The Relic (1997)
A creature from legend brought from a jungle expedition terrorizes the Field Museum of Natural History.
Genre
Characters/Groups
Dr. Margo Green - Penelope Ann Miller
Lt. Vincent D'Agosta - Tom Sizemore
Dr. Albert Frock - James Whitmore
Detective Hollingsworth - Clayton Rohner
Mayor Robert Owen - Robert Lesser
John Whitney - Lewis Van Bergen
Mrs. Blaisedale - Constance Towers
Mr. Blaisedale - Francis X. McCarthy
Frederick "Freddy" Ford - Jophery C. Brown
Chanting Woman - Montrose Hughes
Captain Borne - Santos Morales
Sergeant - Ralph Seymour
Museum Worker - Eddie Jemison
Police Officer- Katharine Mitchell
Police Officer - Candy Coburn
Police Officer - Kurt Naebig
Police Officer - Don MacLellan
Police Officer - Marc P. Shelton
Spota - Don Harvey
Coroner's Assistant Fred - Ken Magee
Dr. Brown - Aaron Lustig
Student - Kent George
Perri Masai - Lynn A. Henderson
Dr. Gross - Ron Cummins
Crazy Man - Matthew Daniel Moses
Graduate Student - Elwood Forbes
Reporter - Dina Bair
SWAT Team Guy - Mark Lake
Captain Martin - Ned Schmidtke
Tribal Dancers - Daniel Guevara, Ramon Ramierez, Henry Rey, Gerardo Salinas, and Martin S. Tellez
Helicopter Pilot - Craig Hosking
Helicopter Pilot - Dirk Vahle
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
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Detailed Synopsis
Dr. John Whitney is attending a ceremony held by the “lost” tribe of the Xinxera in the jungles of Brazil. During the ceremony Whitney consumes a mixture he is handed and starts to scream. Later Whitney argues with Captain Borne, the captain of the Santos Morales cargo vessel. Whitney is begging Borne to remove the shipping containers he had sent to be shipped, but Borne refuses as he is already running late. Whitney sneaks on board the ship and breaks open a crate he believes to be his and then yells in desperation when it doesn’t hold his cargo.
Six weeks later the Santos Morales is found abandoned in Lake Michigan. Lt. Vincent D'Agosta and Detective Hollingsworth are assigned the case. They board the ship and find it covered in blood but with no crew. Hollingsworth believes it is a drug hit. When they open the bilge of the ship they find the rotting corpses of the crew with bodies and heads separated from each other. Eugene and Josh are two grade school age kids playing hooky. They decide to join some school groups going to the Field Museum of Natural History, because the local arcades aren’t open yet. Dr. Margo Green enters the Field Museum and greets Frederick "Freddy" Ford, the front desk security guard. Green is pulled aside by Dr. Ann Cuthbert, the director of the museum who tells her the Blaisedale foundation has delayed its rewarding of a grant and Dr. Greg Lee, another researcher at the museum has also applied for the grant. Green is told the Blaisedale’s will be at the upcoming opening for the new exhibit called Superstition. Green confronts Lee about applying for her grant, but he reminds her it isn’t her grant yet and he has every right to apply for as many grants as he wants. Dr. Cuthbert and Dr. Albert Frock decide to have fronds covered in what appears to be a fungus, and the only things in the crate sent from Whitney, incinerated. Frock does allow Green a frond to take and analyse for herself. Josh and Eugene stay in the museum after it closes and continue to wander around the museum. Frederick takes a break in one of the restroom stalls to smoke a joint when he sees a large shadow. Suddenly he is grabbed by a large hand and pulled screaming out of the stall. Green tells her research group to go home while she continues to study the fungus from the frond. While walking around the museum, the kids hear a wheezing noise and run away.
Green arrives back at the Field Museum the next morning and is brought to see D’Agosta. D’Agosta is introduced to Green and then he and Hollingsworth walk to the crime scene. Martini the crime scene investigator tells D’Agosta Frederick’s brain was removed, and D’Agosta and Hollingsworth quickly connect it to the bodies found in the bilge of the Santos Morales. D’Agosta is introduced to Tom Parkinson by Dr. Cuthbert, who is in charge of security at the Field Museum and he tells them who the deceased was. D’Agosta questions Green some more as he follows her from the animal preparation lab to Whitney’s office which was also vandalized. Green takes D’Agosta too see Perri Masai the restorative “genius” at the Field Museum. Perri tells D’Agosta the statue found in Whitney’s crate was of some sort of chimera creature. Dr. Zwiezic, the city coroner, tells D’Agosta Frederick’s skull is missing the pituitary gland, and when D’Agosta calls Hollingsworth if the bodies in the ship were missing their pituitary glands, he is told they in fact were. Green’s analysis shows the fungus is full of animal hormones. While walking through the Superstition exhibit Green hears a wheezing noise and runs away to the restroom. She hides in a stall and is relieved to find the wheezing sound was from an asthmatic janitor.
