Government official: “Is there any way that someone could weaponize the bird flu? Is that what we’re looking at?”
Dr. Ellis Cheever: “Someone doesn’t have to weaponize the bird flu. The birds are doing that.”
Government official: “Is there any way that someone could weaponize the bird flu? Is that what we’re looking at?”
Dr. Ellis Cheever: “Someone doesn’t have to weaponize the bird flu. The birds are doing that.”
Contagion (film)
Dr. Ellis Cheever (Lawrence Fishburne) is the CDC’s deputy director. It’s his job to oversee all of the frantic investigative work and research that’s being done to isolate the deadly airborne disease that’s quickly claiming lives. When a government official suggests the virus may be a weapon, he quickly fires back that they don’t have to – the virus is becoming a weapon on its own.
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Contagion is a 2011 medical thriller disaster film. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film features an ensemble cast that includes Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, and Jennifer Ehle. Contagion’s plot documents the spread of a virus transmitted by fomites, attempts by medical researchers and public health officials to identify and contain the disease, the loss of social order in a pandemic, and finally the introduction of a vaccine to halt its spread. The film makes use of a “hyperlink narrative” style popularized in several of Soderbergh’s other films to follow several interacting plot lines.
Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns had collaborated on The Informant!
(2009). Following that film’s release, the two considered creating a biopic covering Leni Riefenstahl’s life before Burns brought up the idea of producing a medical thriller film depicting a virus’ rapid spread, which was inspired by various pandemics such as the 2003 SARS epidemic and the 2009 flu pandemic. To devise an accurate perception of a pandemic event, Burns consulted with representatives of the World Health Organization as well as noted medical experts such as W. Ian Lipkin and Lawrence “Larry” Brilliant. Principal photography started in Hong Kong in September, and continued in Chicago, Atlanta, London, Geneva, and San Francisco until February 2011.
Contagion premiered at the 68th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on September 3, 2011, and went into general release on September 9. The film was well received by critics, who praised the narratives and the performances of various actors and actresses. Commercially, the film was a box office success. Budgeted at US$60 million, Contagion went on to acquire US$135 million during its theatrical run.