DEAN KOONTZ’S SOLE SURVIVOR
US, 2000, 174 minutes, Colour.
Billy Zane, John C. Mc Ginley, Gloria Reuben, Isabella Hofmann, Rachel Victoria.
Directed by Mikael Salomon.
Sole Survivor is based on a novel by Dean R. Koontz who produced the film. It was adapted for the screen by Richard Christian Matheson, a prolific writer and director of horror and tense films, the son of the celebrated author Richard Matheson who wrote such novels and adaptations as I Am Legend, What Dreams May Come.
The film was directed by Mikael Salomon, the Danish cinematographer for thirty years who moved into direction, especially of television material in the 1990s.
Billy Zane stars as a reporter whose wife and child are killed in a mysterious plane crash. A survivor contacts him and suggests that there is hope for the future and his child is alive. What follows is an investigation as well as a chase – especially by a manic John C. Mc Ginley as an agent of an unnamed organisation which specialises in gifted children and their development, especially for the possibilities of their being weapons. These are familiar themes from Koontz’s writings.
The film has tension, but is paced for a television film or a miniseries – with re-creations of the plane crash, tensions of the chase. Koontz specialises in rather large conspiracy films – and what if …?
1.The writings of Dean R. Koontz, popularity, expectations, film versions? The focus on individuals, fear, the seeming supernatural? Organisations, conspiracies? The context for terror?
2.The adaptation for the screen, a television series rather than a unified and dramatic tense film?
3.The Seattle settings, homes, the newspapers, institutions, the variety of countrysides, farms? The ordinary for terror stories? The musical score?
4.The structure: before the crash, the appearance of Rachel, Joe’s quest, the dangers, the pursuit, the revelation of the truth? The insertion of the crash sequences as flashbacks, the flashbacks of the various characters explaining what happened to them? The visualising of the crash?
5.Joe, his family, his work, talking to his daughter on the phone, the trouble in the air, the crash? His friends, his grief, going to the cemetery, the encounter with Rachel, the mystery of what she said? The pursuit by the agents in the cemetery? Shooting? The puzzle about Rachel, getting information, concern, Googling and looking up people and institutions on the internet? Tracking down of various people, the visits, the family and their suicide, despite seeming so cheerful? The meeting with Barbara Christman, the walk in the woods, her story, the flashbacks, the torture, getting more information? Background of the agents, Victor Yates and his sadism? The pursuit by Joe of various people, the truck, the farm, Rachel’s contacts? The confrontation with Yates, escaping? The large lady, going to the farm, the information?
6.Victor Yates, the agents, shooting, following, manic, the ironic comments, the chase, chopping the fingers, the threats? The fight with Joe? The continued pursuit, the bookshop, the large lady, the confrontation and terrorising her? The build-up to the fight, the children and their mental telepathy, controlling Yates, killing him? The deaths of the other agents?
7.The Quatermass Institute, the scientists, their aims, the gifted children, the developments and experiments, the military background, Rachel and her change of heart, the clashes with the other doctors? Taking Nina, the plane, the decision for the plane to crash? Saving Nina, meeting Joe’s daughter? Saving Nina, taking her to safety? Rachel and her being shot, taking Joe to meet Nina?
8.The character of Rachel, her commitment to the work, change of heart, the shooting, her death? The other doctors – and the child controlling them?
9.Joe and Nina, together, father and daughter, happy ending?
10.The message about scientific experimentation, ruthlessness, agents, false patriotism? Brutality, terror? Life and death?
