Since pandemics are a huge talking point in the news right now I figured a thread about movies featuring them is in order. Some of the pandemic movies I can think of off the top my head are as follows:
- To some extent all three of the new Planet of the Apes movies.
- I am Legend and it's earlier variants like the Omega Man.
- The Dawn of the Dead Remake. (Way more clear it's a virus in the remake than the original Dead movies)
- World War Z
- Outbreak (although I remember the disease being more of an epidemic)
- The Stand Mini Series
- 28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later (again might have been localized to the British Isles if I remember the plot right)
- The Andromeda Strain (which was more about stopping an alien virus from spreading outside the U.S.)
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on March 14, 2020, 04:20:48 PM
Since pandemics are a huge talking point in the news right now I figured a thread about movies featuring them is in order. Some of the pandemic movies I can think of off the top my head are as follows:
- To some extent all three of the new Planet of the Apes movies.
- I am Legend and it's earlier variants like the Omega Man.
- The Dawn of the Dead Remake. (Way more clear it's a virus in the remake than the original Dead movies)
- World War Z
- Outbreak (although I remember the disease being more of an epidemic)
- The Stand Mini Series
- 28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later (again might have been localized to the British Isles if I remember the plot right)
- The Andromeda Strain (which was more about stopping an alien virus from spreading outside the U.S.)
2012
iPhone
Wasn't 2012 about the crust of the Earth becoming detached from Neutrinos or something?
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on March 14, 2020, 04:26:10 PM
Wasn't 2012 about the crust of the Earth becoming detached from Neutrinos or something?
Oh we are naming manmade or virus ones!
I never saw 2012 but I remember it was a about a bunch of different natural disasters
iPhone
Quote from: Tonytone on March 14, 2020, 04:38:07 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on March 14, 2020, 04:26:10 PM
Wasn't 2012 about the crust of the Earth becoming detached from Neutrinos or something?
Oh we are naming manmade or virus ones!
I never saw 2012 but I remember it was a about a bunch of different natural disasters
iPhone
Actually pandemics were one of the few things that was left out of 2012. That movie was more about wiping people with uber scale natural disasters. And no, I'm not talking about movies that feature only man made Pandemics, any pandemic of any origin will do. I suppose even epidemic movies have merit to this given how many I listed on the original post.
"The Stand" as a book was better than the movie. That is a strange way to wind up considering Stephen King did the screenplay. In the book you read about the airman and his family fleeing in the night. The miniseries has the scene in the day. Which one is scarier as a setting? In the book the two killers in a car are driving a Lincoln. In the movie the car is a Cadillac Allante. How hard is it to get that detail right?
When I read a book I see a movie in my mind. If that "movie" had been brought to life it would have been scarier than the miniseries.
When I was living in Utah, "The Stand" was having scenes shot there. Early in the story there is a scene at a gas station with rain falling. This filming took place in June on a hot night. No rain except the Hollywood variety was present. It was not long after "The Stand" was filmed that the old gas station was tore down.
Rick
Quote from: nexus73 on March 14, 2020, 06:43:08 PM
"The Stand" as a book was better than the movie. That is a strange way to wind up considering Stephen King did the screenplay. In the book you read about the airman and his family fleeing in the night. The miniseries has the scene in the day. Which one is scarier as a setting? In the book the two killers in a car are driving a Lincoln. In the movie the car is a Cadillac Allante. How hard is it to get that detail right?
When I read a book I see a movie in my mind. If that "movie" had been brought to life it would have been scarier than the miniseries.
When I was living in Utah, "The Stand" was having scenes shot there. Early in the story there is a scene at a gas station with rain falling. This filming took place in June on a hot night. No rain except the Hollywood variety was present. It was not long after "The Stand" was filmed that the old gas station was tore down.
Rick
Most of the Stephen King movies were way better in novel form. The Stand mini series started out really promising (for the time) and really showed a lot of the effects of the pandemic which was actually really surprising (again considering the standards of the time). I can imagine that there might be some interest in revisiting The Stand after recent incidents in the news come to their conclusion.
To that end The Mist and The Shining come across to me as where the movie adaptation really was the better version over the novels. The first It movie was promising but went off the deep end in the second release...which is odd since it didn't really touch on much of the really out there stuff from the novel (example; no Space Turtle). Now a lot of Stephen King's non horror stuff like; Stand By Me, The Green Mile, and The Shawshank Redemption have come out really well in movie form also.
Some of these are more localized than a world pandemic, but the threat is there.
Pontypool: a different kind of pandemic, closer to an irresistible meme.
Dreamcatcher: alien virus, shitweasels, Morgan Freeman, all based on a Stephen King story.
