If you’ve ever spent a lazy Saturday watching a lot of Discovery Channel or National Geographic, you’ve undoubtedly come across one of those speculative shows about what you should do if a pandemic ever begins to spread throughout the world. In these shows, the breakdown of all norms and order within society is typically highlighted. What would you do? Where would you go? How would you survive?

Obviously, these hypothetical scenarios got the attention of some Hollywood heavyweights as this is pretty much what Contagion is all about. In addition to people dealing with the pandemic in a newly wild and ruthless society, this film also explores the experiences of quarantined medical patients who have contracted the virus, the global medical community and its ability to handle the virus and communicate to the public, and the fear that overtakes everyone (in some cases, unnecessarily) as a result of the state of emergency.

If you like big name Hollywood actors, this movie has plenty of them. We’re talking Laurence Fishburne, Sanaa Lathan, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, and even a cameo appearance by CNN‘s Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The information in the script was developed with help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), so it seems that there is more than entertainment to gain from watching this film. It might be in everyone’s best interest to check this one out.

Contagion will be released to theaters September 9. Yes, that’s today.

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