From a home entertainment perspective, there has never been a more convenient time in history to be quarantined than right now. With access to a plethora of different streaming services just a few clicks away, there's an endless amount of content to consume if you're quarantined with internet access and free time.
It's unclear how long the world will continue to be impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, but if you find yourself isolated for an extended period and you're curious about the many terrifying and ridiculous ways the pandemic could play out, the following movies may not all be realistic, but they're certainly entertaining.
Outbreak (1995) - Netflix
virus called "Matoba." The story follows a group of army doctors racing to find a cure to the deadly virus, which spreads from an African monkey in Zaire to a town in California.
If that story sounds familiar, it should. A real Ebola outbreak originating in Zaire ultimately led to an outbreak at a monkey facility in Virginia in the 1980s. Journalist Richard Preston wrote a New Yorker article that shed light on these events, which turned into his best-selling nonfiction book The Hot Zone.
Carriers (2009) - Netflix
Following Carriers (2009), the story of four survivors trying to escape a viral pandemic that's left the world in a post-apocalyptic state.
The writing and directorial feature debut for brothers Alex and David Pastor, the movie's lack of supernatural horror elements and antagonists often found in post-apocalyptic movies provides a startlingly realistic scenario for the long-term impact of a contagious virus (like COVID-19) on the world. A fast-paced story with a length of just 84 minutes, the movie effectively parallels the impacts of the epidemic on the small group of protagonists and the surviving society.
Space Jam (1996) - Netflix
While it may not technically be a pandemic or virus story, Looney Tunes gang make for family-friendly fun.
What looks like a disease affecting players' motor functions turns out to be the work of animated aliens stealing basketball players' talents to defeat and enslave Jordan and the Looney Tunes for an alien amusement park. Wait, has anyone seen Michael Jordan since the outbreak?
It Comes At Night (2017) - Netflix
Similar to Carriers (2009), the scariest part of the darkly post-apocalyptic Joel Edgerton), who's isolated himself with his family in their home in the woods to protect themselves from a highly contagious outbreak that's ravaged the planet.
When another family discovers Paul's location, relationships are tested until devastating confrontations must be made. The movie raises lots of questions early on but seldom gives explicit answers, leaving viewers to make sense of the story's unsettling ambiguity on their own.
World War Z (2013) - Hulu
Boasting a screenplay from the impressive trio of Matthew Michael Carnahan (Brad Pitt), a former United Nations investigator searching for the origin of a virus responsible for a worldwide zombie pandemic so that a vaccine can be developed from it.
If you worry coronavirus might eventually turn people into flesh-eating zombies, this movie won't be comforting, but the story does a good job of demonstrating global handling of an outbreak, and it's still the highest-grossing zombie movie of all time.
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011) - Hulu
The first installment of 20th Century Fox's reboot of the Andy Serkis) increased intelligence, the consequences for humanity prove disastrous.
After an advanced version of the drug (intended to cure Alzheimer's) is shown to have life-threatening side effects for humans, it's implied that a deadly virus originating from the drug has begun a worldwide spread. A box office first installment in 1968 to receive an Oscar nomination.
Contagion (2011) - Hulu
huge spike in streaming views in response to the coronavirus pandemic. A star-studded ensemble cast delivers interconnected stories of government officials, ordinary citizens, and healthcare researches racing to create a vaccine to contain the spread of a mysterious virus originating in Asia.
The movie accurately illustrates a pandemic's impact on social order and its effect on people at several levels of society. Lauded for its accuracy, a frightening sentiment is that the story's most unrealistic aspect may be how quickly a vaccine is developed. If you're not already washing your hands, you will after this movie.
28 Days Later (2003) - Hulu
Another example of the ways a virus can turn people into terrifying zombies, Trainspotting), the movie follows a small group of survivors of the fictional "Rage" virus as they navigate broken-down Great Britain in the four weeks since the outbreak's start.
The most violent and frightening induction to this list, the story is one you might call the worst-case scenario for coronavirus, so watch with the lights on. If you enjoy it, the critical and box office hit spawned a successful sequel in 28 Weeks Later (2007).
12 Monkeys (1995) - Hulu
What has every entry on this list been missing? That's right, Bruce Willis) back to 1996, the year the outbreak occurred, to find the original virus and help develop a cure.
Featuring a highly entertaining performance that earned Brad Pitt his first The Terminator franchise, poses an interesting question: could the coronavirus secretly be a manmade bioweapon? (No.)
Shaun Of The Dead (2004) - Hulu
If laughter is the best medicine, then stream Simon Pegg) looks to turn his sad life around but gets more than that when London is suddenly infested with zombies.
The story never explicitly states the cause of the transformation, but the movie's wiki cites a disease known simply as "The Virus." The movie draws most of its humor from witty dialogue and delivery, and the humorous ways Shaun and his mates deal with their infected enemies. Being a comedy, it ends on a relatively happy note and should give you hope that you'll survive coronavirus, even if it turns everyone into zombies.
