Smallpox 2002: Silent Weapon (2002) (TV)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Daniel Percival

Writers:

Simon Chinn (writer)
Daniel Percival (writer)

Release Date:

2 January 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

It's all true. It just hasn't happened yet.

Plot:

A docu-drama that reports on a (fictitious) attack made by terrorist using the disease of small pox to attack the world...

Plot Keywords:

Disease | New York | Mass Grave | London England | Epidemic

Cast

Brian Cox	...	Narrator (voice)
Bolen High	...	Jack Hill
Leigh Zimmerman	...	Lesley Peters
Tara Hugo	...	Kathleen O'Reilly
Ben Chinn	...	New York Reporter
Sterling K. Brown	...	Carl Jocelyn
Edward Lewin	...	Sam Wiseman
Steven Crossley	...	Richard Benson
John Hug	...	Pierre Lefevre
Nadia Cameron-Blakey	...	Rachel Smits
Sudha Bhuchar	...	Dr. Farah Khanum
John Harding	...	Nigel Woods
Tom Cotcher	...	Chief Supt. Clive McAdams
Rowan Schlosberg	...	John Peters
Margot Knight	...	Nancy Peters

Also Known As:

Secret Futures: Smallpox (UK)
Smallpox (USA)

Runtime:

USA:120 min (including commercials)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:TV-14

Filming Locations:

Geneva, Canton Geneva, Switzerland

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

Three of the people appearing in this film were not actors but were, in fact, individuals who each played significant roles in the recent history of smallpox. Only one of these has his personal history recounted in any great detail, Ken Alibek (formerly Kanatjan Alibekov), who served as deputy director and chief scientist of the Soviet Union's biological warfare program, BioPreparat, from 1987 until 1992, when he left Russia for his native Kazakhstan and ultimately defected to the U.S. Of the other two, Christopher Davis served as part of a team of U.S. and British inspectors that toured the Soviet bioweapons lab at Koltsovo in January 1991. Questioning of Soviet technicians by Davis and one of his British colleagues gave the West their first real inkling (later confirmed after Alibek's defection) that the Soviets were experimenting with live smallpox virus. D.A. Henderson M.D. (full name, Donald Ainslie Henderson) is correctly identified in the special as director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness, a position he took up at the time of the office's creation in November 2001. From 1966 through 1977, he led the World Health Organization's campaign to eradicate smallpox worldwide. For this, he deserves more credit than perhaps anyone else alive for eliminating smallpox as an endemic disease.

Quotes:

Narrator: In 2002, 60 million people worldwide were killed by a disease no one had seen for over 20 years. It was the greatest act of mass murder in history.

Chillingly well made

A docu-drama that reports on a (fictitious) attack made by terrorist using the disease of small pox to attack the world. Starting in New York the attack is ruthlessly carried out by one man travelling around the city infecting people as he goes. Using hindsight and video diaries the film looks back on the global impact of a silent attack that affected the world.

Very much of it's time, this was shown at the same time as anthrax fears swept the US. It was so well made that George Bush reportedly requested a copy from the BBC so he could see it. The film is very professionally made and is terrifying in it's cold reporting. It doesn't sensationalise, it doesn't scare-monger, instead it just looks back at events. The disease is terrifying - it spreads so easily and the manner of death is unpleasant.

The film also tackles the horrors of dealing with the disease and is very real in doing so - for example no country in the world has enough vaccine, so who gets it first? The film interviews people who are experts (actors in some cases) and we find how politicians covered up the lack of vaccine etc to give us a realistic picture. The film also uses video diaries of a UK family who are living with the realities of fearing to leave their house, and being `taken' when it is found that they have been exposed - it doesn't work well as the actors doing it are very soapy, but some bits hit the mark (the reaction of the estate residents when one family gets the disease is realistic).

It may be seen as opportunistic film making, but it is well done for the most part, and uses chilling statistics and facts to make it's case. With lots of white powder showing up in envelopes and the weakness of governments to react to biological warfare of this type, this is even more chilling. Very enjoyable.if that's the right word!