Top 30 Pandemic, Epidemic & Virus Outbreak Movies

 

The covid-19 pandemic is seemingly behind us, but we can never truly be sure.

 

Entoin thought it would be enlightening to share a top-30 list of real-life pandemic and virus-based movies for those interested in seeing Hollywood’s (and other) take on diseases and pandemics.

 

We didn’t include any zombie titles in this list; decided to save that for another day.

 

Wear a mask, stay safe, and see if one of your favourite movies made it to our list.

 

 

 

1. The Last Days (2013)

 

 

A mysterious pandemic starts to spread all over the world. It makes people give in to their fears, particularly of open spaces.

 

Because something about the outdoors spells danger for anyone foolish enough to go there. Before long, the global populace finds itself stuck inside buildings to ensure survival.

 

This Spanish-language movie unfolds in Barcelona, where silent chaos has well and truly taken root.

 

In the plot, Marc (played by Quim Gutiérrez) is determined to find his missing girlfriend Julia (played by Marta Etura), but there’s a caveat. The only way he can get to her is for him to set foot in the plagued outdoors.

 

 

 

2. Quarantine (2008)

 

 

 

Finding herself spending a late shift with a LA fire crew, one TV reporter and her cameraman believe they are just doing their jobs.

 

Soon, a 911 call compels the journos to visit an apartment where they discover police officers hard at work investigating horrifying screams that seem to come from one of the rooms.

 

The woman they later encounter seems to be infected with some unknown virus. She promptly attacks some of the residents, forcing the journalists to find a way out before they are harmed.

 

However, the entire building has been quarantined by this time, and all outside communication has been shut down.

 

Their news crew footage seems to be the only evidence that can be used as proof that something deadly is in play. 

 

 

 

3. Flu (2013)

 

 

Bundang is a suburb in Seoul, and it is host to their worst-recorded epidemic.

 

A man called Byung-woo (played by Lee Sang-Yeob) perishes from an unknown viral infection a short while after he started helping illegal immigrants cross the border.

 

Before long, several residents display fatal infections that apparently sourced from the same mysterious airborne virus.

 

A city of half a million people is later sealed off when the government orders a total lockdown. 

 

Infectious disease specialist Kim In-hae (played by Soo Ae) and rescue worker Kang Ji-Koo (played by Jang Hyuk) enter the city hoping to extract a special blood sample.

 

With a sample from patient-zero, they are partially confident they can come close to developing a vaccine to fight the fast-spreading disease.

 

 

 

4. Carriers (2009)

 

 

 

Brian (played by Chris Pine) and his girlfriend Bobby (played by Piper Perabo) are experiencing what amounts to a devastating viral outbreak that is also, apparently, affecting the whole world.

 

Hoping to find some measure of safety, they make for their childhood beach-vacation spot.

 

But when their vehicle breaks down mid-way, they find themselves with a man named Frank (played by Christopher Meloni). He seems to be stranded out there as well.

 

Frank tells them how anxious and eager he is to get his daughter Jodie (played by Kiernan Shipka) to the nearest hospital. She seems to be infected with an unknown disease.

 

The unwitting group decides to travel together. Soon, moral dilemmas arise and threaten their already fragile alliance.

 

 

5. The Thaw (2009)

 

 

 

Dr. David Krupien (played by Val Kilmer) has courted his fair share of infamy. He is currently leading a research team in the Arctic assisted by Jane (played by Anne Marie DeLuise) and Edward (played by John Callander).

 

They are studying the impact of global warming on polar bears when David’s daughter Evelyn (played by Martha MacIsaac), along with his students Federico Fulce (played by Kyle Schmid), Ling Chen (played by Steph Song), and Atom Galen (played by Aaron Ashmore), are about to come over to help with the research team’s efforts.

 

Before long, David realizes that a dangerous prehistoric parasite from inside a mammoth’s corpse has thawed. 

 

It spreads fast, and alarmingly so, prompting him to contact helicopter pilot Bart (played by Viv Leacock) and demand that he keep the others away from the research base.

 

They arrive regardless, only to learn that Jane has become terminally ill from the mystery virus. Moreover, the parasite has made her go berserk and sabotage the base helicopter before shooting at Edward and David.

