8 Films That Ended Too Soon

Now don’t get me wrong, Contagion is certainly well directed, well cast and tonally very clever; never sensationalising anything and making every moment feel very real and believable.

However, because of its clinical nature, at times it’s easy to forget that you’re watching a film and not a collection of random scenes from different movies spliced together.

Contagion just sort of wanders from one scenario to the next without giving us time to engage with its cast. The film’s vast array of characters have their struggles, but they don’t really do much except sit by whilst millions die, until the CDC suddenly pop out a cure. After that, the movie wraps up in a hurry with next to zero character resolutions.

Orantes discovers that Sun Feng's village has been given a placebo and races off to do something that we never see.

Conspiracy theorist Alan's character is a shockingly real story strand (especially in a post-Covid-19 world) that vanishes after he's thrown in jail, since it has no actual effect on any events that affect the rest of the story.

Whilst a conceptually interesting film, Contagion falls at the final hurdle by giving so few of its characters meaningful resolutions that could've been achieved with a just a slightly longer runtime.