movie review of outbreak

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Common Sense Media Review

'90s medical disaster movie has violence, peril, language.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Outbreak is a 1995 feature about a fictional American government's response to a lethal pandemic, which includes the possibility of bombing a California town where most of the residents have become ill. Kids may be frightened by the graphic depiction of the disease, a hemorrhagic…

Why Age 15+?

A village is bombed, supposedly to eradicate a deadly virus, but it later turns

"F--k," "s--t," "bastard," and "bitch."

Doctors search for the cure for a deadly virus.

Any Positive Content?

The federal government should be candid with citizens when a pandemic hits. Wide

An army doctor who refuses to play by the rules saves the day by disobeying orde

Parents need to know that Outbreak is a 1995 feature about a fictional American government's response to a lethal pandemic, which includes the possibility of bombing a California town where most of the residents have become ill. Kids may be frightened by the graphic depiction of the disease, a hemorrhagic fever that causes bleeding from ears, nose, mouth, and eyes. Army infectious disease doctors try to save victims but are stonewalled by a government cover-up. Dead bodies are seen. The army shoots at escaping civilians. A monkey is shot with a tranquilizer. A bomb is dropped into the ocean. A man gets a rip in his hazmat suit and contracts a disease. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," and "bitch."

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Violence & Scariness

A village is bombed, supposedly to eradicate a deadly virus, but it later turns out there are other reasons for the attack. People stricken by a terrible disease are seen shaking and moaning with blood seeping out of their ears, eyes, noses, and mouths. Someone describes a victim's organs as "liquefied." Dead bodies are seen. The army shoots at escaping civilians. A monkey is shot with a tranquilizer. A bomb is dropped into the ocean. A man gets a rip in his hazmat suit and contracts a disease.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The federal government should be candid with citizens when a pandemic hits. Widespread illness can cause panic.

Positive Role Models

An army doctor who refuses to play by the rules saves the day by disobeying orders.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (1)
• Kids say (8)

Based on 1 parent review

What's the Story?

OUTBREAK begins in Zaire, 1967, where a deadly hemorrhagic virus is killing both American army soldiers and mercenaries. After taking a blood sample from a dying patient, an army doctor leaves the outpost and orders the place bombed, wiping out all the people, and virus, he's left behind. Cut to "the present," 1995. A lab monkey, infected with a new strain, is stolen and released into the California woods, but not before biting several people. The disease runs rampant through a small town, where the army imposes a strict lockdown and prepares to bomb it, too. Enter Colonel Daniels ( Dustin Hoffman ), an army infectious disease specialist who has never seen anything this lethal or this easily spread. His ex-wife Robby ( Rene Russo ) does the same job for the federal Centers for Disease Control and they meet in California, where they learn the reason the government hasn't done enough to contain the virus. Daniels must heroically act to prevent the town from being bombed by the army.

Is It Any Good?

This is a Hollywood cliché of a disaster movie, trying to tackle an "important" issue but using the language of overwrought, stiff 1930s dramas. A guy in a hazmat suit comes rushing in and dramatically declares, "Doctor, I think you're going to want to see this." Another chides his superior for not doing enough to help with the outbreak, citing "the sacred oath" they took as doctors. Beyond that, even to a layman, some of the science seems a little shaky. For more than two hours we are persuaded that simply finding the "host," a monkey that all by itself, probably -- who knows -- passed the virus to humans, will magically enable a bunch of doctors in a remote little town to then immediately whip up an antidote and also cook enough gallons of that serum to cure a town full of 2,600 victims.

Some of this may sound familiar in the time of the coronavirus, as Outbreak describes a spreading pathogen causing flu-like symptoms, but this one has a 100% mortality rate. For kids worried about the current public health situation, this movie might pose an opportunity to discuss real and imagined threats.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what responsibilities health officials have to be honest with the public about a health hazard. What can be learned from Outbreak about current public health safety issues?

The movie came out in 1995 and promotes a skeptical view regarding government truth-telling when it comes to public safety threats. How is this message still relevant?

What parts of this movie seem believable and what parts don't?

How does this compare to other disaster movies you've seen?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 10, 1995
• On DVD or streaming : September 8, 2009
• Cast : Dustin Hoffman , Rene Russo , Morgan Freeman , Donald Sutherland , Cuba Gooding Jr. , Kevin Spacey
• Director : Wolfgang Petersen
• Inclusion Information : Black actors, Gay actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 131 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• Award : NAACP Image Award - NAACP Image Award Nominee
• Last updated : September 25, 2024

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‘outbreak’: thr’s 1995 review.

