Movie with alien nano machines passed by a cigarette

Question

I remember when I was young I saw a film (that at the time) I thought was amazing.

The details are a little fuzzy, but no one I've ever met seems to remember it (perhaps a cheap TVM?)

In short, at the opening of the film, there was a space-battle in orbit, one ship loses and falls though the earth's atmosphere. A young girl playing in a park by some swings looks up, as the ship (that turns out to be microscopic) falls into the girls eye. After a sharp pain she appears to be fine.

However, the alien ship (I can only assume is a nano-machine-engine of some kind), repairs her, effectively rendering her immortal and indestructible. Somehow (as I said, fuzzy), some generic bad-guy captures her (possibly military, or a defence contractor?). And start trying to find a way to reverse engineer the her. There was a woman (I can only assume the mother of the girl), and a protagonist man. It appears the nano-machine can temporarily be passed by certain physical contact, such as passing a cigarette that had been in the girls mouth (or someone else infected? the mother?). There was some action, where the protagonist rescued the girl, the villain (who was late-middle ages, and had a pockmarked face shot the protagonist, but he survived because the little girl had given him a cigarette but with the infection on it.

I remember them referring to the nanite-infection as "reds", but it could be my memory playing tricks on me.

and I'm sure it wasn't a dream, but I can't seem to find any reference to it anywhere.

Can someone help me identify this film?

Answer 1

I think you're thinking of Deep Red (1994):

After a young girl is accidently infected with an alien substance known as "Deep Red", the astonishing results attract the attention of the illustrious scientist Dr. Newmeyer. Disillusioned security expert Joe Keyes must team up with his estranged wife to protect the girl and her mother from the obsessed scientist who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

A quote from this review mentions the nanites being referred to as 'Reds' as you recall:

A group of scientists lead by Dr. Newmeyer (John de Lancie) discovers nanites -- called Reds -- that can cure disease, turn back aging, and even bring back the dead.

It also goes on to describe a little girl being infected by them, as you state:

Unfortunately, Newmeyer is evil, so his chief scientist steals the Deep Red -- the breeder nanite -- and hides it in his eight-year-old daughter.

This trailer on YouTube also seems to coincide with some of your descriptions -- starting with the alien spaceship battle you mention.