The next movie you should watch while stuck in your house is “Contagion.” Made in 2011, it stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, and Jude Law.

Not too differently from Covid-19, the virus arrives in the United States when Paltrow’s character returns home from a Hong Kong business trip.  Her symptoms start immediately after she returned to the United States, but she initially thought it was a case of jet lag. She then sought medical attention and was diagnosed with the flu, but it becomes apparent that it was so much more.

Just two days after returning from Hong Kong, she died. After her death, symptoms of the virus appear in her young son and husband. Her son falls ill and dies, while her husband is quarantined by doctors while a battery of tests is completed.

It is later discovered that he is immune to the mysterious virus. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, London, and a small providence, there are also numerous cases of the same kind of virus. The CDC and WHO work together to try to discover and treat the virus.

The movie becomes a race against the clock as the virus continues to spread throughout the globe. If no solution is found, the world as we know it would cease to exist.

Junior Chris Capuozzo picked this movie during the stay at-home-order because he felt it was a good interpretation of today’s current events. Capuozzo said, “My favorite aspect of the movie was how chaotic the virus spread; all of the workers and specialists in the movie did not know what to do with the virus at all.”

Although the movie was made in 2011 it is a good representation of how our society as a whole is affected by COVID-19. Capuozzo said, “I recommend the movie because it is very similar to the times that we are in right now. It is very unprecedented and shocking to see that a movie predicted the events going on in our current society.”

Gibson thinks there’s a message to learn from this movie. Gibson said, “Things that come up in the world need to be addressed quickly before it gets out of hand. This movie could have been taken as a real eye-opener to how badly a virus could become if not treated quickly and efficiently by society and government officials.”

‘Contagion’ should be used as a reference for COVID-19 and other contagious disease outbreaks, as it presents a prime example as to what can happen when we do not act in an efficient way. These things can take out large populations of the whole in short periods of time, we must work to stop them before it’s too late.