Movies about pandemics seem to be timely right now as the world begins to witness lockdowns, quarantines, and health workers struggling to contain the coronavirus that is now spreading. People now are compelled to stay home, and perhaps watching movies would be one of the better entertainment.
However, instead of watching just any movie, perhaps watching ones relevant to the times would be better. Pandemic movies give you a hint of social-politcal impacts of outbreaks. Here are five movies that show what life is like under a pandemic.
1. Contagion
This movie is a trending movie right now despite being released back in 2011. What is happening today resembles events in the movie. The movie's last scenes shows how the pandemic started - from a bat defecating into a piggery, to the pig eating the excrement; the pig is then slaughtered; the cook wipes out the pig's blood and later shakes hands with the potential patient zero. The movie stars Matt Damon, Marion Cotilliard, and Gwyneth Paltrow as patient zero. TechRadar says the scenes in the film are ultra-realistic since it is based on what the World Health Organization and governments would do to stop such an outbreak.
This South Korean film tells the story of a lockdown due to a disease outbreak. The disease is a fictional version of H5N1 that starts spreading in the city of Bundang, killing those who had contracted the virus within one and a half day. Because of this, a lockdown was done to prevent the people of Bundang and the environs from being wiped out. This fiml is a dystopian sci-fi movie about a pandemic that wiped out most of the humanity in 1996. The movie was made in 1995. The setting is Philadelphia in 2035, when the remaining people are living underground. The movie also features time travel. Bruce Willis goes back in time in hope to find the cause of the virus. The movie also stars Brad Pitt, who earned his first Oscar nomination for his role here. The movie is a mixture of a pandemic and bioterrorism. Like Contagion and the Flu, Outbreak features the capability of a government to contain a viral epidemic. The story takes place in a fictional town in California that was been put into an enhanced community quarantine or lockdown due to an outbreak similar to Ebola. The story centers on the efforts of the CDC and the military medical personnel to contain and treat the infected people. It stars Rene Russo, Dustin Hoffman, and Cuba Gooding Jr. Carriers is a 2009 movie about a road trip of a group of riends while escaping a pandemic. While on their journey, the group realizes that man is just as deadly as the virus itself. The movie stars Chris Pine, Emily VanCamp, Christopher Meloni, and Piper Perabo. COVID-19 Update As of this writing, Worldometers.info and the Johns Hopkins University record more than 1 million cases with more than 69,000 deaths and over 260,000 recoveries worldwide. In the United States alone, there are more than 337,000 cases with 9,000 deaths and 17,000 recoveries.
Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jennifer Ehle, stars of the 2011 movie Contagion
2. The Flu
A scene from 2013 South Korean movie The Flu.
3. 12 Monkeys
A scene from the movie 12 Monkeys.
4. Outbreak
CDC Staff examine the fictional town in California during an Ebola-like epidemic. The movie stars Rene Russo, Dustin Hoffman, and Cuba Gooding Jr.
5. Carriers
A father talking to his daughter during the pandemic escapade in the movie Carriers
