Chosen Survivors
A helicopter transports a group of ten people to a remote desert location. Dazed and seemingly drugged, they are forced through an intimidating line of soldiers and crowded into an elevator, which tak…
Chosen Survivors
A helicopter transports a group of ten people to a remote desert location. Dazed and seemingly drugged, they are forced through an intimidating line of soldiers and crowded into an elevator, which takes them over a mile into the ground. They find themselves inside a futuristic facility with walls of stainless steel, surrounded by computers and large screen monitors. The monitors come to life and they are addressed by a pre-recorded video clip of a woman. The woman identifies herself as Mary Louise Borden (Kelly Lange). She informs them that the world is now engaged in a nuclear holocaust; war has broken out and bombs are destroying the Earth as they know it. They have been selected by computer to be transported to the facility, which has been specially designed by the government to house a small group of human beings for five years. The monitors display what appears to be images of the world being destroyed by seismic catastrophes. Rivers of molten lava flow in an area that the display identifies as San Francisco. The entire Northern hemisphere appears to be on fire. Before signing off, Borden tells them that there are other groups of people in similar shelters throughout the United States and the world. These people will join them once the Earth is safe for habitation again, and they will begin civilization again together. The group is in shock over what has happened, and they immediately start establishing their personalities. Steven Mayes (Alex Cord) is a philosophical author and artist, and tries to see the possibilities in recreating the human race. Raymond Couzins (Jackie Cooper) is a wealthy businessman who is used to getting his way; he is suspicious of the reasons for their arrival at the shelter, and does not accept that the world has been destroyed. He also mistrusts Major Gordon Ellis (Richard Jaeckel), who the group discovers also living in the shelter. Ellis is a soldier who was part of a team assigned as custodians to the facility, and it was just blind luck that the emergency happened on his watch. Mishaps begin right away, including a power failure that plunges the facility into darkness, then blue emergency lighting. The next day, the group finds the occupants of a large bird cage entirely wiped out, each bird lying in a bloody pool. During another power outage, one of the women in the facility is terrified when something brushes past her in the dark. When the lights come back on, they see what it was: a bat, clinging to a wall. They capture the bat and apparently kill it, studying the dead animal. They identify it as a vampire bat, and deduce that bats must have been responsible for wiping out the bird cage. That night, as they sleep, the power goes out again, and bats enter the private room of Kristen (Christina Moreno). She suddenly awakens, surrounded by bats climbing over her sheets and fluttering around her in the air. Her screams attract the others, and they ward off the animals, pulling her to safety. Now established that the bats will attack human beings, the group guesses that the nuclear destruction on the surface has decimated the natural food source of the bats, driving them into the shelter to search for food. Christina is in shock from the attack, compounded with the shock of the nuclear holocaust, and she begins to unravel mentally. Peter Macomber (Bradford Dillman) takes notes on the group, documenting their behavior, and Couzins becomes more paranoid about why he is recording the information. Couzins clashes with Ellis and accuses him of being responsible for the group's forced incarceration in the shelter, but Ellis strongly denies it. Ellis sets up an alarm system to signal the group if the lights should fail again. Couzins gets drunk and rages at everybody in the facility, alienating himself from the rest of the group. While they think he is sleeping off his binge, he sneaks into the computer control room and starts flipping switches, causing another power failure. The darkness brings the bats and results in the death of Luis (Pedro Armendáriz Jr.), who gets cornered in one of the hallways. The bats swarm over him and slash his flesh, mutilating him. After Luis's death, the group converges in the main chamber and Macomber makes a startling annoucement. He says he will have them all out of the shelter within 45 minutes; the entire setup has been a hoax. While they really are in a bomb shelter over a mile below the surface of the Earth, there is no nuclear holocaust, it has simply been an experiment conducted by the government to see if such a scenario would actually work. Everybody is outraged, especially since Macomber allowed the experiment to continue even after the threat of the bats was realized. Macomber claims that he wasn't sure if the bats were part of the experiment or not, until Luis was killed. Macomber sends a signal to the