But something's terribly wrong. The ship, a Russian science vessel bristling with high-tech radar, electronics, and other wonders, appears to be deserted. Unfortunately for the crew of the Sea Star, nothing could be further from the truth.
Shelter from the storm turns into terror on board as they find themselves stalked by a mutating alien life-form that has traveled across time and space -- an energy force unlike any in the universe.
It is powerful, intelligent, and it has found the perfect planet to inhabit. Now, in order to survive, it must destroy the one threat to its existence -- a virus called man.
This is the premise of the Universal pictures release Virus -- a contemporary techno-thriller starring Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin, and Donald Sutherland, based on an original comics series from Dark Horse.
A terrifying combination of action, suspense, and spectacular visual effects, Virus is "an incredible adventure," according to director John Bruno, who quit his post as visual-effects supervisor on Titanic for this opportunity to direct his first film. For such a visually explosive project as Virus, the choice for director was obvious. Bruno is a six-time Oscar nominee and was named winner of that coveted award for his work on The Abyss. His other projects include work on Terminator 2, True Lies, and Titanic, and he has served as visual effects supervisor on the films Ghostbusters, Poltergeist II, Batman Returns, and Cliffhanger.
Joining Bruno in the production of Virus is film veteran Gale Anne Hurd, whose credits include such groundbreaking special effects epics as Terminator and The Abyss. Hurd claims she "was intrigued by the idea that instead of a `virus' movie being about some terrible, dreadful disease, this one is actually about computers that have been taken over by an alien life-form. I think we as a race -- humankind -- have only the barest inkling of what's out there."
The challenge of filming Virus centered on the wide range of action depicted onscreen. It's a story that begins in space and ends up aboard a ship with various mechanical and biomechanical creatures attempting to kill the crew, with a raging hurricane in the background periodically coming into play.
The scintillating action sequences came together over time using a variety of methods and props, including computer animation and robotics, action sequences recreated in miniature, and stop-motion animation, mixed in with a lot of good old-fashioned Hollywood makeup wizardry. Bruno also painstakingly searched out real ships to use in the filming, and contracted the help of an industrial exhaust fan maker to create the 80-120 mph hurricane-force winds that were needed to realistically film the all-important storm scenes.
Of course, effects alone can't sustain any film, as Bruno points out. "As good as the effects are in this film, the drama has to play well to be believable, and we had Donald Sutherland, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Billy Baldwin working together as a team to make this a believable film."
Virus is the long-awaited film adaptation of Chuck Pfarrer's hit horror comics series of the same name. It's in theaters everywhere now, and its presence requires some sage advice: catch Virus before it catches you.