Home

 › 

Entertainment

 › 

Featured

 › 

Movies

 › 

Best Movies About Viruses and Pandemics

Best Movies About Viruses and Pandemics

It’s not quite life imitating art, but given the impact of COVID-19 on the world, the spate of movies depicting the often apocalyptic outcomes of a viral outbreak on humanity has a certain prescience to it.

To determine the best movies about viruses and pandemics, 24/7 Tempo developed an index using average ratings on IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon, and a combination of audience scores and Tomatometer scores on Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator, as of March 2023, weighting all ratings equally. Only movies whose themes concern virus outbreaks or the aftermath of a pandemic were considered. Documentaries were excluded. Directorial  and cast credits are from IMDb.

Pandemic-themed motion pictures became box-office staples in the 21st century, with 15 movies making our list, all of them released before the pandemic. But viral outbreaks have been a part of Hollywood plotlines for decades. Our list includes two films from the 1930s that feature bubonic plague and yellow fever as part of the overall story, as well as one from 1950 in which the villain is pneumonic plague. (These are the worst epidemics and pandemics in history.)

Viruses that turn humans into flesh-chomping zombies as a plot device have been a box-office winner since at least 1968, when George A. Romero unleashed his canny social commentary “Night of the Living Dead.” (These are the best zombie movies of all time, according to data.)

Pandemic-themed motion pictures became box-office staples in the 21st century, with 15 movies made after 2000 making our list – all of them released before the advent of the pandemic. Though there have been countless movies dealing in whole or in part with COVID-19, thus far none have scored highly enough to be included here.

Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

25. Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)
> IMDb user rating: 6.3/10 (124,656 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 58% (17,256 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 43% (171 reviews)
> Directed by: Wes Ball

“Maze Runner: The Death Cure” is a futuristic action sci-fi film based on a novel by James Dashner. It’s about a group of young people on a mission to save their friends from a man-made virus called The Flare by breaking into the infamous Last City, a deadly labyrinthine metropolis. Critic Brian Eggert said “Both formally and narratively, ‘The Death Cure’ feels like a patchwork, Frankensteined together from better material.”

Source: Courtesy of Paramount Vantage

24. Carriers (2009)
> IMDb user rating: 6.0/10 (45,277 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 39% (93,964 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 66% (38 reviews)
> Directed by: Àlex & David Pastor

Starring Chris Pine and Piper Perabo, “Carriers” is about four young people driving through the Southwestern desert trying to avoid a plague that is ravaging the planet. In the process, they start turning on each other. Nigel Floyd of Time Out said it was a “thoughtful, low-key exploration of our darker survival instincts” but was “too conventional and unfocused to fully engage our emotions.”

Source: Courtesy of Cambist Films

23. The Crazies (1973)
> IMDb user rating: 6.1/10 (12,559 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 43% (10,001 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 69% (26 reviews)
> Directed by: George A. Romero

Zombie master George A. Romero (“Night of the Living Dead”) directed this doomsday thriller about a nurse and her husband prevented by the Army from escaping their town after it’s been infected with a plague. While Vincent Canby of the New York Times called “The Crazies” an “inept science-fiction film,” Matt Brunson of Film Frenzy felt the movie was “in one way his most frightening film.”

Source: Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

22. The Bay (2012)
> IMDb user rating: 5.7/10 (26,727 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 43% (10,221 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 76% (85 reviews)
> Directed by: Barry Levinson

Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson (“Rain Man”) used the found-footage technique to great effect in “The Bay,” a horror flick in which residents of a seaside community are overtaken by mutant parasites that control their minds and bodies. David Gritten of the Daily Telegraph found the movie “gruesome but oddly riveting.”

Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.

21. Outbreak (1995)
> IMDb user rating: 6.6/10 (124,803 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 55% (105,098 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 59% (63 reviews)
> Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

There is no shortage of starpower in this film, with Oscar winners Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, and Cuba Gooding Jr. playing key roles. Hoffman and Rene Russo appear as doctors who go to a California town where an outbreak, brought to the U.S. by an African monkey, is raging. Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus said “Outbreak” was a “frustratingly uneven all-star disaster drama, Outbreak ultimately proves only mildly contagious and leaves few lasting side effects.”

Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.

20. The Omega Man (1971)
> IMDb user rating: 6.5/10 (30,312 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 53% (17,254 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 65% (34 reviews)
> Directed by: Boris Sagal

The dystopian movie stars Charlton Heston as an Army biologist living in Los Angeles who has survived a biological war that has all but wiped out the planet, leaving light-sensitive mutants as almost the only inhabitants. The staff at Variety magazine said the movie was “an extremely literate science-fiction drama.” The film would be rebooted as “I Am Legend,” starring Will Smith.

