Fact-Checking 'Contagion' — In Wake Of Coronavirus, The 2011 Movie Is Trending
The current list of top trending movie rentals and purchases were all released within the last few months with one notable exception: Contagion, the Gwyneth Paltrow-starring film from 2011 about a worldwide virus outbreak that starts in Hong Kong.
The thriller, in which — spoiler alert — Paltrow dies four days after contracting the virus but not before unleashing it around the world and causing millions of deaths, has been as high as No. 10 among films rented or bought on iTunes. Chatter on Twitter: ("So many similarities between the movie plot and what's happening now," wrote one user) could be fueling the renewed interest. Google searches with the film's name have skyrocketed since early 2020, when news of the novel coronavirus first broke.
There are indeed some similarities to the current coronavirus outbreak. Like the novel coronavirus, now called COVID-19, the movie virus jumped from animals to people. But there are also a lot of differences. disease kills over 20% of those infected; a magnitude beyond the estimated 2 or so percent of deaths in the current outbreak.
