When fiction comes to life in the time of the virus
Eight years ago, I walked into a DVD store in the West Rand, Johannesburg, and hired a star-studded movie that had somehow slipped under my radar during its run in the local cinemas.
While the plot seemed a bit of a stretch, I figured it couldn’t be all that bad if director Steven Soderbergh and the producers had managed to convince superstars such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet and Jude Law to join the cast.
Billed as a thriller, is about an American business person who returns from a trip to Hong Kong and starts to experience some discomfort soon after arriving at her home in Minnesota.
She initially attributes the fatigue and the flu-like symptoms she develops to jet lag, but these warning symptoms soon escalate to a pounding headache, a severe bout of fever, coughs, sweating and a sore throat.
The woman never recovers and is confirmed dead a couple of days later. Her stunned husband has barely enough time to get his head around her sudden death when their young son dies hours later.
There are several subplots in the movie, including the business person having cheated on her husband with an old flame before returning home.
But none of these stray too far from the central plot, which explores the deadly virus that killed her, one that is so infectious that it is easily transmitted when people touch surfaces or anything that came into contact with a sick person.
I had forgotten completely about this movie until the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic shocked the memory back into my consciousness.
So I decided to watch the movie again, and given that
has an eerie resemblance to Covid-19 in the freakiest example of life imitating art, it suddenly feels as if we have become unwilling cast members of a real nightmare.
Soderbergh’s uncanny gaze into the crystal ball was also shown on SABC recently, and I observed the reaction of stunned viewers who took to social media to share their views about the frightening similarities the movie has with Covid-19.
In Soderbergh’s fictional world, a vaccine is eventually found, but only after the world suffers heavy losses and a hefty body count.
We are not so lucky in real life, and the whole world is clamouring to find a glimmer of hope as people continue to die every day.
Many people around the world are starting to feel helpless in the face of the high rate of deaths and escalating infections.
The economies of several countries have come under serious threat, and there is a strong possibility that even if a cure or vaccine is found life as we know it will never be the same again.
Every person on this planet is feeling the effects of this deadly pandemic as it attempts to destroy everything in its path.
It is business unusual, and many of us are still trying to come to grips with this new reality.
Some in other parts of the world took a bit longer to realise that the planet is facing a deadly enemy, an invisible bogeyman who does not play by the rules.
Thank God sanity eventually prevailed in Tokyo after months of dilly-dallying by the organisers, and the 2020 Olympic Games were postponed to 2021.
Several other global sporting events have either been postponed or cancelled, and I imagine many more will be affected in coming months as we continue to battle this dreadful thing.
It is really weird trying to write about sport at this time, and when there is none taking place for that matter, but I guess people out there are desperate for some sort of escape, even if it’s only for a fleeting moment.
The reality is that it is difficult to escape the clutches of this pandemic, and it doesn’t give a flying toss about geography, status, bank accounts, sexual orientation, gender, personal background or religion.
Some of the world’s best minds are working round the clock, poring over mountains of research and data trying to find the breakthrough that proves to be Covid-19’s kryptonite.
These are desperate times. We can only hope and pray that just as in life will imitate art and we will also get our happy ending.