The coronavirus pandemic has completely transformed the way millions of people live, work and interact around the world. With real life events becoming stranger than fiction, we turn to some of Hollywood's greatest films about viral outbreaks and epidemics to see how close they hit the mark.

1. Contagion: Medical questioning

A viral epidemic hits the city of Minnesota after Beth Emhoff, played by Gwneth Paltrow, brings a deadly contagion back from Hong Kong. Her symptoms were misdiagnosed as jet lag and she died within two days of being home. While the US Centers for Disease Control struggles to curb the spread of the virus, society quickly breaks down from fear and paranoia. 

2. Outbreak: Mass quarantine

After a monkey carries an airborne virus to the US, a team of doctors try to control its spread. This is a film about the race against time after the army is eventually called in to contain the disease and save the lives of local inhabitants. 

3. 28 Days Later: Empty streets

Set in London, a bike courier wakes up from a month-long coma to find his city deserted. He learns that a group of animal rights activists freed an infected chimpanzee from a medical research lab, which then infected humans and turned them into zombies. A group of survivors try to stick together and find refuge from their new reality. 

4. Blindness: Panic buying

A city is suddenly hit with a virus that causes instant blindness. Those who contract it are quarantined in a mental hospital by the authorities. In turn, criminals and the physically able target the infected and fights over food rations and supplies become widespread.

5. 93 Days: Dedicated medical staff

Based on real events, 93 days follows the 2014 Ebola outbreak and portrays the stories of the doctors who dedicated their lives and made sacrifices working on the containment of the disease when it spread across Nigeria. 

Text by Sharon Majuki