While on a camping trip, sheep rancher Dan Logan and his son are inadvertently exposed to a secret Army nerve gas from a helicopter passing overhead. Both end up in a military hospital in which they are kept apart, unable to contact outsiders, and lied to about their condition by a mysterious major, who looks at the incident as little more than an opportunity to study the effectiveness of a nerve gas on humans. Logan tries to hold someone accountable for their actions, but he and his family physician are stone-walled from every angle by military authorities and by bureaucrats staging a cover-up—with those responsible already well insulated by their positions of power. He is hospitalized and put under observation by the government for symptoms related to exposure to nerve agents, and to record his physiological responses to the toxins. Becoming increasingly anxious over his son, Logan leaves his room to search the hospital. His investigation leads him to the morgue, where he is traumatized to find his son dead. Initially stunned and shocked at the sight of his son's mutilated body, he becomes enraged. Having determined the company that has manufactured the nerve agent which has killed his son, he destroys it. At this point he begins exhibiting obvious symptoms of the nerve agent, and heads toward the military base from which the nerve agent was dispersed. He breaches the base's security fence, but is obviously allowed to do so. Logan is surrounded by military troops and government agents in HazMat suits while he lies twitching and convulsing in the final stages of nerve agent poisoning.
Cast
George C. Scott as Dan Logan
Richard Basehart as Dr. Caldwell
Martin Sheen as Major Holliford
Barnard Hughes as Dr. Spencer
Reception
of The New York Times described the film as "a bit schizoid. What it says and what it looks like don't have much in common." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four and wrote, "As good an actor as he is, and 'Rage' is a decent example of his strength, Scott is a dismal director. The film also includes would-be arty slow-motion shots of coffee being thrown on a campfire, sedatives being handed to a hospital patient, and a cat jumping on a sofa. None of them make any sense except as errors by a fledgling director." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times was positive, calling it "entertainment with a message, and a very striking performance by Scott on both ends of the camera." Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it "a sluggish, tired and tiring melodrama" which "just doesn't work." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that "the first half of the movie generates some tangible suspense and human interest," but then "goes resolutely, fatalistically downhill, discarding the element it can spare the least—the viewer's willingness to identify with the hero."
