Was ‘CONTAGION’ a peek into the future?

It seems incredible to discover a coincidence of our current situation of the spread of COVID-19 in a movie that was released nine years ago! Did Robin Cook (the author of the book ‘Contagion’) have a premonition? Did he travel forward in time? Did he get a vision from the future, that is, from the year 2020? If not, then it is an incredulous and terrifying coincidence that he imagined a situation with such accuracy as the current real-world scenario.

The film Contagion boasts of an ensemble star cast with names like Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, and Laurence Fishburne. This thriller, directed by Steven Soderbergh with the screenplay by Scott Z Burns, provides us solid scientific evidence of the due course of its events.

The movie begins with the sound of a cough from a woman, Beth Emhoff (portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow) who evidently has a mysterious, undiscovered, deadly disease. Soon afterward, both she and her son die of the disease. Knowingly or unknowingly they begin the chain reaction of the virus which evolves into a pandemic claiming the lives of millions. (Sounds familiar?)

The film realistically depicts the contact tracing process, the need for social distancing and the effect of a complete lockdown. On one hand, it shows the selfishness of humans when they are put together in a grave situation with essential supplies running out. On the other hand, it shows the selflessness of the health workers and the volunteers who work relentlessly, day in and day out. It also outlines the unreliability of certain bloggers and social media activists who take advantage of the situation to spread fake news.

The film, though a commercial one, has no drama or masala added to it. When it released, scientists said that such a situation was definitely probable and the measures depicted were logical.

It certainly seems like an out-of-the-world experience to witness our current situation in a nine-year-old film. The most unfathomable aspect is, the virus depicted in the film has the same symptoms of COVID-19: cough, fever, severe headache, nausea, etc.

The question brooding now is, shouldn’t we have taken the cue from this film and started our precautions a little earlier? If we read the signs correctly and correlated to this film on time, we may have been able to save a lot more lives.

If this doesn’t give you goosebumps, then I wonder what will!