When a satellite crashes near the remote Utah town of Piedmont, it becomes apparent that it may be carrying a deadly virus. All but two of the town's inhabitants, a baby and a Sterno drinker, are dead. Working in a secret government laboratory deep underground, Dr. Jeremy Stone leads a team of scientists who try to identify the virus and develop a means of stopping its spread. Several others, including the military and other senior government officials, have their own agendas however leading to the spread of misinformation about the origin of the virus.

In the source novel by Michael Crichton, the main scientists were mainly white (presumably) heterosexual men, but Robert Schenkkan, who wrote the teleplay for this remake made the decision to change the characters' ethnicities, sexualities, and genders because, he said in a May 2008 interview with Brent Hartinger on afterelton.com, "If you're going to update the story, which is our mandate, you have an obligation to reflect the world as it is." Schenkkan further said that he decided to include the brief reference to Keene (Rick Schroder) being gay because of a principle invented by Crichton in the original novel, the "Odd Man Hypothesis," which states that in a time of crisis, an unmarried, unattached person [Crichton specified a man] with no family to distract him would have the best chance of making rational, unbiased, unemotional decisions.

[first lines]


Jeff Megan:
[to Suzie] That's a lion out there. And a triangle.

Factual errors: When the helicopter with the scientists goes to the secret base, it is visible through the helicopter windows that one of the F-16s escorts them. This is impossible, because the F16 has a stall speed of about 250 mph while that helicopter has a max. speed of only 135mph - a difference greater than 100 mph.