Real life Viruses and Hollywood Viruses are different. Real life Viruses have unpleasant symptoms. Hollywood Viruses have mutant-zombie-vampires with anger issues. Real life viruses can be controlled with handwashing and staying indoors. Hollywood viruses are controlled by running around with guns, controlled explosions and occasionally nuclear weapons. Real Life Viruses are a bit boring. Hollywood Viruses can be awesome. So, after you’ve washed your hands, why not sit down, relax and see how the experts do it.

10 The Omega Man, 1971

Charlton Heston is the last man on earth, pretty much. One of the few survivors of a global pandemic, caused by biological warfare. A lone research scientist (Heston) injects himself with a vaccine of his own design, which seems to work.

However, the solitude of being the only survivor starts to drive Heston a bit mad, and he spends most of his time barricaded inside his apartment, which is stacked high with guns.
So far, so realistic.

However, when he is captured by these virus infected mutants, who he calls The Family, instead of attacking him they put him on trial, or at least a mock trial.
Now it is getting a little surreal.

The Family is run by the head mutant, a former TV anchor-man, played by Anthony Zerbe, who has a disturbing Manson vibe about him.

There’s a lot of other weird stuff too, including a lot of spear-throwing (unnecessary it would seem, given the abundance of weaponry in Heston’s apartment) and a crucifixion.

Most disturbing, however is the amount of time that Charlton Heston spends shirtless, for no good reason.

9 Blindness, 2008

Mark Ruffalo is a doctor who treats a man that has gone suddenly blind. The following day, Ruffalo, too, goes blind, and he realises that the blindness must have been caused by some kind of contagion.

The virus spreads, causing a whole city to become sightless overnight.

Except for Ruffalo’s wife, played by Julianne Moore, who retains her sight. In order to be able to stay with her husband, however, she pretends to be blind too.

Blindness is a film about what happens when we become completely dependent upon the kindness of strangers, and about how thin the veneer of decency can be when it’s every man for himself.

8 Outbreak, 1995

Outbreak, released in 1995, concerned an outbreak of an Ebola-like virus in Zaire, and it was an immediate success. Partly this was due to the performance of its all-star cast, and partly because, at the time of its release, Ebola was breaking out in, of all places, Zaire.

The virus is spread through a series of unfortunate, not to say unlikely, events, which include a military cover-up, a smuggled monkey, and its release into the wild, and a broken vial of blood which releases the virus as effectively as Pandora and her box.

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman, with star turns by Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland and Cuba Gooding Jr, the film’s premise was a little bit ridiculous but the levels of denial among those who should know better is spot on.

7 I Am Legend

How do you cure cancer? Easy. Give it the measles.

Barmy? Possibly. For some reason, not adequately explored, someone must have skipped the usual drug trial protocols, because, next thing you know, the measles has wiped out most of the world’s population. Oops.

Not to worry. Will Smith, is a former soldier turned virologist. Which means that when the measles turns his neighbours into mutant-zombie-vampires, he is trained to both fight them and cure them, all while trying to make contact with other virus-free survivors.

Living alone, with only his dog and some shop mannequins for company, Smith starts to go a little bit mad. He is plagued by the question of whether he is the only person to survive the virus. Could there be other people out there too? I am Legend was well received both critically and popularly, with everyone praising the performance of Will Smith. And his dog.

The mannequins were a bit wooden.

6 The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain was based on a novel by Michael Crichton, who was a doctor before he was a writer, so presumably knew a thing or two about viruses. When a satellite returns to earth, it brings with it a micro-organism that causes blood to clot in the veins. Those people who don’t die instantly, are driven to kill themselves.

Obviously, NASA has a protocol for dealing with alien micro-organisms. This protocol, codenamed Wildfire, requires sending a crack team of scientists to investigate, while the military prefer their own solution – let’s nuke it. Isn’t that always their solution?

The movie focusses on the disconnect between science and the military, and the dangers of devising rigid protocols to deal with unknown situations.

5 Contagion, 2011

This one is a little bit scary. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Contagion is a movie about how viruses spread. It is about how difficult they are to contain, and how devastating the consequences can be when they’re not contained.

The film has been praised by scientists for its accurate portrayal of the difficulties of dealing with pandemics. Its all-star cast may help distract you from the impending breakdown of society. The film has everything, from politicians trying to downplay the seriousness of the epidemic, to charlatans trying to make a quick buck selling homeopathic cures, and heroic scientists who work round the clock to try to develop a vaccine.

