Looking for an American 80's movie about a hazardous accident in an underground lab in the desert

Question

I remember seeing this movie in television a long time ago. So long that some parts that I remember might be a bit wrong.

The basic premise is that scientists accidentally or intentionally release a poison gas inside an underground research facility in what looked like the Arizona desert. The poison makes everyone who gets infected in to deranged psychopaths. They're still capable of talking and doing normal tasks and working in a group, but they can't stand light, so they break most of the brighter lights in the facility. The government wastes no time sealing all the entrances and they send a team of soldiers down in to the facility. But they get ambushed and killed by the laboratory personnel. As far as I remember the main character's daughter is stuck inside the facility and the main character (man) enters the facility with a partner through a ventilation shaft. That's basically everything I can remember, it looked like it was filmed in the 80's or early 90's tops. I'm also pretty sure it was a TV movie.

Answer 1

I found the answer through another website.

The movie is called Warning Sign. It was released in 1985. It's not a TV movie.

In an ultra secret laboratory for the developing of biological weapons, covered as "Biotek", a research center for agriculture, a serious accident occurs, spreading a sinister bacteria in the laboratory. The security guard of the complex, closes and seals the building, with all the personnel inside, making very difficult the struggle for survival, not to mention the actions that the relatives of the enclosed people are thinking to do.

Trailer

Answer 2

This sounds a lot like Universal Soldier: The Return (1999), which was the fourth entry in the Universal Soldier series. In the film, it is not a pathogen which causes panic, but rather the sentience of the base's AI program, which causes absolute chaos when it takes over both the facility and its remaining stock of UniSol experiments. The experiments (genetically-engineered soldiers) promptly slaughter many of the facility's staff, and the complex is sealed to prevent the AI or its soldiers from escaping.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, reprising his role of Luc Devereaux from the first film, is a consultant on the program and gets caught outside when all hell breaks loose. He must then infiltrate the facility in order to save his teenage daughter Hillary (who was trapped inside) before the US military takes matters into their own hands and destroys the entire complex. IIRC he gets back into the place via an air duct/ventilation shaft on the roof.

Other points that match:

• Due to the violent nature of the takeover, much of the facility is dark & under-powered.
• An incursion into the facility by special forces is easily ambushed and killed by the UniSols.
• The UniSols themselves are still capable of talking & performing most tasks, but come across as slightly machine-like and psychotic.

Points that do NOT match:

• No poison or pathogen was involved. The closest thing is a serum injected into UniSols.
• The facility was not surrounded by desert, but rather woods.
• The lab technicians themselves were not psychotic, but were instead the victims.

Here is a video showing several scenes from the movie (dialogue may be NSFW):