surface, but the damage that Couzins did in the control room prevents contact with the outside world. They are truly cut off, and unable to summon the elevator that would take them to the surface. Macomber informs them that with no contact, it will be five more days before the military checks on them. Kristen is so despondent over the circumstances that she attempts suicide, swallowing a bottle of barbituates. The others find her and rescue her by pumping her stomach, and she remains in the infirmary. The group tries to ward off any further bat attacks and wait out the five days, but Couzins is restless. He approaches Woody Russo (Lincoln Kilpatrick), an olympic athlete, to climb the elevator shaft and manually activate the elevator. Couzins promises Russo $100,000 to make the dangerous climb, but Macomber proposes another solution: electrocute the bats. The group rigs a series of metal screens, which are then coated with blood drawn from each person in the complex. The screens are electrified and they put out the lights, luring the bats in. The plan seems to work, with hundreds of bats electrocuted. However, once the lights come back on, they discover that the infirmary has been invaded by bats as well, and Kristen is now dead. They now understand that there are more bats than they could ever hope to kill, and Couzins repeats his offer to Woody, who agrees to climb the elevator shaft. Woody's dangerous climb goes well until he nears the top of the shaft; a small crack in the elevator wall reveals the cave of the bats, who are agitated by the light on Woody's helmet. They begin to swarm and seek out the entrance to the shaft. Woody stuffs his jacket into the crack to hold them off, racing to reach the top of the shaft and escape, but the bats push their way through. Woody manages to open the doorway of the elevator shaft, letting in light from the outside, but bats on his face cause him to lose his balance and he falls back down the mile-long shaft, his body landing on the roof of the elevator. The light at the top of the tunnel drives the bats back down into the complex, where they swarm through the opening and attack the rest of the human beings. Couzins, Mayes, Ellis, and a few others manage to take cover, but the others are overcome in one of the main chambers. Macomber goes back to help them and he, too, is killed. Outside, a helicopter arrives, summoned by Woody's signal, and the elevator is activated. Soldiers remove the survivors from the shelter and they return to the surface, dazed from their harrowing experience.
Chosen Survivors
Action,Adventure,Drama
Film Details
A helicopter transports a group of ten people to a remote desert location. Dazed and seemingly drugged, they are forced through an intimidating line of soldiers and crowded into an elevator, which takes them over a mile into the ground. They find themselves inside a futuristic facility with walls of stainless steel, surrounded by computers and large screen monitors.
The monitors come to life and they are addressed by a pre-recorded video clip of a woman. The woman identifies herself as Mary Louise Borden (Kelly Lange). She informs them that the world is now engaged in a nuclear holocaust; war has broken out and bombs are destroying the Earth as they know it.
They have been selected by computer to be transported to the facility, which has been specially designed by the government to house a small group of human beings for five years. The monitors display what appears to be images of the world being destroyed by seismic catastrophes. Rivers of molten lava flow in an area that the display identifies as San Francisco.
The entire Northern hemisphere appears to be on fire. Before signing off, Borden tells them that there are other groups of people in similar shelters throughout the United States and the world. These people will join them once the Earth is safe for habitation again, and they will begin civilization again together.
The group is in shock over what has happened, and they immediately start establishing their personalities. Steven Mayes (Alex Cord) is a philosophical author and artist, and tries to see the possibilities in recreating the human race. Raymond Couzins (Jackie Cooper) is a wealthy businessman who is used to getting his way; he is suspicious of the reasons for their arrival at the shelter, and does not accept that the world has been destroyed.
He also mistrusts Major Gordon Ellis (Richard Jaeckel), who the group discovers also living in the shelter. Ellis is a soldier who was part of a team assigned as custodians to the facility, and it was just blind luck that the emergency happened on his watch. Mishaps begin right away, including a power failure that plunges the facility into darkness, then blue emergency lighting.
The next day, the group finds the occupants of a large bird cage entirely wiped out, each bird lying in a bloody pool. During another power outage, one of the women in the facility is terrified when something brushes past her in the dark. When the lights come back on, they see what it was: a bat, clinging to a wall.
