The Satan Bug
Encyclopedia
The Satan Bug is a science fiction film
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

 directed by John Sturges
John Sturges
John Eliot Sturges was an American film director. His movies include Bad Day at Black Rock , Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , The Magnificent Seven , The Great Escape and Ice Station Zebra .-Career:He started his career in Hollywood as an editor in 1932...

 that stars George Maharis
George Maharis
George Maharis is an American actor who portrayed Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of the TV series Route 66...

 and Anne Francis
Anne Francis
Anne Lloyd Francis was an American actress, best known for her role in the science fiction film classic Forbidden Planet , and as the female private detective in the television series Honey West . She won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy award for her role in Honey West...

. It was loosely adapted from Alistair MacLean
Alistair MacLean
Alistair Stuart MacLean was a Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillers or adventure stories, the best known of which are perhaps The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare, all three having been made into successful films...

's 1962 novel of the same name. It also features a soundtrack by prolific composer Jerry Goldsmith
Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....

.

Plot summary

Lee Barrett, a former intelligence agent, is asked by his former boss Eric Cavanaugh to investigate the murder of the security chief of Station Three — a top-secret bioweapons laboratory in the California desert — and the disappearance of its director, Dr. Baxter.

As they wait for a time lock on the sealed lab to open, they are advised by another lab scientist, Dr. Gregor Hoffman, to seal the lab using concrete. Hoffman informs them that there are two lethal bioweapons in the lab, a lethal strain of botulinus
Botulism
Botulism also known as botulinus intoxication is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by botulinum toxin which is metabolic waste produced under anaerobic conditions by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and affecting a wide range of mammals, birds and fish...

 that oxidizes eight hours after its release, and a recently developed virus he calls "the Satan Bug", which could kill all life on Earth in a matter of months.

Determined to discover what happened in the room, Barrett enters to discover Dr. Baxter dead and both vials containing the Satan Bug and 1200 grams of botulinus missing.

Barrett drives to a nearby hotel, where he meets Ann, the daughter of General Williams, who has flown in from Washington to supervise the investigation. Barrett's speculation that a lunatic is behind the theft is confirmed by a telegram threatening to release the viruses unless Station Three is destroyed.

Suspecting that the theft was aided by someone on the inside, Barrett discovers another scientist dead. A phone call reveals the name Charles Reynolds Ainsley, a millionaire crackpot who fits the profile and who quickly becomes the focus of the investigation.

After a demonstration incident in Florida proves the thieves' willingness to use the botulinus, General Williams receives a call threatening to release additional toxin in Los Angeles unless Station Three is closed.

Pursuing a report, Barrett and Ann visit the location where a car broke down during the evening of the theft. Barrett deduces that the driver was involved and locates a box containing the missing vials in a nearby stream, only to be confronted by two armed men. Barrett and Ann are taken to Dr. Hoffman, the other conspirator in the theft.

Hoffman decides to take them hostage, but they are followed by security agents. A flask containing the Satan Bug is separated from the others, who realize they are being shadowed by two agents in a car.

After a confrontation in an abandoned gas station, the thugs working with Hoffman decide to lock Barrett and the two agents in a room and shatter one of the vials. Though both agents are killed, Barrett escapes by setting the room afire. He stops a passing car being driven by Hoffman and makes a deal to learn the location of the flask in Los Angeles in return for the closure of Station Three.

Barrett is aware that Hoffman is, in fact, Ainsley himself. They hear a radio announcement announcing the closure of Station Three. Hoffman's associates are killed at a roadblock while trying to escape. Barrett himself confronts Ainsley, who threatens to break the flask containing the Satan Bug, telling Barrett that he waited to steal the virus until the vaccine could be isolated.

Now that vaccine is in his blood, Ainsley is immune. He declares his willingness to destroy the world and live on in it alone rather than give up the power he holds. A helicopter arrives, flown by another of Ainsley's men. They fly above Los Angeles as it is being evacuated.

Barrett fights with the pilot and succeeds in taking the vial from Ainsley, who falls from the helicopter rather than reveal the location of the missing vial, unaware that it had already been located by the authorities and disarmed.

Cast

  • George Maharis
    George Maharis
    George Maharis is an American actor who portrayed Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of the TV series Route 66...

     — Lee Barrett
  • Richard Basehart
    Richard Basehart
    John Richard Basehart was an American actor. He starred in the 1960s television science fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in the role of Admiral Harriman Nelson.-Career:...

