Outbreak (1995)

Author: Nathanael Molnár, originally published [4/14/2020]

I know for many people, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a time to revisit a lot of films about similar situations. Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion is a fan-favorite, as are some of the more science fiction angled movies like 28 Days Later or World War Z. I recently watched the 1995 Wolfgang Peterson-directed movie, Outbreak for the first time, which is currently available on Netflix.

The film stars Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr., and (regrettably) Kevin Spacey. The story follows a group of doctors trying to find the host of a rapidly spreading disease that could wipe out the entire world’s population in a matter of hours.

Watching Outbreak in the context of today’s current conditions was rather interesting. Moviegoers seeing this in theaters in 1995 may have had a far different experience, be it better or worse. Perhaps they thought the extent to which things are pushed in the film were extreme or unrealistic. However, the situations presented in the film aren’t entirely inconceivable.

Mass military occupation, killing people trying to escape quarantine, and bombing infected areas, is not a stretch. Not necessarily in the sense that this could be a response to COVID-19. Rather, considering our reaction to something like COVID-19, this very easily could be our response to something far deadlier. The film’s Motaba virus kills far more people at a far quicker rate. Considering how COVID-19 has been handled (or mishandled), it makes one wonder what would happen to the world if something on the scale of Motaba broke out; it actually makes Outbreak look rather optimistic.