We can’t seem to get enough of movies imitating our very real anxieties. In the context of the media panic surrounding the current coronavirus, the 2011 film Contagion is making a comeback.
The Guardian even reported that Contagion broke into iTunes’ top 10 rented movies last week. We can only speculate as to why there has been a spike in Contagion viewings. Perhaps people are curious to see what the next few weeks might hold. Perhaps they’re looking for hope (spoiler alert: you won’t find any). Films can serve as escapism, but they can also fuel masochist desires that thrive on a dash of realism to make life a real-word horror movie.
Undeniably, the fictional virus in Contagion and the coronavirus do share startling similarities in that they both originated in China and have something to do with a bat.
But while the film can be argued as accurate in its depiction of virus transmission, viewers cannot forget its fictional nature and seeking guidance or emotional support from this blockbuster seems missguided. The virus in the film killed 26 million people by Day 26. That is not what we are dealing with, so let’s take a breather everyone.
I worry about articles like CNN’s “The movies that predicted an outbreak like coronavirus” that imply we are in a similar situation and soon to be descending into madness, or that a virus is novel, which it is not. While the reactions to events in Contagion are plausible, I would argue that they’re not something to follow.
But what Contagion does well, and yet somehow still propagates, is conveying how fear can be a worse enemy to humanity than a virus. As long as we don’t have the technology to eliminate this coronavirus, expect people, undoubtedly stoked by the media, to be scared shitless.
In the film, the Alex Jones-type internet blogging character Krumweide falsely tells people that he was cured of the virus with the herbal supplement forsythia. Because people are desperate for any way to prevent and control the disease, they trample each other in pharmacies trying to get a hold of the useless treatment, breaking social bonds and ironically increasing their chances of spreading disease.
A television host interviewing Krumweide, sums up the danger of this mob mentality best. “In order to become sick,” he says, “you have to first come into contact with a sick person or something that they touched. In order to get scared, all you have to do is come into contact with a rumor, or the television, or the internet. I think what Mr. Krumwiede is spreading is far more dangerous than the disease.”
Let that be a warning to make sure we’re reading reliable sources and not spreading fear and distrust based on rumors. Contagion, more than a horror movie, is a good reminder not to let fear get the best of us. It is far more dangerous than the coronavirus. Along those lines though, it might be advisable not to watch Contagion at this moment because it’s pretty damn terrifying and we really don’t need any more anxiety.
Image: via GatesNotes.com