Five Ways Life During the Coronavirus Pandemic Feels Like a Movie

Everyday life feels like a disaster/sci-fi film

Children of Men (Universal Pictures)

The coronavirus pandemic has killed about 50,000 Americans to date. That’s almost as many fatalities as the Vietnam war in three months. It’s difficult to wrap your brain around this. In many cases, it seems as if you’re living in the midst of a sci-fi/disaster movie.

Here are five examples of how life during the coronavirus pandemic feels like a movie. (I didn’t include the movie “Contagion,” because I’ve never seen it. I have no desire to see the movie now because it feels like I’m living in it. However, the movie has been praised for its accuracy. )

Children of Men

Alfono Cuaron’s “Children of Men” is one of the most widely acclaimed sci-fi movies of recent years. In 2016, the film ranked no. 13 on a BBC list of the best movies of the 21st century. The 2006 movie starring Clive Owen, features a dystopian world where women have stopped having children. Owen has to escort a woman who has managed to conceive to safety.

However, “Children of Men,” is shockingly accurate about many things. In the movie there are immigrant prisons, the world is recovering from a global pandemic and there’s a conflict between armed rebels and government forces. That sounds like today’s headlines!

There’s a scene in the movie where one of the characters says, “I miss the sound of children playing.” I thought the same thing when I walked past a school that was empty at 7 a.m. on a weekday.

However, “Children of Men,” is shockingly accurate about many things. In the movie there are immigrant prisons, the world is recovering from a global pandemic and there’s a conflict between armed rebels and government forces. That sounds like today’s headlines! Interesting to note, the scientists in “Children of Men,” who are working on a cure for infertility, are the heroes. Today, scientists such as Dr. Anthony Fauci are our heroes.

The Discovered Video

This is a technique used in many movies such as “Cloverfield.” A discovered video is a way to tell the story in reverse or develop a backstory. I’ve started keeping a vlog of current events. I call it “Live from the Trumpocalypse.”

An old friend told me that it was important for writers and creative types to document what was happening for future generations. However, this reminds me of the scene where you see the first series of videos at the beginning of a sci-fi/disaster movie. Flash forward to a few years and the protagonist has a full beard and his surroundings are in disarray.

If you look at my videos you can study the progression of my beard. I shaved it again because I realized having a beard makes it difficult to wear a mask. So far my surroundings are not in disarray yet.

Masks Everywhere

Nowadays a simple expedition to the grocery store requires donning gloves and a mask. This is a surreal experience. There is nothing more disjointing than going outside and seeing everyone wearing a protective covering. This brings to mind movies such as “The Andromeda Strain.” However, this creates new challenges. Wearing a mask robs someone of their personality. Sometimes it can be even difficult to tell what a person’s gender is when they’re covered up.

Workers in Hazmat Suits

Workers in hazmat suits are a staple of disaster movies such as “Outbreak,” but I saw a particularly bizarre shot of workers in India spraying down migrant laborers before they were ordered to leave town. That could have come straight out of any disaster movie. Now workers in hazmat suits have to go in and disinfect areas before people are allowed to return.

Announcements From the Government

Most disaster movies feature announcements from the government. In “Deep Impact,” we had Morgan Freeman’s soothing voice to help guide us through a meteor strike. He also appeared at the end of the movie to promise that we would rebuild the world again. But in many films, the government is portrayed as incompetent or even worse lying to the people. The eco-disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” featured a young president, modeled after George W. Bush, who’s off golfing when disaster hits.

Yesterday, President Donald Trump suggested shooting sunlight and disinfectant into people as a cure for the coronavirus. Of course, he provided no evidence for this. However, Trump’s daily trainwreck press conferences are more bizarre than anything ever put on the big screen. Truth is stranger than fiction. It calls to mind the wrestler-turned-president in Mike Judge’s prescient satire “Idiocracy.”

The movie features a soldier (Luke Wilson) frozen in suspended animation who wakes up in a future where human intellectual development has halted and stupidity is now the norm. However, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, played by Terry Crews, is intelligent enough to listen to advice from the smartest man in the world (Wilson.) Maybe Trump could learn something from him.