The military attempts to contain a manmade combat virus that causes death and permanent insanity in those infected, as it overtakes a small Pennsylvania town.
A biological weapon gone awry is only the start of problems in the little town of Evan's City, Pennsylvania. Bouts of insanity in the populace are leading to murder and rioting, until the US Army turns up - and things really start going to hell.—David Carroll <[email protected]>
In Evans City, a plane crashes on the hill releasing for six days in the water the bacteriological weapon Trixie that affects only human beings. The army under the command of Colonel Peckemseals seals off the town to contain the virus and there is no antidote for the victims that are doomed to die or become incurably mad. The pregnant nurse Judy, her husband David, their friend Clank, their new acquaintance Artie and his daughter Kathy tries to cross the border of the town, but the escapees are hunted by the army. Meanwhile, the scientist Dr. Ralston Watts researches blood samples trying to find the cure for the disease.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
On the verge of starting their own family, a firefighter and a nurse struggle to survive in a town quarantined by the military following the accidental release of a contagious bioweapon. As Colonel Peckem and the scientist who developed the disease attempt to contain the virus, a violent conflict erupts between the military, the frightened townspeople resisting martial law, and the victims of the pathogen: the crazies.—Molly Rose Steed
Small town residents go berserk after a viral epidemic engulfs them n military law is enabled to control the town's border, place people in quarantine n shoot the 'crazies'. While scientists work hard to learn the pathogen n search for a cure, two ex army men turned fire fighters along with three other civilians fight their way out to obtain the information n evade the quarantine.—[email protected]
One night in the rural town of Evans City, Pennsylvania, dairy farmer Mitchell goes berserk, and after slashing his wife's throat, smashes the furnishings before setting their house on fire, while his two young children watch in terror. The volunteer fire department is called into action, disrupting a sexual tryst between David (W.G. McMillan), a Vietnam veteran who works as the high school coach and volunteer fireman, and his pregnant fiancee, Judy (Lane Carroll).
Judy, who works as a nurse for Dr. Brookmyre (Will Disney), is then summoned to the office by the doctor to help treat the traumatized Mitchell children. When she arrives, she is puzzled to find a man wearing a gas mask administering orders and tending to the children. As the firemen make their way to the Mitchell farm, they are puzzled by the sudden arrival of a platoon of soldiers.
Back at the doctor's office, Major Ryder (Harry Spillman), who is in charge of the soldiers, orders some his men to don protective clothing, then gas masks, then announces that he is instituting an emergency quarantine and sealing off the town. Dr. Brookmyre, concerned about Judy's unborn baby, pulls the nurse aside to explain that a highly contagious virus has attacked the town. After inoculating Judy with an antibiotic to protect her against the virus, the doctor gives her a dose to administer to David, then urges her to slip out of the office, find David and isolate themselves from townspeople who may be carrying the disease.
As the soldiers begin to occupy the town, David, worried about Judy, drives back to town, accompanied by his friend, Clank (Harold Wayne Jones), who is also a war veteran. While Colonel Chris Peckem (Lloyd Holler) is dispatched to Evans City to take command of the situation, Ryder confers on the phone with Brubaker (W.L. Thunhurst Jr.) and other officials at central headquarters in Washington DC. Unknown to the people in Evans City, a plane carrying a biological weapon has crashed over the town days earlier, sending a deadly virus into its water supply. Knowing that the virus will cause either death or insanity, the military plans to drop a nuclear bomb on Evans City as a last resort. Dr. Watts (Richard France), the head of TRIXIE, the team developing the virus, is also dispatched to Evans City. Dr. Watts asserts that the mission has not been carefully considered because a technician should have been sent into the field while the lead scientists remained at headquarters to analyze their findings. In their rush to make decisions without considering their ramifications, Brubaker and the other self-important officials order that martial law be instituted and the population be sequestered at the local high school. Soon after, soldiers in white-colored protective suits break into people's homes, apartments and a nearby motel, pulling frightened children from their beds to deliver them to the high school.
After Peckem arrives in Evans City at the doctor's office, he orders a second perimeter to be set up to prevent anyone from leaving town. When the mayor, who is also a lawyer, threatens to sue Peckem for abrogating civil liberties, Peckem orders the local police disarmed, and when one officer refuses, he is shot dead by the soldiers.
