Contagion: Difference between revisions

{{quote| '''Younger Pathologist:''' (backing away) "You want me to call somebody?"<br />

'''Older Pathologist:''' "I want you to call everybody." }}

* [[An Aesop]]: The worst thing we have to fear is fear itself. In a crisis; don't panic, stay rational, trust the professionals, and don't look for scapegoats.

** And ''always wash your hands''.

* [[Gory Discretion Shot]]: An early scene has a pair of doctors {{spoiler|peeling Beth's scalp up over her decayed face, with the inside of her scalp clearly visible, and cutting her skull open to take a look inside (with audible "sloshing" sound effects}}). ''Contagion'' is a PG-13 film, which makes it all the more shocking.

* [[Green Aesop]]: The virus is unleashed upon the world by {{spoiler|bulldozing a forest}}.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Surprisingly averted for most of the movie by Mitch, until {{spoiler|the very end, when he finds his wife's camera and looks at her final photographs}}.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]:

* [[Justified Criminal]]: Despite living in a deserted neighbourhood (with only a handful of other residents left), Mitch never takes anything more than a rifle from his neighbour's house to protect {{spoiler|himself and Jordan}}. Any time he is given the chance to steal, he's either thwarted (the supermarket, which was already looted and breaking out into chaos) or he resists temptation (the looting at the FEMA food drop point).

* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|Alan Krumwiede, who fakes being sick in order to promote a drug that supposedly (but doesn't) cures the disease, and profits big time from it. He's arrested by Homeland Security, but is bailed out by his online followers and encourages more people to not vaccinate.}} It's unclear whether he'll meet justice or not after the film's events.

* [[The Load]]: Despite going to stay with her Dad to provide him with emotional support, Jory is a disgruntled teenage girl. However, after all he's been through, having to focus on her likely kept Mitch emotionally stable.

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: With an all-star cast, natch.

* [[The Reveal]]: In the last scene, we find out how Beth contracted the virus.

* [[Science Hero]]: [[Reconstructed Trope|Reconstructed]].

* [[Sex Is Evil]]: The film starts with Beth talking on the phone with a man she's just been unfaithful with. This connects the disease to sex in two ways: as a [[Red Herring]] and as [[Guilt By Association]]. At first, the scientists don't know what kind of disease it is, so sexually transmitted is one of the options they're investigating. Also, a viewer with a certain kind of mindset could feel compelled to feel that her adultery caused the disease on a spiritual level: that it was fate or God's punishment for wickedness.

* [[Shout Out]]: When talking with government officials in Minnesota, one of them notes that a [[Jaws (Film)|plastic shark would cause more panic than a sidenote about a virus]]... then go on to screw things up by complaining that causing a panic ''now'' would disrupt shopping sales.

* [[Tracking Shot]]: When {{spoiler|Krumwiede}} runs through a park (with police and CDC officials in pursuit) after discovering his {{spoiler|hedge fund broker}} was wearing a wire and tipped off the authorities.

* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: {{spoiler|Dr. Mears, sounding sick,}} calling the hotel staff and asking for the names of everyone who cleaned the room she was sitting in.

* [[Water Source Tampering]]: Inverted when the government wants to know if dumping the cure in the water supply will suffice as a quick means of curing everyone. Dr Cheever has to patiently explain that the cure would be too diluted to be effective.

* [[Withholding the Cure]]: While this doesn't happen, some believe that it does -- it is one of the destructive rumors that fly around on the internet, and it feeds the paranoia of certain characters. This is used by Alan, who then directs bloggers to get the drug Forsythia.

* [[Your Cheating Heart]]: Beth Emhoff, who cheated on her husband with a former lover who lived in Chicago, unwittingly spreading the virus to the Midwest.