General Russell Woodman

General Russell Woodman is the secondary antagonist in the 2001 sci-fi/comedy film Evolution. He is portrayed by Ted Levine, who also played Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

Prior to the events of the film, Woodman worked with Dr. Ira Kane at the Pentagon (though he asserts that Ira used to work for him) until Ira tested an anthrax vaccine on hundreds of soldiers with devastating results and was dismissed from the U.S. Army.

When Ira and his colleague Professor Harry Block investigate a meteor that crash-landed in the desert outside of Glen Canyon and discover single-celled extraterrestrial life-forms that are rapidly evolving, Woodman leads a research team (that includes Dr. Allison Reed from the Centers for Disease Control) in taking over the crash site. When confronted by Ira and Harry, Woodman reveals that, after Ira left the Pentagon, he kept taps on Ira by monitoring his computer.

Woodman then bars Ira and Harry from the site and the investigation. When Ira protests, Woodman coldly tells him that Ira is lucky that anyone has ever let him near a science lab again, then calls Ira a "disgrace, and a dangerous one at that." In response, Ira moons Woodman in Harry's jeep. Ira and Harry take Woodman and his team to court, but are unsuccessful after the truth about Ira's past testing of the anthrax vaccine comes to light during a questioning conducted by Allison.

Later, when Governor Lewis learns of the presence of aliens in Arizona and travels to the crash site to confront the team about not notifying him earlier, Woodman, despite Allison's protests, tells Lewis that Ira and Harry were interferring with them. When Ira, Harry, and Wayne Grey enter the meeting room, Woodman demands that the men be arrested and falsely claims that they spread the aliens outside the contained area. An argument ensues until Lewis stops them and demands to know what they're going to do to deal with the alien threat. Woodman then reveals his intentions to drop napalm on the aliens, something that Ira protests as they don't know how the aliens will react to such an attack at the cellular level. Woodman, however, remains adamant in his course of action. After an attack by blue-furred alien primates, Lewis gives his full support to Woodman to proceed ahead with using napalm to eradicate the aliens, and Woodman replies everything will be ready the next day at noon. After Lewis leaves, Woodman orders Ira, Harry, and Wayne to leave, after which Allison calls him an "ass" and sides with Ira.

Ira and his team discover that heat and fire causes the aliens to evolve quicker. Allison tries calling Woodman to warn him of the danger, but Woodman refuses to speak with her. The next day, Woodman finds that they are able to proceed with their plans earlier than usual. Thus, the military ignites napalm on the aliens, causing all of them to evolve into a gigantic blob that emerges out from underground, demolishing much of Glen Canyon in the process. Woodman orders his ground troops to fall back. He later watches as Ira and his team drive a fire engine under the blob and wonders aloud what they're doing to it, to which Lewis comments they're about to administer "a jumbo enema."

After Ira and his team kill the alien blob using Head & Shoulders shampoo (containing selenium, which is deadly to the aliens) and cause it to explode, Woodman is seen covered in slime and screaming in rage.