X
- 1995
- R
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 7 m
- 1995
- R
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 7 m
Summary An Army doctor races to find a serum for a deadly virus in order to save a California town and its residents. The military wants to destroy it all to contain the disease. Can it really happen here?
Directed By: Wolfgang Petersen
Written By: Laurence Dworet, Robert Roy Pool
- 1995
- R
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 7 m
- 1995
- R
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 7 m
Outbreak
64
6.6
Where to Watch
Summary An Army doctor races to find a serum for a deadly virus in order to save a California town and its residents. The military wants to destroy it all to contain the disease. Can it really happen here?
Directed By: Wolfgang Petersen
Written By: Laurence Dworet, Robert Roy Pool
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
64
71% Positive
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
24% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
5% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
64
71% Positive
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
24% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
5% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
In the end this is Hoffman's movie, and it's refreshing, finally, to see him not as an oddball or eccentric but as a decent, capable guy who is ultimately a lot more intense than most people.
Outbreak is sharp, sometimes-exploitative entertainment that does its job with great efficiency.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 47 User Ratings
6.6
55% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
38% Mixed
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
6% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 47 User Ratings
6.6
55% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
38% Mixed
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
6% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
A remarkable and strangely forgotten thriller about a virus outbreak in the USA. Years before the main story there is a virus outbreak in a small village in Zaire in Africa. Two US army virologist visit the village and leave after taking blood samples. Shortly after the village is eradicated by an airstrike. After a jump to current time Col. Sam Daniels played by Dustin Hoffman is investigating a virus outbreak in the same region. After he returned to the USA his superior Gen. Billy Ford played by legendary Morgan Freeman quickly delegates him to other tasks while there is an outbreak in the USA of a strange illness. This is just the beginning of an enjoyable and intense story. It is a cat and mouse game on several levels. It has got twists and something like an all-star cast. Lets start with Dustin Hoffman who is a well acclaimed actor and delivers. There is Morgan Freeman and the statement that there is no bad movie with him. I agree and he is as always excellent. Together with Rene Russo, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Spacy, Patrick Dempsey and Cuba Gooding jr there is one of the strongest cast you can imagine. The acting is good and there is no misstep. The acting and story improve each other and go hand in hand. The twist and especially the ending make the film memorable. It is relative scientifically accurate for a Hollywood movie but tropes and action has to be included to be more mainstream or interesting. If you want something really accurate you should watch “The Andromeda Strain from 1971 (Have not seen the newer one). It is scientifically accurate but because of this a contender for boredom for many. What questions me is why this movie is forgotten. Even in my circle of friends that watched it in cinema and thought it was one of the best movies in that year forgot that it existed. It was a financial success as far as I know and many critics praised it. Overall you have and immersive and engaging movie with great actors. Worth rewatching and should be remembered. Remark: The used bomb really exist and is a terrible weapon. It creates an aerosol that is widespread and shortly after ignited. It creates an area of depression as the oxygen is removed (and that damages lungs even outside the explosion area). It is horrible what we humans invented to kill other humans.
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Outbreak is quite simply a film about some virus or contagious disease which originally came from a monkey I think and people are looking for a cure. An airborne killer virus that's spreading faster than butter on a slice of toast with everyone turning up dead or sick. Bombs are dropped on those who are sick, infected or carrying this horrible virus in order to stop the spread of the disease which seems a bit cruel instead of curing them just blow them to bits lol... Outbreak is a disaster, drama type thriller and stars Rene Russo, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland and was made in 1995 which was a fairly decent era for movies since Species and Assassins were dropped in 1995 which I liked because they are good movies. The acting in Outbreak is okay and pretty much all the actors and characters are likeable especially Rene Russo and the films pretty decent and overall entertaining.
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Whether scarily charting the spread of the virus or choreographing a cat-and-mouse chase of choppers above a winding riverbed, Petersen demonstrates a smooth stylistic savvy that keeps the film highly absorbing from beginning to end.
No amount of accomplished acting and directorial skill can conceal the fundamental silliness of Outbreak's storyline, its inconsistencies, and the miraculous coincidences necessitated by its plot. [10 Mar 1995, p.3]
Outbreak is fast on its feet and simple in its head.
There's too much hardware, too little sense. Too much blood, too little flesh. Too much program, too little mind. That's the virus of the contemporary movie techno-thriller.
