---
title: "Contagion"
year: 2011
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/contagion"
fi1m_id: "contagion"
imdb_id: "tt1598778"
tmdb_id: 39538
wikidata_id: "Q730888"
fi1m_score: 78
critics_score: 66
critics_reviews: 17
published: "2026-09-12"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:53.735149+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Contagion (2011)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh · 1h 46m · MPA PG-13 · Drama, Thriller, Science Fiction

## Identity

Contagion

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/contagion
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** contagion
- **IMDb ID:** tt1598778
- **TMDB ID:** 39538
- **Wikidata ID:** Q730888
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/39538, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q730888

**Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 66 from 17 reviews

*In a sentence:* An hour and three quarters of door handles, and we washed our hands twice on the way home

> Steven Soderbergh’s pandemic thriller is cold, quick and frightening in the way a good textbook is frightening. It cares more about how a virus travels than about anyone it kills, and for 106 minutes that is the right choice.

## Synopsis

Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) flies home to Minneapolis from Hong Kong with a cough. Her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) tries to keep their daughter Jory (Anna Jacoby-Heron) indoors as the same illness turns up in cities across the world. In Atlanta, Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) sends field officer Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) to trace the outbreak, while Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle) tries to grow the virus in a laboratory. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) goes to Hong Kong to find the first case. And Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law), a blogger, tells his readers that the government is lying and that he knows a cure.

## Review

Steven Soderbergh’s pandemic film has the shape of a 1970s disaster picture, a dozen stars and a catastrophe that circles the globe, and then removes almost everything the genre usually spends its money on. Nothing burns and nobody outruns anything. What Scott Z. Burns’s script offers instead is a procedure: how a virus gets from a bowl of nuts in an airport bar to a hundred cities, and what doctors, officials and frightened people do in the weeks after. It is cold, quick and frightening in a way we did not shake off for days, and we like it a good deal more than most critics did.

Soderbergh shot it himself, and the camera does the virus’s work. It settles a beat too long on a bus pole, a glass on a bar, a hand on a doorframe, and by the twenty-minute mark we were reading every hand on every surface as a threat. Minneapolis is lit grey-blue and Hong Kong a sickly yellow, so we know which city we are in before the caption arrives. Stephen Mirrione cuts between continents with those captions, city and population, and lets the numbers carry the dread. Cliff Martinez’s score is a low electronic pulse that quickens as the case count does, mixed low enough that we heard every cough.

The cast is large and Burns gives most of them one job and one scene to be human in. Jennifer Ehle is the best thing in the film as Ally Hextall, the laboratory scientist who works out what the thing is, and she plays her with patience and a faint irritation at everyone slower than she is. Kate Winslet’s Erin Mears is sent to Minneapolis to trace contacts and spends most of her time on a hotel phone explaining the arithmetic of infection to men who would rather not hear it. Laurence Fishburne gives Ellis Cheever the heavy stillness of a man who knows the public will not believe him. Matt Damon has the domestic strand as Mitch Emhoff, a husband who turns out to be immune and cannot see why that is meant to be a comfort.

Two moments got at us. The first is an autopsy a few minutes in, when a pathologist folds back the top of a scalp, stops, and tells his colleague to call everyone; the film cuts away before we see what he saw, and we flinched anyway. The second is Damon being told that his wife has died and asking when he can go and talk to her. He asks twice. It moved us more than we expected from a film this cool, because Soderbergh does not underline it. The doctor says her piece and leaves, and Damon is left in the corridor.

Not every strand holds. Jude Law’s Alan Krumwiede, a blogger, is written as the villain from his first line, and every scene with him is an argument the script has already decided he loses. Marion Cotillard’s Leonora Orantes flies to Hong Kong to find the first case, and her story then takes a turn we will not describe; the film has no time to make it land. Bryan Cranston, Elliott Gould and John Hawkes get a scene or two each and are set aside. Howard Cummings’s empty places, a school gymnasium turned into a ward, a pharmacy stripped to the shelves, say more than most of the supporting cast are allowed to.

Soderbergh made [*Traffic*](https://film.one/film/traffic) (2000) as a film about the drug trade with many hands and no centre, and this is built the same way, with a virus in place of cocaine. Next to *Outbreak* (1995), with its monkey and its helicopters, it looks like the work of an adult. Most critics held its coolness against it. We think the coolness is the point: the film never once makes an epidemic exciting, which is the one dishonest thing it could have done.

It runs 106 minutes and carries a 12A, and the certificate is right; there is almost no blood, and everything it does to you is done with hands and surfaces. Watch it at home if you like. You will look at the remote afterwards, and then at your fingers.

