new cases have been reported in Boston.
Just as the CDC staff were celebrating the exciting news, there was unfortunate news that a cluster of Motaba virus infections occurred in the town of Cedar Creek in San Francisco.
The chain of transmission is that monkeys smuggled by Gilber infect the virus to Rudy, the pet store owner.
When Henry, the hospital's laboratory technician, was testing Rudy's blood, he contracted the virus by mistake.
Henry then spread the virus to other moviegoers in the movie theater while on a date with his girlfriend.
After that, Sam's investigation found that the virus transmitted by Henry could be transmitted through droplets, which was different from the first discovered Motaba virus, but a new variant of the Motaba virus.
What is even more strange is that Henry died of the new virus, and Rudy died of the old virus. It is impossible for the virus to suddenly mutate so much after one transmission.
The reason can only be that the original carrier of the virus, that is, the monkey itself carries these two viruses.
In order to block the news, Ford took strict military blockade measures on the town of Cedar Creek. The people did not know the truth and panicked, so there were many extreme behaviors trying to break through the blockade and escape.
Faced with an expanding outbreak, Ford finally decided to use antiserum E-1101, an antiserum for the motaba virus that they had been hiding, to treat the patient.
However, it was too late to use antiserum at this time, because most of the patients in Xiangbaixi Town are currently infected with new viruses that can be transmitted through droplets, and E-1101 is ineffective against new viruses.
On the other hand, in order to continue to conceal their biological and chemical weapons, General McClintock gathered a group of experts who listened to his words at a high-level meeting of the government and exaggerated the impact of the Motaba virus on the United States in the next two days. (Actually, the town of Cedar Creek was tightly isolated at this time.)
Under the circumstance of being deceived, the President of the United States issued an order to destroy the entire town of Cedar Creek, and asked government personnel and the media to strictly seal the news.
Due to lack of sleep at work, Sam's colleague Casey made a mistake in the experiment and contracted the virus, which was passed on to Sam's ex-wife Robbie.
It can be seen that the divorce of Sam and Robi should be due to frequent quarrels and disputes, but the two still have feelings for each other, and they both care and care about each other.
In order to save the lives of his wife and the residents of Xiangbaixi Town, the male protagonist must find an antiserum that can treat the new virus before 8 p.m. that day. For this reason, he must first find the original host of the virus.
But the problem is, they don't even know what kind of animal the host is at this time. Therefore, they first drove a helicopter to the ship that smuggled the animal, and finally determined that the host of the virus was such a monkey after seeing the photos on the beds of the smuggling crew.
Sam and his subordinate Soter finally found the monkey by posting a monkey hunt announcement on TV and returned to Cedar Creek Town after getting rid of General McClintock's pursuit.
In order to allow his wife to last until the antiserum was made, Sam took off his protective helmet and let Robi touch his face despite the danger of being infected. And Robbie was so nervous because she was worried about Sam's safety.
After the antiserum was injected, Robi's physical condition gradually improved, but General McClintock brought forward the bombing time, and the entire Cedar Creek Town was in danger of being destroyed.
In the end, Sam defeated General McClintock with his mouth cannon, and influenced the pilots on the bomber with persistence and fearlessness, so that they gave up the bombing mission and dropped the bomb on the sea.
The film ends with a happy ending, as Sam offers Robi an invitation to remarry, and Robi apparently agrees. The two have gone through the test of life and death together, and once again faced the contradictions in life, they were able to handle them better.
"Extreme Panic" reveals the destructive thinking of dealing with problems, which has existed in European and American countries for a long time, but this way of dealing with problems cannot really solve the problem, it will only cause more and bigger problems.
For example, if the movie ended up destroying the town of Cedar Creek just like the mercenary camp was destroyed 28 years ago, then the virus will surely spread among humans again in the future like this comeback in 1995. By then, the virus may mutate more complexly. Human beings lack understanding of the US because of the concealment of information, and it may be more difficult to deal with it at that time.
In the face of the epidemic, what we should do is redemption, not destruction, otherwise, what is the difference between humans and viruses?
Redemption can bring hope; destruction can only cause more disasters.
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