Pale, sweaty and nauseous, Beth Emhoff embraces her son after returning home from a business trip in Hong Kong. Days later they are both dead. Within weeks, thousands in Emhoff's town succumb to the same mystery illness. After months, the death toll reaches 2.5 million.
That is the chilling plot of Contagion, a film offering a depiction of a global pandemic that experts claim is as realistic as it is terrifying.
