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How the movie ‘Contagion’ perfectly predicted the 2020 coronavirus crisis

The COVID-19 crisis caught a lot of people flat-footed — including an alarming number of people in government — but to anyone who’s seen “Contagion,” this all seems a bit like deja vu.

The drama, which hit theaters in 2011, is about a regular family man (Matt Damon) trying to navigate a partial societal collapse after a deadly virus sweeps across the globe. As of Friday, it was the third most popular movie on iTunes — and the only film in the top 10 that didn’t come out in 2019.

The filmmakers, including director Steven Soderbergh and writer Scott Burns, set out to make a film that was as realistic as possible. And they accomplished that, in part, by consulting numerous real-life epidemiological experts.

“Their goal was to try and really show people as accurate a picture that could be conjured, in hopes that it would motivate political leaders to get mobilized,” says Laurie Garrett, one of those health experts consulted by the filmmakers.

Garrett is a former senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations who has been tracking outbreaks for decades. She published the bestselling book “The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance” in 1994.

In early versions of the film script, the bug was going to be related to the flu virus that killed millions in 1918. But then a virus from the same subtype — H1N1 — known as the “swine flu” hit in 2009, luckily with limited casualties.

“It wasn’t a super virulent strain,” Garrett says. “It made no sense to use that because humanity had just gone through it.”

So the script was rewritten to focus on a hypothetical virus that originated in Hong Kong, designed with the help of Ian Lipkin, the director of Columbia’s Center for Infection and Immunity.

“We’ve generally seen a lot [of diseases] arising out of Asia because of the tremendous disruption in that part of the world,” Garrett says. “Bats and birds are deeply stressed because of deforestation and climate change.”

In “Contagion,” a bat drops a piece of a fruit, which is eaten by a pig. That pig is then slaughtered for consumption, passing on a virus to humans.

Scientists believe that the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 300,000 people worldwide and claimed over 11,000 lives, may also have come from bats.

“Bats have a high index of viruses in their saliva,” Garrett says.

None of these viruses harm the bats themselves, serving as a defense mechanism to ward off predators.

One of the reasons “Contagion” feels so prescient is because of its myriad subplots, each representative of events and behaviors that Garrett says almost always come with a pandemic. “Contagion” not only gives an illuminating glimpse into what happened — but what might.

“I’ve been in more than 30 epidemics, and the same things happen over and over again,” Garrett says.

“We always get scumbags off the Internet claiming to have a cure,” the author adds.

In the film, Jude Law plays an unscrupulous blogger who asserts forsythia, a flowering plant, can kill the virus. In real life, we have Alex Jones and Jim Bakker peddling supposed elixirs on TV.

The movie also nails the range of psychological reactions that come during an outbreak.

None of these viruses harm the bats themselves, serving as a defense mechanism to ward off predators.

One of the reasons “Contagion” feels so prescient is because of its myriad subplots, each representative of events and behaviors that Garrett says almost always come with a pandemic. “Contagion” not only gives an illuminating glimpse into what happened — but what might.

“I’ve been in more than 30 epidemics, and the same things happen over and over again,” Garrett says.

“We always get scumbags off the Internet claiming to have a cure,” the author adds.

In the film, Jude Law plays an unscrupulous blogger who asserts forsythia, a flowering plant, can kill the virus. In real life, we have Alex Jones and Jim Bakker peddling supposed elixirs on TV.

The movie also nails the range of psychological reactions that come during an outbreak.

For another, “cancel all your travel plans. You’re not going anywhere,” Garrett says. If you have an out-of-town relative you’d like to be near, go “there today or tomorrow, because pretty soon you’re not going to have [the option].”

But on an uplifting note, “Contagion” does offer one final, all-important message, Garrett says:

“Society is better off in a plague when everyone works together and cares for one another and tries to muddle through a nightmare.”

Onward retains top spot at the box office, amidst record lows due to coronavirus concerns

Onward has retained its top spot at the box office during its second week in theaters with $10.5 million, during a weekend that marked the lowest theatergoing turnout in over two decades.

The animated Pixar film took a major hit as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep the globe, with major events and film releases being canceled or pushed back. On Friday, AMC Theaters and Regal announced it would be reducing the amount of tickets available for screenings by 50 percent as part of an effort to promote “social distancing.”

“This was predestined to be a very low grossing weekend at the box office with social distancing protocols seeing movie theaters appropriately taking steps to ensure the safety and health of their patrons and employees while still presenting movies to consumers who had the desire to partake in the escape that the movie theater experience has traditionally provided,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst for Comscore.

Following Onward in second place is I Still Believe with $9.5 million and Bloodshot $9.3 million — both new entries this weekend. Rounding out the top five are The Invisible Man ($6 million) and The Hunt ($5.3 million).

I Still Believe tells the real-life story of Christan music superstar Jeremy Camp (K.J. Apa) and his journey through love and loss while also finding his way in the music industry. Britt Robertson portrays Camp’s first wife Melissa Lynn Henning-Camp (Britt Robertson), who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer before they were married. Gary Sinise and Shania Twain play Camp’s parents, Tom and Terry, respectively. Moviegoers gave the film an A via Cinemascore.

F9 may have been delayed but Vin Diesel is in theaters right now in the film Bloodshot, based on the best selling comic book of the same name. Diesel stars as Ray Garrison, a marine who was killed in action then resurrected with superpowers by an evil corporation.

With Garrison, now known as the superhero Bloodshot, the RST corporation has an unstoppable weapon on their hands that can heal instantly. But they’re also controlling his mind, and he can’t tell what’s real and what’s not but he’s trying to figure it out. The David S.F. Wilson film co-stars Eiza Gonzalez, Guy Pearce, Sam Heughan, and Toby Kebbell.

EW gave the film a C+ saying, “it’s a lot of bog-standard action stuff glommed onto a deeper metaphysical muddle; Inception drawn in extra-thick Sharpie and testosterone.” Moviegoers liked it a bit more, giving it a B via Cinemascore.

Blumhouse Productions finally dropped the long-delayed satirical thriller The Hunt, starring Betty Gilpin, Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts, and Hilary Swank. The film follows 12 strangers who wake up mysteriously in a clearing, unsure how they got there or where they are. They soon discover they’ve been chosen to be hunted in a game created by a group of elites, but not all of the players are willing to be pawns.

EW gave the film a B+ saying, “The big disappointment with The Hunt is that it never feels so ahead of the curve. It’s a complicated form of 2016 catharsis, condemning recognizable pastiches of the left and the right. And yet, there’s a playful terror in its portrayal of people getting trapped by silly things they type.” Cinemascore reports moviegoers gave the film a C+.

Overall, the box office is down 8.7 percent year-to-date, according to Comscore. Check out the March 13-15 numbers below:

Onward— $10.5 million
I Still Believe— $9.5 million
Bloodshot— $9.3 million
The Invisible Man—$6 million
The Hunt— $5.3 million
Sonic the Hedgehog — $2.6 million
The Way Back—$2.4 million
The Call of the Wild—$2.2 million
Emma —$1.4 million
Bad Boy for Life — $1.1 million