5. Greyscale (Game of Thrones)
Yes, yes, Game of Thrones is a TV show, but it’s high enough budget and its method of storytelling leans decisively towards the cinematic. Special shout out to the makeup artists of Game of Thrones for making this disease look truly gross. According to the Game of Thrones wiki, the disease makes flesh harden and split into a fissured pattern, and by the later stages, the necrotic flesh turns dark and resembles scales, hence the name of the disease. The only cured person in recorded Westerosi history is Jorah Mormont, and the treatment is apparently so horrifying that we needed a cutaway to hide it from audience eyes.
4. Infertility (Children of Men)
Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 thriller depicts a world where the human population has become infertile and society has collapsed as a result. The film mostly depicts the consequences of the disease, rather than the disease itself. In 2018, I approach this film with a bit of skepticism. First, there’s the implication that millennials wouldn’t be thrilled by this news, since we’re terrified of babies and have low birth rates anyway. Second, the idea that certain demographics of the population wouldn’t riot at the idea that the only fertile woman left on the planet is black is doubtful.
3. “The Fever” (Cabin Fever)
This bloodborne infection is really gross and based in reality, as necrotizing fasciitis is a real thing that can happen to you (only click the link if you’ve got a strong stomach). Probably bacterial, given its ability to spread between species, the most dangerous thing about this pathogen is that nobody wants to talk about it, allowing it to spread potentially forever, as the endings of the Cabin Fever movies imply.
2. MEV-1 (Contagion)
I will admit that I’m biased towards this one for two reasons: 1). This is my father’s favorite film for its accurate depiction of outbreak-response procedural, and 2). The CDC is in Atlanta, my home. As CDC scientists work on a cure, the world responds to MEV-1 as best it can, from distrust and paranoia between members of the populace to high stress and intense workplace pressures of the CDC, to even a disaster profiteer played by Jude Law. This pathogen reveals the humanity and desperation of everyone in the world of the film. As the tagline suggests, the real disease that spreads among humanity is fear.
After watching this movie in theaters, my friend faked a violent cough as we walked to the parking lot.
1. Simian Flu (Planet of the Apes series)
ALZ-113 is interesting because it demonstrates radically different symptoms between apes and humans. While it enhances the intelligence of apes, allowing them to form a human-like civilization in less than a generation, it straight-up kills humans. The mutant strain later “devolves” humans, but the only demonstrable example of this is Nova, the little girl who is still capable of expressing emotion and empathy. Meanwhile, the more humanlike Caesar begins to show a more warlike and vengeful disposition by the end of the series, raising the interesting moral quandary: What really defines intelligence?
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