 

Quarantine measures are enforced if only to keep the virus from getting out. The surviving members of the team try to contact the CDC, but among this group are some who refuse to see sense no matter the urgency.

 

 

6. It Comes at Night (2017)

 

 

 

In a house all boarded up and standing deep in a forest, Paul (played by Joel Edgerton) along with his wife Sarah (played by Carmen Ejogo) and son Travis (played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) have put themselves through self-quarantine after learning that they’ve contracted a virulent ailment that could prove fatal.

 

They interact only sparsely with the outside world. But when a family in distress comes a-calling, they have little choice but to let them in.

 

The already delicate balance in Paul’s household shatters when tensions reach boiling point. What began as potential co-existence to weather out a virus soon turns into an atmosphere of paranoia and mistrust.

 

A volatile environment blooms, one that threatens all their lives more than a virus ever can.

 

 

7. The Satan Bug (1965)

 

 

 

Lee Barrett (played by George Maharis) used to be a security officer at a top-secret government laboratory known simply as ‘Station 3’.

 

Insubordination led to his immediate dismissal, but he is later called back to duty by the high-ranking General Williams (played by Dana Andrews).

 

The reason: dangerous bio-warfare agents have been stolen from the lab complex, one of which is the dreaded Satan Bug.

 

The latter is a powerful virulent bacteriological weapon that, if unleashed, has the potential to annihilate all humankind in months, if not weeks.

 

The thief makes contact and threatens to release the virus strain in a public place.

 

The dire responsibility of stopping this maniac falls to Lee, who is at his wit’s end as to how he’s going to stop something this fatalistic without the world also coming to know about it.

 

 

8. Blindness (2008)

 

 

An epidemic of ‘instant blindness’ ravages a city where the first ones afflicted have been quarantined by authorities.

 

They are housed in an abandoned mental hospital where a ‘society of the blind’ gradually forms then cracks.

 

The physically powerful and those who are criminally inclined prey on others, and hoard whatever little food rations remain.

 

They also commit unforgivable deeds in their attempts to enforce power. One female eyewitness to the nightmare remains.

 

Her sight is unaffected by the mysterious plague (she previously followed her infected husband into quarantine).

 

Knowing that she has to keep her vision a secret, she guides strangers to safety where she can. Some of them have become like family to her.

 

She leads them out of the asylum and into the derelict streets where civilization has all but gone extinct.

 

 

9. The Painted Veil (2006)

 

 

 

When Kitty (played by Naomi Watts) meets the shy but intelligent Dr. Walter (played by Edward Norton), little does she know that his specialty in infectious diseases will soon become extremely useful.

 

They share a convenient marriage, one that takes the couple to China for Walter’s work. Around this time, the doctor learns of his wife’s infidelity with a handsome and clever diplomat, Charlie Townsend (played by Liev Schreiber).

 

Walter is upset with Kitty, but he also has a cholera outbreak to resolve. Their indifferent partnership is certifiably loveless, more so now than before.

 

Their failing marriage tries to survive in an environment where virus strains are wreaking their own kind of havoc in the lives of innocent people.

 

 

10. Outbreak (1995)

 

 

 

Colonel Dr. Sam Daniels (played by Dustin Hoffman) is experiencing a painful divorce from ex-wife Robby Keough (played by Rene Russo).

 

Robby holds a prominent position at the CDC. As for Sam, he is appointed by his boss, General Billy Ford (played by Morgan Freeman), to investigate an African village that has become affected by a lethal disease.

 

Accompanying him on the deadly mission are scientist Casey Schuler (played by Kevin Spacey) and Major Dr. Salt (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.).

 

Fearing a contamination that might return to the USA, Daniels notifies Ford to take every precaution. However, an African national smuggles a monkey across the U.S. border. The animal is a carrier of the fatal disease.

 

Customs employee Jimbo Scott (played by Patrick Dempsey) fails to sell the creature on the black market and so releases the monkey into the nearby woods.

 

Before long, a virus outbreak begins in a small California town and starts to spread. Sam, Robby, and the rest of the team have to stop the disease from getting out of control.

 

Around this time, he learns some dark secrets from his superior General Donald McClintock (played by Donald Sutherland) regarding the actual purpose of the virus.