They capture the bat and apparently kill it, studying the dead animal. They identify it as a vampire bat, and deduce that bats must have been responsible for wiping out the bird cage. That night, as they sleep, the power goes out again, and bats enter the private room of Kristen (Christina Moreno).
She suddenly awakens, surrounded by bats climbing over her sheets and fluttering around her in the air. Her screams attract the others, and they ward off the animals, pulling her to safety. Now established that the bats will attack human beings, the group guesses that the nuclear destruction on the surface has decimated the natural food source of the bats, driving them into the shelter to search for food.
Christina is in shock from the attack, compounded with the shock of the nuclear holocaust, and she begins to unravel mentally. Peter Macomber (Bradford Dillman) takes notes on the group, documenting their behavior, and Couzins becomes more paranoid about why he is recording the information. Couzins clashes with Ellis and accuses him of being responsible for the group's forced incarceration in the shelter, but Ellis strongly denies it.
Ellis sets up an alarm system to signal the group if the lights should fail again. Couzins gets drunk and rages at everybody in the facility, alienating himself from the rest of the group. While they think he is sleeping off his binge, he sneaks into the computer control room and starts flipping switches, causing another power failure.
The darkness brings the bats and results in the death of Luis (Pedro Armendáriz Jr.), who gets cornered in one of the hallways. The bats swarm over him and slash his flesh, mutilating him. After Luis's death, the group converges in the main chamber and Macomber makes a startling annoucement.
He says he will have them all out of the shelter within 45 minutes; the entire setup has been a hoax. While they really are in a bomb shelter over a mile below the surface of the Earth, there is no nuclear holocaust, it has simply been an experiment conducted by the government to see if such a scenario would actually work. Everybody is outraged, especially since Macomber allowed the experiment to continue even after the threat of the bats was realized.
Macomber claims that he wasn't sure if the bats were part of the experiment or not, until Luis was killed. Macomber sends a signal to the surface, but the damage that Couzins did in the control room prevents contact with the outside world. They are truly cut off, and unable to summon the elevator that would take them to the surface.
Macomber informs them that with no contact, it will be five more days before the military checks on them. Kristen is so despondent over the circumstances that she attempts suicide, swallowing a bottle of barbituates. The others find her and rescue her by pumping her stomach, and she remains in the infirmary.
The group tries to ward off any further bat attacks and wait out the five days, but Couzins is restless. He approaches Woody Russo (Lincoln Kilpatrick), an olympic athlete, to climb the elevator shaft and manually activate the elevator. Couzins promises Russo $100,000 to make the dangerous climb, but Macomber proposes another solution: electrocute the bats.
The group rigs a series of metal screens, which are then coated with blood drawn from each person in the complex. The screens are electrified and they put out the lights, luring the bats in. The plan seems to work, with hundreds of bats electrocuted.
However, once the lights come back on, they discover that the infirmary has been invaded by bats as well, and Kristen is now dead. They now understand that there are more bats than they could ever hope to kill, and Couzins repeats his offer to Woody, who agrees to climb the elevator shaft. Woody's dangerous climb goes well until he nears the top of the shaft; a small crack in the elevator wall reveals the cave of the bats, who are agitated by the light on Woody's helmet.
They begin to swarm and seek out the entrance to the shaft. Woody stuffs his jacket into the crack to hold them off, racing to reach the top of the shaft and escape, but the bats push their way through. Woody manages to open the doorway of the elevator shaft, letting in light from the outside, but bats on his face cause him to lose his balance and he falls back down the mile-long shaft, his body landing on the roof of the elevator.
The light at the top of the tunnel drives the bats back down into the complex, where they swarm through the opening and attack the rest of the human beings. Couzins, Mayes, Ellis, and a few others manage to take cover, but the others are overcome in one of the main chambers. Macomber goes back to help them and he, too, is killed.
Outside, a helicopter arrives, summoned by Woody's signal, and the elevator is activated. Soldiers remove the survivors from the shelter and they return to the surface, dazed from their harrowing experience..