Adrenalin: Fear the Rush (1996)

The Russian government has collapsed. Amidst the chaos, riots, and struggle for power, a terrible weapon has leaked out. Virulent microflage, a deadly germ of the cold war has begun to ... See full summary »

Director:

Albert Pyun

Writer:

Albert Pyun

Stars:

Christopher Lambert, Natasha Henstridge, Norbert Weisser

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christopher Lambert	...	Lemieux
Natasha Henstridge	...	Delon
Norbert Weisser	...	Cuzo
Elizabeth Barondes	...	Wocek
Xavier Declie	...	Volker
Darrell Davis	...	Suspect (as Craig Davis)
Nicholas Guest	...	Capt. B. Rennard
Andrew Divoff	...	Sterns
Jon H. Epstein	...	General Waxman (as Jon Epstein)
Miriam Zezulkova	...	Additional Cop
Blanka Copikova	...	Additional Cop
Martin Hindy	...	Additional Cop
Jana Lonckova	...	Nurse
Zdenka Gasparovicova	...	Nurse
Maria Mickovicova	...	Nurse

Storyline

The Russian government has collapsed. Amidst the chaos, riots, and struggle for power, a terrible weapon has leaked out. Virulent microflage, a deadly germ of the cold war has begun to spread across Eastern Europe, killing massive numbers of people. Now, in a quarantine camp set up for immigrants in 2017 Boston, one vicious murderer has the disease. Within two hours he will become violently contagious, and it is up to a team of officers in a race against time to track him down and stop him... if he doesn't kill them first.

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Plot Keywords:

chase | biological weapon | epidemic | quarantine | race against time | 

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Taglines:

Four cops. Two hours. One psychopath with a deadly virus.

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Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for gruesome violence and gore, and for strong language

Details

Official Sites:

Miramax

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 November 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Adrenalin

Filming Locations:

Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$37,536, 8 December 1996, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$37,536, 8 December 1996

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmwerks, Largo Entertainment, Toga Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min 94 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Several versions of the film are in distribution. The official US version is 76 minutes long. There is a European/UK (Polygram) version that is 102 minutes long. Director/writer Albert Pyun has said in interviews he intends to restore and release a 110 minutes Director's Cut restoration of the film. This version is set entirely in Romania and has only a minor virus aspect in its plot.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Delon: No one saw it coming. We were all looking out for big things. A nuclear accident, another Chernobyl... As the Russian republic split apart, no one knew who was responsible for what. While they were trying to figure it out, something leaked, something small. It rolled through eastern Europe moving west like a giant wave of death. They called it virulent microphage.
Title Card: Boston 2007 A.D.
Delon: When the United States saw the potential for the disease on its home shores, it put the recent ...

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Alternate Versions

German Video-Version (ratio 4:3) runs much longer than the US-Release (R-Rated) but is finally not uncut. German TV-Version ist also cut but does not contain the same cuts like the Video-Release. The full uncut version was running on Pay-TV in it's original ratio 1:2.35

User Reviews

A career low for Mr. Lambert (gulp)

Chris Lambert, you might think, is always good value for money. Or you might not think that at all. In fact, realistically, you're more likely to think that Natasha Henstridge (her out of Species) is always good value for money. Well, it doesn't matter in this case because you're wrong either way. Stop crying, you fool.

The first thing you'll notice about Adrenalin is that it all appears to have been filmed in a few scabby streets just behind the director's back garden. He probably thinks this looks authentic. It doesn't. It looks tragic. The entire film consists of Chris, 'Tash and a couple of other disposable rentacops legging it from one end of a street to the other and back again, popping into disintegrating buildings here and there along the way so that bits of it can fall on them, and occasionally pausing at either end of the street for a random shoot-out and/or for someone to get eaten by the startlingly unscary maniac they're supposed to be chasing. It must have taken such a great effort on behalf of all involved to keep the production values so consistently low that it somehow seems deserving of applause.

Ms. Henstridge, predictably, has very little to do except look scared, not manage to shoot anything and almost die every so often, while the inestimable Mr. Lambert seems to be here for no other reason than to get shot loads. It speaks volumes that he doesn't even attempt to rescue the film by interjecting his endearing trademark cackle into the dialogue at key moments. Not that he'd get much chance anyway: nobody really says anything but "Yowch, aargh, shoot him, he's eating me, aargh, oh no we're trapped, yowch, shoot him, aargh, my leg's fallen off."

The plot's some tosh about a plague having wiped out most of humanity, again, and towards the end of the film the wonderful scriptwriter comes up with the idea of having some Virus Control people turn up, mumble something about this killer they're chasing actually being the carrier of a new and far more deadly strain, then go away again and leave everyone to carry on getting shot. Everyone, that is, except for the people stuck with the job of writing up the box blurb, who seize this precious jewel of hope from the pigsty of horribleness and nurture it as if it were their own rancid offspring.

Adrenalin, then. It's one of the most boring films I've ever seen, which, for something that bills itself as a sci-fi horror thriller, isn't very good really.