Incredibly, there are still many out there claiming that the Coronavirus pandemic is a hoax, despite over 1.4 million people having lost their lives and over 60 million cases being confirmed worldwide. COVID-19 has seen virtually every nation on the planet enforce some sort of restrictions on society, and many of us are still dealing with curbs and lockdowns eight months after it was first declared a global emergency.
When the infectious disease appeared in Wuhan and began claiming fatalities in January, Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 thriller Contagion almost instantly experienced a huge surge in popularity, becoming one of the most popular titles in the Warner Bros. library. Of course, watching a star-studded cast deal with the onset of a deadly virus that leads to the government dumping bodies on the street as the threat explodes across the planet hardly sounds like comfort viewing, and if anything, it only made people more frightened of what could potentially end up happening.
Contagion was a decent sized box office hit after earning over $136 million on a $60 million budget, and it was widely praised by scientists for the accurate depictions of how things unfolded. In fact, in a recent interview, star Jude Law admitted that he wasn’t surprised in the slightest by current events given the level of research and detail that went into the script, explaining:
“There was absolutely the sense that this was going to happen. The great scientists on set with us who had worked with Scott Z. Burns, the writer, and Steven Soderbergh were very learned and experienced individuals who knew what to expect. And they all said to us that this was going to happen, and it was a case of when rather than if. The way they described it, which is exactly as it has happened, just made sense. What’s scary is you learn in a set like that because you’re being advised by experts, but it doesn’t necessarily sit. When 2020 started, and we heard about what was initially happening in China, what fast became apparent around the world, it rang alarm bells. Unfortunately, I wasn’t hugely surprised.”
The Coronavirus has changed life as we know it, and there’s still no sign of things returning to normal anytime soon. Any movie that predicts the future is largely based on coincidence, but Contagion nonetheless gained a new level of prescience as COVID-19 began to slowly seep into the very fibers of our existence and alter our lifestyles for the foreseeable future.