EPOCH: EVOLUTION

PLOT SUMMARY

Ten years after the original coneolith1 changed its mind about terraforming Earth and went away, Mason Rand has become a hero for his role in bringing about its departure — a hero to some, the devil's minion to others. These others are the Genesis Coalition, a fundamentalist sect that is dedicated to the eradication of the new objects and their influence as godless heretical spawn of the devil. They have hired a team of mercenaries who have already killed his wife.2 As the film opens, three of the mercenaries, led by Doyle, chase Mason and his son through the streets of Dresden, Germany, firing fusillades of bullets at them. Subtlety is not what Genesis is paying them for, evidently.

Meanwhile, two new toruses (as the film labels them) appear — the first in France, the second in Russia. These appear to be running a good torus/bad torus game; the one in France heals, the one in Russia kills. Mason, after sending his son to safety in a colleague's vehicle, escapes to a monastery. There he nurses the wound in his hand while poring over old documents. Sure enough, there are records of torus appearances. He also finds a crystal in the shape of a torus. With permission, he takes this with him.

As in the first film, a helicopter arrives to convey Mason to the French torus. He finds it has already been opened somehow. While exploring it, he is shot and killed by a mercenary waiting inside. But the torus heals him, and the mercenary is captured. Shortly, fields of force emerge from the two toruses. When they meet, it will be curtains for life on Earth. The U.S. military proposes to fire a torpedo with a 5MT warhead into the ground under the Russian torus in hopes of burying it. The Russian officer in charge finds this unsatisfactory; why, she asks, don't they propose to attack the one in France?

But Mason saves the day. Cleverly avoiding the defensive field of the Russian torus, he has himself landed on top. There, he fits his crystal into an indentation and a pathway opens up. He and his team descend. Alas, Doyle and a team of mercenaries follow him in. There is a big gun battle inside. Captain Tower is killed, as are all of the mercenaries but Doyle. They escape in helicopters to where the casualties are laid out under blankets. Mason has sent for his son; when the lad arrives he heals everybody and confronts the torus. Obligingly, both toruses withdraw their force fields and discard their rocky shells. Objects resembling the mother ship from Close Encounters are revealed. These head off into space to visit another planet, and all's right with the world.

Capsule review: Despite an acceptable performance by David Keith and competent though average production values, this film is not worth watching.