 

 

11. The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

 

 

 

Prince Prospero (played by Vincent Price), a rather cruel man, makes his way through Catania village and observes that peasants are dying from the Red Death plague.

 

He demands the village be burned down. He soon takes offense with villagers like Gino (played by David Weston) and his father-in-law Ludovico (played by Nigel Green) and decides to end their lives.

 

Gino’s wife, the beautiful Francesca (played by Jane Asher), pleads for them to be pardoned. Prospero ferries all three of them to his castle but secretly aims to take advantage of Francesca.

 

It is a known fact that Prospero worships Satan, but his invitation to take shelter from the plague outside becomes an irrefutable offer to the family he pretends to help.

 

A masked ball is planned at the castle. On this occasion, Prospero spots a red-hooded stranger whom he believes is Satan himself.

 

However, the truth is something else and it may not bode well for the prince.

 

 

12. Epidemic (1987)

 

 

Screenwriters Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel (playing themselves) get busy penning a script that features a plague-based outbreak.

 

Renowned epidemiologist Dr. Mesmer (played by Lars von Trier) has made up his mind to leave the Faculty of Medicine. He heads to the city outskirts where he aims to assist the people living there.

 

Before long, a mysterious illness spreads all over the world. Around this time, the writers are off to Germany to visit their producer.

 

There they encounter a sick hypnotized woman who adds to their problems.

 

 

13. Panic in the Streets (1950)

 

 

 

One day, a New Orleans dock washes up a corpse. A swift police investigation proves death by gunshot. The police surgeon later notices that the dead man also has strange symptoms.

 

Doctor with the U.S. Public Health Service, Lt. Commander Clinton Reed (played by Richard Widmark), soon confirms the diagnosis: a contagious pneumonic plague.

 

He fails to convince local officials to help him find all those who came in contact with the dead body.

 

Despite a supportive mayor, police and sundry remain doubtful of Clinton’s findings. He aims to keep the public from panicking until the authorities know more.

 

The dead man’s identity is also obscured. According to Clinton, though, they have only forty hours left to halt the spread of the disease.

 

Police Capt. Tom Warren (played by Paul Douglas) gets busy with key paperwork. Meanwhile, Clinton heads out to find the people who killed the plagued man.

 

 

14. The Crazies (1973)

 

 

 

An important plane crashes on a hill near Evans City. For the next six days, it leaks a weaponized bacteriological substance named ‘Trixie’ designed solely to affect humans.

 

Under Colonel Peckem’s (played by Lloyd Hollar) command, the Army makes swift work sealing off the town in the hopes of containing the virus.

 

There is no cure for this pathogen, which drives people mad or kills them outright.

 

Pregnant nurse Judy (played by Lane Carroll) and her husband David (played by Will MacMillan), along with their buddy Clank (played by Harold Wayne Jones), an acquaintance named Artie (played by Richard Liberty), and his daughter Kathy (played by Lynn Lowry) attempt a border crossing.

 

The Army is not too happy about their decision and starts to hunt them down.

 

Around this time, scientist Dr. Ralston Watts (played by Richard France) is busy studying infected blood samples in the hopes of finding a cure.

 

 

15. Stuck Together (2021)

 

 

Empty and silent streets define Paris now, because many have fled the capital. Among those who remain are seven families under lockdown. They are inside a building on Rue de l’Humanité.

 

They include a self-made man desperate to be as smart as his 8-year-old son, a café owner who repurposes pear alcohol as hydroalcoholic gel, a geeky online sports coach who gets chubbier by the week, and his pregnant singer fiancée who is anxious about going to the hospital on her own.

 

Three months of lockdown cover the families’ dramas, joys, and fears. Just because they’re all stuck together does not mean they will reconcile, but there is hope that they will.

 

 

16. Black Death (2010)

 

 

The year is 1348. England stands devastated by the Bubonic Plague. Osmund (played by Eddie Redmayne) is a young monk who convinces his beloved Averill (played by Kimberley Nixon) to go with him to an isolated village near Dentwich Forest.

 

He’s learned that the plague has not reached that far. Plans change when Osmund finds himself staying at the Staveley Monastery.

