- AKA “Destination: Infestation”
- Directed by George Mendeluk
- Written by Mary Weinstein
- Stars Jessalyn Gilsig, Antonio Sabato Jr., Serge Houde, Karen Holness
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes
- Watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOOY43LQFus
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Being trapped on a plane with killer ants makes for a mighty stressful way to travel. It’s a little contrived, but it was still pretty good in every way. There are multiple points that made us say things don’t really work like that, but we were entertained more than not.
Synopsis
A tour bus breaks down with a flat tire in the Colombian jungle, and the driver gets out to fix the problem. Dr. Carolyn Rose and her daughter Jamie are on the bus. She’s an insectologist, but her daughter would rather have gone to Maui.
Mr. Aubrey is getting checked out by his doctor; he thinks something in the water has made him sick. The doctor thinks it’s something more serious, some insect bite that caused anaphylactic shock. He can’t stay; he must leave on a plane in two hours.
We cut to a bunch of people getting ready for their flight to Atlanta. The pilots go through their usual checklist as the passengers board the plane. Mr. Aubrey is a needy, annoying passenger, and it’s clear that he’s getting worse. Carolyn and Jamie arrive at the very last minute because of the bus’s flat tire. Ethan Hart is in the seat behind them, listening to the mother and daughter argue about Carolyn being single and desperate. They eventually take off.
Mr. Aubrey pukes all over another passenger and then staggers down the aisle as a million ants burst out of his skin. They’ve eaten him from the inside out. Carolyn sees the ants and says it doesn’t make any sense. Everyone sees it, and very quickly, ants are crawling everywhere, including the area down in the hold. Ethan and Carolyn take charge and explain things to the captain. Ants shouldn’t be carnivorous; this just isn’t normal. “Maybe the ants felt so threatened they just hitched a ride on whatever they could. These ants could be extremely dangerous.” She then goes back to her seat and tells her daughter that there’s no danger.
Ethan tells Carolyn and Jamie that he’s an Air Marshall and he has questions about the ants, which she can answer. The pilot calls Miami with an in-flight emergency. He lets Carolyn tell the ATC how serious the problem of genetically different mutant ants is. The ATC guy doesn’t take anything seriously.
Meanwhile, the ants start chewing on the wires down below, and the lights start acting up. This is a good time for Jamie and Carolyn to talk about the dead father and Carolyn’s refusal to date.
The scientists on the ground discuss the ants and the likelihood of genetic upgrades in the ant community. Humans have wrecked the ants’ environment, so they’re migrating. The Director on the ground discusses not allowing the plane to land… at all, anywhere. The ants have no natural predators in America.
Back on the plane, the ants attack some people but are run off with a guy using a fire extinguisher. They talk about depressurizing the plane to kill the ants. The ants counterattack and mess up the captain very quickly; he’s in shock. Carolyn thinks the ants are intelligent enough to know exactly who they are attacking.
The ants are still chewing on the wiring, and they’ve started a fuel leak on top of the hydraulic and electrical problems. “We’ve gotta repair that fuel valve,” the copilot tells Ethan. Oh, yeah, there’s also a storm moving in.
Carolyn tells Ethan that he needs to look for the queen when he goes below to fix the fuel problem.
The annoying drunk, Paulie staggers to the bathroom, where he’s attacked. His friend stuffs him back inside the restroom to keep him from everyone else.
The ground calls and refuses them clearance to enter any US airspace. Cuba and Haiti also refuse them. Everyone knows about the ants, and no one wants to deal with that. The pilots decide to land on an old air base field that’s closed but probably also too small.
Carolyn figures out a way to use the stuff in the cargo hold to make boric acid, an insecticide. She bonds with Ethan in the cargo hold, and they talk about which of them is hiding from romance more seriously. Then, they walk through a giant puddle of fuel as they look for the queen. They find the queen in the main electrical box of the plane and zap it with a fire extinguisher.
Ethan has to splice some wires together for some reason, but they’re standing in fuel, so any spark would be really, really bad. They pour liquid insecticide all over the electrical panel, but nothing sparks. They get the valve problem fixed, so now they can worry about landing.
The director on the ground figures out where the plane is headed and calls the Pentagon. They send up a fighter to blow up the plane.
Suddenly, the power goes out, and it’s all very dark. Ethan rescues the dead drunk guy’s pet dog, which impresses Carolyn even more. He gives the dog to Jamie.
Up in the cockpit, the ants attack the pilot again, and the copilot prepares to land. Even though there are troops on the ground with anti-aircraft guns, the plane sets down anyway. Suddenly, the TV news crew arrives, which for some reason, scares the army guys away.
The passengers evacuate the plane, but the ants are getting off, too. Carolyn shoots the leaking fuel and ignites the plane, killing the ants. Everyone goes into quarantine, but Jamie invites Ethan to come over for a visit afterward, and Carolyn doesn’t object at all.
As all the people leave, we see ants on the ground near the runway, including a queen…
Commentary
That airplane needed more screaming babies; only having one was completely unrealistic. That’s the only unbelievable thing about this made-for-TV movie. Actually, it was fairly intense for a made-for-TV horror film.
It’s got a lot of stupid passengers and contrived situations, but it’s a decent concept that’s not badly done for the most part. It wasn’t outstanding, but we were entertained.