Two police officers named McNally and Bailey are searching the Field Museum when they come across a homeless man. The homeless man lunges at them and Bailey shoots him dead. The homeless man matches the description Josh and Eugene gave when they saw him and he is also found to have Frederick’s wallet and blood on him and a locket belonging to Jaime Martinez a crew member from the Santos Morales. Parkinson believes the case is closed however D’Agosta is not quite sure and is hesitant to open the museum up for the upcoming opening event for the Superstition exhibit. Parkinson angrily calls the Mayor who asks to speak to D’Agosta. The mayor tells D’Agosta how much his wife is looking forward to the Superstition gala event and decides for D’Agosta the event will open.
While analyzing the fungus Green hears a noise coming from the cooler box holding the leaves, when she tips the cooler over a giant beetle crawls out, which she quickly squishes. She dissects the beetle and also does a DNA analysis. The DNA analysis shows the beetle had combined beetle and the DNA from a gecko. Green, confused asks Lee what species are in the readout and he accuses her program of being inaccurate. Guests start to arrive at the museum and D’Agosta and Hollingsworth join K9 officer Bradley and Evans in order to search the museum. While reading data from Green’s computer, Frock notices all the hormones from the leaf sent by Whitney are present in the human hypothalamus. Greg tells Parkinson no one is left in the lab section of the building so Parkinson has Johnson lock all the doors to that area. Greg then walks over and introduces himself to the Blaisdales. During their search the police dogs break free from Bradley and run down a tunnel. The dogs yelp out and the body of Castor is thrown at D’Agosta and his group. Bradley yells out and runs to where he thinks Pollux went. D’Agosta orders Hollingsworth to take Evans and tell Dr. Cuthbert to close down the museum. Bradley finds Pollux and is then promptly killed by the kothoga. D’Agosta finds the nest of the monster which is filled with heads and torsos.
D’Agosta finds Pollux and takes him with him as he continues his search. As the guests are taking a tour of the exhibit blood starts to drip from above which causes a panic and stampede. As the crowd races through the exhibit they begin to knock over displays which causes an emergency shutdown, which leads to all the remaining areas of the building to shutdown and also the power grid shuts down which then causes the fire doors to start to close. A few guests make it out, however most of the guests are trapped inside the museum. Wooten goes to the security computer power room to reboot the system but finds the backup system destroyed and when he returns to the CCTV office he finds Johnson dead with his head almost torn off. Wooten is then killed by the kothoga.
D’Agosta and Pollux enter the CCTV room and using a walkie talkie, he tells Parkinson to hand the Mayor his walkie talkie. The Mayor starts to talk, however D’Agosta tells him to shut the fuck up and that Hollingsworth is in charge. D’Agosta then tells Hollingsworth to take the remaining people through the tunnels. Parkinson refuses to go and Greg stays behind when the Blaidesdales insist they cannot travel that way. D’Agosta finds Green and Frock, however Pollux breaks free and runs off. The kothoga charges at them and they manage to shut the door in time. Green tells D’Agosta she thinks the kothoga started as something else and after eating the fungus on the leaves it changed.
A large police force lead by Captain Martin arrives outside the museum. Parkinson starts yelling he will not take the fall for what happened when he is killed by the kothoga. McNally is killed when the kothoga swings its tail and throws him into a glass case, killing him when a sherd of glass punctures his neck. Greg tries to run away but is killed by the kothoga when it follows him into the exhibit. SWAT members land on the roof of the building but they are promptly killed by the kothoga. Frock tells Green and D’Agosta he is going to stay and he is then found and eaten by the kothoga. While walking through the tunnels Bailey is pulled underwater and eaten by the kothoga, followed by one of the guests. Hollingsworth’s group finally make it out of the museum. Green has D’Agosta lock herself into her lab where her computer finishes its analysis revealing the kothoga is Whitney. Before D’Agosta leaves he gives Green lhis lucky bullet. The kothoga breaks into the lab from the ceiling forcing Green to run for her life. Green enters the storage area and systematically knocks over certain vials of liquid as she passes them. She then sets the storage and lab area on fire and jumps into a vat of water and closes it shut. The kothoga then burns to death in the fire. The fire department opens the fire doors and Hollingsworth finds D’Agosta who then finds Green in the vat. Green then gives D’Agosta back his lucky bullet.