Planet Terror: Fergie gets attacked by zombies; Rose McGowan gets a machine gun for a prosthetic leg; lots of people melt
Cabin Fever: some gruesome scenes
Resident Evil
I forgot about Dream Catcher, I always thought that there was some connection to Pennywise the Dancing Clown given the alien was calling himself "Mr. Gray."
Cabin Fever has some really gruesome parts in with the flesh eating virus. That whole "Pancakes" scene is out of nowhere hilarious.
I don't watch many movies, and I don't think I've seen any of these, but there's a list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic#In_popular_culture (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic#In_popular_culture)
Quote from: wxfree on March 14, 2020, 09:47:39 PM
I don't watch many movies, and I don't think I've seen any of these, but there's a list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic#In_popular_culture (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic#In_popular_culture)
I forgot about Twelve Monkeys, that's an excellent weird SciFi movie.
Here's a pretty good one, IMHO, and rather relevant to current events:
Contagion (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/Contagion
Quote from: Brandon on March 15, 2020, 01:36:15 AM
Here's a pretty good one, IMHO, and rather relevant to current events:
Contagion (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/Contagion
I remember that one now. Kate Winslet was the "expert" in the movie and kept telling her partner not to touch his face. He keeps touching his face, ends up fine but she got sick and dies...irony sure is ironic.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on March 14, 2020, 06:48:01 PM
Quote from: nexus73 on March 14, 2020, 06:43:08 PM
"The Stand" as a book was better than the movie. That is a strange way to wind up considering Stephen King did the screenplay. In the book you read about the airman and his family fleeing in the night. The miniseries has the scene in the day. Which one is scarier as a setting? In the book the two killers in a car are driving a Lincoln. In the movie the car is a Cadillac Allante. How hard is it to get that detail right?
When I read a book I see a movie in my mind. If that "movie" had been brought to life it would have been scarier than the miniseries.
When I was living in Utah, "The Stand" was having scenes shot there. Early in the story there is a scene at a gas station with rain falling. This filming took place in June on a hot night. No rain except the Hollywood variety was present. It was not long after "The Stand" was filmed that the old gas station was tore down.
Rick
Most of the Stephen King movies were way better in novel form. The Stand mini series started out really promising (for the time) and really showed a lot of the effects of the pandemic which was actually really surprising (again considering the standards of the time). I can imagine that there might be some interest in revisiting The Stand after recent incidents in the news come to their conclusion.
To that end The Mist and The Shining come across to me as where the movie adaptation really was the better version over the novels. The first It movie was promising but went off the deep end in the second release...which is odd since it didn’t really touch on much of the really out there stuff from the novel (example; no Space Turtle). Now a lot of Stephen King’s non horror stuff like; Stand By Me, The Green Mile, and The Shawshank Redemption have come out really well in movie form also.
"Stand By Me" was shot in the Harrisburg OR area, about half an hour north of Eugene. It was a good movie! For a more real life deal, south of Manchac LA along US 51 there was a mysterious teen disappearance plus bodies of hookers dumped in the bayou in the 90's. Oh if only King had based a story on that scary setting! The killer of the teen was never found but the other crime was solved. A taxi driver from New Orleans was the perp.
Rick
Quote from: nexus73 on March 15, 2020, 10:36:56 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on March 14, 2020, 06:48:01 PM
Quote from: nexus73 on March 14, 2020, 06:43:08 PM
"The Stand" as a book was better than the movie. That is a strange way to wind up considering Stephen King did the screenplay. In the book you read about the airman and his family fleeing in the night. The miniseries has the scene in the day. Which one is scarier as a setting? In the book the two killers in a car are driving a Lincoln. In the movie the car is a Cadillac Allante. How hard is it to get that detail right?
When I read a book I see a movie in my mind. If that "movie" had been brought to life it would have been scarier than the miniseries.
When I was living in Utah, "The Stand" was having scenes shot there. Early in the story there is a scene at a gas station with rain falling. This filming took place in June on a hot night. No rain except the Hollywood variety was present. It was not long after "The Stand" was filmed that the old gas station was tore down.
Rick
Most of the Stephen King movies were way better in novel form. The Stand mini series started out really promising (for the time) and really showed a lot of the effects of the pandemic which was actually really surprising (again considering the standards of the time). I can imagine that there might be some interest in revisiting The Stand after recent incidents in the news come to their conclusion.
To that end The Mist and The Shining come across to me as where the movie adaptation really was the better version over the novels. The first It movie was promising but went off the deep end in the second release...which is odd since it didn't really touch on much of the really out there stuff from the novel (example; no Space Turtle). Now a lot of Stephen King's non horror stuff like; Stand By Me, The Green Mile, and The Shawshank Redemption have come out really well in movie form also.
