Contagion is a 2011 medical thriller disaster film. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film features an ensemble cast that includes Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, and Jennifer Ehle. Contagion plot documents the spread of a virus transmitted by fomites, attempts by medical researchers and public health officials to identify and contain the disease, the loss of social order in a pandemic, and finally the introduction of a vaccine to halt its spread. The film makes use of a "hyperlink narrative" style popularized in several of Soderbergh's other films to follow several interacting plot lines.
Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns had collaborated on The Informant! (2009). Following that film's release, the two considered creating a biopic covering Leni Riefenstahl's life before Burns brought up the idea of producing a medical thriller film depicting a virus' rapid spread, which was inspired by various pandemics such as the 2003 SARS epidemic and the 2009 flu pandemic. To devise an accurate perception of a pandemic event, Burns consulted with representatives of the World Health Organization as well as noted medical experts such as W. Ian Lipkin and Lawrence "Larry" Brilliant. Principal photography started in Hong Kong in September, and continued in Chicago, Atlanta, London, Geneva, and San Francisco until February 2011.