*Fi1m score 78, published 12 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics find Contagion plausible and frightening, and the praise clusters on Soderbergh’s control: the pace, the documentary-style attention to how a virus actually spreads, and the decision to make the scientists the heroes rather than the stars. The ensemble is widely admired, with Jennifer Ehle’s turn as a researcher singled out more than once. The reservations cluster just as clearly. Many reviews, including several favourable ones, call the film cold or clinical, and say the large cast leaves few characters with room to make you care who lives or dies. The spread is wide. The New Yorker calls it brilliant and emotionally enveloping; Slant Magazine finds it a schematic, scare-mongering spectacle without human feeling, and Den of Geek thinks it turgid and dull. Several British reviews compare it unfavourably with Traffic. The consensus is respect for the craft, with doubts about the heart.

## Straight answers

**Is Contagion worth watching?**

*Contagion* is worth watching for anyone who wants a pandemic thriller that treats the spread of a virus as procedure rather than spectacle, and we scored it 78. Nothing burns and nobody outruns anything; the dread comes from door handles, bus poles and case counts. Jude Law's blogger strand is the weakest part, and Jennifer Ehle's laboratory scientist the best.

**How long is Contagion, and what is it rated?**

*Contagion* runs 1h 46m and is rated PG-13 by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and thriller film.

**Where can I watch Contagion in the US?**

*Contagion* is not on any streaming or rental service in the US at the moment. It is available in 1 other country; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Contagion, and is it suitable for children?**

*Contagion* carries a 12A and earns it: there is almost no blood, and its frights come from hands on surfaces rather than from anything shown. An early autopsy cuts away before the worst, and a husband being told of his wife's death is the hardest scene to sit through. It is too unsettling for young children, and the squeamish should expect to wash their hands afterwards.

**How does Contagion compare to Traffic?**

*Contagion* is built the same way as [*Traffic*](https://film.one/film/traffic), Soderbergh shooting a many-handed story himself in colour-coded cities, with a virus where the cocaine was. The earlier film has the stronger single performance in Benicio del Toro's Tijuana policeman, but stops to make speeches in its Washington strand; *Contagion* never stops and never makes its subject exciting. Choose *Traffic* for character, *Contagion* for cold procedure.

**What should I watch after Contagion?**

After *Contagion*, try [*Traffic*](https://film.one/film/traffic) (2000, Fi1m 82): Soderbergh’s earlier many-handed film, with cocaine where the virus would be. Then [*28 Days Later*](https://film.one/film/28-days-later) (2002, Fi1m 77): The same empty streets, filmed as horror rather than procedure.

