This movie proved to be a surprisingly effective disaster film, centering on Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of a military doctor investigating the origin of a dangerous virus threatening to wipe out life in the United States within days. Hoffman must persuade both Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland – his superiors – that he's capable, navigating several misleading clues before focusing on an African monkey which might …

This movie generates more anxiety than most horror films—and it’s incredibly tense. When a lethal, untreatable virus from Africa arrives in a Northern California coastal community with a monkey, the military intervenes to impose a quarantine. While Dustin Hoffman works to develop an antidote, the two generals overseeing the containment inexplicably choose to destroy the town entirely. Will Hoffman be able to disco…