I recommend the movie
Contagion. I admit, I approached the film with some cynicism: "How many ways can you make an outbreak-type movie?" I was pleasantly surprised. This is Steven Soderberg's treatment of cocaine in his 2000 movie
Traffic now applied to diseases. It has less action but is better pacing. Again we have a star-studded ensemble cast, and the aim was realism over melodrama (keeping it true to Soderberg form). What would really happen if humanity faced another race-killing pandemic or at least bring it on the verge of dystopia? The writer Scott Burns did his homework regarding epidemiological investigation and in identifying major players. Well done Burns in laying out a plausible scenario.
Without providing any spoilers, some questions to address after seeing this movie are:
- From public health/safety/security perspectives, how can we promote the good and minimize the harm?
- How can we deal with issues of motivating/controlling human behavior?
- How do we choose whom to protect/save when resource, time and options are limited?
- How can we disseminate information and resources in a trustworthy manner that would not create mass panic/riot and infrastructure breakdown?
This movie also got me thinking about the
greed and idiocy that informed the behavior of many during the recent London riots. Perhaps the further we are removed from suffering and tragedy, the less prepared we are to effectively confront crises.
Addendum: It turns out the pathogen antagonist in the movie is based on actual
emerging virus.
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