 

Before long, bishop Ulric (played by Sean Bean) sends an emissary to recruit a religious man to accompany his soldiers and him to that same village.

 

The bishop believes a necromancer is bringing people back to life there and keeping the village itself safe from the plague.

 

The trip proves eventful, what with thieves and the challenges of maneuvering the forest. One such altercation gives Osmund a heart-wrenching look at Averill’s bloody clothes (she apparently kept her word to meet him in the forest).

 

When they finally arrive at the village, atheist villagers are enjoying life and remain, to all intents and purposes, healthy.

 

The village leader Hob (played by Tim McInnerny) and alchemist Langiva (played by Carice van Houten) welcome the newcomers, unaware that they do not exactly come in peace.

 

 

17. The Seventh Seal (1957)

 

 

During medieval times, the knight Antonius Block (played by Max von Sydow) and his squire Jöns (played by Gunnar Björnstrand) have come back home to Sweden after fighting in the deadly Crusades.

 

Their homecoming happiness is ruined when they learn that a plague has ravished the land. Personally, Antonius has been fighting inner demons, particularly the personification of Death (played by Bengt Ekerot) itself.

 

Affirming his need to survive, he challenges Death to a game of chess, with the outcome determining whether or not Antonius and the others will get to live.

 

By this time, the knight no longer believes in god. He ardently seeks a reason why a plague has affected so many innocent lives.

 

He believes he has at least one major thing to do before he dies. Along with the journey home, both knight and squire encounter an acting troupe performing a passionate play.

 

He offers them safe travels through his castle and onward. Time spent with the troupe provides Antonius with key answers to many personal misgivings.

 

He learns plenty from Jof (played by Nils Poppe), Mia (played by Bibi Andersson), and their infant son Mikael.

 

 

18. 1918 (1985)

 

 

The year is 1918. The United States is engaged in World War I. German immigrants have become suspected traitors or saboteurs.

 

Around this time, important liberty bonds are stolen. Patriotism and propaganda make their rounds.

 

Horace Robedaux (played by William Converse-Roberts) is living a quiet life in Texas when he faces the pressure to enlist.

 

If he does, he will have no choice but to leave his wife Elizabeth (played by Hallie Foote) and their little daughter Jenny behind.

 

Elizabeth will have to suffer the company of her intolerable younger brother (played by Matthew Broderick) and her strict father, who was against her marriage to Horace in the first place.

 

The father rises to the occasion and promises to take care of Elizabeth and Jenny so Horace can go fight for his country.

 

Around this tumultuous time, an influenza epidemic is spreading in waves throughout the nation, and it could derail several plans for several people.

 

 

19. The Cassandra Crossing (1976)

 

 

A deadly disease infects all passengers aboard a European train. The motley group is forced into quarantine and denied any chance of leaving the train so the disease won’t spread and claim more lives.

 

The Cassandra Crossing already has a legend acting in it, namely Sofia Loren. Add international smuggling and government intrigue to the mix, and this ahead-of-its-time virus-themed movie has a lot going on that is deserving of appreciation.

 

 

20. Virus: The End (1980)

 

 

Most of the global population has been decimated due to a deadly virus, which scientists have observed remains dormant at sub-zero temperatures.

 

Those who are working at a polar station in Antarctica are thus unaffected. It now falls to them to help rebuild humanity.

 

Around this time, a seismologist discovers a potential earthquake is about to strike Washington.

 

Military personnel from America, England, and Russia soon learn that the quake will trigger a series of retaliatory events that will end in Russia launching an attack on the polar station.

 

A team of two men is immediately dispatched to Washington to help keep the quake from escalating diplomatic matters at a time when a deadly virus is already rampant in the world.

 

 

21. Light of My Life (2019)

 

 

 

A decade has come and gone, and society has been ravaged by a pandemic.

 

A parent and child duo journey through the outskirts of a decimated location, one of many where entire populations have been wiped out.

 

The father struggles to keep his child safe as they steer through a dark almost post-apocalyptic world where the very essence of humanity is tested.

 

 

22. The Killer That Stalked New York (1950)

 

 

 

Sheila Bennet (played by Evelyn Keyes) makes her way from Cuba to New York with around $40,000 worth of diamonds, a result of illegal smuggling operations.

