The Patriot Information

This article is about the Steven Seagal film. For the Roland Emmerich film about the American Revolutionary War, starring Mel Gibson, see The Patriot (2000 film)

The Patriot is a 1998 action film loosely based on the novel, The Last Canadian by William C. Heine. The film star Steven Seagal. It was directed by Dean Semler, written by M. Sussman, and produced by Patrick Choi, Nile Niami, Howard L. Baldwin, Steven Seagal, and Julius R. Nasso. The plot involves an American patriot who has to foil the plot of a militia to release a deadly virus. The film is rated R by the MPAA. It is Seagal's first direct to video film.

Synopsis

Near the town of Ennis, Montana, local doctor and former government research immunologist Wesley McClaren (Steven Seagal) who has an interest in herbal medicine and is also a weapons and self-defense expert, is called to a hospital when people start dying from an unknown but very deadly disease. He determines that the cause is a highly dangerous airborne virus and calls in a Biological Response team, who seal off the town while doctors start treating sufferers with a vaccine. Several have already died.

The source of the virus is traced to a local self-styled rebel militia leader, Floyd Chisolm (Gailard Sartain), who has given himself up after a long siege and has been arrested on weapons charges. In court, having ingested the virus himself (believing that he also possesses the vaccine) he spits at the judge, and starts the rapid spread of the disease.

Floyd's militia followers, who have been allowed to go free, attack and capture the hospital, including Wesley and his daughter Holly (Camilla Belle), with much loss of life, and rescue him. But too late, they realize that the vaccine they possess does not actually work.

Working at gunpoint, Wesley takes a sample of Holly's blood; it shows that Holly has been infected, but somehow her body is fighting it off. Wesley and Holly contrive to escape and travel to a farm where Holly's grandfather lives. Wesley takes a blood sample from his friend Dr. Ann White Cloud (Whitney Yellow Robe), and realizes that her body is also fighting off the infection.

Wesley and Ann gain access to a secret underground laboratory where Wesley used to work, where they hope to come up with a cure. Wesley finds out why Ann and Holly are not being affected by the virus: they have been drinking tea made with a specific wild herb that is known to Native American healers.

Back at the hospital, Wesley and Holly are captured by the militia, but he manages to kill Floyd and disable the other soldiers. As soon as the biological protection team learn of the cure, they go out and pick all the flowers they can find and drop them by helicopter over the town, telling the people to boil them and drink the liquid.

Cast

• Steven Seagal ... Dr. Wesley McClaren
• Gailard Sartain ... Floyd Chisolm
• L.Q. Jones ... Frank
• Silas Weir Mitchell ... Pogue
• Camilla Belle ... Holly McClaren
• Dan Beene ... Richard Bach
• Damon Collazo ... Lt. Johnson
• Whitney Yellow Robe ... Dr. Ann White Cloud
• Brad Leland ... Big Bob
• Molly McClure ... Molly
• Philip Winchester ... Young Miltiaman
• Douglas Sebern ... Judge Tomkins
• Ross Loney ... Clem
• Bernard O'Connor ... Dr. Tom Hergot
• Leonard Mountain Chief ... Grandpa
• R.J. Burns ... Navy Captain
• Robert Harvey ... Col. Harvey
• Ron Andrews ... Radioman
• Jeff Tillotson ... Pvt. Benson
• Don Peterson ... T.S. Soldier #1
• Cory Brown ... T.S. Soldier #2
• Tom Vanek ... Roadblock Sentry
• Scott Wetsel ... FBI Agent
• Dillinger Steele ... Marshal
• Gene E. Carlstrom ... Old Rancher
• Ayako Fujitani ... McClaren's Assistant (as Ayako Seagal)
• Kelcie Beene ... Holly's Friend #1
• Callie Strozzi ... Holly's Friend #2