### Reviews we read (20)

- **The New Yorker**, David Denby (90/100, inferred): The critic calls Soderbergh’s film brilliant, serious, precise, frightening, and emotionally enveloping—a highly controlled work about an out-of-control pandemic that confronts reality head-on without melodrama. It recovers the director’s mastery seen in Traffic. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/09/19/call-the-doctor-david-denby)
- **Empire**, Dan Jolin (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's plausible and frightening depiction of a pandemic spreading globally, highlighting its documentary-like approach and emphasis on science as the hero amid panic and societal breakdown. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/contagion-review/)
- **Time Out**, Dave Calhoun (4/5): It is a sober, engrossing thriller about the hysteria surrounding a worldwide epidemic. Soderbergh extracts a strong ensemble effort while holding a steady eye on panic and chaos. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/contagion)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (75/100, inferred): The critic praises the thriller for moving stories along at an epidemic clip with expert choreography of its cast, making a film you can’t stop staring at despite its grim subject. It is effective but not perfect, with some plot strands less convincing than others. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-sep-09-la-et-contagion-20110909-story.html)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (75/100, inferred): The 1970s-style all-star disaster flick gets a slick modern update in Steven Soderbergh's global disease thriller. Soderbergh shapes the story with muscular confidence and captures some great images, though the film sometimes looks like a mosaic of mini-dramas and is less strong on the fear and horror of ordinary people. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/20/contagion-film-review)
- **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): Chilly but sometimes truly scary, Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion tries to do for infectious disease what the director’s Traffic did for illegal drugs, though not as sure-footed. It features an impressive ensemble cast and ripped-from-the-headlines topicality. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/contagion/5031510.article)
- **Vulture**, David Edelstein (70/100, inferred): Soderbergh delivers a high-minded, lean disaster movie that is compelling and provocative in its portrayal of viral spread and human response, but feels a little sterile like a cinematic exercise. It singles out the selfless individuals and realistic details for praise while noting the cold, clinical tone. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2011/09/movie_review_contagion.html)
- **Financial Times** (60/100, inferred): The film has tremendous pace and a grim, purposeful look with lethal images, but it never quite takes off or dynamites the castle, settling by the end into a mood of soft regret after releasing the viewer. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/a6b7de76-fa79-11e0-8fe7-00144feab49a)
- **Variety**, Peter Debruge (60/100, inferred): The critic sees it as a germophobe’s nightmare that puts an Oscar-decorated cast through a deadly outbreak but notes the bloodless, semi-detached procedural quality makes it hard to care who lives or dies. A shrewd marketing campaign should ensure healthy returns despite these shortcomings. [Read](https://variety.com/2011/film/reviews/contagion-1117945945/)
- **Evening Standard** (45/100, inferred): The critic views the film as efficient but unmemorable and lacking real seriousness, comparing it unfavorably to Soderbergh's better work like Traffic while acknowledging its plausible elements and capable ensemble. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/contagion-review-7427230.html)
- **The Independent** (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the film restrained and academic but ultimately unexciting, noting its sober approach avoids typical disaster-movie thrills yet results in a distant, undramatic listing of pandemic scenarios. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/contagion-steven-soderbergh-106-mins-12a-blood-in-the-mobile-frank-piasecki-poulsen-85-mins-12a-2374468.html)
- **Slant Magazine** (1/4): Soderbergh's film is a chilly, schematic spectacle of scare-mongering that prioritizes connect-the-dots alarmism over human feeling or drama. It singles out the soulless, clinical style and lack of emotional depth for complaint, with only small flashes from Damon's performance. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/contagion/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Todd McCarthy: Soderbergh's star-studded plague drama creates a credible, science-based picture of a global mystery disease and societal reaction without sensationalism or heavy effects. The fine cast and topicality position it as a robust performer, with the heart of the film resting on the medical professionals. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/contagion-231873/)
- **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (Critic's Pick): The critic finds Soderbergh’s smart, spooky thriller about a killer virus and rampaging fear as ruthlessly effective as the malady itself. It updates 1970s paranoia films for the present with visceral urgency and a dystopian vision of fear, paranoia, and denial of science. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/movies/contagion-steven-soderberghs-plague-paranoia-review.html)
- **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (B): The critic praises Soderbergh's realistic, tense depiction of the global pandemic response, strong ensemble performances, and effective use of minimalistic techniques for dread. They criticize some one-dimensional characters, fizzled plotlines (including unintentional xenophobia), and distractions that undermine the authenticity. [Read](https://collider.com/contagion-review/)
- **Digital Spy**, Simon Reynolds (75/100, inferred): The critic calls it a measured, clinical and compelling take on a pandemic that builds tension and anxiety with an authentic grasp of the mechanics of societal collapse. It is arty moviemaking in a genre setup but not Soderbergh at his best, with limited emotional attachments amid the whirlwind narrative. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a345958/contagion-review/)
- **HeyUGuys**, Jon Lyus (3.5/5): Soderbergh delivers a grimly realistic disaster film that builds tension through grounded narrative threads rather than spectacle. The critic singles out Jennifer Ehle's standout performance as a scientist for particular praise while noting some star-driven subplots feel distracting. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/contagion-review/)
- **Eye for Film**, Paul Griffiths (65/100, inferred): The film offers a compelling start and immersive second act with solid ensemble performances but ultimately peters out. The critic praises the direction and key turns by Winslet and Ehle but finds some storylines contrived and the conclusion underwhelming. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/contagion-film-review-by-paul-griffiths)
- **The Wrap** (65/100, inferred): Soderbergh’s virus thriller is intellectually stimulating and ambitious, raising provocative questions about pandemics with strong grounding in real science. However, the large ensemble means few characters make an impact, so the film engages viewers’ brains more than their hearts. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/review-cough-and-world-coughs-you-taut-contagion-30804/)
- **Den of Geek**, Luke Holland (2 out of 5): The critic finds Contagion a turgid mess that is emotionally bereft, flabby and dull despite glimpses of promise and competent direction. It intelligently explores themes like media and bureaucracy but fails to add anything new or generate momentum or pathos. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/contagion-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** Steven Soderbergh
- **Director:** Steven Soderbergh
- **Screenplay:** Scott Z. Burns
- **Writer:** Scott Z. Burns
- **Cinematography:** Steven Soderbergh
- **Editor:** Stephen Mirrione
- **Music:** Cliff Martinez
- **Production design:** Howard Cummings
- **Costume design:** Louise Frogley
- **Producer:** Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, Gregory Jacobs
- **Cast:** Marion Cotillard as Leonora Orantes; Matt Damon as Mitch Emhoff; Laurence Fishburne as Ellis Cheever; Jude Law as Alan Krumwiede; Kate Winslet as Erin Mears; Jennifer Ehle as Ally Hextall; Gwyneth Paltrow as Beth Emhoff; Bryan Cranston as Lyle Haggerty
- **Runtime:** 1h 46m
- **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13
- **Release (the US):** 9 September 2011
- **Genres:** Drama, Thriller, Science Fiction
- **Budget:** $60 million
- **Box office:** $138 million

## Where to watch in the US

Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check.

Also available in: GB. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Panic in the Streets* (1950): Kazan chases plague through New Orleans docks with the same clock ticking.
- *The Andromeda Strain* (1971): Scientists in a bunker, a lethal organism, and almost no shouting.
- *Traffic* (2000), Fi1m 82: Soderbergh’s earlier many-handed film, with cocaine where the virus would be. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/traffic.md)
- *28 Days Later* (2002), Fi1m 77: The same empty streets, filmed as horror rather than procedure. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/28-days-later.md)
- *Chernobyl* (2019): Institutions fail, scientists argue, and the numbers do the frightening.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/contagion