When a small space probe falls to earth in a remote village of New Mexico all but two of the town's inhabitants--an infant and an old alcoholic--meet death as their blood turns to powder. After two reconnaissance pilots have also perished a national state of emergency is declared. The two survivors and the recovered space probe are transported to a mammoth five-story underground laboratory and a team of scientists--biologist Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) microbiologist Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid) blood chemistry authority Mark Hall (James Olson) and pathologist Charles Dutton (David Wayne)--is swiftly brought to the lab to discover the nature of the deadly organism brought by the space probe. The team is subjected to grueling hours of precautionary decontamination measures--which are filmed with extraordinary art direction in stunning monochromatic sequences--and informed that the laboratory complex is equipped with an automatic self-destruct device that will be triggered should infection spread. Through...