FAQ

In the eye of typhoon Leiah, somewhere in the south Pacific, the crew of the salvage tug Sea Star—Captain Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland), navigator Kit Foster (), chief engineer Steve Baker (William Baldwin), first mate J.W. Woods (Marshall Bell), and deckhands Squeaky (Julio Oscar Mechoso), Richie (Sherman Augustus), and Hiko (Cliff Curtis)—come across an abandoned Russian research vessel, the Akademik Vladislav Volkov. loaded with high-tech electronics. Thinking that they will be able to make 300 million dollars by claiming the derelict, they board it, only to find a sole survivor, chief science officer Nadia Vinogradiya (Joanna Pacula), who babbles about the vessel being taken over by an alien life form. She's not wrong.

The movie is based on a comic book, also named Virus, written by American novelist Chuck Pfarrer, drawn by Canadian aratist Howard Cobb, and first published by Dark Horse in 1995. Pfarrer said in an interview that, when he wrote the original story as a script in the early 1990s, the special effects for a film adaptation wouldn't have been possible, so he sold the script to Dark Horse as a comic. The story was later adapted for the movie by Pfarrer and screenwriter Dennis Feldman.

Just before Richie dies, he informs Steve that he has worked out a way to get off the ship. He instructs Steve to get to the missile room and he'll understand. Meanwhile, Foster and Nadia are confronted by the cyborg, who shows them that he has found the detonator. Saying, "Check mate," he crushes it with his claw. Nadia yells at Foster to get to the main deck and get off the ship so she can tell people what has happened. The cyborg grabs Nadia, so she shoots a flare gun at nearby gas tanks, killing herself. Unfortunately, the cyborg survives and continues to follow Foster. Rushing to get to the main deck, Foster runs into Steve. They shut themselves up in the missile room where Steve sees an ejection seat—but rigged only for one. Steve forces Foster into the seat and orders her to eject, but she refuses to go without him. As the cyborg breaks down the door into the room, Foster grabs Steve, pulls him down on top of her, and ejects them both. As Foster and Steve are shot out over the water, a trailing cable pulls the detonation pins from a pile of thermite grenades, blowing up the ship. The explosion is seen by the coast guard, who send a helicopter to pick them up.