Contagion starts with a cough. The cough belongs to Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow). Every trained moviegoer knows that any character who coughs is doomed, and Beth is no exception; she’ll be dead 10 minutes into the film. The movie isn’t about her, though. It’s about the cough. And such is Contagion’s power of persuasion that for the rest of your day, and maybe longer, you will look askance at every cough you encounter.
Beth returns from a business trip to Hong Kong with a nasty souvenir: a virus that kills its host in days. Where she got it is a mystery to be solved, and where it goes next is grimly enthralling to behold. With immense skill, the film (directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns) tracks the virus’ passage to strangers in the airport, then to Beth’s family back home in Minneapolis. Her husband, Mitch (Matt Damon), is apparently immune to the virus. Others? Not so much.