Pandora's Clock

Watching "Pandora's Clock" last night on the Lifetime Movie Network kind of freaked me out. Robert Loggia, as the CIA director, said that using any means necessary is justified when trying to eradicate terrorism. This tv movie was made in 1996, and we haven't really progressed all that far since then.

Right before Christmas, a very sick man gets on a plane. Later, he goes into cardiac arrest and the plane decides to make a landing at the closest available airport, which was London's Heathrow. However, it turns out that the man was possibly exposed to a super-virus in Germany, and the Germans warn the British. The British won't let the plane land.

The plane eventually sneaks into Iceland, landing on a U.S. air force base. The soldiers are under strict orders: shoot to kill. One woman decides to try to make a run for it, and they shoot her dead. The plane refuels and is instructed to land in an isolated area of Mauritania, a country in Africa.

However, the machinations of the CIA director are coming to light. Daphne Zuniga plays a doctor who has been analyzing the situation for the CIA, and she discovers the plot: the CIA director hired a merc to destroy the plane. It will be blamed on the fictional terrorist group, al-Akbar, and then the U.S. government will blow up al-Akbar's training bases in retaliation, effectively destroying the group. The director's rationale is that the people will die anyway from whatever virus was on board.

It was an interesting movie, although some parts were predictable. I was just a little surprised at how the movie has stood up to the test of time. Life imitates art, I guess.