Enredo

Based on the eponymous international bestseller by Richard Preston, The Hot Zone recounts the terrifying true story of the origins of the Ebola virus, a highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest and its first arrival on U.S. soil. In 1989, when this killer suddenly appears in monkeys (Cynomolgus or crab eating macaques) in a scientific lab in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. -- a stone's throw away from the White House -- there is no known cure. A heroic U.S. Army veterinarian, working with a secret military SWAT team, puts herself in mortal peril when she tries to head off the outbreak before it spreads to the human population. The Hot Zone is a dramatic, hair-raising account of a rare and lethal virus and its impact on the human race.

Nancy Jaax and her husband, Jerry, are U.S. Army colonels and veterinarians who work at a facility that collects diseases--including some of the worst--from around the world. One day, Nancy discovers a virus that her colleagues think might be deadly to monkeys but not to humans. Nancy is not so sure about that. She and her husband host Thanksgiving dinner for her children and parents. Her father is deteriorating worse than Nancy expected. She makes a turkey and plays Christmas music--the latter to her daughter's consternation. Nancy cuts her hand while serving dinner. The morning that the colonels Jaax must go back to work and their children back to school, the children express concern for the danger of their work. Nancy assures them that she works in one of the safest places in the world. At work, Nancy gets an unexpected ice chest from a facility that keeps a colony of caged monkeys. The chest contains a bloody, foil-wrapped lump that she at first takes to be a spleen. Upon examination, however, she realizes that it is a blood clot. Nancy assures her assistant that, at worst, the sample probably contains a virus that only monkeys can get, which cannot be transmitted to humans. When she and her assistant look at it under a microscope, however, they become worried because it does not look to them like the monkey virus they were expecting. Dr. Jahrling visits the lab and pooh-poohs any chance that the virus affects humans. Nancy is not so sure. She works into the night, becoming more convinced that she needs to identify this virus because it is already in the United States at the monkey facility. She calls her mentor, Wade Carter, an expert on deadly tropical viruses, and begs for his help on his answering machine. Because he is retired, he at first just erases her messages. Jahrling and his assistant sniff the sample. The assistant is reluctant, but he goes first. Jahrling says it might smell like grapefruit juice, but it does not. Jahrling then sniffs it, too. He says that Nancy is a good scientist but she is a worry-wort thanks to her former mentor who saw deadly viruses everywhere. Nancy picks out Capt. Kyle Orman who is scheduled to start working for the lab the next day. She asks him if he is ready to start tonight. Kyle watches Nancy prepare a sample of the mystery virus. She plucks one of her own eyelashes to use as a microscopic tool. Kyle wonders that she has any eyelashes left, but she says she rarely does this. She initiates Kyle in the process of going to BSL (Biosafety Level) 4, known as the "hot zone", where all the most deadly viruses are kept, and where she intends to compare the new virus to the viruses already in storage. Although Level 4 is located in the same building, the journey there is arduous. Each room they pass through has different air pressure from the room they are leaving, and they have to completely change out of their clothes and go through a series of sterilization procedures before they put on hazmat suits. Nancy tells Kyle that some people become so claustrophobic the first time they put on the hazmat suit, they try to claw their way out of it. She coaches him on breathing slowly to stay calm. She tells him that there are no sharp corners in Level 4, however, they will be using scalpels. They have to be careful not to cut themselves. She points out that the anteroom to Level 4 has a chemical shower in case they have to decontaminate themselves. Nancy compares her mystery sample to a virus known to only affect monkeys and not humans. If they are the same virus, the sample will glow green when she puts a certain solution on it. It does not glow green. Kyle asks if it is good that it is not a match to the monkey virus. Nancy says, no, because the alternatives are worse. While she is preparing a known-to-be deadly filovirus from Africa to see if it is a match, Kyle notices that she has cut her hazmat suit with her scalpel. She tells Kyle to stay put and that she will send someone to get him out of Level 4. Then she goes to the room with the decontamination shower and turns it on. Nancy is put in an isolation room that is so sealed off that it is soundproofed. Others can speak to her over an intercom that they turn on and off. The concern is that the previous cut on her hand might have absorbed the deadly virus. Among her visitors are Colonel Tucker, Jahrling, and her husband, Jerry. Tucker is angry that Nancy went in practically alone and put herself in danger. Nancy tries to tell him that she understands his anger, but if she is right about this virus, they have bigger problems. Jahrling still maintains that the mystery virus is probably nothing to worry about. Later, Jerry admits that he is worried about Nancy, but she reminds him that this danger is what she signed up for, but she promises to be careful. Although it is late at night, Nancy goes to the monkey facility where she talks the manager into giving her some samples of the monkeys that have already died from this virus. The manager, Frank, is cautious about getting involved, but Nancy hints that this might be a virus that can spread to humans--Frank included. Frank agrees to meet her at a gas station and give her what she wants. when they meet, however, he has not just brought tissue samples but two dead monkeys in the trunk of his car. Nancy nearly freaks out because two room-temperature bodies, no matter how well Frank wrapped them, could leak. Frank refuses to actually drive to Nancy's lab. They will have to transfer the apes to her trunk. Nancy has to persuade Frank to help her clear her own trunk of any objects that might rip the plastic wraps containing the apes. Then she insists that he follow her in his car at least to the gate of her lab, keeping an eye on whether anything drips out of her trunk. Meanwhile, Carter gets another message from Nancy. She asks him if he received the fax she sent him. He goes out to the ocean near his home and looks at the fax, which is a picture of the virus. Nancy's message tells him that, as he can see, this looks like a deadly filovirus. Her caption on the fax reads, "The monster has returned."