Outbreak: The “Hollywood” Pandemic

Outbreak was released in 1995 and featured a great cast and compelling plot. But how does the plot compare to what’s happening today? In the 1960s there was a virus that killed a village in Zaire the American government blew up the village to stop the spread of the virus. The blast causes monkeys to leave their home implying they are carrying the virus too. Cut to thirty years later in what was then present day 1995, Dustin Hoffman is a military doctor who is the best he is in his field. This movie is a very hollywood version of a pandemic outbreak complete with cliche characters, relationships taking up screen time over showing virus fighting progress.

The cast also includes Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kevin Spacey, and Donald Sutherland. Some of them play stereotypical characters. Rene Russo is the ex-wife of Dustin Hoffman and some of the plot is devoted to their relationship. This is typical of a lot of disaster movies from the 90s, like Independence Day, Armageddon, and other disasters movies in general. Morgan Freeman who has questionable morals but at the end makes the right decision despite his out outcome. Kevin Spacey is the character that gets infected and doesn’t say anything and dies because of it. Donald Sutherland is the character who will do whatever it takes to protect his own ass despite what is morally right.

The movie Contagion takes one or two plot points from Outbreak. The first being the spread of the virus partially do to deforestation causing animals to go out of their natural habitat. The second is that the government underestimated the seriousness of the disease because of over preparing for previous diseases like Ebola, etc.

The end of the movie involves a helicopter chase trying to stop the bombing of the town where the disease is in. It’s a very action movie ending involving the bombers getting told to drop the bomb and also not drop the bomb. But at the end everything is ok with minimal deaths. Rene Russo gets infected of course but because she is the love interest she will be fine. Dustin Hoffman is great in this movie as well as Morgan Freeman. It is entertaining for a movie but not a realistic scenario for a pandemic. But realism wasn’t the movies intent. 🍔🍔🍔