The Relic (1997) on Netflix
R19971h 50mHorrorMysterySci-Fi
Crates from a South American expedition reach a Chicago museum, and the ship that carried them arrives with no crew aboard. Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta and biologist Margo Green investigate.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb5.8/1032,920 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
John Whitney, an anthropologist studying a tribe in South America for Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, drinks a soup the tribesmen make. He asks a ship's captain to unload the cargo he meant to send home; refused, he slips aboard, searches for the crates and finds none. Six weeks later the ship reaches Lake Michigan without its crew, and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta and Sergeant Hollingsworth find dozens of bodies in the bilge. A week after that, evolutionary biologist Margo Green finds Greg Lee competing for the same research grant. Whitney's crates arrive at the museum holding little but plant matter and a carved Kothoga, a monster of tribal myth. Margo sends a fungus from the packing to the lab. A guard is killed, and D'Agosta closes the building over the museum director's protests about a coming exhibition.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Relic (1997)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The New York museum behind the novel turned the film's producers down because the book showed its administration in an unflattering light, and its staff feared a monster movie would scare kids away, even after Paramount offered a seven-figure sum to shoot there. The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago loved the premise and allowed the shoot instead.
- Makeup artist Stan Winston and his team built three creatures, with two people moving the heads and others working electronics that moved the arms, claws and mouth. Director Peter Hyams' only note was to make the monster more hideous, and a computer-generated version was used whenever it ran or jumped.
- A flooded tunnel set built in Los Angeles left Tom Sizemore damp, cold or soaking wet for most of the shoot, and he caught the flu twice. Filming was shut down briefly when director Peter Hyams became too sick to work.
- The Relic was the final film appearance of actress Audra Lindley, who died shortly after the film was released.
