One handshake starts a dangerous new illness that spreads around the world. And much of the science in this film is real.
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These are the new words. Match each word (1–8) to its meaning (A–H). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is D" — then check.
1 = E (a virus) · 2 = C (a doctor) · 3 = B (a hospital) · 4 = F (danger)
5 = H (an illness) · 6 = G (to spread) · 7 = D (to protect) · 8 = A (the news)
Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011). Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one. (There are spoilers — that is fine, we want to talk about it.)
Beth travels to Hong Kong for work. On her way home, she stops in Chicago. She feels sick, but she thinks it is just tiredness. She goes home to her family in Minneapolis. Very quickly, she becomes seriously ill. She goes to hospital, but she dies. Her husband Mitch is shocked and confused. Soon, her young son dies too — but Mitch himself does not get sick at all.
In other cities around the world, more people start to get the same illness. No one understands what it is, or how it is spreading. A doctor called Ellis Cheever, from a health organisation called the CDC, becomes worried. He sends another doctor, Erin, to study the illness in Minneapolis, where Beth lived.
1. What happens to Beth after she comes home from her trip?
2. What is strange about Mitch?
1. She becomes very sick and dies quickly; her young son also dies soon after.
2. He was close to Beth when she was sick, but he never catches the illness himself.
Erin works for the CDC. She travels to Minneapolis to study the illness. She works very hard to find out how it started and how it spreads. But the illness is very dangerous, and Erin becomes sick too. She dies. Other scientists try to make a vaccine — a medicine that stops people from getting the illness. It is very difficult and takes a long time.
Meanwhile, a man called Alan writes about the illness on the internet. He says he has found a natural cure. Many people believe him and want to buy it. Shops quickly run out, and people become angry and afraid. Some of them start to steal and fight.
1. What happens to Erin while she studies the illness?
2. What does Alan do, and why is it a problem?
1. She becomes infected herself while investigating the outbreak, and dies.
2. He tells people online that he has found a cure, but it is not tested or proven; people panic-buy it, and the shops run out.
Finally, a scientist called Ally makes a vaccine that works. She believes in it so strongly that she gives it to herself first, before it is officially approved. Governments then give the vaccine to people in order, using birthdays to decide who receives it first. Slowly, life starts to feel normal again.
At the end of the film, we learn how the illness truly began. Workers cut down trees in a forest to build something new. Bats that lived in the trees flew away and dropped some food near a group of pigs. A pig became sick. Later, a chef touched the sick pig, then shook hands with Beth at a work dinner — without washing his hands first. That handshake is where it all started.
1. What does Ally do to test her vaccine?
2. How did the illness really begin, according to the last scene?
1. She injects herself with the unapproved vaccine before it is officially tested on people, to prove that it works.
2. Cutting down a forest disturbed some bats; a bat dropped food near pigs; a sick pig was later handled by a chef who then shook Beth's hand.
This film is full of guesses about the future — what might happen, what people fear, and what they hope. English has simple ways to make these predictions.
Read the meaning in brackets and complete the sentence.
1. Scientists are not 100% sure, but they find a vaccine one day. (fairly confident)
2. life will feel normal again by next year. (not sure at all — starts the sentence)
3. I think this kind of illness happen again in the future. (a simple prediction)
1. will probably (fairly confident)
2. Maybe (not sure at all)
3. will (a simple prediction)
Put the verb in the correct form after will. Then read it out loud.
1. Next year, scientists will probably (find) new treatments.
2. Maybe next time, people will (listen) to the experts more quickly.
3. I think the world will (be) more careful about illnesses like this.
1. find (will probably + base verb)
2. listen (will + base verb)
3. be (will + base verb)
Fill each gap with will, will probably or Maybe. Read it aloud when you finish.
Cheever says, "This (get) worse before it gets better." Ally adds, "But scientists (find) an answer soon." Mitch says quietly, " things (be) okay again one day."
will get · will probably find · Maybe … will be
Use will for a simple prediction, will probably when you are fairly sure, and maybe when you are not sure at all.
Here is the surprising part: a lot of the "science" in this film is real, even though the virus itself is not.
A real scientist called Ian Lipkin helped make this film. He studies dangerous viruses at a university in the USA. He helped invent the fictional virus in the film, and based it on a real virus called Nipah virus, which can spread from bats to other animals, and then to people. This is called zoonotic spillover — when an illness jumps from animals to humans. In the film, a doctor explains "R0" — a number that shows how many new people one sick person infects, on average. This is a real idea that real doctors use.
The virus in the film, called MEV-1, is not real. But in 2020, a real illness called COVID-19 spread around the world — and many people watched this film again because it felt so similar. People praised the film for showing real ideas: washing your hands, staying away from sick people, and waiting for a vaccine. The scientist who helped make the film, Ian Lipkin, later became sick with COVID-19 himself. The film is not magic — it feels realistic because it copied real science.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of Contagion in your own words. Use these steps to help you: a woman gets sick after a work trip → doctors try to understand a new illness → shops run out of a false "cure" → a scientist tests a vaccine on herself → we learn how it all really began, with a bat, a pig and a handshake.
Try to use some key words (virus, doctor, hospital, danger, illness, spread, protect, news) and will / maybe / probably.
Alan tells people online not to trust the government, but his own "cure" turns out to be false. Do you think it is ever right to share information you are not sure about? What would you do if you read something like this online?
Talk about the future. Use will, maybe and probably.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: