Outbreak

Casey Schuler:
I hate this bug.

Colonel Sam Daniels:
Oh, come on, Casey. You have to admire its simplicity. It's one billionth our size and it's beating us.

Casey Schuler:
So, what do you want to do, take it to dinner?

Colonel Sam Daniels:
No.

Casey Schuler:
What, then?

Colonel Sam Daniels:
Kill it.

Casey Schuler:
How many brain cells did I kill?

Sam Daniels:
How many? About a billion.

Casey Schuler:
Oh, now I'm only as smart as you.

Sam Daniels:
What can we give him to kill his sense of humor?

Mrs. Pananides:
I have a friend in the Coast Guard, all I have to do is call...

Daniels:
How close a friend?

Mrs. Pananides:
Closer than his wife would like.

Sam Daniels:
If you think I'm lying, drop the bomb. If you think I'm crazy, drop the bomb. But don't drop the bomb just because you're following orders!

Colonel Sam Daniels:
Sir, what did I ever do to make your life miserable?

General Billy Ford:
You got up this morning, didn't you?

Col. Sam Daniels:
Just don't get negative on me.

Major Salt:
Affirmative.

Sergent Meyer:
Sir, my pilot is taking a leak.

Col. Sam Daniels:
A leak? No sh*t!

Colonel Sam Daniels:
You know Salt, fear gets a bad rap. I don't want anybody in my outfit that doesn't get scared.

Major Salt:
Then I'm your man sir.

Colonel Sam Daniels:
Anything I can do to help?

Major Salt:
Just don't make me nervous.

General McClintock:
With all due respect, Colonel Daniels, if you do not follow us to Travis Air Force Base, I will blow you out of the sky.

Daniels:
General, with all due respect, f*** you, sir.

Colonel Sam Daniels:
George, you've heard about this virus?... Shall I cough on you, George?

Colonel Sam Daniels:
We are fugitives of the law. Idiocy is our only option.

Major Salt:
Yes... Major?

Sam Daniels:
Why don't you just for once take a chance?

Sam Daniels:
What're you gonna be doing at CDC?

Robby Keough:
Working BL-4. Same as you.

Sam:
My job.

Robby:
Well, I like to think of it as my job.

[Sam tries unsuccessfully to get Robby to issue a CDC alert.]

Sam Daniels:
Once in your life, take a chance!

Robby Keough:
You know what, Sam? I did. I married you.

[Airport dispatch Sergeant Wolf tries to call General Ford to confirm Daniels' change to Cedar Creek.]

Sam Daniels:
You call the tower right now, and you tell 'em to change my flight plans. Put your finger on the phone! Put your finger on the phone.

Sgt. Wolf:
This could mean my stripes, sir.

Sam:
It'll mean your ass if you don't put your finger on the phone. Finger the phone. Finger it.

[Daniels and Salt barge through a crowded line at a Federal export clearance office.]

Sam Daniels:
Colonel Daniels, from USAMRIID. I'm sorry.

George:
Yes, and I'm George from Sioux City, Iowa. Back of the line, Colonel.

Sam:
We got a terrible epidemic. We're from Cedar Creek, George. [to the crowd] We're from Cedar Creek, California!

Major Salt:
CEDAR CREEK, CENTER OF THE VIRAL INFECTION!!! [people stand back]

Sam:
[looks worried] George, you heard about this virus — need we say more? Okay, we need all the bills of lading from ships arriving from Africa [clasps George's hands] in the last three months. George!

George:
[nervously] Uh-huh… huh?

Sam:
Shall I cough on you, George?

[Colonel Briggs hands General McClintock an address.]

Col. Briggs:
They're headed right there, and I got two teams on standby.

Gen. Donald McClintock:
Good, Briggs — a potential screw-up you managed to avoid among many others you have not. Who do you think should handle this now?

Briggs:
You, sir?

McClintock:
You kiss ass with the best of them, Briggs. You hope to make general one day?

Briggs:
Yes, sir.

McClintock:
Well, you won't.

[The USAF plane tasked to bomb Cedar Creek has sent the bomb over the water. General McClintock wants to have the plane rearmed]

Brig. Gen. Billy Ford:
Sandman, this is General Ford. You will ignore that order. For the record, I'm relieving General McClintock of command, for the crime of withholding vital information from the President of the United States.

Maj-Gen. Donald McClintock:
I have never in any way, withheld vital information from the President of the United States.

Ford:
Colonel Briggs.

Colonel Briggs:
Sir.

Ford:
Place General McClintock under arrest.

McClintock:
If I go down for this, Billy, you go down for it.

Ford:
It's out of our hands now.

McClintock:
You silly sentimental son of a b*tch...Nobody puts me under arrest. Nobody. [blocked by a pistol-packing Col. Briggs as he tries to leave the command post] Colonel Briggs. What a wonderful moment this must be for you. [Briggs smiles as he leads him away under armed guard.]

[Sam and Robby talk as she's recovering from the disease.]

Robby Keough:
It's a pretty unique experience.

Sam Daniels:
Sorta like living with me.

Robby:
Mm-hmm.

Sam:
Would you go through it again?

Robby:
Maybe. Now that I have the antibodies.

Col. Sam Daniels:
[appeals to the Clean Sweep bomber crew to call off the strike] You hear me, don't you, guys? I'll say it one last time. These people that you're going to bomb are not the enemy. We can kill the virus without killing these people. I swear on my soul that the President does not have the facts. He doesn't know we have a working serum. Oh Christ, if you think I'm lying, drop the bomb. If you think I'm crazy, drop the bomb, but don't drop the bomb just because you're following orders! What you haven't been told is that your superiors have another agenda. Don't you understand that right below you in Cedar Creek, there's a biological weapon that they've been manufacturing illegally for the last 30 years?!? Hey, I guarantee you that the disease has spread beyond the perimeters of this town! If you incinerate Cedar Creek, you incinerate the serum!!!

White House Chief Of Staff:
[addresses Cabinet after General McClintock briefs them on Operation Clean Sweep] Now, as I understand it, you want to firebomb the town of Cedar Creek, California, population 2600, with something called a "fuel-air bomb", the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in our arsenal. [describes with hands] The way it works, it explodes, sucks in all available oxygen to the core, vaporizes everything within a mile of ground zero — men, women, children, and one airborne virus. Destruction complete, case closed, crisis over. [He pulls out a small booklet from his back pocket.] This... Constitution of the United States... [throws on table] I've read it cover to cover. I don't find anything in it about vaporizing 2600 American citizens, but it does say — several times — that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process. So, a couple of things before "Clean Sweep" is even considered: One, unanimous, unwavering support for the president on this one and I mean public, you're gonna stand there shoulder to shoulder with him - he goes down, you go down. And the second thing is, I want an army of experts citing hundreds of thousands of lab experiments, telling any idiot with a camera, that there was no other way! You got that? Hmm? No member of this government is gonna go sneaking off to the Washington Post telling how "they were the sole voice of opposition." If there is a voice of opposition out there, I want him in here now! [Throws a wad of photos on the table.] Those are the citizens of Cedar Creek. Go on, look at them - these are not statistics, ladies and gentlemen - they're flesh and blood, and I want you to burn those into your memories, because those images should haunt us 'til the day we die!

Maj. Salt:
[showing them the progression of the virus on a computer] Okay, sirs, here we go. These pictures were taken over a period of eight hours. Normal, healthy kidney cells before they met the virus. In the space of an hour, a single virus has invaded, multiplied and killed the cell. And in just two hours, its offspring have invaded cells here, and here. Continually multiplying.

Casey Schuler:
Jesus Christ, five hours? It infects the cell, replicates, and kills this fast? These numbers can't be right Ebola takes days to do this damage.

Maj. Salt:
Sirs, the numbers are correct. I wish to God they weren't. One goes in, millions come out. Every cell is dead. Now we see them individually, searching for the next victim until there's nothing left to kill.

Casey Schuler:
Mark this day, Salt. We could spend our whole careers waiting to see a new virus.

[Salt zooms in some more]

Maj. Salt:
Sirs, Mr. Motaba, up close and personal.

Casey Schuler:
I hate this bug.

Sam Daniels:
Come on, Casey. You have to love its simplicity. It's one-billionth our size and it's beating us.

Casey:
So, what do you wanna do — take it to dinner?

Sam:
No.

Casey:
What, then?

Sam:
Kill it.

Sam Daniels:
Sir, I sent you the fax six hours ago...

Brig. Gen. Billy Ford:
Sam, I am not going to issue an alert.

Sam:
I don't wanna bust up your party, sir, but you gotta issue an alert.

Ford:
You said it was contained!

Sam:
I said containment was probable. You should be monitoring the airports, you gotta...

Ford:
Sam! Do you remember 1989?

Sam:
Yeah.

Ford:
You found two lousy cases of Congo fever in Nairobi and we put a note to every American kid's lunchbox. You remember that?

Sam:
Yeah, I was wrong.

Ford:
You were wrong.

Sam:
Uh-huh.

Ford:
What about 1992? Lassa fever?

Sam:
I was wrong. Yup.

Ford:
Wrong again. But you're right about this?

Sam:
No, I could be wrong...

Ford:
Yet you waltz into my party smelling like dirty socks, snatch me away from Senator Rosales, whom I need not remind you, Sam, is head of the Senate Arms Services subcommittee which is in charge of our f***ing budget.

Sam:
Forget Ebola. Forget Lassa. This bug kills so fast, Billy. You could be dead in...

Ford:
Keep your voice down. Now, that is exactly my point, Sam.

Sam:
What?

Ford:
It is the very lethality of this virus which is working for us here. These unfortunate people don't live long enough to spread the goddamn thing around. So you're right, it is contained.

Sam:
I hope so.