Bullet Points: Covert One: The Hades Factor

Robert Ludlum had a very successful career as a novelist, but his name really entered the action movie universe with the The Bourne Trilogy  starting with The Bourne Identity in 2001. When something works, Hollywood is quick to keep going back to the well. And I know that there was The Osterman Weekend in 1981, but no offense to Craig T. Nelson but Bernard Osterman is no Jason Bourne. CBS aired a two part miniseries based on The Hades Factor part of the Covert One series which was written by Robert Ludlum and Gayle Linds. How does Covert One: The Hades Factor work as a movie? Let’s find out.

• Cold Opening – Covert One opens with people dying all over the country from an unknown source. All we see is normally healthy people getting sick and then croaking with a good amount of blood for network television. Cue the opening credits which are a mix of classic TV movie credits and The Bourne Identity. In fact, much of the identity of the cinematography in Covert One can be traced to The Bourne Identity with not as much shaky cam… which I am sure the stereotypical CBS demographic appreciated.
• Dorff on Bio-Terrorism – Stephen Dorff (Rescue Me) plays Jon Smith, a boring name for a not so boring character. Smith is a doctor specializing in infectious diseases. Smith is in a relationship with Sophie Amsden (Sophia Myles) who is also a specialist in infectious diseases. What Sophie doesn’t know but we do is that Smith was a former member of Covert One. What is Covert One you ask?

• Definition – After the credits we see the definition of Covert One on screen. Covert One: An undercover agency reporting directly to the President. Its existence is to fight terrorism. Its existence is officially denied. Speaking of the President, she is played by Angelica Huston and I’ll give her credit for having good looking people like Stephen Dorff and Mira Sorvino (Crime Story) as part of Covert One.
• Good Looking People – So you caught that I mentioned Mira Sorvino? She plays Rachel Russell, a badass operative of Covert One. Things go sideways quickly for Rachel during a mission in Berlin and it all has to do with a virus and middle east terrorists. In fact the whole movie is about a variant  of the Ebola variant named… Hades! What makes matters worse is that there is something rotten in Covert One.

• Down With the Sickness – Covert One goes into full on thriller mode as the audience is whisked all over the globe catching up with all the different characters as the terrorists and traitors are tried to be found out, as people are dying from the disease. It might sound exciting, but when attempting to watch Covert One in one sitting it is just too much. The movie was originally a two parter on two nights and that probably works better. A movie with an almost three hour runtime was a little too much. 
• Who Could It Be Now – Covert One does a solid job of keeping one of the traitors a secret. It is obviously one of the well known actors but it keeps you on the edge of your seat. With the likes of familiar faces Danny Huston, Blair Underwood, Colm Meany, Josh Hopkins and Jeffrey DeMunn in this case it could be one or all of them that deserve to die a traitor’s death.

• Action Percentage – The long run time of Covert One combined with a TV movie budget unfortunately keeps the percentage of action down. There are quality fights, shootouts and car chases but the amount of dialogue and medicine jargon overwhelms the script. Of course, the tension is always there and I am confident in saying Covert One is a thriller with some action and not an action thriller.

Covert One: The Hades Factor fits right in there with the other Robert Ludlum book turned movies that I have seen. I have not read the book so cannot speak to the accuracy of the book to screen adaptation. It is a touch long to watch in one sitting, but I’m sure as a two parter the suspense would have you salivating for night two. If you are still salivating for more Covert One: The Hades Factor I have some Covert One: The Hades Factor Bonus Bullet Points.

• Premiere  – Covert One: The Hades Factor first aired on April 9, 2006 on CBS.
• John Would Be Proud – Danny Huston and Angelica Huston are half brother and sister as children of famed filmmaker and actor John Huston.
• Odd Location – Rachel goes to see a Chechen gangster who has an office in the basement of a Berlin nightclub. Strange he would want to work in the basement right under the dance floor. A dance floor with a glass floor… Oh, I get it, you dirty dog.