Travelling on a flight alone can become a boring affair, especially when there is no Wi-Fi onboard. So, after sleeping the entire time in one of my journeys, I decided to download a movie from Amazon Prime Video to watch it offline on my next flight. Amidst the epidemic crisis in the world, I picked a movie that came 9 years ago but is the most relevant right now. Contagion is the movie that made me hugely paranoid about the recent epidemic, the Coronavirus.
Contagion, as the name suggests, revolves around an epidemic outbreak of a highly infectious disease caused by a deadly unknown virus. Remind you of something? Of course, it is similar to the COVID-19 outbreak that is currently gripping the world.
The movie shows how a pandemic situation arises due to a fatal disease caused by an unknown virus. It showcases how health organisations like the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) deal with this kind of situation as the public is in a panicked state while the virus spreads like a wildfire. It also shows how rumours and misinformation become a catalyst for mass riots. Also, what could happen in the world when people live in a state of panic.
Academy Award-winning director, Steven Soderbergh used the fear of the public as a weapon against the government. As the fear rises, the more out-of-control the world gets, just as we are seeing with all the toilet paper fiasco that is happening in the US.
After watching this movie, I used my sanitiser more than 10 times to clean my hands as it made me super paranoid. The movie obviously showed an exaggerated version of the real world. However, it made me think, are we slowly moving towards that situation? Does the government really have any cure or vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus and just not telling us? This is the kind of paranoia the movie creates.
If you wanna watch this epic movie, go check it out on the Prime Video. Do note that you will need a Prime membership to stream it. If you don’t wanna feel paranoid like me, then you may avoid this movie and listen to CDC or WHO.
