Cooped up during quarantine, my family has taken to having movie nights in a bid to get along for two hours. Although deciding which movie to watch tends to lead to World War III, we unanimously decided to watch a movie fitting for today’s current global landscape: the 1995 thriller “Outbreak.”
Following the likeable Army medic Col. Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman), his ex-wife Robby Keough (Rene Russo) and his team, “Outbreak” centers on a sleepy town in California hit by a fast-spreading fatal disease spurred on by a monkey. As the army, under Brig. Gen. Billy Ford (Morgan Freeman) and Maj. Gen. Donald McClintock (Donald Sutherland), consider taking very drastic measures, Daniels and his apprentice Maj. Salt (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) race against the clock to locate the host monkey and develop a cure.
As one of the most important aspects of any movie, the plot provided an intriguing storyline filled with suspenseful action and a touch of romance. I initially wondered if the plot would seem cheesy 25 years later in the midst of a global pandemic, yet the development kept me hooked, invested in seeing just how Daniels and Salt will save both loved ones and a 2600-person town.
Another concern I held before watching the movie involved the movie release date and its implications for the production quality. Would the older production mean outdated graphics that detract from the movie itself, or would I not even notice it? Although a few scenes the filmmakers clearly shot behind a greenscreen (as the graphics made the scene less realistic) had me leaning towards the former, for the majority of the movie the graphics quality didn’t cross my mind.
In a way, the older feeling of the movie due to its age added to the overall feeling the movie provided. Even though certain aspects of “Outbreak” mirror today’s current situation, including the high level of contagion and precautionary, quarantine measures taken within the town, the movie’s 1995 setting added an extra element that separated the fictional plot from the very real COVID-19.
Just a side note: “Outbreak” is rated R for a reason. The depiction of the symptoms of the virus, despite coming from older graphics, can be gruesome (it made me put down my Oreos, something I rarely do).
It seems like my family wasn’t the only group to watch “Outbreak;” the week of March 13 (the Friday which Heritage closed down, Netflix announced it as the ninth most popular title overall and fourth most popular movie on the platform. What is it about a fictional virus that makes us feel slightly better about the real one?
While I normally wouldn’t choose “Outbreak” as my top movie choice, it helped to pass the time. Offering different aspects that appeased my family of four with a wide array of movie preferences, this movie provided an enjoyable activity that, ironically, distracted us from the current outbreak we’re in.
