Evolution_(film)

Evolution (film)

Evolution is a 2001 comedy sci-fi movie directed by Ivan Reitman.

It is based on a story by Don Jakoby who converted it into a screenplay along with David Diamond and David Weissman. The movie was originally written as a serious horror science fiction film, until director Ivan Reitman re-wrote much of the script. A short-lived animated series, Alienators: Evolution Continues, that was loosely based on the film was broadcast months after the movie was released. The film was distributed in North America by DreamWorks and overseas by Columbia Pictures.

Plot

College professor Ira Kane is invited by geology teacher/girls' volleyball coach Harry Block to investigate a meteorite that has crashed through the surface rock into a network of underground caverns under the sleepy town of Glen Canyon, Arizona. Conning their way past the local police, Ira and Harry locate the meteor and take a sample, with Ira's examining having him accidentally discovering extraterrestrial single-celled nitrogen-based organisms, which evolved into multi-celled organisms by the time Ira gets Harry to his office to see the discovery they made.

Impressed, the two take the science class to survey the meteor site, where the primeval ooze from meteor has rapidly evolved to consist of oxygen-converting fungi and alien flatworms that thrive on the converted atmosphere, with the two scientists taking the flatworms for study. However the military research, led by General Russell Woodman, who Ira worked for five years ago before he was discharged, managed to learn of his finding via tapping his computer and attempt to control the situation to have Allison Reed of the Center for Disease Control continue the research after a 2-week court settlement where Ira and Harry are slapped with a restraining order after Allison reveals the reason for Ira's discharge is that he oversaw a disastrous field test of a new anthrax vaccine that caused debilitating and humiliating side-effects in the test subjects - referred as "Kane Madness."

Once the two find their research findings stolen, they sneak into the military complex disguised as officers to catch a new specimen. However, they discover that the cavern has changed radically in the week they've been absent, now a rain forest-type environment holding a variety of strange anthropodic creatures. But while Ira and Harry are caught when the later is rushed to the camp infirmary after a alien bug forced itself into his suit and him, though Allison is having a change of heart after hearing Ira's reasons. However, the evolving aliens had took advantage of the caverns under Glen Canyon and begin to pop up at the surface, vainly attempting to adapt while attacking any human that crosses their path.

Learning of this from Wayne Grey, a young firefighter trainee who was the first to encounter the meteor, the trio managed to take out a fully-adapted dragon-like pterosaur before heading to the complex to find Woodman meeting with Arizonian Governor Lewis who immediately brings his heavy-handed style of micromanagement to bear on Woodman's operation. After Allison reveals the aliens' incredible growth rate makes them inherently uncontrollable and could over populate the USA in a matter of weeks, Woodman suggests a generous quantity of napalm to solve it.

Though everyone was reluctant to resort to that measure, a attacked by the newly evolved alien primates that attempt to escape convinces the governor to go with the proposal as Allison quits to help Ira solve the crisis with the parcel of primordial ooze he collected, learning that the aliens evolve rapidly when exposed to intense heat, unable to contact Woodman as he refuses to listen to them. By morning, they reach a answer by using selenium, which may be a poisonous to the aliens as arsenic is to carbon-based lifeforms.

Ira's two more under performing students, Deke and Danny Donald, tell the group that selenium is the active ingredient in Head & Shoulders dandruff shampoo. The six of them round up as much Head & Shoulders as they can, load up a fire engine acquired by Wayne, and set out to kill the aliens before Woodman's strike goes ahead. The general, however, begins the strike earlier than planned, forcing a evolutionary response as a alien amoebic life form begin to metamorphose out of control, growing to gigantic proportions while it engulfs the other aliens in the process of surfacing and overwhelming the army before it begins mitosis.

Fortunately, Ira and Harry manages to stop the creature with the selenium before it could asexually reproduce itself, causing the mass to explode raining green glop down for miles around. Later, Governor Lewis holds a press conference as soon as possible, congratulating each member of the heroic party personally (at the same time announcing Wayne's sudden promotion to the fire service as reward for his part). However, Ira and Allison sneak away before he can get to them and make love in the cabin of the fire truck.

Reception

Trivia

During the lengthy shooting in Page, Arizona, Dan Aykroyd entertained locals by checking ID cards for guests at a bar, unofficially greeting people at Wal-Mart, and visiting locals for a cup of coffee in their homes.
Because the film was shot (but not set) in December, DreamWorks asked the locals to delay putting up their Christmas decorations. Following the shoot, DreamWorks paid the city employees overtime to decorate the town in time for Christmas.
The clumsiness of Julianne Moore's character was her idea.
The three main characters perform a commercial for "Head & Shoulders" at the end of the movie. Ivan Reitman's son came up with the idea.
David Duchovny turned down a role in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones to appear in this movie.
The three-eyed smiley face used as the logo of the film in marketing was borrowed from the comic book Transmetropolitan. Producers had to get permission from DC Comics to use it and were licensed by Smileyworld Ltd., owner of the smiley face trademark, to use it for advertising and commercial purposes.
All of the on-campus, classroom, lab and professor's office scenes were filmed at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California. The building used for the movie was Miles D. McCarthy Hall, which is currently home to the College of Natural Science and Mathematics.

Cast

Actor	Role
David Duchovny	Colonel (Ret.) Dr. Ira Kane, PhD.
Julianne Moore	Dr. Allison Reed, PhD.
Orlando Jones	Professor Harry Phineas Block
Seann William Scott	Wayne Grey
Ted Levine	Brigadier General Russell Woodman
Ethan Suplee	Deke Donald
Michael Bower	Danny Donald
Pat Kilbane	Officer Sam Johnson
Ty Burrell	Colonel Flemming
Dan Aykroyd	Governor Lewis
Katharine Towne	Nadine
Gregory Itzin	Barry Cartwright
Ashley Clark	Lieutenant Cryer