On March 10, 1995, Warner Bros. unveiled Wolfgang Petersen's drama in theaters nationwide.

By Duane Byrge

Duane Byrge

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On March 10, 1995, Warner Bros. unveiled Wolfgang Petersen’s Outbreak in theaters nationwide. The drama would go on to gross $189 million globally by the end of its theatrical run. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below. 

Dustin Hoffman stars as an Army doctor who must thwart a deadly virus that has infested a small California town before the virulent organism destroys the entire country. Expertly propelled and invigorated by director Wolfgang Petersen, Outbreak will break out big for Warner Bros. and then spread rapidly, aided by infectious word-of-mouth, raging into a hit-sized organism. Ultimately, this well-produced thriller will regenerate and thrive on the video circuit.

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Equal strains of thriller, mystery and personal drama, Outbreak centers around an infectious disease that has entered a small town in Northern California through an African monkey. Ferociously virulent, the virus destroys the body’s major organ cells at a stormtrooper’s pace, killing its victims within hours of infestation. It’s a strain that has been seen before, in an African village in the late ’60s, where it was “contained” by a fire-bomb destruction of the village by U.S. military.

In this plausible, terrifying scenario, it’s a race against time as top Army doctor and virology expert, Dr. Sam Daniels (Hoffman), struggles to find the key antidote to thwart the plague-like virus. More chilling, Daniels has other demons to battle, the hidden agenda of the armed services who want to “protect” the secrecy of the virus because it is, in fact, one of their weapons of biological warfare, as well as his own personal demons, namely the disintegration of his marriage to a fellow virologist (Rene Russo).

Admittedly, this packed scenario sometimes strains against itself, but, overall, the screenwriters (Laurence Dworet, Robert Roy Pool) have synthesized the all-important personal dimension out of the furor of this large, catastrophic story. Further, Petersen’s vigilant, enlivening direction never allows the story’s death-of-mankind topic to undermine its personal powers, deftly mixing in humor, as well as other tonal lighteners, to nurture it.

A large dose of credit goes to his expert technical team: Outbreak is punctuated and propelled by the editors’ (Neil Travis, Lynzee Klingman, William Hoy) kinetic cutting, and energized by James Newton Howard’s robust music.

As the abrasive but brilliant Dr. Daniels, Hoffman is perfectly cast. An idiosyncratic potion of moxie and vulnerability, Hoffman is warmly credible as an Everyday Man, albeit a brilliant doctor, whose heroism is heightened by his own personal weaknesses. The other players acquit themselves with similar distinction, including Russo as his beleaguered wife-colleague and Morgan Freeman as his pragmatic superior. Donald Sutherland adds slither as a viperous Army general. — Duane Byrge, originally published March 8, 1995. 

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• Cast & crew

User reviews

Fantastic entertainment...

• paul_haakonsen
• Mar 13, 2020

Good Dramatisation of a Very Real Threat

• Jan 26, 2005

Intrigue, action and suspense film about a deadly and rapacious virus spread in the air

• Feb 5, 2012

Well Made Film

• FilmFanInTheHouse
• Oct 11, 2008

imperfect, but entertaining

• Special-K88
• Oct 20, 2002

Okay with a beer and a pizza

• Oct 5, 1999

There always has to be a disease, doesn't there?

• lee_eisenberg
• May 21, 2006

With COVID19 out

• JayPatton88
• Aug 20, 2020

Scary subject matter parlayed as a popcorn thriller

• moonspinner55
• Dec 10, 2006

An under-rated action-packed thriller from start to finish!

• edmundwells
• Mar 7, 2020

Just Too Much Stupidity by People Who Should Know Better

• Jan 4, 2017
• ethan_murdoch
• Apr 24, 2004

If the story had been more believable, this would have been a very good movie

• philip_vanderveken
• Jul 6, 2005

Good first half, then loses its way

• Apr 3, 2015

OK but never gets near its potential because of all its weaknesses

• bob the moo
• Jul 18, 2004

Entertaining but farfetched.

• Feb 3, 2023

It's a fine waste of 2 hours, but it's not a great movie

• JurijFedorov
• Oct 12, 2021

Virus and Secrets

• claudio_carvalho
• Apr 16, 2020

Whoever Decided To Turn This Into An Action Thriller Made The Wrong Choice

• Nov 1, 2012

With a cast this great, it HAS to be good...

• Jan 17, 1999

Overlong, but the entertainment value is solid

• Leofwine_draca
• Sep 29, 2016

This film hits a little harder in 2021

• Sep 8, 2021

Deadly Serious Subject Infected With Hollywooditus

• LeonLouisRicci
• Oct 16, 2013
• Aug 1, 1999

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