     — Dr. Gregor Hoffman / Charles Reynolds Ainsley
  • Anne Francis
    Anne Francis
    Anne Lloyd Francis was an American actress, best known for her role in the science fiction film classic Forbidden Planet , and as the female private detective in the television series Honey West . She won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy award for her role in Honey West...

     — Ann Williams
  • Dana Andrews
    Dana Andrews
    Dana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...

     — General Williams
  • John Larkin
    John Larkin
    John Larkin may refer to:*John Larkin , Belfast-born legal scholar*John Paul Larkin , American jazz musician known as Scatman John...

     — Dr. Leonard Michaelson
  • Richard Bull
    Richard Bull (actor)
    Richard Bull is an American film actor, stage actor and television actor.He is best known for his performance as Nels Oleson, the kindly proprietor of Oleson's Mercantile and the long suffering husband of his wife Harriet on the NBC TV series Little House on the Prairie which aired from 1974 to...

     — Eric Cavanaugh
  • Frank Sutton
    Frank Sutton
    Frank Spencer Sutton was an American actor best remembered for his role of Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter on the CBS television series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.-Early life:...

     — Donald
  • Edward Asner — Veretti
  • Simon Oakland
    Simon Oakland
    Simon Oakland was an American actor of stage, screen, and television.-Early life and career:Oakland was born in Brooklyn, New York City. He began his performing arts career as a musician . He began his acting career in the late 1940s...

     — Tasserly (deputy administrator)
  • John Anderson
    John Anderson (actor)
    -Biography:Born in Clayton, John Anderson grew up in Quincy and Adams County, Illinois.Prior to a prolific acting career, Anderson served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II where he met artist Orazio Fumagalli who became one of his best lifelong friends.He was known for several...

     — Reagan
  • Hari Rhodes
    Hari Rhodes
    Hari Rhodes was an American author and actor whose career spanned three decades beginning around 1960....

     — Johnson
  • Martin Blane — Martin
  • Henry Beckman
    Henry Beckman
    Henry Beckman was a Canadian stage, film and television actor. He appeared in well over 100 productions in the United States and Canada, including recurring roles as Commander Paul Richards in the 1954 Flash Gordon space opera television series, Bob Mulligan in the ABC sitcom I'm Dickens, He's...

     — Dr. Baxter
  • Harry Lauter
    Harry Lauter
    Herman Arthur "Harry" Lauter was an American character actor originally from White Plains, New York....

     — Fake SDI agent
  • James Hong
    James Hong
    James Hong is an American actor and former president of the Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists . A prolific acting veteran, Hong's career spans over 50 years and includes more than 350 roles in film, television, and video games.-Early life:Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His...

     — Dr. Yang
  • James Doohan
    James Doohan
    James Montgomery "Jimmy" Doohan was a Canadian character and voice actor best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek...

    , Harold Gould
    Harold Gould
    Harold V. Goldstein , best known by his stage name Harold Gould, was an American actor best known for playing Martin Morgenstern in the 1970s sitcoms Rhoda and The Mary Tyler Moore Show and as Miles Webber in The Golden Girls...

     and Carey Loftin
    Carey Loftin
    Carey Loftin was an American actor and stuntman. One of his most famous roles was as the truck driver in Steven Spielberg's Duel, although his face was never seen...

     appear uncredited
  • Jerry Goldsmith
    Jerry Goldsmith
    Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....

     — Film score composer

Themes

The movie was among the first espionage films to follow the lead of the wildly popular James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 films that set the tone for action/adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....

s of the 1960s and early 1970s. In contrast with the Bond spy thrillers
Techno-thriller
Techno-thrillers are a hybrid genre, drawing subject matter generally from spy/action thrillers, fantasy/war novels, and science fiction...

, however, The Satan Bug was a serious attempt by director John Sturges
John Sturges
John Eliot Sturges was an American film director. His movies include Bad Day at Black Rock , Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , The Magnificent Seven , The Great Escape and Ice Station Zebra .-Career:He started his career in Hollywood as an editor in 1932...

 to go in a different direction from his previous all-star blockbusters (The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...

, 1960, and The Great Escape
The Great Escape (film)
The Great Escape is a 1963 American film about an escape by Allied prisoners of war from a German POW camp during World War II, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough...

, 1963). Maharis, star of television's Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...

and a product of The Actors' Studio, is an effectively laconic hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...

who uses his brain, not his fists. The Satan Bug is more of a "thinking man's" spy thriller than an action-packed one. It failed at the box office and remains less well known than other genre films from the era.

External links

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