"Stand By Me" was shot in the Harrisburg OR area, about half an hour north of Eugene. It was a good movie! For a more real life deal, south of Manchac LA along US 51 there was a mysterious teen disappearance plus bodies of hookers dumped in the bayou in the 90's. Oh if only King had based a story on that scary setting! The killer of the teen was never found but the other crime was solved. A taxi driver from New Orleans was the perp.
Rick
Stand By Me always struck what It would have turned out as had the supernatural elements been removed. The novel it was based on "The Body" predated the It novel by several years. In movie form Kiefer Sutherland absolutely nailed the villain role. I can't help but feel in the 2017 It movie that you can tell the kids had some inspiration from Stand By Me.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on March 14, 2020, 06:48:01 PM
Most of the Stephen King movies were way better in novel form. The Stand mini series started out really promising (for the time) and really showed a lot of the effects of the pandemic which was actually really surprising (again considering the standards of the time). I can imagine that there might be some interest in revisiting The Stand after recent incidents in the news come to their conclusion.
A few years ago I re-read The Stand and remembered why it blew my mind when I first read it at age 15 or so. It is easily one of King's finest, most bone chilling stories. Then after finishing it, I found the miniseries on Netflix...and couldn't even make it through the first episode. It's downright awful and has that 90s TV mediocrity all over it. There's apparently going to be a remake coming out at some point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stand_(upcoming_miniseries) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stand_(upcoming_miniseries))
Given that TV shows have become so good in the past 15 years, I have hope that this remake will actually capture the bleak vibe of the novel. plus: Marilyn Manson as Trashcan Man
That adds up for me :-D
Quote from: kwellada on March 15, 2020, 12:27:09 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on March 14, 2020, 06:48:01 PM
Most of the Stephen King movies were way better in novel form. The Stand mini series started out really promising (for the time) and really showed a lot of the effects of the pandemic which was actually really surprising (again considering the standards of the time). I can imagine that there might be some interest in revisiting The Stand after recent incidents in the news come to their conclusion.
A few years ago I re-read The Stand and remembered why it blew my mind when I first read it at age 15 or so. It is easily one of King's finest, most bone chilling stories. Then after finishing it, I found the miniseries on Netflix...and couldn't even make it through the first episode. It's downright awful and has that 90s TV mediocrity all over it. There's apparently going to be a remake coming out at some point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stand_(upcoming_miniseries) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stand_(upcoming_miniseries))
Given that TV shows have become so good in the past 15 years, I have hope that this remake will actually capture the bleak vibe of the novel. plus: Marilyn Manson as Trashcan Man
That adds up for me :-D
Hope to see this series hit it out of the park. Another three part movie which was not done well: "Atlas Shrugged". That one needs a total redo. Set it in the era the book was written. If the former Geneva Steel plant in Orem UT is still standing, it would make the perfect "Rearden Steel" with its Art Deco look. For the Hammond automobile, a mild customizing of a 1958 Packard, which was based on the Studebaker Golden Hawk, fills the bill. Like "The Stand" bleakness as the world crumbles has to be the atmosphere.
IMO, the best "down the drain" movie was "The Day After" from 1983. 100 million people saw it on TV in the USA. The Soviets were so taken by the film that they broadcast it there. Given the international tensions of the time, a nuclear war movie with enough realistic elements had the effect of making everyone including the leaders of both superpowers to think twice. WW3 was averted.
Rick
Quote from: nexus73 on March 15, 2020, 07:35:08 PM
IMO, the best "down the drain" movie was "The Day After" from 1983. 100 million people saw it on TV in the USA. The Soviets were so taken by the film that they broadcast it there. Given the international tensions of the time, a nuclear war movie with enough realistic elements had the effect of making everyone including the leaders of both superpowers to think twice. WW3 was averted.
Good one! I remember watching that at age 10 on TV and was utterly horrified to the bone. I recently rewatched it and it stands up to this day. It might have been one of the most important films of all time.
Quote from: kwellada on March 16, 2020, 02:56:13 PM
Quote from: nexus73 on March 15, 2020, 07:35:08 PM
IMO, the best "down the drain" movie was "The Day After" from 1983. 100 million people saw it on TV in the USA. The Soviets were so taken by the film that they broadcast it there. Given the international tensions of the time, a nuclear war movie with enough realistic elements had the effect of making everyone including the leaders of both superpowers to think twice. WW3 was averted.
Good one! I remember watching that at age 10 on TV and was utterly horrified to the bone. I recently rewatched it and it stands up to this day. It might have been one of the most important films of all time.
It's a pretty grim watch, they actually showed it to us in grade school in the late 1980s as a talking point on why "duck and cover" was still important. That movie gave me some really bad dreams for about a week.
Not a movie, but Pandemic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic_(board_game)) (2008) is one of the best board games I've ever played. It's a co-op game where you play as epidemiologists trying to stop pandemics. Hard not to see the red cubes as the coronavirus now...
