| Director | Jonathan Kaplan |
|---|---|
| Genre | comedy drama, comedy thriller, drama film, science fiction comedy, science fiction film |
| Runtime | 108 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $18 million |
| Box office | $21 million |
University of Wisconsin graduate student Teri MacDonald has trained a chimpanzee named Virgil to use sign language. When her National Science Foundation research grant is not renewed, Virgil is taken to an Air Force base in Lockridge, Florida, to be used in a top-secret research project involving flight simulation, though Teri is told that he's been sent to the Houston Zoo.
Airman Jimmy Garrett is assigned to the same chimpanzee project. Virgil and Jimmy bond, and Jimmy discovers that Virgil has been taught sign language. Jimmy becomes aware that once the chimpanzees reach a certain level in operating the flight simulator, they will be exposed to a lethal pulse of radiation to determine how long a pilot may survive after a nuclear exchange in carrying out a second strike.
After learning of the chimpanzees' fate, he contacts Teri, who comes to the base. Jimmy challenges Dr. Carroll and others about the project's value by noting that the hypothetical pilot, knowing the implications of the second-strike scenario, would know that he is dying and be affected by that knowledge. However, the chimpanzees would not be as aware; thus, the project is flawed. Enraged, Dr. Carroll promises Jimmy that his military career is finished.
Meanwhile, in the vivarium, some of the chimpanzees have unlocked their cages and have stacked crates and boxes to attempt an escape through a skylight. Jimmy, Teri, Dr. Carroll, and the authorities walk in to see the chimpanzees loose. Virgil is at the top of the stack and attempts to break the skylight with a crowbar, but Teri convinces him to come down. Dr. Carroll tries to control the chimpanzees with an electric prod, but Goliath the chimpanzee overpowers him and the authorities, forcing them to flee. Many chimpanzees escape the vivarium and cause havoc throughout the base, while Goliath and chimpanzees Winston and Spike reach the flight chamber. Inside, the three wreck the simulator and short the reactor's wall control panel, causing the radiation reactor to go up. Jimmy gets Winston and Spike out; however, Goliath's refusal to leave traps him in the flight chamber just as the reactor's wall panel short-circuits and generates a radiation blast. A fire extinguisher left by the chimps jams the reactor on its way down, posing a risk of a meltdown. Jimmy and Virgil convince Goliath to yank out the jammed fire extinguisher, but Goliath later dies from radiation exposure.
Jimmy and Teri steal a military plane to help the chimpanzees escape but are stopped by the military police. While the police are holding them, Virgil pilots the plane, and the chimps fly away. They crash in the nearby Everglades and evade a search. Just as the search is being abandoned, Jimmy and Teri see Virgil hiding in the bush with his chimpanzee girlfriend Ginger. Teri signs to Virgil that he and the others are now "free", and the chimpanzees disappear into the Everglades.