Soderbergh said that he was trying to make an ‘ultra-realistic’ film about pandemics, and their affect on social order. Job Done.

4 28 Days Later, 2003

When Cillian Murphy awakes from a coma after 4 weeks, the world is a different place. He walks the streets of a deserted London, wondering what on earth happened has happened, and looking for signs of life.

It turns out that an animal rights group has accidentally released a chimpanzee with a highly contagious virus which causes extreme rage and loss of control. During the 28 days he has been asleep, society has collapsed, and the world has all but ended.

28 Days Later is not a film about viruses, as such, but about what happens to society when the normal rules of life are suspended.
It’s not pretty.

3 Train to Busan, 2016

If you want a virus outbreak film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, you could go for Train to Busan. A South Korean action/horror film, it broke records in Korea for audience size.
Imagine you are on a busy train. A woman boards at the last minute, looking pretty ill. The train has barely pulled out of the station before the woman mutates into a zombie-figure, who then attacks the guard, who then also mutates.

Not only that, but, whilst trying to quarantine the infected passengers in one railway car, your train passes burning buildings, and other mutant-zombies, so there’s no point trying to get off. What do you do next?

Train to Busan has been described as ‘the best zombie film ever’, and did wonders for the popularity of South Korean cinema, although probably not quite so much for its train companies.

2 12 Monkeys

What do you do if a deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity? Obviously, you build a time-machine and send Bruce Willis back from a dystopian future to sort it out. 12 Monkeys is directed by Terry Gilliam, so you know it’s also going to be a little bit strange.

Brad Pitt is certainly strange. As are the other inmates of the lunatic asylum to which Bruce is very quickly confined. Pitt’s performance won him a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his performance as an anarchist eco-terrorist with daddy issues and a side serving of psychosis.

In truth the movie isn’t really about a virus. It’s Bruce Willis saving the world. Again.

And that is always fun to watch. But it is Terry Gilliam’s direction, with his trademark black humour and twisted endings and Brad Pitt’s crazy man performance that takes this film from fun to fantastic.

1 Death in Venice, 1971

Death In Venice stands apart from the others on this list as being not just entertainment, but art. Scene after scene we are met with some of the most beautifully filmed images of one of the world’s most beautiful places: Venice. The film follows Gustav von Aschenbach who is taking time to recuperate from a nervous breakdown in Venice, which—ironically—is beginning to feel the effects of a cholera epidemic.

In between lusting after an adolescent polish boy staying at the same hotel and dealing with a mid-life crisis, Aschenbach has flashbacks to the death of his daughter and his career as a composer. The unravelling of the of the protagonist’s life through the film leads us to one of the most poignant and macabre endings ever. Director Luchino Visconti (featured on Top 10 Films About Economic Disaster You Really Need To Watch for The Damned) proved himself a true visionary in the production of this film.

The soundtrack by Gustav Mahler is eerie, beautiful, serene, and breathtaking.

Watch this film before any other on this list.

Called the last great plague of London, the Great Plague began in the spring of 1665 and ended roughly a year later. Officially, over 68,000 people died, but many believe that the number of plague deaths was closer to 100,000.

During this time, the people of London lived through one unimaginable horror after another. Families died, dead bodies were often dumped onto the streets until they were picked up by the buriers, and the smell of death was everywhere. It was Hell on Earth, and many people thought it would be the end of all times.

10 Hush-Hush

At the start of the plague, when the deaths started to noticeably increase, the outbreak was publicly minimized. This was due to the fact that England didn’t want trade overseas to be interrupted. If news of the plague reached other ports, English ships would be denied entry, and trade would come to a standstill.

However, the wealthier residents of London had a pretty good idea of what was going on, and they packed up and left for the country, hoping to outrun the deadly plague. Other residents simply ignored the early signs of the plague and continued to be as social as ever.

9 Not Allowed To Leave

While the wealthy inhabitants of London were able to get out at the start of the plague, the poor were not as fortunate. As the number of deaths continued to rise, many of those living in poverty didn’t want to risk losing their jobs or giving up their tiny flats. This was the only life they had, and there was nothing for them outside of London.

By the time the death count had reached hundreds per week, more and more of the poor decided to risk everything and leave London for the country. The only problem was that by this time (June 1665), the poor could no longer get approval to leave London.

Anyone who wanted to leave London had to get papers stating that they were free of the plague and were permitted to leave. The lord mayor stopped issuing these documents, and counterfeiters offered fake documents for a stiff fee. Once again, the poor were left to suffer.

