The young woman reports these findings to other scientists but they are skeptical. She tries to get support for further studies but now faces governmental apathy and industrial opposition. You know the rest of the plot. Her evidence accumulates. Little people like local anglers who also find dead fish and families whose children develop strange maladies come forward at meetings to support her.
Funding finally comes through and the cell is identified and suppressed.
The film closes with another view of that eerily bubbling tank. Clearly a sequel will follow. The story is true. The Ultimate Biological Threat . The Jody Foster role is played in real life by Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, Professor of Aquatic Botany and Marine Sciences at North Carolina State University.