Stazione 3: top secret

Titolo originale: The Satan Bug

1965
Approved
1h 54min

VALUTAZIONE IMDb

6,1/10

3166

LA TUA VALUTAZIONE

A germ that could destroy life on Earth is stolen from a biological warfare lab and the thief threatens to release it into the open, prompting a security officer to act.

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Conspiracy Thriller Dystopian Sci-Fi Heist Psychological Thriller Whodunnit Crime Mystery Sci-Fi Thriller

Aggiungi una trama nella tua linguaA germ that could destroy life on Earth is stolen from a biological warfare lab and the thief threatens to release it into the open, prompting a security officer to act.A germ that could destroy life on Earth is stolen from a biological warfare lab and the thief threatens to release it into the open, prompting a security officer to act.A germ that could destroy life on Earth is stolen from a biological warfare lab and the thief threatens to release it into the open, prompting a security officer to act.

Vedi le informazioni sulla produzione su IMDbPro

VALUTAZIONE IMDb

6,1/10

3166

LA TUA VALUTAZIONE

Vedi le informazioni sulla produzione su IMDbPro

Quiz
Lee Remick: In the scene in the jazz club where Lee Barrett is introduced, the waitress that tells him he has a phone call, in an uncredited role.

Blooper
When Barret first enters the vault, he dials top combination lock. The door has two locks requiring a second combination (held by another person) to open. This is common in high security, i.e. 'No-Lone' zones to prevent one person from accessing the area by themselves.

Citazioni
Dr. Gregor Hoffman: More than forty chemical weapons are being developed at Station 3. I will confine myself to two which we have developed here, at E Lab. The first, botulinus. We have twelve hundred grammes in six flasks. If ten grammes of it were allowed to contaminate a city, that city is a morgue in four hours. It is an ideal weapon, if you will forgive the phrase, because it only destroys people. It oxides itself, and in effect dies after eight hours.
Lee Barrett: Well, then it's safe to go in there. It's been over eight hours since that vault door was closed. And if all twelve hundred grammes of botulinus were spilled, it would still be safe. The closed-air circulation system is still in operation, so it would be oxidised.
Dr. Gregor Hoffman: That is correct, but there is something else in there. It is only three weeks since Dr. Baxter refined it, and only three days since he communicated its existence to anyone.
Gen. Williams: There's something beyond botulinis?
Dr. Gregor Hoffman: Yes, the second weapon. Also a virus, airborne. But self-perpetuating. Indestructible. Once released it will multiply at a power beyond our calculations. It perhaps will never die. To this virus we have given a highly unscientific name, but one which describes it perfectly. "The Satan Bug." If I took the flask which contains it and exposed it to the air, everyone here would be dead in three seconds. California would be a tomb in a few hours. In a week all life, and I mean all life, would cease in the United States. In two months, two months at the most, the trapper from Alaska, the peasant from the Yangtze, the Aborigine from Australia are dead. All dead, because I crushed a flask and exposed a green colored liquid to the air. Nothing, nothing can stop the Satan Bug.
Lee Barrett: What would be the last to go?
Dr. Gregor Hoffman: Perhaps the Great Albatross swinging its way around the bottom of the world. Perhaps an Eskimo deep in the Arctic. But the seas travel the world over, and so do the winds. One day, one day soon, they too would die. The Satan Bug is behind that door! One flask. It has got to be locked up in there, it has got to be! I must make you understand, if botulinus has been spilled then, as Mr. Barrett here says, it does not matter. But by god, if someone were to get in there and the Satan Bug has been spilled and the vault door were opened more than half an inch and left open, then the airlock room is lethal! Open this door for more than five seconds, and everything that I have told you will happen will happen. I beg you sir, seal up the door! You cannot take the risk!

Connessioni
Referenced in The Good Book (1997)

Recensioni degli utenti73

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Recensione in evidenza

7/10

a favorite flawed film

I have watched this film several times, and never find it boring. That this film was not a hit at the time of release, and was not able to make a movie star out of George Maharis, shows that either the studio did not know how to market it at the time, or that a movie, even with all the right ingredients, will not become a hit movie, if people don't go and see it.

I do see some problems with the screenplay however, in that things see to happen in the film, that just pop up from nowhere. A mans car getting stuck that we the audience are not entirely clued in on, two agents just coming on the screen at a particular time, what where the motivations for this to happen is not explained, and a dead body, that without the use of a DVD player or DVR that we can view the movie on Turner Classic Movies, and look back on, might make us wonder who this dead body is.

The Maharis character is the most interesting of the lot, he is a man who is at odds with his government throughout his life, and he is a character in films ahead of his time. We didn't get to see people like this in movies before. He is a man who it is emphasized at the beginning of the film to be a rebel, but knows the difference between wrong and right. When his country needs him as he shows in this film he will be there for the correct cause. His last line in this film, is a telling one, I'm paraphrasing it here, but it goes something like this "Will start over again." This film, makes one ask the question, how could any country sanction a sight that could create something so deadly, and which might, as we learn towards the end, might destroy life on earth? At the same time, while the film I think questions this, it does at least give us some comfort that our government agencies fighting terror might be able to stop it as shown by agents, beside Maharis, as being capable of stopping mad men through their hard work.

A great supporting cast helps the film as well, Richard Basehart is outstanding, and I just realized that Frank Sutton, (Sargent Carter) of GOMER PYLE fame, is one of the villains, and what a different role it is.

John Sturges in his direction, shows a man who knew how to direct an action film, and an entertaining one to boot. The film was also ahead of its time, in warning us that we had more to fear than just a hydrogen bomb, as that fear of the bomb I believe was coming to an end at the time. A flawed, but entertaining film, that still holds up some forty years latter.