Why Contagion is the top movie on HBO Max again

Contagion, the 2011 pandemic thriller, has climbed to the top of HBO Max as renewed headlines about Ebola, Hantavirus and other outbreaks send viewers back to a story that hits uncomfortably close to home. Morbid curiosity and the film’s arrival on HBO Max on June 1 have combined to drive its sudden resurgence.

Steven Soderbergh’s clinical approach and an ensemble cast lend the movie its unnerving realism. The plot follows the spread of Meningoencephalitis Virus One (MEV-1) through scientists, officials, healthcare workers and ordinary citizens — with Matt Damon as a father in quarantine, Laurence Fishburne and Kate Winslet as CDC experts, Marion Cotillard as a WHO researcher tracing the virus, and Jude Law stoking panic online.

Subtle shots of everyday surfaces, or fomites, keep the threat visible even when the pathogen itself remains unseen. The film’s relevance became unmistakable during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Contagion surged back into public conversation and reached the iTunes top 10.

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