In Los Angeles a deadly plague called the 'Pandora' virus is stolen from a high-security installation, and the F.B.I. calls in Agent Alec 'Mac' Mckay to follow up the leads. A trained virologist, he discovers the culprit is one of the world's top researchers. He discovers the man has a safety box in a bank vault and a trap is laid to capture both the doctor and reclaim the virus.

Meanwhile, Julie Hayes discovers her ne'er-do-well brother Scotty has become involved in the plan to rob a bank … the very bank that the F.B.I. is now watching in their bid to reclaim the Pandora virus. An unwilling accomplice, Julie tries to alert the bank staff, unaware that the man she thinks is a bank teller is in fact Mac working undercover.

Things go from bad to worse when the errant doctor, looking tense and terrified, arrives with a tall, blond-haired, leather-clad man whom the watching agents identify as St. Joy, the leader of the L.R.A., a well-known doomsday cult. St. Joy wants Pandora. He wants Pandora so badly he is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way, and he intends to release the virus into the atmosphere, killing not just himself but millions of people into the bargain.

All hell breaks loose when a combination of bank robbers, St. Joy's fanatical followers and a S.W.A.T. team all meet up in the bank, the situation then being made worse when a major earthquake hits the city.

In the aftermath, it falls to Mac and Julie to try and keep the virus out of St. Joy's hands, and a lethal game of cat-and-mouse is played out in the shattered skeleton of a great skyscraper …

St. Joy, aka Christopher Bellows (Ron Perlman)

"I watched my child as he took his last breath … I placed my lips over his as he exhaled … I drew his life-force deep inside my lungs … I held it there for as long as I possibly could … I knew that if I exhaled, my son would be gone from me forever. How ironic … the world will take a collective breath and find death's sweet ether inside its lungs …"

So speaks the fanatical, crazed St. Joy, leader of the L.R.A., a doomsday cult, and bound by his beliefs to deliver a blow to the unbelievers that populate a world full of vice and ignorance. Tears fall from dead, fathomless blue eyes as St Joy remembers the death of his only child during the police raid that also killed his wife. He is adored by his followers, who call him 'Father', and he demands total obedience, even unto death.

On gaining the virus he is thwarted first by the gang of bank robbers, and then by Mac - aided by an earthquake - and he begins to hunt through the ruins of the skyscraper for the vial.

He is unnerving in his determination, killing anyone who gets in his way, but his grief as he discovers the body of a dead pigeon returns him to the loss of another innocent … his son. The tears fall once more, his face twists with the pain of loss, and he treats the dead bird with the tenderness of the bereaved father he is.

"He died lost, terrified … alone in this strange place … much like us … outlanders, unwilling to accept a culture so profane …" For one, brief moment, St. Joy is truly lost in pain.

But he is soon called back to his destiny, his determination to make humanity pay for its misdeeds overwhelming and all consuming. He is ruthless, cold and calculating, and having discovered Mac is watching him - helplessly as it turns out, as he has only one bullet left in the clip of his automatic - St. Joy lines up hostages, making them kneel in front of him as he shoots them one by one in the back of the head. St. Joy is philosophical.

"Mister Federal Bureau of Instigation, I will send each of them to God's Kingdom unless you give me back my vial!!" he growls, as another bullet slams into one of his victims. His voice becomes soft, almost loving, as he delivers his chill message, lost in the need to take revenge on those who took his loved ones, and the power oozes from his rich baritone. "God promised me a tool, a plague unlike any that has ever scourged the earth in His name. We trade the lives of a few for the salvation of many!"

But he is foiled as he moves into Mac's line of fire, and the single remaining bullet from the agent's gun hits him squarely in the shoulder.

St. Joy, however, is a hard man to kill. Even as he is punched back by the power of the shot, he discovers the helicopter sent to rescue Mac and Julie - plus the virus - hovering outside the window, and being thrown a grenade-launcher proceeds to blast the thing out of the sky.

Oblivious of his wound, he returns to his acolytes, one of whom asks about the remaining hostages. He casually mows them down with a machine gun and returns it to his acolyte, his voice grim with determination.

"What about 'em?"

St. Joy is not a man to be swayed in his God-given mission to make mankind pay for its sins.

But Mac and Julie aren't finished yet, but they are hindered when St. Joy manages to get his hands on Julie's wayward brother Scotty, who - as a member of the bank-robbers' gang - has been posing as a security guard. St. Joy knows he has them over a barrel, and Julie decides she must submit to St. Joy's demand that she give him the vial in return for her brother.

Even then she manages for a moment to deceive St. Joy as she hands him the empty case that once held the virus, but St. Joy isn't fooled for long. He catches hold of her and slams her up against the closed elevator doors, using his big body to intimidate and frighten the young woman. As St. Joy opens the elevator doors behind her, Julie finds nothing but a gaping chasm where the elevator should be. She knows he has every intention of pushing her down the shaft - St. Joy is a man who carries out his threats. But then he begins to talk, his voice low, sultry, almost purring with menace as he kisses her neck … and begins to move lower.

"Have you ever had to make a life or death decision?" He asks, as he nuzzles her collarbone. "I would love to get to know you better …" He moves even lower … and his eyebrows raise in mock surprise. Reaching sensually into her cleavage he pulls out the vial. Satisfied but not surprised, he looks at her coolly. "A woman and her mystery … goodbye, my sweet …"

Mac arrives in the nick of time, and although St. Joy tries to hold Julie hostage along with the vial, telling Mac that he doesn't care if he is shot - after all, he has nothing left to live for, and he intends to die on this day one way or another - but Julie manages to fight her way free and Mac shoots St. Joy once more, the shot taking him in the chest this time and apparently knocking him down the elevator shaft.

But St. Joy isn't dead by a long chalk. He has set explosives in the building, his intention being to take everyone and everything with him, and release Pandora into the atmosphere into the bargain, but he hasn't reckoned on Mac and Julie's ingenuity - they decide to take refuge in the bank vault, knowing that both they and the vial will be safe from the blast. But before they can reach it, Julie is grabbed by St. Joy, the man battered and bloody but still very much alive. But nature hasn't finished with Los Angeles, and more tremors shake the city. Julie's brother Scott tries to go with them … but a final tremor rips through the building and both St. Joy and Scotty are left outside, the former now crushed beneath a huge block of stone.

St. Joy is dying.

Scotty sits nearby, knowing he can at least die with dignity, happy that this time he managed to help his sister survive, and he hears a mumble of words come from the dying man.

St. Joy lies, bloody, covered with dust and rubble, his mind now turning to his Maker. Time is running out, the clock is ticking, and the building will explode in seconds, but St. Joy is fixated on his death. He begins to speak, quietly, but with passion.

"Oh Lord, I hope you know I have been pure of heart … so sorry that I have failed you, Lord, and as I stand before you at the Gates of Heaven - "

"HEY!"

St. Joy turns blue eyes shining with the need for redemption to the grinning Scotty. The young man has no intentions of letting St. Joy die thinking he has done God's work.

"Asshole!! That ain't where you're goin' - "

And in a moment the world explodes into nothingness … [End]

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