***SPOILERS*** Not feeling any fulfillment in life as a doctor working for the city in the rat infested slums of Washington D.C. Dr. Robert Verne,Robert Foxworth,gets a dream job working for the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, and sent with his wife Maggie,Talia Shire, to the clean air healthy living surroundings in far off picturesque Maine. It's there that a number of loggers were killed by some mysterious creature who ended up almost decapitating them.
Right away Dr. Verne sees that things aren't going right there between the local native American population and the owner of a paper mill that's defoliating their ancient homeland and hunting grounds.The paper mill owner Bethel Isley, Richard A. Dysrat,is determined to get the unruly Maine Indians lead by collage educated John Hawk, Armard Assante, arrested by the local sheriff for interfering with his operation. As for Hawk he's just as determined to stop Isley from destroying his forest to the point of putting his life on the line to stop him. What no one realizes is that the paper mill is using high and dangerous amounts of mercury that's polluting the nearby Androscoggin River and turning everything in it,or that drinks from it, as well as its water supply of the region into mutant monsters!
It's one of these mutants a 12 foot tall brown bear who's been tearing people apart whenever he runs into them in the forest. In fact there's also other creatures in the area that have been effected by the river who not only go crazy but become totally unafraid of the people in the area and attack them almost at will! The film goes on to show how by polluting our environment we in fact are polluting as well as destroying ourselves. And the killer bears deadly rampage is only a small fraction of the damage that's to be caused in the film from mercury poisoning. As we see at the end of the movie the by far worst is yet to come!
***SPOILERS*** It's non other then the at first villain Bethel Isley who comes across as the most heroic as well as sympathetic character in the movie. Knowing that he and his paper mill screwed things up royally he volunteers to get help on his own and ends up becoming one of the killer bears victims. There's also Indian mystic Hector M'Rai, George Clutesi, who's suffering from severe brain damage because of ingested mercury in his system who thinks he can talk the bear out of doing any more damage only to get riped apart and torn to pieces by him! The final insult in the movie is that which is done to Maggie Verne who by eating some fried fish, that her husband fished out of the polluted Androscoggin River, that infected her body with the deadly and fetus deforming mercury. In her keeping the fact that she was pregnant from Robert and not willing to have an abortion the upcoming blessed event that's soon to follow will turn out to be a curse for the Verne's instead!
