/Filmcast E-Mails

A Scientist Weighs in on Contagion’s Accuracy

[Spoilers ahead. Here’s our review of Contagion]

/Filmcasters,

Per your curiosity regarding a scientific perspective on *Contagion*, I have an MS in Molecular Biology, and saw the film with a friend who has a PhD in the same field. We were impressed with the scientific language used to describe the virus and its spread, as well as the depictions of BSL 3 and 4 lab work. As far as we could tell, they got it mostly right.

I felt some of your other comments also warranted a scientist’s response, however, especially those on Jude Law’s character, the last scene, and Matt Damon’s immunity.

Several of you seemed to find Jude Law’s character to be almost a cartoon villain, and were a dubious about whether his depiction was in line with the more procedural realism in the rest of the film. I’m sorry to say that, at least in medical science, it’s all too common for charlatans to frighten people with paranoid conspiracy theories and justify themselves by claiming to be skeptics with a duty to inform the public. Check out Andrew Wakefield’s claim that the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine causes autism and bowel disorders; it’s a good example, but far from the only one. It’s also not uncommon for those charlatans to profit from their fear-mongering. To me, then, Law’s character, far from being a caricature, was another instance of Soderbergh’s commitment to realism.

In regards to the ending, which some of you described as “ham-fisted”: I agree that the bulldozers with the corporate logo on them might have been a teensy bit blatant. Again, though, there’s some science to consider. It’s been theorized that the appearance of some emerging diseases, such as HIV, Ebola, and SARS, might be related to environmental depredations - that people moving into wild areas, in many cases due to corporate projects like the one depicted in *Contagion*, are more likely to acquire and spread new diseases (for a good discussion of this, check out Laurie Garrett’s long but engrossing book *The Coming Plague*). So, like Jude Law’s character, I found that final scene another great example of realism, even if it was pretty ham-fisted.

Finally, someone asked why Matt Damon’s immunity was never pursued as a treatment option for others, and/or why a test wasn’t developed. First, the treatment question: the short answer is that, like immunity to HIV or malaria, it would probably be a genetic condition that couldn’t be given to others in the form of a medication. As for the test, if my previous guess is right, testing would require running some sort of genetic analysis - quick for the relatively small number women who want to know if they have the “breast cancer gene” or men who want to know if they’re going to get Huntington’s disease, but slow if you have to test everyone in the world (think of Baltar’s Cylon detector on BSG).

So, that’s my two cents on *Contagion*. Thanks for reading all the way to the end, and keep up the great work.

-Joe from Columbus, OH