Gwyneth PaltrowLEWISHAMDREAMER, FLICKR
An innocent cough launches a deadly pandemic in Contagion, the new thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh. Critics and scientists alike have touted the movie as a more realistic depiction of disease transmission—no movie stars turn into flesh-eating zombies, and the previously unknown disease does not kill every person it encounters. But despite some impressively realistic details, there are still parts of the movie that would be pretty unlikely in real life, several scientists say.
SPOILER ALERT: KEY PLOT POINTS DIVULGED AHEAD
In the movie, Gwyneth Paltrow’s character, a Minnesota executive named Beth Emhoff, falls ill with a cough on a company trip to Hong Kong. She infects several other unfortunate people on two continents. Soon, places as remote as Durbin South Africa and San Francisco ...
