I was aware of Steven Soderbergh’s new movie Contagion for a while now, since my wife is a bit of a germaphobe. It’s about a bird flu type virus that can transmit by touch. Plus, the cast is just ridiculous, and it’s being filmed with the new RED Epic 5k camera, which I’m interested in seeing on a big screen.
My question, however, deals with the trailer, in which it’s pretty obvious that one of the major characters dies very early in the movie.
IFC had an interesting take on it here - (trailer is also linked there) - I’m curious to hear what you all think about that sort of spoiler in the trailer.
I’m not sure it is a spoiler. IFC is assuming that just because Gwynneth Paltrow’s character gets sick, she’s going to be killed off in the first 15 minutes and that’s the spoiler. But the trailer itself hints that it isn’t the case. The most telling exchange occurs between her husband, played by Matt Damon, and the Doctor.
Dr: Fortunately, she didn’t die.
Matt: Right, then can I go talk to her?
Dr: Sir, your wife is dead.
Matt: What are you talking about?! What happened to her?!.. What happened to her?!
That could mean anything from the government “disappearing” her for use as a test subject in their fight against the plague, to brain damage changing her personality to someone no longer Matt’s wife, to Hollywood brain death (the only reversible kind of brain death), to actually being dead dead. Also, my guess is that this doesn’t take place in the very beginning, either, as we see too many varied shots of Paltrow’s home life, her travelling, and then her stay in the hospital before she doesn’t die / is dead. About 45 minutes in would be my guess.
Matt Damon’s “right” response was disbelief, not agreement.
As for the OP, I don’t consider it a spoiler. Just because Paltrow is a big name doesn’t mean she’s going to be a main character. Plenty of big name characters die in the first 10 minutes of movies.
He definitely is right. I saw the movie at an advance screening and since it’s already in the trailer I might as well say that yes, she dies at the beginning of the film. However, since she’s the first one in the United States to die from the plague, she’s an important character and there are several flashbacks when the people at the CDC and WHO try and figure out how she got it and how she spread it. The very last scene revolves around her too.
It’s a very good movie, IMO. It’s not a big old Hollywood movie, despite the presence of so many big time names. The movie could have starred a bunch of unknowns and would have been just as, if not more, compelling (since the recognizable faces are somewhat distracting at times). It’s a low-key and fairly realistic take on what would happen in the event of a worldwide plague. It’s no Stephen King’s The Stand. It’s not an end-of-the-world thriller. It tracks how regular people react and how scientists work to solve the puzzle of how it happened, what’s happening, and what will happen.
Equipoise, two questions for you (one serious, one silly), since you’ve seen it:
How gory is it? I really want to see it but the spouse, who likes gory/vomity movies much less than I do (and I don’t like them too much) is reluctant. If we’re fine watching “House” will we be okay with this?
Do they shut down Madagascar? Even as a throwaway line? Because that would be awesome.
It’s not gory, just white foam coming out of people’s mouths. There’s a scene of an autopsy that’t briefly squimy but not gory and they don’t show what the ME’s are seeing.
I have no idea what 2 means. I don’t recall the country (or the movie ) being mentioned.
The Madagascar line is reference to the game Pandemic II, where you try to create a plague that wipes out Earth’s population. In the game, even when there’s no symptoms Madagascar shuts down any and all incoming traffic, so you can never get them infected. Serously, I had killed the entire world but0 Madagascar.
Did you enjoy the movie? Are the scientists actually shown to be good guys, for once? They’re usually the one destroying the world.
Thanks for the info. As far as House goes, it can get pretty gory (they go out of their way to outdo themselves every season, I think–watching it has desensitized me to a lot of stuff I couldn’t watch before). I’m okay with medical procedures, usually. I’m not good with “spring-loaded cat” sudden gore and splatter stuff. Sounds like this movie is more the former than the latter.
And yeah, **RandMcnally **explained the Madagascar thing. It’s kind of an internet meme.
I’m only half kidding actually. Equipoise, this is a thread about the trailer. Don’t drop detailed story hints like that. It’s just wrong. And you do it all the fucking time.
That said, I’ve read that Paltrow dies really, really, really early in the movie. So including her death in the trailer isn’t really a spoiler. Having a famous person be “the body” has a long tradition in Hollywood.
The scientists are definitely the good guys. Some are reckless in their pursuit of a cure but it’s understandable and believable in context. My favorite scientists are played by Kate Winslet and especially Jennifer Ehle (who played Geoffrey Rush’s wife in The King’s Speech, among many other roles).
I can think of two splatters of blood, the larger one about the size of a dime. No one notices them. I don’t know about anyone else but I kept staring at them, because it’s horrifying knowing what they represent.
Ah thanks both.
It really is within the first few minutes. I mentioned her role because it was speculated above that it happens later in the movie, because more scenes of her were shown in the trailer. I don’t think I gave away anything that wasn’t in the trailer, just gave a little explanation. I apologize if I caused a problem for anyone.
It’s not that kind of movie though, just so you don’t go in expecting such.
Not to hijack this overmuch, but it reminds me of how Jeffrey Dean Morgan was offered a part in WATCHMEN and “initially turned down the role after reading the first 3 pages of the script, assuming the character was only a cameo. His agent persuaded him to read the entire script and then make a decision” – because, as in this movie, the swiftly-killed-off character proceeds to show up in any number of plot-crucial flashbacks.
(And I see no need to put up a spoiler warning for that reveal about WATCHMEN, since they likewise went the CONTAGION route by having his death start the preview.)
