All all-star cast ensure a convincing delivery of this medical disaster film. The suspense is gradually and effectively set-up as we learn more about the virus and its effects. For a short while, the film takes a comical dip somewhere around the middle of the film, but then builds again for an exciting climax. (The failed marriage saved by a disaster cliche is unfortunately present, as well.)

Hollywood does have issues about making films like "Outbreak". While the opening scenes to establish the premise are generally good, sometimes endings become a bit too predictable where the heroes put the baddies in their place. A few moments in the last third of the film also become a bit unbelievable especially in terms of how information is tracked and interpreted by the US government. Still overall, I would still rank it as one of the better films of its type.In the late 1960's, an outbreak of a terrible virus which turns innards into cream of wheat infects native villagers along with some American soldiers in Zaire, currently the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the middle of Africa. American officials who work for the Center for Disease Control assess the situation. One of the voices in the suits is Donald Sutherland, playing Major General Donald "Donnie" McClintock. To contain the village and prevent further spread, the US government deploys an extreme method to suppress the virus.Fast-forward to the mid-1990's. Again in Zaire, another village has also been wiped out by a virus, strangely similar to the one 30 years earlier. Colonel Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman), Lieutenant Colonel Casey Schuler (Kevin Spacey) and Major Salt (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) investigate what General McClintock saw there decades ago. There are no survivors except some children. During the investigation, Salt practically loses his lunch. After they leave, a small monkey is shown being captured by a trapper on the outskirts of the village. It looks like either a rhesus Old World monkey or a white-headed capuchin, a New World monkey. Neither are indigenous to Africa, but we run with it. (Rhesus monkeys reside in Asia, and white-headed capuchins reside in Central and South America.)Back in the good old US, we had learned in an earlier somewhat melodramatic scene that Daniels had been married to one of his colleagues at the Center for Disease Control, Roberta "Robby" Keough (Rene Russo), before the recent misadventure in the Congo. Daniels desires to further investigate the virus, which appears to be unknown. However, he is stopped by his supervisor Brigadier General Billy Ford (Morgan Freeman) seemingly for illogical reasons. Turns out, Ford and McClintock made a pact to keep the knowledge about the virus and the government's "solution" a secret since the 1960's. Daniels looking into the matter might blow their cover.On another front, the monkey ends up in a facility in San Jose, CA, via an international trading ship. A young man "Jimbo" (Patrick Dempsey) bribes some security guards to take the monkey to a pet shop. He delivers the goods, but the shop owner is disappointed: he needed a male, not a female. Jimbo decides to let the monkey go in the redwoods somewhere between San Jose and San Francisco. He then flies back to Boston, and on the flight he becomes ill and nearly infects a younger passenger. In less than two days, Jimbo, his girlfriend, the pet shop owner and members of the town of Cedar Creek, CA, are infected with the virus.Robby learns of the epidemic and quickly flies from D.C. to Boston to examine the victims. It rings strangely of the virus Daniels had been researching. A growing epidemic is occurring in the small California town, apparently a carrier had infected people at the local movie theatre. Now the epidemic is growing, and the government quarantines the whole town. All the while, Ford and McClintock are trying to engage in damage control to prevent the others higher-ups in the US government, and ultimately the press and the public from finding out about what happened in Zaire in the 1960's.The strongest elements of the film are the behind-the-politics about the decision-making concerning the response to the virus. This aspect carries much of the film and makes it more interesting than a straight action-disaster film, somewhat similar to Jaws in which the mayor continually fights the head of police concerning the appropriate response. The ending was a little bit weak in terms of how the good guys finally stop the baddies, meaning the people, not the virus. I think I would have liked to have seen more of a conclusion about the original events in the 1960's as a way to wrap up the story.Generally, a good popcorn film. Kevin Spacey, as usual, delivers a fantastic performance as one of the researchers in the Center for Disease Control. Dustin Hoffman is good as the intelligent but somewhat hot-headed higher-up researcher as is Russo's performance as the more level-headed of the two. We get pieces of their backstory which sort of works. Freeman and Sutherland deliver strong supporting performances as the behind-the-scenes amoral officers bent on keeping the full truth under wraps. Maybe a one-watch, but considering how many marginal films are made every year, it's a decent one-watch.

An Ebola-like but (naturally) even more lethal virus nearly wipes out an American town (with the help of the army), but Dustin Hoffman grabs the monkey (the primary host of the virus) by the neck and produces a life-saving anti-serum in no time, saving the world and his marriage, as well (thanks to the fact that his soon-to-be ex agonises a little more patiently than the others).It sounds pretty dumb, but thanks to the decent script, the fine actors (you can rarely go wrong with Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman), the good pacing and the simple, but effective direction, Outbreak is actually a satisfying thriller that remains semi-plausible throughout and never gets boring. That's saying a lot, because most films in the genre are unable to keep up the tension and lack even a dash of realism. Outbreak does grab your attention, outlines a realistic scenario, and keeps you on the edge of your seat till the end.Unfortunately, the last third of the film is drenched in the usual clichés — world-saving hero vs. pigheaded, war-obsessed military commander, deus ex machina supplied in abundance, mandatory happy ending, etc. —, but the competent execution ensures solid entertainment for the whole two hours. And with the climate change and the terrifying prospect of deadly diseases spreading to territories previously considered 'safe', the topic remains as relevant as ever.

so we have a film that the virus is the star but the cast is superb carrying a deadly virus that had no known cure so deadly that it causes severe bleeding and liquefies internal organs, killing within 3 days. with The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey' and Cuba Gooding Jr.. so in 60s in Zaire In a valley called motaba valley where a river was there were little monkeysThe virus kills everyone wipes out Motaba River Valley so with the army dropping a Hugh fireball bomb in order to get rid of the..Extreme measures are necessary to contain an epidemic of a deadly airborne virus. But how extreme, exactly? so in order to study the virus we in a laboratory in fort detrick study all disease where see .27 years later, there is another outbreak in Zaire in 1994, there is another outbreak in Motaba River Valley. At the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), located at Fort Detrick in Maryland,.Dustin Hoffman plays a feisty virologist Colonel Sam Daniels is doing research on the Motaba virus, and so is his ex-wife Roberta Keough, who works at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. A monkey carrying the Motaba virus stows away on a boat illegal carried for a pet shop owner jumbo played by a young Patrick Dempsey gets sick from being in contact with the monkey and because it airborne the the virus spread rapidly so when doctors don't know whats going the call every one Rene Russo plays acharacter called Robby Keough as love interest to Hoffman's character she study all these diseases she is given a good script a another young cast member Kevin Spacy is brilliant is a doctor with a wicked sense of humour but the two main characters who have their finger on the trigger literally they play off each other Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland seem to be having fun with the material and things they are the good and the bad but the two Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland seem to be having fun with the material and things get interested when they clash at the end. The film,is thrilling (e.g a spectacular helicopter chase and an attempt to break out of the quarantined town in California two generals there's going to be conflicts as when one finds away to help people they clash as when Cuba gooding character major salt helps out with Sam's ideas they have to evade every one and anyone to get what they want including get in the way of direct orders gets on board with and get interested when they clash at the end. But overall this film is brilliant, I strongly advise everyone tries to watch this. it isn't everyone's cup of tea but is still a brilliant edge of the seat