THE BLACK Death of 1347 killed 25 million in Europe; smallpox in the 18th century claimed even more lives with 60 million.
By the following century the big killer was tuberculosis, taking one quarter of the adult population in Europe; the Spanish flu of 1918 killed 25 to 50 million - the human race is always at risk of emerging diseases, something that Contagion highlights only too clearly.
The beauty or, should I say, the shocking aspect of Contagion is how believable it actually is - one person on a business trip contracts a new, highly contagious virus and within just a few days there is an epidemic, with the US Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation racing against time to come up with a cure while society begins to break down and conspiracy theories on the get-rich motives of the pharmaceutical industry emerge.
With a number of interconnected stories, this thriller is intelligent and gripping, examining society and human nature when attacked by a deadly disease.
Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow ) returns home following a business trip to Hong Kong and comes down with what is believed to be a flu. Within just a few days she is rushed to hospital where she dies, leaving her husband Mitch (Matt Damon ) in complete shock.
However, there is more heartbreak when his young son also succumbs to the deadly infection, which soon spreads uncontrolably. Despite out-spoken internet blogger Alan Krumwied (Jude Law ) reporting on cases of the disease as far away as Japan, no one is prepared to listen, and it is a number of days, and deaths, later that the US Center for Disease Control finally realises the true extent of the situation, sending in field agent Dr Erin Mears (Kate Winslet ) to determine the source.
As the contagion spreads worldwide it emerges that it could be several months before a vaccine is found. Meanwhile Mitch, who seems immune, tries desperately to protect his daughter from infection, Krumwied attempts to inform the world of the profit practices of the government and pharmaceutical industry, and the inhabitants of a village in China, nearly totally wiped out by the disease, take desperate measures to claim their right to a vaccine.
Perhaps not the best thriller I have ever seen, but it is certainly attention grabbing and, by keeping the action to a minimum, it manages to retain as much reality as possible, making the threat of a deadly contagion even scarier.
Verdict: 4/5
