KUALA LUMPUR: An old Hollywood movie that bears an unsettling similarity to what is currently happening in the world following the coronavirus outbreak has become a popular watch.
Various news reports revealed that the 2011 thriller, Contagion, had recently entered iTunes’ Top Movie List chart alongside more current fare, such as Oscar nominees Ford v Ferrari, Joker, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Parasite.
The movie that eerily predicts the outbreak is helmed by Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh and features a stellar cast made up of Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslet.
It begins with a woman, played by Paltrow, who suffers from a mild cold in Hong Kong during a business trip.
After returning to her home in the US, her health starts to deteriorate rapidly.
As the movie progresses, medical researchers and public health officials race against time to identify and contain the disease as the number of deaths exponentially increase around the world leading to social unrest and panic.
Contagion garnered commercial success after its release and was described by critics as “an exceptionally smart and scary disaster movie.”
The coronavirus was reported to have killed over 170 people in China and infected over 7,700 others in more than a dozen countries so far.
Apparently, the virus, which has now spread to every region in mainland China, is believed to have originated from Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province, where most cases and deaths have been reported.