We Watch the Movie My Class Was Named For

I almost started crying today when we watched Contagion in class.

To be honest, Contagion is a weird movie to cry for, considering it is a medical-thriller film that tells the story of the spread of a pandemic cause by a novel virus, as society began to crumble due to fear and scientists raced to develop a vaccine. There were no romance in the film, but there were still very emotional scenes in the film – for me, at least; I noticed that I don’t think anyone else got teary-eyed – with the families of those who succumbed to the disease and the personal struggles of the researchers.

The first emotional moment for me was when a man lost both his wife and stepson to the novel virus, but he himself was unharmed because as he found out later after quarantine, he had natural immunity. His daughter came back from boarding school to visit him during his quarantine, and the guilt both remaining family members felt was tragic in the sense that neither of them had anything to be guilty for, but just the act of living and surviving a disease that took your family members because of pure chance of genetic immunity is so unfair.

Not a picture taken by me. Movie poster for Contagion. 

My eyes got watery once again in another scene when Dr. Meers, played by Kate Winslet, got infected. She was an officer from the CDC dispatched to investigate the disease. She was able to trace the disease back to patient zero, and she worked tirelessly to control the situation at Minneapolis. However, unfortunately, she contracted the disease. Even then, she only regretted she could not finish her work. She was taken to an emergency medical camp that she had oversaw herself previously, where her condition worsened. Her cognitive abilities began to fail, but when she heard the patient next to her begging a nurse for a blanket and the nurse regrettably informing him that supplies were scarce, Dr. Meers used her faltering strength to drag her own blanket to give to that patient. Tragically, she died that moment, and the blanket fell the two cots. This was an extremely powerful moment.

Basically, all the actors and actresses in this film were superb. The directing of the film was also excellent; even though the plot takes place in multiple countries at the same time all over the globe, it was never confusing and really enhances for the audience the whole world’s urgency and desperation to contain the disease and create vaccination.

Contagion was very realistic in every regard. Beyond its scientific accuracy, the film also accurately portrayed how fear shapes society and that how, in a pandemic, the ones suffering are only the infected – the ones left behind are just as, if not more, miserable. However, the film did give humanity a silver lining; Contagion showed the doctors and medical researchers that all put their lives at stake every day to try to understand the disease and find a cure for the good of the public. They never gave up or faltered, even though for them, getting infected on the job and dying before they could find a cure is a very real possibility, as we saw what happened to Dr. Meers in the movie.  Even so, even when she was sick herself, Dr. Meers spent her last moments trying to help patients, and I think that is an extremely touching reminder that no matter how bad things are, how hopeless things get, we should never forget the good in humanity.

Working on poster

Woah. That was deeper than I intended for it to be, but I just extremely liked this movie. I feel like I was able to really enjoy and appreciate this movie on a deeper level because of everything that I learned in this course. However, I would 10/10 recommend for everyone else to watch it, even without prior knowledges of infectious diseases.

Now, I’m done with the most exciting part of my day, because for the rest of class today, we just worked on our poster research project. I used the next few hours in class to finish typing up my parts and printed out the papers to glue onto the poster. Elaine and I went back to the dorms to finish gluing and cutting everything. We worked outside in the lounge, where we also listened to somebody else’s music that they were blasting on the fifth floor.   

A scroll around campus

Before dinner, I went for another stroll on a campus. I feel like an old, retired person doing it, but for me, just walking around campus is fun. Karla had plans tonight, so after my walk, I went to the dining hall alone. It was a pleasant and welcoming surprise when two girls from my class, Maria and Icey, decided to sit with me at my table when they saw me by myself. I haven’t actually talked much to Maria and, particularly, Icey before, and it’s such a shame because now I wish I had gotten to know them sooner.

Tomorrow, we will be presenting our posters to the whole class as well as the biotech class (like I said, our class interacts a lot with the biotech one). I feel nervous and excited at the same time. I hope my last day of class will be a wonderful one! I will surely miss everyone in the course. 

Worked on the project again after dinner. I drew a mosquito haha.