Fox
The Passage, the new Fox series based on the bestselling trilogy of novels by Justin Cronin — The Passage, The Twelve and The City of Mirrors — debuted on Monday, January 14, and continues to air on Monday nights at 9/8c.
In the post-apocalyptic world of The Passage, Project NOAH—the program carried out by a group of secretive, renegade scientists—paves the way for the end of the human race. The scientists have been experimenting with a new virus that could potentially lead to a cure for all the world’s disease or wipe out all humans — i.e. scientists are attempting to harness the immunity of rabid vampires to cure human diseases.
When a young foster child named Amy Bellafonte is chosen as a test subject for the virus, former FBI agent and war hero Brad Wolgast is sent to fetch and deliver her to the facility. The two form a close bond during their travels, and Wolgast becomes somewhat of a surrogate father to the girl after they go on the run from the scientists behind Project NOAH. Check out the trailer above.
So what exactly is “Project NOAH?” The project centers around a group of scientists trying to stop the spread of a new strain of the Avian flu that’s been spreading quickly though China and threatening a global pandemic, although their “solution” also brought with it some devastating results. Here’s what we know about Project NOAH:
Trouble is coming… Don’t miss the next episode of #ThePassage this Monday at 9/8c on @FOXTV.
The test subjects of the secret Project NOAH experiments are unknowingly agreeing to drug testing in exchange for shorter sentences, nicer incarceration arrangements and the possibility of being taken off of death row. However, the government scientists have conveniently failed to tell the inmates that the drugs they receive will turn them into blood-sucking, vampire-like creatures, although the show and book series refrains from using the word “vampire” to describe the creatures.
According to the Washington Post, these creatures “seem catatonic whenever they’re not being fed a steady diet of animal blood in their holding pens,” but they are able to communicate telepathically with one another via Patient Zero, a human once known as Tim Fanning, an “ego-maniacal doctor who was part of the science team’s original quest for a miracle cure for diseases.”
During these trial tests, two of the main scientists on the Project NOAH crew to make the desperate decision to try infecting a child with their vampire virus as the Avian flu looms ever nearer. The scientists believe a younger immune system will be able to better handle the virus and fight the side effects of the injection (like turning into a blood-sucking creature who turns to dust when exposed to sunlight). The scientists are hopeful that 10-year-old Amy Bellafonte’s body and extra neurons would fight the virus and instead replicate the creatures’ resistance to disease.
Project Noah won’t stop until they find a cure. #ThePassage
Brad Wolgast, a former FBI agent and war hero, is sent to Memphis to retrieve Amy, a 10-year-old girl living in foster care after her mother overdosed in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant and died. However, Wolgast ends up having a crisis of conscience and instead rescues the girl from her fate as a test subject, forcing both on the run from the Project NOAH scientists and angry government bureaucrats involved with the experiments.
Tonight’s episode will explore Project NOAH in more detail, so fans of the show (and/or the book series) will get a closer look at what the shady group of scientists are actually up to with the “life saving” project.
Tune in tonight at 9/8c on Fox to catch the newest episode of The Passage.
READ NEXT: The Passage Cast Spoilers & Characters