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OUTBREAK – James Newton Howard

February 28, 2025 Leave a comment

THROWBACK THIRTY

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

Outbreak is a medical disaster thriller directed by Wolfgang Petersen, inspired by Richard Preston’s 1994 nonfiction book The Hot Zone. The story begins when a highly contagious and lethal virus, named Motaba, is discovered in Zaire in 1967. The U.S. military secretly destroys the infected village to prevent its spread but keeps the virus as a potential bioweapon. Years later, the virus resurfaces when an illegally smuggled monkey carrying Motaba is brought into the United States. The monkey ends up in a small California town, where the virus mutates into an airborne strain, making it even deadlier; the disease spreads rapidly, causing severe hemorrhagic fever and killing its victims within days. U.S. Army virologist Colonel Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) and his team, including his ex-wife Dr. Roberta Keough (Rene Russo), race against time to find a cure. However, their efforts are hindered by General Donald McClintock (Donald Sutherland), who wants to suppress the outbreak to protect the military’s bioweapons program. As the town is placed under martial law and the military considers firebombing it, Daniels and his team try to track down the host monkey and develop a cure just in time to prevent mass destruction. Read more…