As the disease slowly poisons Evans' population, one farmer resists the quarantine and fires at the soldiers, while his daughter calmly plays the piano and his elderly wife stabs one of the soldiers with her knitting needles.
Meanwhile, Clank, David and Judy have been apprehended by some soldiers and thrown into a van carrying Artie Bolman (Richard Liberty), his daughter Kathy (Lynn Lowry) and Clyde Winston, who is showing signs of insanity. When the van driver slams on his brakes, the prisoners escape and commandeer the vehicle. Winston, however, elects to stay behind, raving madly on the street.
Upon arriving in Evans City, Dr. Watts announces to Peckem and Ryder that there is no antidote for the virus. Peckem blames the doctor for the situation and the doctor, in turn, accuses the major of blundering by forcing him into the field with no equipment.
Meanwhile, Clank, Judy, David, Artie and his daughter seek refuge in an abandoned house for the night. Kathy begins to exhibit signs of dementia.
The next day, as open rebellion spreads throughout the countryside, Peckem orders resistors to be shot and their bodies burned.
Deciding to proceed to the Saunders farm on the outskirts of the perimeter, the five fugitives witness the soldiers gunning down an entire family and setting their bodies on fire as their young son watches. When Kathy begins to giggle at the massacre, Clank suggests leaving the Bolmans behind. Just then, a surveillance helicopter flies overhead, spotting the fugitives. When the helicopter opens fire on them, Clank and David shoot it down.
Waiting until the cover of nightfall, the fugitives make their way to the Saunders house, where after killing the sentries outside, David and Clank enters the house and hold three soldiers hostage demanding to know what is going on. One of the soldiers finally tells David about the quarantine and that the virus makes people go insane and that it is in the town's water supply. But before the soldier can say anything more, one of the other soldiers reaches for his rifle and Clank kills the three soldiers in cold blood. Sickened by Clank's unwarranted violence, David soon realizes that his friend has been contaminated by the disease. David sequesters himself with Judy in an upstairs bedroom of the house where he confides in her about the virus. They hide out in the bedroom all night until morning before they can move out.
By this time as dawn arrives, Artie has also contracted the disease, and believing that Kathy is his late wife, rapes her. Witnessing this, Clank pulls Artie off Kathy, and soon after, Judy finds Artie's body hanging from a rafter above the cellar stairs. Kathy runs outside, and as she chases some sheep, soldiers appear and order to her freeze, but when she keeps advancing toward them, they shoot her.
Judy, David and Clank flee into the woods surrounding the house, but when Clank becomes aware that he is losing his mind, he charges the soldiers, and after running out of bullets is shot in the head by them.
In the lab, meanwhile, Watts analyzes blood samples taken from diseased victims in the hope of developing an antidote. Discovering a potential cure, Watts hurries to see Peckem without going through proper channels. Turned away by the soldiers, who mistake him for the diseased, Watts is herded into the crazed crowd sequestered at the high school. Swept down the stairs in the chaos, the doctor drops the vials of antidote and is knocked unconscious and dies.
As Judy begins acting strangely, David explains to her that they must wait until nightfall to escape and conceals her behind a wall of concrete blocks while he hides in a watch tower. Soon after, several soldiers arrive, and one decides to search the watch tower. Knocking the soldier unconscious, David dons his protective suit and gas mask. When the other soldier discover Judy, David knocks him unconscious. After David frees Judy from her brick hiding place, some townsfolk arrive and, mistaking David for one of the soldiers, fire and hit Judy. David reflexively shoots them all down, sparing just one boy, who calls out, "Coach", revealing that the teen is not infected. Horrified at what he has done, David cradles Judy in his arms, who before dying, tells him she can feel the baby kicking.
Soon after, Colonel Peckem reports to Brubaker that with over 1,500 people dead and the rest insane (including the Mayor, Dr. Brookmyer and many others), the situation is now under control. To Peckem's dismay, Brubaker informs the exhausted, disillusioned colonel that the disease has spread to Louisville, Kentucky, and that he is being dispatched there to deal with the situation. As Peckem is about to leave, David, the only person who is immune to the disease, and whose blood could provide an antidote, is brought in by the soldiers, who refuse to administer an immunity test to him. David does not inform the soldiers of his immunity.
The final scene shows a disconcerted Colonel Peckem boarding a helicopter to Louisville, leaving behind a town in chaos with no end in sight.
