- Directed by: Louis Morneau
- Written by: John Logan
- Stars: Lou Diamond Phillips, Dina Meyer, Bob Gunton
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGxn4cLfeM4
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The poster is cool. The science is bad. The movie is pretty good. It’s a genetically-engineered-creature-gone-wrong kind of movie with a big body count. There’s not a lot new here, but it’s got some entertainment value.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open in Gallup, Texas as Quint and Emma, a young couple, drive out to an isolated make-out spot. Quint notices something strange outside the car and investigates. As a train passes by behind them, a giant bat breaks in through the windshield and kills them both. Credits roll.
We cut to Skull Valley, Arizona. Jimmy talks to Dr. Sheila Casper, who’s crawling around in a tight bat-filled cave herself. They’re rudely interrupted by a helicopter containing Dr. Tobe Hodge and Dr. Alexander McCabe. They are needed them for a bat-related “biological emergency.”
The group soon arrives in Texas, where they are met by Sheriff Emmett Kimsey. The three scientists do an autopsy on the young couples’ bodies. They were, in fact, killed by bats, but that’s not normal. There have been some animal deaths, but bats don’t do that. McCabe mentions that these bats are special– two bats escaped from a lab. They need to kill the two bats before they can contaminate others with their unique viruses.
Another body is found, and it was done by way more than two bats. The mayor wants to avoid a panic and insists they all keep it quiet. McCabe explains that the bats are more intelligent and aggressive, and now they’re omnivorous. If these bats infect the general population during a migration, that would be… bad. Dr. Casper says they need to kill all the contaminated bats before this gets any worse.
Casper and Sheriff Kimsey talk about her love for bats. Suddenly, a swarm of CGI bats chases them, and they barely manage to hide in the car. They crawl all over the car, trying to get in; it’s very tense. When Jimmy and the deputy arrive, they get swarmed as well, but then the bats all fly away. All but one, which they put in a cage. They spot McCabe’s original two bats, but they escape as well. They inject the captured bat with a tracker and release it– but then the two leader bats tear it apart.
Dr. Hodge gets the CDC to evacuate the town, and the swarm is slowly migrating in that direction. We cut to the town, where we see people doing normal things. The bats start killing the townspeople, and everyone else comes outside to watch. Among many others, the deputy gets eaten and there are many explosions. Dr. Hodge gets eaten as Casper watches, and then the bats all just fly away.
In the morning, the army arrives as the surviving townspeople are evacuated. The army wants to blow up all the mountains and the town itself, but the Sheriff, Casper, Jimmy, and McCabe want to keep looking for the leader bats and save the town. The sheriff plays opera music as the others move into the town’s school.
Casper wants to crawl into the bat cave and set up equipment that’ll freeze all the bats to death. McCabe overhears the plan and starts getting a sketchy look; he’s gonna do something dumb.
The army locates the bats, who are hiding inside a huge mine. The bats attack kill most the army men. McCabe admits that he designed the bats to be “perfect killing machines” and he’s called them to where the characters are set up. “You let them out of the lab, didn’t you?” Casper accuses. Yep– he’s a mad scientist.
Everyone runs around doing things as the bats attack the school. McCabe runs outside, and his two “babies” tear him apart and then leave. “I guess they got what they came for.”
The sheriff, Casper, and Jimmy show up at the mine in the morning, and everyone’s dead. The soldiers got the whole mine wired with explosives and the refrigeration equipment, and the main characters just have to get it all working before the military bombs the whole place.
Casper and the sheriff go down into the mines wearing armored breathing suits. They soon fall into a waist-high pool of bat crap. Then they find millions of bats in their lair. They figure out how to turn on the cooling system, but then the leader bats wake up and get all menacing. After a crazy battle, they kill one of the leaders and run for the way out of the caves.
Jimmy blows up the cave entrances at the last minute. He calls the army to stop the air attack. The bats in the cave all freeze to death, trapped in their cave. Everyone goes home.
Later that night, we see the other leader bat crawl out of a hole– and get promptly run over by a truck.
Brian’s Commentary
The bats are described as “omnivorous,” but they only seem to go after people. It’s a good thing that a country sheriff, a bat scientist, and her sidekick know all about army explosives and high-tech refrigeration units, huh?
The CGI bats don’t hold up very well, but otherwise, it’s all pretty good. There were only two actual live bats used in the film. The town gets wiped out in the middle of the film, something that usually happens in the finale of these kinds of films.
I saw this when it came out, and I remembered it being better than this.
Kevin’s Commentary
Has Robert Gunton ever played a good guy? Part way through, I said his character wasn’t being enough of a weasel, and sure enough he came through. I hadn’t seen this before, I only hoped it was better than this. It was in the middle of the road all around, but it was more entertaining than not. Like Brian said, the CGI hasn’t held up, but the practical effects are pretty good.