Quote from: Scott5114 on March 17, 2020, 05:09:26 PM
Not a movie, but Pandemic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic_(board_game)) (2008) is one of the best board games I've ever played. It's a co-op game where you play as epidemiologists trying to stop pandemics. Hard not to see the red cubes as the coronavirus now...
Never quite understood how you could treat a pandemic right off the bat.
Quote from: nexus73 on March 15, 2020, 07:35:08 PM
IMO, the best "down the drain" movie was "The Day After" from 1983. 100 million people saw it on TV in the USA. The Soviets were so taken by the film that they broadcast it there. Given the international tensions of the time, a nuclear war movie with enough realistic elements had the effect of making everyone including the leaders of both superpowers to think twice. WW3 was averted.
Rick
There's also the British movie "Threads" who go a step further depicting a nuclear holocaust.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q4qiwiZYXw
I don't know if "Damnation Alley"(1977) and the Mad Max movies could be added to the list, maybe as honorable mentions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmui7WAO-mQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlwtiOyaoo0
Quote from: Rothman on March 17, 2020, 06:47:56 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on March 17, 2020, 05:09:26 PM
Not a movie, but Pandemic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic_(board_game)) (2008) is one of the best board games I've ever played. It's a co-op game where you play as epidemiologists trying to stop pandemics. Hard not to see the red cubes as the coronavirus now...
Never quite understood how you could treat a pandemic right off the bat.
On the video game side I really do enjoy the Resident Evil Remake even though I never got into the larger series. I bought it at a flea market years ago and I usually plug it into my Game Cube at least once a year. I think technically the whole T-Virus thing never got beyond an epidemic in the games but I've never played any of the others. The movies were completely garbage IMO, and they even escalate to a pandemic in later titles.
Quote from: Stephane Dumas on March 17, 2020, 07:09:58 PM
Quote from: nexus73 on March 15, 2020, 07:35:08 PM
IMO, the best "down the drain" movie was "The Day After" from 1983. 100 million people saw it on TV in the USA. The Soviets were so taken by the film that they broadcast it there. Given the international tensions of the time, a nuclear war movie with enough realistic elements had the effect of making everyone including the leaders of both superpowers to think twice. WW3 was averted.
Rick
There's also the British movie "Threads" who go a step further depicting a nuclear holocaust.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q4qiwiZYXw
I don't know if "Damnation Alley"(1977) and the Mad Max movies could be added to the list, maybe as honorable mentions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmui7WAO-mQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlwtiOyaoo0
In the Mad Max movies they never really make it absolutely clear what caused the world to end but nuclear war is eluded to from the second movie onward. What I dig about the Mad Max movies is the gradual degradation in the cars, people, and pretty much everything. Even the wounds that Max gets at the end of the first movie carry over to Fury Road. Now if someone could logically explain how the hell the Falcon Interceptor got rebuilt that would be great, I believe there was comic that explained it?
Damnation Alley was kind of over the top IMO and not even close to grounded. There was weird things like; massive desert, scarab like bugs in Salt Lake City, and a sudden tidal wave that wiped out the ruins of Detroit. All the while somehow Albany makes through nuclear war all okay...
For another "over the top" nuclear apocalypse movie, let me introduce you to one from 1985 called "Defcon 4". The DEFCON numbers go from 1 to 5 with 1 being when nuclear war is going to take place so the title is misleading. However there are some Scary Things to see and the orbital spacecraft looks pretty cool. Definitely a Grade B movie but entertaining.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Def-Con_4
30 years past a nuclear war is the setting for the movie "Book Of Eli". "The Postman" also tells a decent story in the same theme. You even get a small appearance by Tom Petty playing himself as a mayor of a small town which has managed to survive.
The movie that should have been made from a book: "A Canticle For Leibowitz". For those who never read the book, it starts in a postwar period when only a few monks are around to preserve what remains of knowledge and ends with civilization progressed to the point that nuclear weapons are invented and used again.
Rick
Yeah, I remember seeing DEF-CON 4 in the video store on VHS. Never saw it.
I did like Book of Eli (in spite of Mila Kunis) but I never really cared much for The Postman. Two other Post Apocalyptic movies that come to mind are; The Road and Snowpiercer. The Road is about as bleak of a movie as I've ever seen but I thought it was pretty good. Snowpiercer definitely gave me that Rococop/Starship Troopers feel but in a way more unique setting.
Quote from: nexus73 on March 17, 2020, 09:56:18 PM
"The Postman" also tells a decent story in the same theme. You even get a small appearance by Tom Petty playing himself as a mayor of a small town which has managed to survive.
Where, lest we forget, he no-shit has the line spoken to Kevin Costner: "You know, you don't have to live like a refugee."
:-D