After a great start, Wolfgang Petersen's intelligent medical thriller is infected by some nasty germs, resulting in the all-too-common Actionitis. [10 Mar 1995]
Is there a movie more fitting now of being revisited. I've always loved outbreak although it's an eco thriller there are so many elements of it that feel like a genre film. In fact it sort of reminds of the blob remake in some ways. Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie), Rene Russo (Thor), Morgan Freeman (Bucket List), Donald Sutherland ( Hunger Games), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) and Patrick Dempsey (Scream 3) head a solid cast as a virus breaks in a small town because of a cute little, smuggled monkey. The army doctors and CDC race against time as the town begins to die out as the government has alternate options. The movie us thrilling, edge of your seat popcorn entertainment. It's fun but easily relatable because of the solid performances and intelligent screenplay. Unlike our current state as of now the film offers a positive solution that we are all hoping for.
Budget: $50m
Domestic Box Office: $68m
Worldwide Box Office: $190m
4.25/5
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Wow, I cannot believe most of the cast in this movie have been cancelled.
Anywhere...'Outbreak' is terrifying, especially right now. I mean, just step outside and you will think you are in a movie. I found it eerie how some scenes echo what is happening right now, such as: Lockdown and people refusing to follow health and safety measures. The performances from the main cast helped sell that sense of fear, even though the movie at times does lean back into Hollywood fluff. If only happy endings do exist.
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Peterson's empty threats fails to scare its characters revolving around it let alone put an entire world on the verge of annihilation.
Outbreak
Peterson's empty threats fails to scare its characters revolving around it let alone put an entire world on the verge of annihilation. Driven with similar concept, years later Soderbergh itself took charge over such a tale and he too failed on delivering this cautionary tale with any whatsoever flow. Ironically, carrying the tracks of the disease they didn't have much of a big challenge to be fluent but what sticks this wheel from spinning are the characters that it was supposed to map out. Whenever dealing with such a script that takes you over different territories, the characters that comes in to pass the torch forward, ought to have an arc or at least have the potential to leave an impression, but this seems a far fetched concept in here.
Amidst all these disappointments, surprisingly its middle act is a nail biting enthralling drama, from flipping the courts to close calls and from unexpected revelations to an exhilarating chase sequences. And before you know it, that stage is overridden by spoiled dull thrills that are taken for granted along with numb emotions that clearly doesn't go as anticipated. Hoffman as the savior that cracks every pattern and codes is convincing along with Spacey as surprisingly a positive character that still is somehow difficult to digest.
Freeman and Sutherland as the powerful selfish antagonist are your stereotypical one dimensional character alongwith Russo as a sort of love interest. But Cuba is the one that stands alone among all that cries, laughs, fears and rage of his in this crisis. His moving character and his impressive brotherhood equation with Hoffman is both heartwarming and charming. Outbreak, if anything, is a threat to the makers on their investment, to the actors on their talent that goes waste by, and audience that just can't spare the time for its mediocrity.
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Unrealistic, unreliable, but entertaining the audience.
Made in 1995, this movie still seems very current. The issue is the ever-present danger **** pandemic. In this case, the script brings to the womb of rural America a new African disease, through a single infected monkey. Of course, the military is called and, as often happens in crisis scenarios in American cinema (eg, "The Siege"), turn out to be the real villains of the film, with more than half of the plot around the attempts to prevent the military from doing more harm than good.
I think I could rate this film in the field of so-called "disaster films," even though this disaster was partly caused by humans. The script is good, even though it overdoes the events, paint the characters in "good" and "bad" in an absolutely artificial way and make the facts unbelievable and not very plausible. Much of the outcome of the film (which I will not disclose) is pure luck to the main character. He was so lucky that he would be able to find a tiny needle in a haystack the size of New York if need be. For those who need some realism and credibility to like a movie, this can be a problem.
Dustin Hoffman is a good actor, but I think he allowed too much that his character emptied of all the personality that could have had. He is a paper, artificial and cliché hero. And that could be said of all the characters in the cast. The poverty of the script, poorly thought out and built too imaginatively, is clearly reflected in the poor construction of the characters, something that even the best and most talented actor could not remedy. Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr., Donald Sutherland (in yet another military villain character) ... good actors with little or no material to work with.
Basically, this movie is a disastrous disaster film. It could be much better with a more judicious and more realistic script, with well thought out characters, with higher doses of reality. This did not happen, but it does not, however, prevent this film from being interesting, especially from the point of view of pure entertainment. It's a movie that entertains if you do not think too much and simply get carried away.
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Production Company
Warner Bros.,
Arnold Kopelson Productions,
Punch Productions,
Kopelson Entertainment
Release Date Mar 10, 1995
Duration 2 h 7 m
Rating R
Tagline Try to remain calm.
Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Society of Texas Film Critics Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