 

In her body, though, she carries the vestiges of a devastating smallpox virus that has the potential to trigger an unstoppable epidemic.

 

Treasury agent Johnson (played by Barry Kelley) is on her tail, only he keeps losing her. He’s also ignorant of the real danger Sheila poses.

 

Meanwhile, Public Health Doctor Ben Wood (played by William Bishop) is eager to find the unidentified person who is the apparent source of a deadly disease that’s begun to spread. He has no clue that it is Sheila he is looking for.

 

Sheila, on the other hand, is growing increasingly ill and has her own problems to resolve, like how her husband Matt Krane (played by Charles Korvin) aims to abscond with the diamonds and leave her behind.

 

 

23. Deranged (2012)

 

 

Ordinary middle-aged man Jae-hyeok (played by Myung-Min Kim) is employed as a medical supplies salesman. His job sees him hassled by doctors on a routine basis.

 

His brother Jae-Pil (played by Dong-wan Kim) works as a detective who’s self-centered and mostly interested in the stock market.

 

Before long, a series of gruesome skeletal corpses are found all over the country, sparking public hysteria. CCTV footage of people jumping into water bodies as though forced to commit suicide does not sit well with the police commissioner.

 

Soon, hundreds of similar reports come in, prompting the police to up their investigation even though none of them are aware of the actual cause of the madness.

 

The government is left with little choice but to declare a national emergency, one that sees Jae-pil meeting the mayor of a small town to learn more about the time he witnessed several men wearing work uniforms and dumping infected dog corpses into streams.

 

The detective realizes that a serious conspiracy is at work, not to forget a potential viral outbreak. The disease spreads far and infects Jae-hyeok’s wife and kids, who start to show the same self-killing symptoms as the other victims.

 

Jae-hyeok grows desperate for medicine to help them while Jae-pil learns that a possible cure resides in a warehouse.

 

 

24. Cabin Fever (2002)

 

 

 

Friends from college Paul (played by Rider Strong), Jeff (played by Joey Kern), Marcy (played by Cerina Vincent), Bert (played by James DeBello), and Karen (played by Jordan Ladd) are off to spend time in a rented cabin in the woods.

 

They want to have fun for a whole week and make memories. A short while after they arrive, a man with a strange disease begs for aid.

 

In a fit of panic and fear, the friends end up burning the man, who falls to his death into a water reservoir.

 

Not knowing where the dead body actually is, the group – except for Karen – decides to drink only beer for fear of contracting a viral illness from the water.

 

Karen, uncaring and unafraid, consumes tap water to prove her friends wrong. She ends up contracting the mysterious ailment, which is a flesh-eating virus.

 

Before long, nearby locals are alerted to the fact and are not keen on letting anyone in the cabin go home alive.

 

 

25. Mayhem (2017)

 

 

 

Having bad days is terrible in itself, and Derek Cho (played by Steven Yeun) is experiencing one of the worst ones of his life.

 

Not only was he unfairly fired from his job, but he also learns that his law firm’s building is in complete lockdown.

 

They have apparently been quarantined owing to the spread of a deadly and mysterious virus that’s causing sheer anarchy and bloodlust among those infected.

 

The victims can’t help but express their wildest rashest impulses. Derek teams up with former client Melanie Cross (played by Samara Weaving) to stay safe.

 

Melanie, however, has her own grudges just waiting to explode following the spread of the infection. Derek is soon left fighting tooth and nail to stay alive and get himself to the executives on the top floor.

 

The virus has also infected him and he’s keen on exacting vengeance for his unjust dismissal from the workplace.

 

 

26. Cujo (1983)

 

 

 

Rabies is a virus in its own right, and this movie uses it to redefine the word ‘sick’ through a St. Bernard dog that gets infected and turns monstrously rabid.

 

Frustrated suburban housewife Donna Trenton (played by Dee Wallace) is found having an affair by her own husband Vic (played by Daniel Hugh Kelly).

 

Meanwhile, young Brett Camber (played by Billy Jayne) spends time with his pet dog Cujo who is his only real friend in life.

 

But when a rabid bat bites the dog, the adorable and warm canine practically turns into a hellhound that fails to recognize its own family.