8 Shut Up In Houses

One of the Plague Orders by the Privy Council stated that any house containing someone infected with the plague must be shut up. The whole family had to remain inside the house, sick or not, for a total of 40 days. A red cross was then painted onto the door to warn others that the occupants had the plague.

This was a controversial order because many felt that it was an automatic death sentence for family members who were still healthy. Nathaniel Hodges, a physician during the Great Plague, believed that the order increased the death toll, but he was powerless to oppose it. It was for the greater good that those with the plague and those exposed to it be removed from the general population.

There were accounts of entire families with small children being shut into their homes. Sometimes, the parents had to suffer through the deaths of their children. Other times, the parents died first, and neighbors watched through the windows as the children perished, one by one, either from the plague or starvation.

By September 1665, the quarantines could not be held. Too many people were sick and dying.

7 . . . Until They Had The Plague

In a quarantine that went horribly wrong, a family was shut into their home for 40 days because their maid servant had spots on her skin. She got better, but the family wasn’t allowed to leave their home until the quarantine was over and the family inspected. By then, the lady of the house had a fever from being shut indoors for so long, so the family had to undergo another 40-day quarantine.

During the second quarantine, more family members became sick. With no fresh air, no exercise, and being forced to stare at the scenery, it was no wonder that there were health issues.

The family was inspected again, found to be ill, and underwent yet another quarantine. This time, however, one of the people who inspected the home brought the dreaded plague in. Most of the family died.

6 Eyam

While people were being quarantined inside their homes in London, a shipment of dirty clothing was brought to the village of Eyam in Derbyshire. It was sent from London and carried the plague.

People began to get sick in Eyam, and the only way it could be contained was if they quarantined themselves. The village rector, William Mompesson, helped the people self-quarantine so that the plague would not be spread to the other villages. The rector’s wife and roughly 80 percent of the population inside the village succumbed to the plague.

5 Cats And Dogs Slaughtered

Not understanding that the plague was being spread by fleas found on infected rats, a rumor spread through London that it was caused by cats and dogs. Upon hearing this rumor, the lord mayor ordered all cats and dogs to be killed.

Little did he know that the cats and dogs helped keep the rat population down and that by ordering these predators killed off, he would enable the plague to spread more easily. It is estimated that over 200,000 cats and about 40,000 dogs were slaughtered.

4 Syphilis Was Thought To Prevent The Plague

The physicians of the mid-1600s practiced medical superstition. They strove desperately to understand the scientific medical world, but without the equipment we have today, these early doctors were destined to fail again and again.

During London’s last great plague, a rumor was recorded that syphilis was believed to give immunity to the plague, as though the one evil would cancel out the other. While there is zero truth to this old rumor, doctors did not dispute it. In fact, it appears as though many of them felt that the body was better able to “cast off” two sickness at a time, as opposed to being able to fight off just one deadly disease. In their thinking, the two “poisons” would battle each other and leave the body unharmed.

3 Fear The Plague Nurses

With so many people sick, plague nurses were hired by the city to take care of those in need. These women were illiterate and weren’t paid enough to sustain themselves on their own. They had to turn to other methods to produce a livable income, and as a result, both the sick and the healthy feared them.

The women would not only steal from the dead, but they would also help the dying on their way. The sooner a patient was deceased, the quicker the nurse could claim his personal belongings as her own. The nurses were also known to gather the sickness from the plague sores and use it to infect the healthy so that, upon death, they could take what they wanted.

2 People Threw Themselves Into The Pits

The churchyards could not handle all the dead, and pits were dug to dispose of the bodies. Men with carts would roam the streets, collecting the dead and disposing of them without any of the old funerary traditions being practiced.

People were not allowed to visit these pits for fear that they would spread the infection, but people who were already delirious with the plague were seen running toward them and throwing themselves in. In some cases, they would bury themselves in with the rest of the deceased.

1 An Unpleasant Death

Dying from bubonic plague was beyond unpleasant. It took several days for the victim to experience all or most of the symptoms.

First, there were headaches, fever, and vomiting. The patient might shiver uncontrollably. His tongue would swell up in his mouth, and the lymph nodes in his groin, armpits, or neck would also swell. If that wasn’t enough, the patient’s skin would get black blotches, hence the name “the Black Death.”

Elizabeth, a former Pennsylvania native, recently moved to the beautiful state of Massachusetts, where she is currently involved in researching early American history. She writes and travels in her spare time.