I’ve entertained the thought but in the end decided not to.
Nope - do not want to.
There aren’t that many, unless you’re willing to consider Zombie movies as part of the epidemic movie genre.
I think Contagion is actually improved by living through something so very similar. It really hammers home how well researched and thought out that movie was. And living the reality also makes it clear what a disgraceful trash fire Outbreak was. The Netflix documentary Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak is well done, but the impact is kind of lessened by watching how all of these people doing their job didn’t actually prevent said outbreak, or mitigate, or how the anti-vaxx scum being anti-vaxx scum isn’t what fucked us over. 12 Monkeys is on the to-watch list, but I fear it hasn’t aged well.
Anything else people would recommend?
A friend of mine got halfway through Contagion the other night before his wife decided they’d seen enough.
In a related vein, I’m contemplating re-reading Stephen King’s The Stand. It’s the unabridged (read: long) version, so maybe we’ll be out of quarantine by the time I’m finished with it! I liked the mid-90’s miniseries that was based on the book, but I’m afraid it’ll be too dated to watch again. Plus, there’s a newer version in the works with one of the Skarsgard brothers as the Walking Man. Not sure if it’ll see the light of day in our current environment, though.
I watched them all around 4 weeks ago, when this was a big topic in China but not yet in the US (and, I naively thought US would have issues, but CDC would be on top of sooner than later). They were fun to watch then, but I don’t think I could stomach them knowing how badly the prep has gone.
World War Z is another good one that actually feels more pandemic than zombie-genre, although obviously zombies play a big role.
I also entertained the idea of re-watching Contagion when the virus was contained to China but now shit’s gotten a little too real. With that said, I think it’s a fantastic movie.
What I’d really like to do is watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy for a bit of escapism but Netflix doesn’t seem to have the extended versions.
I have been recommending the Andromeda Strain (the older version) to all my young fellow employees.
I will say the problem I have with The Stand is that it isn’t much of a Stand.
This isn’t a movie, but I am reading Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic and it’s a really informative look at all of the major viruses that went from animals to humans, learning alot that I didn’t know and it’s written in an engaging style.
I watched a few minutes of Pandemic before deciding against it, but I was surprised at the leading researcher citing Outbreak as the movie that inspired her to pursue her career. I think it is a very entertaining flick.
By contrast, Contagion may be 1000x more realistic but I can barely remember a thing about it (like most of Soderbergh’s movies).
Thanks, bought it. The first chapter was great, if grim.
These kind of movies have been popular on my Plex server in the week leading up the lockdown. Now that there’s a lockdown there are more immediate anxieties people want to distract themselves with escapist fare.
I remember Carriers being pretty good. I’ll have to give it a rewatch now that the plague apocalypse is upon us. And maybe Surrogates with Bruce Willis, now that we’ve all become shut-ins.
12 Monkeys is still great. It’s clearly 25 years old, but I don’t think there’s any reason not to re-watch it.
The original 12 Monkeys hit me hard. It was really well done , and by the end I was just NOOOOOOOOOOO! noooooo (whimpers).
I really like Outbreak. It’s got Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman in it and neither one of them is just phoning it in. I have no idea about the science, but as far as being a fun movie it gets top marks from me.
It’s been a long time but was Michael Crichton’s Congo a film in this vein? Or did it just involve monkeys?
Just skull-smashing gorilla-like monstrosities. Now that is a bad film. The book was much better IMO.
A lot of people are. Half of the trending movies on Netflix are contagion based. Syfy’s 12 Monkeys has seen a recent resurgence as well. Myself, I am not. I watch movies to escape reality, not to feed my paranoia.
The Omega Man was a favorite from my childhood, but that’s more of an after-the-pandemic movie. Recently re-watched J.C.'s The Thing, which is still quite good, and sort of fits the bill. And another vote for The Andromeda Strain (Michael Crichton again). Real good 70’s movie with the focus on the science and spread of a virus brought to Earth from space.