Chris Pine's Star Trek Box Office Success Saved This 28 Days Later-Inspired Horror Movie
I'm not sure how David and Alex Pastor's "Carriers" holds up today — after nearly two decades that have given us various memorable zombie movies, like "Train to Busan" and "The Girl With All the Gifts" — but in 2009, the Chris Pine-led post-apocalyptic horror was an unlikely and underrated gem. The writer-director duo clearly wanted to jump on the metaphorical zombie hype train after Danny Boyle's iconic "28 Days Later" and Paul W.S. Anderson's "Resident Evil" made a fortune at the box office a few years earlier. "Carriers" aimed to ride that same wave before its production company, Paramount Vantage, delayed its release for three years before actually sending it to cinemas.
Though the shooting of the movie in New Mexico and Texas wrapped in 2006, the studio was hesitant to release it, likely because it hadn't featured one standout star. At the time, Chris Pine wasn't as widely known and praised (he had no breakout role yet) as he is today. And his co-stars like Piper Perabo ("Coyote Ugly"), Christopher Meloni ("Oz"), and Emily VanCamp ("The Ring 2") apparently weren't famous enough either to trust that they would attract the right amount of viewers to theatres. The studio needed some kind of reassurance, and once J.J. Abrams's "Star Trek" reboot (led by Pine's Kirk) blew up the box office the same year, they finally got what they'd been waiting for and greenlit "Carriers" to open in cinemas in September.
Carriers was low-key and low-budget but unflinchingly gritty and realistic, too
"Carriers" may pale in comparison to genre classics, but its inspiration and commitment to delivering a chilling depiction of a bleak world obliterated by an extremely infectious virus that turns humans into vicious killing machines are certainly up there. After 12 years of "The Walking Dead" and two seasons of "The Last of Us," it might not seem like a big deal how mercilessly pragmatic and uncompromising "Carriers" felt back then, but its character-driven plot (thanks to a terrific script and dedicated performances) that focused primarily on the human side was shockingly desolate and painfully relatable.
Even today, watching the scene where Pine's protagonist throws his girlfriend Bobby (Perabo) out of the car because she likely got infected cuts as deep as any emotional sequence in more recent zombie flicks. It's a testament to Pine's charisma and talent, which was later utilized in great movies like "Hell or High Water" or "Z for Zachariah." But despite its ambitious approach, story, and strong cast, "Carriers" was rather quickly forgotten and dismissed after making a scarce $5.8 million worldwide at the box office. Frankly, it got lost in the sea of similar genre films that came after, and despite the generally positive reviews it received upon release, not many viewers can recall this decent little horror today. Or know the fact that without Abrams's "Star Trek," we likely wouldn't have been able to see it at all.