'The Flu', 'Pandemic' and other coronavirus related films on Netflix

Streaming platform Netflix has an extensive offering of films and series dealing with global pandemics with some of the productions based on real stories. Here is a small selection of the catalogue dealing with this sub-genre:

'The Flu movie'

A South Korean 2013 production which is being viewed extensively again over the past months. Disaster strikes after a deadly airborne virus infects the population of a South Korean city less than 20 kilometres from the capital of Seoul. The search is on to find patient 0 in an attempt to find a vaccine and save the nation.

'Pandemic: how to prevent an outbreak'

The six part series is now proving to be somewhat prophetic having being released at the end of January this year. The premise of the series is that the planet is due for a new, fast-moving deadly virus. It’s been 100 years since a deadly influenza virus killed 50 to 100 million people, at a time when the global population was just two billion

'Contagion'

This 2011 Steven Soderberg release has become one of the most downloaded movies (via legal services) over the past six weeks and includes a roster of big hitting Hollywood names: Jude Law, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Gwyneth Paltrow. A woman (played by Paltrow) returns from a Hong Kong business trip and attributes the malaise she feels to jet lag but dies just two days later. Soon, many others start to exhibit the same symptoms, and a global pandemic explodes.

'Cargo'

An Australian film from 2017 featuring the acting talents of Martin Freeman (The Office, The Hobbit) sees the English actor stranded in rural Australia in the aftermath of a violent pandemic as an infected father desperately tries to avoid blood sucking zombies and search for a new home for his infant child and a means to protect her from his own changing nature.

'Carriers'

A horror movie from 2011 directed by Chris Pine features four young adults trying to escape from a deadly epidemic and seek refuge in the Gulf of Mexico as one of the four protagonists contracts the virus.

'93 Days'

'12 Monkeys'

A modern science fiction classic from 1995. directed by Terry Gilliams and featuring the acting skills of Bruce Willis and Brad Pit. In year 2035 with planet devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.

 'I Am Legend'

Will Smith is the star of this 2007 work with the American playing the role of the last man in a devastated New York City after a pandemic wiped out rest of the population. The virologist Smith, attempts to find a way to reverse the effects of the man-made virus by using his own immune blood.

'World War Z'

Brad Pitt stars in this 2013 production, playing the role of a United Nations investigator who has been asked to save the planet after a a pandemic breaks out that turns humans into zombies.

'Train to Busan'

This 2016 horror/thriller from South Korea focuses on a series of passengers making an internal trip in the Asian nation when the journey turns into a nightmare when they are trapped amidst a zombie outbreak in South Korea.

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