I started watching this film the other night but failed to see the ending.  It didn't finish till 2.00 a.m. and I had work the next day.

I want to know what happened in the film.  I saw it as far as them discovering the size of the thing that killed everyone.

Did the baby and the old man survive?

Did the doctor have to use his key to shut down the nuclear self destruct device?

Please let me know anything you can remember about the film

thanks

One of my all time favourite classics.

Yes, the baby survived.  It turns out that it's constant crying was causing it to develop a higher alkalinity level in its blood stream which caused the bacteria to be ineffective.  The old man survived as well because he drank Sterno which had the same effect.

The bacteria attacks organics and it actually started to disolve the rubber gaskets used to keep the rooms airtight.  Of course, the self destruct mechanism activates upon automatic detection.  It's further revealed that the bacteria thrives on energy so if the nuke went off it would spread the bacteria on a massive planetary scale.  Thru a very tense, edge-of-your-seat survival sequence, the doctor managed to (just barely) use his key to deactivate the self-destruct.  Remember all those unfinished terminals?  He got trapped on a floor with them and had to climb up the center ventilation shaft to another level to access a terminal.  Along the way he gets gassed and zapped by lasers.

Despite the age of the movie, I found the story line and basic terminology to be very modern.  Only the props give it a dated look (and even then not as bad as Star Trek does today).

One of the highlights you may have missed was that broad with the glasses has seizures when she sees red blinking lights..  and of course, an instrument with a blinking red light causes her to have one right during a crucial examination of some bacteria samples.  It almost gets them in the end.

It would be interesting to see this movie re-done in a more moern setting but with past experience in redoing movies (ie: Failsafe w/George Clooney) we may be better off to leave well enough alone.  ;)

I thought the "farm" as a cover for the secret base and the quarantine procedures for all the levels very interesting.

As a further spoiler, the germ actually mutates into a benign form, meaning that it's no longer dangerous to humans, and blows out to sea, where it dissipates and causes no further harm.

BTW, Grrrreat movie. One of the few you'll ever see where scientists look like scientists and not like fashion models! It's a very realistic film, based on a Michael Crichton novel.

Thanks for your posts guys.  I was beginning to dispare of ever finding out the ending.

As it happens I spoke to my eldest brother yesterday and he remembered the film so he filled me in on most of the plot.

My brother reckons he saw the film abut 20 years ago but "once seen never forgotten".

This was absolutely the scariest movie I have ever seen in my life. I first saw it when I was 5 and I literally had nightmares for YEARS. Everything about it scared me. Everything. From that day on I couldn't bear the word bacteria, satellites, the name Piedmont, or anything green that looked like that germ pulsating beaneath the microscope, including green gel Airwicks that had little bubbles in them. I am not kidding.  :-[ I used to see that germ multiplying on my walls in the dark. Well...I THOUGHT I did!  ;)

As an adult I can appreciate the filmmaking (ever notice the absence of a soundtrack?) but it still severely creeps me out and disturbs my sleep.

It was filmed in a Texas ghost town called Shafter, and I have always wanted to visit just to see what's left!!

I would hate to see it remade. No doubt it would star Vin Diesel and Will Smith, who would inevitably shout "Let's kick some bacteria a**!", and there would be despicable songs blasted throughout the whole thing. And Cameron Diaz would probably play Dr. Leavitt. Oh wait, no...Halle Berry. Sheesh.  :P