Films that kind of predicted the coronavirus pandemic
Olivia Owen updates
Imagination knows no boundaries. It can penetrate time and space and envisage imminent occurrences that leave us astonished with its accuracy. It’s said that Morgan Robertson’s novel, The Wreck Of Titan, published in 1898, predicted the sinking of the Titanic full 14 years before it actually happened. Dean Koontz’s 1981 novel, The Eyes Of Darkness, mentions a Wuhan virus, which was developed as a bio-weapon. We trace some of the films and web series, which bear a close resemblance to the present coronavirus crisis...
Contagion (2011)
Director: Steven Soderbergh Even scientists agree that the portrayal of how the virus came about and how it spread in the film is the closest to real-life happenings. The disease in the movie, called MEV-1, is zoonotic in nature. A bulldozer is razing trees where bats live. A pigpen is constructed in the cleared space. A bat drops a piece of banana that it’s eating. A pig, in turn, eats it and gets infected. A chef later butchers the pig and prepares it as a dish. He later shakes hands with Gwyneth Paltrow’s character, infecting her. Whoever she comes in contact with is a potential victim and host. The rest of the film is spent in coding that chain, which doctors are currently doing in real life. Her husband, played by Matt Damon, however, doesn’t get infected. That’s also not impossible as some individuals do have immunity to such things.
Fatal Contact:
Bird Flu in America (2006)
Director: Richard Pearce Some people predict a doomsday-like scenario. This depressing film shows all their grim predictions coming true. An American businessman, visiting China, is infected with a mutated bird flu virus. Soon, America and then the rest of the world is infected. There are food shortages everywhere, rioting and looting become routine and up to 350 million people die worldwide. The end is bleak indeed. Just when the authorities think they have beaten the virus, news comes that a remote Angolan village is wiped out by a new mutation of the virus.
Director: Park Sang-hun An episode of this hugely popular South Korean series mentioned coronavirus as a man-made bioweapon. The episode has a man telling his partner to stay home to be safe. This is much like the ‘social distancing’ we’re currently adhering to. The episode also has a doctor explaining that this mutant coronavirus attacks the respiratory organs, which is true of the real-life coronavirus as well. The 1995 film Outbreak too talked about the US developing a superbug as a bioweapon.
Director: Kinji Fukasaku At the beginning of this mini-series, two American surfers bid goodbye to each other at an Australian beach. They fail to notice the bird corpses lying around. On the way back on the flight, the surfer starts coughing up blood and dies before the plane lands. The other surfer is found dead in Australia. The authorities start processing people to be put in quarantine until they can be evaluated for exposure. During their transfer to a remote place, one of the passengers escapes to complete a business deal. Unknowingly, he spreads the virus throughout Los Angeles. Outbreaks of the virus occur in other cities around the world as well.
Virus (1980)
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
This Japanese movie mentions the outbreak of an ‘Italian Flu’, which has wiped out most
of the world’s population. Given that Italy leads the death count right now, the coincidence is mind-boggling. A group of survivors find sanctuary on Antarctica. But the threat of a nuclear war, perpetuated by Russia looms large over the motley of virus-free individuals. The film was the costliest Japanese film made then. It boasted of several Hollywood faces as well.
Director: Byron Howard & Nathan Greno Let’s end this rather morbid tale on a lighter note. We all love Disney’s animated take on Rapunzel’s story. Well, if you google the name of the town where she was born, you’ll come up with Corona. This has led to conspiracy theorists putting forward a new twist to the fairy tale. They claim Mother Gothel was quarantining Rapunzel from Corona by locking her in the tower -- basically enforcing social distancing... More on: coronavirus, films
