THE REWATCHABLES · March 8, 2020
A 2011 drama / thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh, covered in the complete Rewatchables archive.
ON THIS EPISODE
FROM THE CONVERSATION
WHY IT WORKS
WHAT DID NOT WORK
SCENES THEY KEPT COMING BACK TO
The black-screen cough and quick-cut sequence of touch surfaces is treated as one of the most effective horror-style openings.
Opening minutesThe choice to start with day two and reveal patient zero near the end is praised as clever and suspenseful.
About 8 minWinslet waking up coughing is singled out as one of the movie’s most horrifying beats.
About 16 minHer early death, the shocked expression, and the autopsy are discussed as deeply disturbing and memorable.
About 32 minThe urgent call telling a person to drive alone and avoid everyone is praised as dramatically powerful.
About 40 minThe final reveal of pigs and the restaurant kitchen is described as chilling and well done.
About 40 minWHERE THEY DISAGREED
Bill SimmonsSees the adultery as a storytelling device that helps move the virus across cities.
Sean FennesseyThinks there is moral judgment in the cheating plot, though it is not the main point.
Bill SimmonsThinks the character felt like a blogger caricature in 2011.
Chris RyanArgues he now reads more like a modern conspiracy-profiteer figure.
Bill SimmonsSuggests he would personally follow that advice immediately.
Sean FennesseyNotes the scene shows the tension between warning family and risking spread.
Says the movie feels uncanny and almost predictive of the coronavirus moment.
Opening minutesSays the first 20 minutes are eerily prescient and make science legible in a useful way.
Opening minutesRemembers it as a scary movie he only watched once until now.
Opening minutesArgues the cough and the surface-contamination imagery now feel like horror-movie cues.
Opening minutesSays the movie’s fast, global montage and serious tone are classic Soderbergh strengths.
Opening minutesNotes that the film reflects a more optimistic 2011 belief in global scientific collaboration than feels true now.
Opening minutesLikes that the movie follows many characters and institutions instead of becoming a single-family disaster film.
About 16 minInitially thinks the character feels like an attack on bloggers, but later concedes he resembles modern conspiracy media more closely.
About 24 minArgues the character anticipates social-media conspiracy culture because he can say anything if nothing can be proven.
About 24 minCalls the death and its aftermath a major source of the film’s fear and a strong structural choice.
About 32 minHighlights the urgency and moral difficulty of telling someone to drive alone and isolate immediately.
About 40 minFinds the autopsy sequence and the doctors’ confusion deeply disturbing.
About 40 minThinks the affair plot is mostly a storytelling device, though it also adds moral judgment.
About 40 minThe movie is discussed as eerily predictive of pandemic behavior, especially hand-washing, surface contamination, and public panic.
Opening minutesThe film is praised for translating complex epidemiology and public health response into a thriller format.
Opening minutesThe hosts stress that the film reflects how quickly social order, institutions, and international cooperation can break down.
Opening minutesThey connect the outbreak to deforestation and corporate behavior, reading the movie as suspicious of money and institutions.
About 16 minThe movie’s adultery plot is treated as a storytelling device, but also as part of its moral and emotional unease.
About 40 min · medium confidenceThe film was inspired by SARS, H1N1, and earlier pandemic concerns, and the script was developed with public-health experts.
About 8 minThe outbreak organism is called MEV-1 in the film.
Opening minutesThe movie uses a day-two opening and reveals day one at the end.
About 8 minSoderbergh and Scott Z. Burns consulted a Columbia public-health professor and Larry Brilliant.
About 8 minKate Winslet reportedly filmed her role in 10 days.
About 40 minMarion Cotillard was pregnant when she finished shooting.
About 40 minThe soundtrack was modeled in part on Marathon Man and The French Connection.
About 40 minThe soundtrack’s track titles include lines like 'Bat and Pig' and 'The Birds Are Doing That'.
About 40 minUsed to describe the film’s germ suspense and the impact of the opening cough.
Opening minutesMentioned as an example of a futuristic movie that felt distant rather than realistic.
Opening minutes · medium confidenceUsed as a contrast for speculative disaster fiction versus grounded pandemic science.
About 8 min · medium confidenceReferenced as the intellectual opposite of Contagion in Soderbergh’s filmography.
About 8 minCited as an earlier Soderbergh/Burns collaboration that also centers on institutions and corporate suspicion.
About 8 minMentioned as another Scott Z. Burns / Soderbergh collaboration.
About 16 min · medium confidenceUsed as a recent example of Soderbergh’s topic-driven storytelling.
About 16 minReferenced as a model for serious procedural journalism and investigation.
About 8 min · medium confidenceCited as another procedural movie that methodically follows a pursuit.
About 8 min · medium confidenceUsed to explain ensemble disaster-movie structure.
About 16 minAnother disaster-movie reference for ensemble plotting.
About 16 min · medium confidenceReferenced as an Altman-style ensemble model for multiple interlocking storylines.
About 24 minMentioned in the discussion of early-2010s skepticism about internet/blogging culture.
About 24 min · medium confidenceUsed as an example of an earlier Rewatchables conversation shaped by later cultural changes.
About 40 min · medium confidenceReferenced as an earlier example of a contagion-of-information plot line.
About 40 min · medium confidenceThe hosts riff repeatedly on bats as unsettling creatures and as the movie’s villainous animal vector.
About 32 minThey keep returning to the urgent instruction to leave Chicago, drive alone, and not tell anyone.
About 40 minA recurring bit contrasts the 2011 blogger read of Jude Law with the 2020 conspiracy-theory read.
About 24 minThey compare Contagion’s ensemble to distracting star-driven movies and discuss when famous actors pull viewers out of a film.
About 32 min“it's like hearing the music in Jaws”Opening minutes
“blogging is just graffiti with punctuation”About 24 min
“The birds are doing that”About 40 min
“Call everyone”About 40 min
“drive by yourself. You do it.”About 40 min
MAKE IT A MOVIE NIGHT
WHAT TO WATCH NEXT
Three movies to watch before Contagion, and three to watch next.
ON THE MIC
Bill SimmonsThe Rewatchables
Chris RyanThe Rewatchables
Sean FennesseyThe RewatchablesREWATCH FAVS
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