The new movie, Contagion, tells the story of how quickly a disease can be spread internationally. An international traveler reaches into the snack bowl at an airport bar before passing her credit card to a waiter. A business meeting begins with a round of handshakes. A man coughs on a crowded bus.. One contact. One instant. And a lethal virus is transmitted. Gwyneth Paltrow stars as a woman who returns to Minneapolis from business in Hong Kong. What she thought was jet lag takes a virulent turn. Two days later, she’s dead in the ER and the doctors tell her shocked and grieving husband, played by Matt Damon, they have no idea why. Soon, others exhibit the same mysterious symptoms: hacking coughs and fever, followed by seizure, brain hemorrhage…and ultimately, death. In Minneapolis, Chicago, London, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong, the numbers quickly multiply: one case becomes four, then sixteen, then hundreds, thousands, as the contagion sweeps across all borders, fueled by the countless human interactions that make up the course of an average day. A global pandemic explodes. At the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers mobilize to break the code of a unique biological pathogen as it continues to mutate. Deputy Director Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) tries to allay the growing panic despite his own personal concerns, and must send a brave young doctor (Kate Winslet) into harm’s way. At the same time, amid a rising tide of suspicion over a potential vaccine—and who gets it first—Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) of the World Health Organization works through the network of connections that could lead back to the source of what they’re dealing with. As the death toll escalates and people struggle to protect themselves and their loved ones in a society breaking down, one activist blogger (Jude Law) claims the public isn’t getting the truth about what’s really going on, and sets off an epidemic of paranoia and fear as infectious as the virus itself. Academy Award® winner Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic”) directs an all star cast, including, Marianne Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose,” “Inception”);Matt Damon (“Good Will Hunting,” the “Bourne” films); Laurence Fishburne (“What’s Love Got to Do With It,” “The Matrix”); Jude Law (“Cold Mountain,” “Sherlock Holmes”); Gwyneth Paltrow (“Shakespeare in Love,” “Iron Man”); Kate Winslet (“The Reader,” “Titanic”), Bryan Cranston (AMC’s “Breaking Bad”), Jennifer Ehle (“The King’s Speech”) and Sanaa Lathan (“Alien Vs. Predator”). Dr. Oz will host a special episode of his Emmy Award Winning to talk about the movie “Contagion” and its real life effects this week on Thursday, September 15th. Guests will include Matt Damon and Steven Soderbergh. Check out the trailer below:
