Who could have imagined, when we entered 2020, that we’d be encouraged by our bosses to work from home, covetously stockpile pasta and anything in a jar, and get snippy with strangers over the last toilet roll in the supermarket? Or, indeed, that watching pandemic movies would suddenly become the next big thing?
But then we hadn’t anticipated the global spread of coronavirus, resulting in nationwide lockdowns, self-isolation for the sick and at-risk, and entertainment venues being shut indefinitely.
As a result, there’s been a resurgence of interest in pandemic-themed films, with people apparently finding cathartic release in seeing their anxieties play out onscreen. But don’t take these depictions of social collapse, martial law, and apocalypse too seriously – they’re enjoyably exaggerated entertainments, mostly skimping on scientific facts.
So, whether stuck indoors or just trying to find some relevant escapism, we’ve compiled a list of the best films about pandemics available to stream right now.
1 . CONTAGION
Oscar®-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven films, Traffic) returns to large-scale cinema with this global action thriller that revolves around the threat of a deadly outbreak of a fatal disease and the people determined to keep it at bay. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart. A stellar international ensemble cast including Academy Award® winners Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and nominees Jude Law and Laurence Fishburne portray the dedicated doctors at the CDC and World Health Organization who rush to contain the outbreak of a new virus
2. PANDEMIC
Pandemic is set in the near future, where a virus of epic proportions has overtaken the planet. There are more infected than uninfected, and humanity is losing its grip on survival. Its only hope is finding a cure and keeping the infected contained. Lauren (Rachel Nichols) is a doctor, who, after the fall of New York, comes to Los Angeles to lead a team to hunt for and rescue uninfected survivors.
3. PATIENT ZERO
After an outbreak of a mutated form of rabies that spreads from animals to humans, over 7 billion humans are dead or infected. People who are bitten turn rabid in 90 seconds. Morgan was riding in a car with his wife Janet when they were attacked. He was infected, but remained human with the ability to talk with the infected.
Now with a large group of civilians, CDC scientists and U.S. military in an underground nuclear base, Morgan and virologist Dr. Gina Rose bring in the infected and interrogate them, hoping to find Patient Zero and devise a cure. Gina struggles with tensions between herself, Morgan, and Colonel Knox, compounded by Gina and Knox having had an intimate relationship in the past, while she is intimate with Morgan now. While interrogating an infected, who Morgan has named Joe Cocker, Knox shoots the patient
4. TRAIN TO BUSAN
Fund manager Seok-woo is a cynical workaholic and divorced father of his daughter Su-an, who wants to spend her birthday with her mother in Busan. Seok-woo decides to indulge Su-an’s wish after seeing a video of her choking at the mic at her singing recital, which he had missed. The next day, they board the KTX 101 at Seoul Station, passing a flaming skyscraper on the way there. Other passengers include Sang-hwa and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong, COO Yon-suk, a high school baseball team including Yong-guk and his cheerleader girlfriend Jin-hee, elderly sisters In-gil and Jong-gil, and a traumatized homeless stowaway hiding in the bathroom. As the train departs, an ill young woman runs onto the train unnoticed. She turns into a zombie and attacks a train attendant, who also turns. The infection spreads rapidly throughout the train.
5.Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak
Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak is a 2020 American documentary series about pandemics. It was released on Netflix on January 22, 2020.[1] The series covers a range of issues relating to pandemics, such as the possibility of an influenza pandemic and research on achieving a universal vaccine, to emerging viruses, anti-vaxxers, and the Ebola virus disease outbreak in Africa.
