At a remote government research facility, a deadly virus, Captain Trips, spreads. A security guard, Charlie Campion, and his family escape. Unknown to them they have already been contaminated. At a government laboratory in California, a weaponized version of influenza is accidentally released, immediately wiping out everyone on staff except for military policeman Charles Campion and his family, who flee the base. However, Campion spreads the superflu, nicknamed "Captain Trips", to the outside world. One of the first sites of infection is at a gas station in East Texas where Stu Redman (Gary Sinise) and some friends have gathered. While the other townspeople become sick, Stu remains healthy and is confined at a CDC facility in Vermont order to study a possible cure. This proves futile and t