Project X

Graduate student Teri MacDonald has trained a chimpanzee named Virgil to use sign language. When her research grant is not renewed, she is forced to sell Virgil. He is taken to an Air Force base to be used in a top-secret research project involving flight simulation, though she's told that he's been sent to a zoo in Houston.

Airman Jimmy Garrett is assigned to the same chimp project. Virgil and Jimmy quickly bond, and Jimmy discovers that Virgil has been taught sign language. Unbeknownst to Jimmy, once the chimps reach a certain level in operating the flight simulator, they will be exposed to a lethal pulse of radiation to determine how long a pilot may survive after a nuclear exchange in carrying out a second-strike.