 

Around this time, Vic has gone away on business and to rethink his marriage, leaving Donna alone with their 5-year-old son.

 

They take the car to go see Mr. Cambers who owns a car shop. Before long, Cujo shows signs of madness that causes sheer terror in the unlucky few in his vicinity who have no clue how they’re going to escape the area with Cujo redefining the meaning of the phrase ‘beware of dog’.

 

This film was adapted from Stephen King’s bestselling novel.

 

 

27. The Andromeda Strain (1971)

 

 

 

When all the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico, are discovered dead from unknown causes immediately following the return of a space satellite to Earth, the head of the U.S. Air Force’s Project Scoop is left with little choice but to declare an emergency.

 

Many years ago, a team of eminent scientists headed by Dr. Jeremy Stone (played by Arthur Hill) had insisted on the construction of a secure laboratory facility intended to contain any alien biological life form that might have piggybacked to Earth on one of their satellites.

 

Years later, Stone and his team – including Drs. Charles Dutton (played by David Wayne), Ruth Leavitt (played by Kate Reid), and Mark Hall (played by James Olson) – head to the specialized facility christened ‘Wildfire’.

 

Their aim is to find and isolate an extra-terrestrial life form that seems to be the direct source of a deadly viral ailment.

 

However, the scientists remain puzzled about how two residents – an aging drunkard and a six-month-old infant – managed to survive when all the other town residents perished.

 

Studying the alien entity, the scientists confirm that it has already mutated and presents an immediate threat to everyone in the lab complex.

 

Should the virus-creature attempt to escape, the lab comes equipped with a nuclear self-destruct option that just might need to be used.

 

 

28. The Happening (2008)

 

 

 

High school science teacher Elliot Moore (played by Mark Wahlberg) engages his students in an active discussion about the mysterious and rather abrupt disappearance of bees.

 

He bases his talk on a recent NYT article. With Nature doing something unexplained, and with only theories about what might be happening to cause it, Elliot and his students are at their wits’ end.

 

Before long, an urgent dilemma unravels all over the world. Scientists are left with little to no solid evidence, let alone an explanation, as to what flora (plant life) may have to do with this bizarre and silent event.

 

It begins in New York’s Central Park where people suddenly start to behave in strange and frightful ways. Like several others, Elliot attempts to hide.

 

He is accompanied by his wife Alma (played by Zooey Deschanel) and Jess (played by Ashlyn Sanchez), the young daughter of a friend.

 

An invisible pathogen that exclusively targets humans is spreading far and fast and it looks like nobody has the time to find an answer that can help them survive.

 

 

29. 12 Monkeys (1995)

 

 

 

A delusional patient hospitalized in a mental institution, James Cole (played by Bruce Willis) spouts nonsense about being a time-traveler from the year 2035.

 

It is the 90s and nobody truly believes him, mainly because he’s interred in an asylum. James, however, is busy trying to fulfill his self-appointed mission of saving the world from a deadly and unstoppable virus that, if unleashed, has the power to kill billions.

 

In this almost-prophetic movie, Cole’s psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly (played by Madeleine Stowe) is the only one to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

Before long, he encounters fellow inmate Jeffrey Goines (played by Brad Pitt) who is quite unhinged. Their meeting catalyzes something dark and sets into motion a series of inexplicable events that put pressure on the thin wall separating sanity and sense.

 

One thing leads to another and evidence arises about the involvement (in the coming pandemic) of a group known simply as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, an extremist organization with a heartless mission.

 

 

30. Contagion (2011)

 

 

 

The mother of all pandemic movies, this one tracks the untimely death of an otherwise healthy woman named Beth Emhoff (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) and her son Clark (played by Griffin Kane).

 

The grieving father Mitch Emhoff (played by Matt Damon) is shocked when authorities come to quarantine him. Around this time, a virus pathogen has begun to infect thousands of people all over the world.

 

Both the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation fail to discover the origins of the virus, let alone ways to halt or slow its spread.

 

Faced with a global contagion, they do their best to treat and contain it while covertly seeking Patient Zero.

 

They have their hands full, what with riots, self-appointed prophets riling up the masses, rising death rates, and international economic collapse.

 

There is no cure for this lethal virus that spreads through the air and via touch.