Source: Courtesy of Netflix

19. Bird Box (2018)
> IMDb user rating: 6.6/10 (303,938 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 57% (7,571 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 63% (164 reviews)
> Directed by: Susanne Bier

Sandra Bullock plays a woman who takes her children on a journey to a sanctuary to avoid a deadly and mysterious force that kills people by taking the form of their worst fears. To avoid seeing this force, they have to make their trip blindfolded. The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus said the movie “never quite reaches its intriguing potential, but strong acting and an effectively chilly mood offer intermittently creepy compensation.”

Source: Archive Photos / Getty Images

18. Arrowsmith (1931)
> IMDb user rating: 6.2/10 (1,669 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 40% (320 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 89% (9 reviews)
> Directed by: John Ford

We know John Ford for his Westerns and his frequent collaborations with John Wayne, but he also gained acclaim for “Arrowsmith.” Based on a Sinclair Lewis novel, the movie stars Ronald Colman as a physician who’s tasked with combating the bubonic plague in the West Indies. Critic Raquel Stecher said “even with its flaws ‘Arrowsmith’ is a glorious Pre-Code film. It tackles a difficult subject, and isn’t afraid to experiment.”

Source: Courtesy of Overture Films

17. The Crazies (2010)
> IMDb user rating: 6.5/10 (115,607 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 56% (199,247 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 70% (155 reviews)
> Directed by: Breck Eisner

The remake of George A. Romero’s 1973 film of the same name stars Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell as a husband and wife trapped in a town whose residents have fallen victim to deadly toxins that have turned them into bloodthirsty maniacs. Critic Annalee Newitz said the movie “is a scary, smart thriller that tweaks its tropes and offers a non-preachy fable about the military’s dark side.”

Source: Courtesy of A24

16. It Comes at Night (2017)
> IMDb user rating: 6.2/10 (88,474 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 44% (20,197 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 87% (255 reviews)
> Directed by: Trey Edward Shults

Trey Edward Shults wrote and directed this taut thriller about two families forced to live together in the same house after an apocalypse has depopulated the planet. Theirs is an uneasy relationship that becomes volatile. Critic Michael J. Casey said “writer/director Trey Edward Shults makes the most of the least, relying on shadow and sound to terrify.”

Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.

15. Hidden (2015)
> IMDb user rating: 6.4/10 (20,779 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 65% (73 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 80% (5 reviews)
> Directed by: Matt & Ross Duffer

Matt and Ross Duffer – who later created the smash Netflix series “Stranger Things” – wrote and directed “Hidden,” about a couple and their daughter living inside a fallout shelter to avoid a dangerous outbreak. The Duffers were lauded for their depiction of the claustrophobic confines of the family’s living space. Critic David Nusair said the movie “benefits substantially from the Duffer brothers’ patient, methodical approach to their spare screenplay

Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

14. World War Z (2013)
> IMDb user rating: 7.0/10 (625,834 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 72% (305,338 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 66% (279 reviews)
> Directed by: Marc Forster

“World War Z” stars Brad Pitt as a United Nations investigator tasked with finding the source of a virus that quickly infects its hosts, turning them into the zombies who have overrun much of Earth. The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus said although the movie diverges from the source material, a book by Max Brooks, it still “brings smart, fast-moving thrills and a solid performance from Brad Pitt to the zombie genre.”

Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures

13. The Andromeda Strain (1971)
> IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (35,245 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 72% (8,739 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 67% (39 reviews)
> Directed by: Robert Wise

Based on Michael Crichton’s thriller, “The Andromeda Strain” featurs the measured and capable acting of Arthur Hill, Kate Reid, and David Wayne as scientists racing to contain a lethal extraterrestrial microscopic organism inadvertently returned to Earth by a U.S. satellite. Kevin Maher of the Times of London called it “an underrated classic,”

Source: Courtesy of RLJ Entertainment

12. Mayhem (2017)
> IMDb user rating: 6.4/10 (19,436 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 65% (2,266 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 84% (61 reviews)
> Directed by: Joe Lynch

The action comedy film starred Steven Yeun as a lawyer unjustly discharged from his job at a law firm. The attorney finds out the firm’s building has been quarantined because a virus has infected those inside, causing them to act out their wildest impulses. Critic Adam Graham called “Mayhem” a “frantic, blood-splattered, rock ‘n’ roll action-horror-comedy that plays like a killer cross between ‘Crank’ and ‘Office Space.'”

Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

11. Contagion (2011)
> IMDb user rating: 6.7/10 (292,952 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 63% (84,529 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 85% (276 reviews)
> Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

A stellar cast and a tightly written script lifted “Contagion” above the norm. After Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) dies following a business trip to Hong Kong, her malaise-like symptoms become evident in others and a global pandemic is unleashed. Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian opined that “the all-star disaster-movie genre is taken out of the 1970s and given a stylish and largely persuasive 21st century makeover by director and cinematographer Steven Soderbergh.”

Source: Courtesy of Saban Films

10. Light of My Life (2019)
> IMDb user rating: 6.6/10 (12,381 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 73% (430 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 82% (56 reviews)
> Directed by: Casey Affleck

Oscar-winning actor Casey Affleck directed and stars in this post-apocalypse thriller about a father protecting his daughter in a world in which a pandemic has nearly eradicated the world’s female population. Some critics complained about the “patience-testing” pace of the movie, although Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus said that the film’s “sober wavelength will be rewarded with a thought-provoking chiller.”

Source: Courtesy of American International Pictures

9. The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
> IMDb user rating: 7.0/10 (13,554 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 66% (359 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 88% (8 reviews)
> Directed by: Roger Corman

Nothing says macabre like Vincent Price starring in a Roger Corman-directed horror movie based on an Edgar Allan Poe story set in medieval times. Price plays Prince Prospero, whose castle is a refuge from a plague but also a place of debauchery and satanic worship. “A moment of genuine brilliance from Corman, a master class in villainy by Vincent Price, and a reminder of the enduring power of Poe’s work,” exalted critic Johnny Gayzmonic.

Source: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

8. Safe (1995)
> IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (14,348 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 75% (6,504 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 87% (60 reviews)
> Directed by: Todd Haynes

Suffering from a mysterious environmental illness, a woman from California (Julianne Moore) goes to a New Age guru’s clinic in New Mexico where she becomes increasingly isolated. The critics consensus on Rotten Tomatoes applauded the film’s “eerie social satire” and “impressive, understated performance from Julianne Moore.”

Source: Courtesy of Warner Independent Pictures

7. The Painted Veil (2006)
> IMDb user rating: 7.5/10 (90,936 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 85% (55,336 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 74% (144 reviews)
> Directed by: John Curran

“The Painted Veil,” set in the 1920s, stars Edward Norton as a British bacteriologist stuck in a loveless marriage with a wife ((Naomi Watts) who has cheated on him. He volunteers to go to China to treat victims of a cholera epidemic and takes his wife with him. In the challenging conditions of rural, civil-war ravaged China, they rebuild their marriage. Based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, the movie was more of a favorite among Rotten Tomatoes audiences, though critics lauded “Norton’s and Watts’s deft portrayals of imperfect, complicated characters.”

Source: Hulton Archive / Getty Images

6. Panic in the Streets (1950)
> IMDb user rating: 7.3/10 (7,492 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 78% (2,082 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 97% (28 reviews)
> Directed by: Elia Kazan

Director Elia Kazan (“On the Waterfront”) garnered critical acclaim for his thriller “Panic in the Streets.” The film is about discovery of pneumonic plague during the autopsy of an unknown man and the race against time to prevent an outbreak and avoid a public panic. The movie enjoys a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of 97%, the highest of any film on this list. Besides stars Richard Widmark and Paul Douglas, the motion picture features early-career appearances of Jack Palance and Zero Mostel.

Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.

5. Jezebel (1938)
> IMDb user rating: 7.5/10 (12,920 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 82% (5,665 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 95% (21 reviews)
> Directed by: William Wyler

An outbreak of yellow fever in New Orleans is part of the plot of “Jezebel,” featuring one of Bette Davis’ greatest performances – which won her her second Oscar. Davis plays a spoiled Southern belle who, spurned by her now-married ex-suitor, tries to care for him after he is stricken with yellow fever. Critic Mike Massie said “even the historical backdrop – primarily with the paranoia, death, and destruction from the yellow jack epidemic – are no match for Davis’ fiery persona.”

Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
> IMDb user rating: 7.6/10 (422,887 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 88% (204,786 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 90% (315 reviews)
> Directed by: Matt Reeves

Critics liked this entry into the revived Apes franchise. In “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” Ten years after simian flu has virtually wiped out the human race, genetically enhanced chimpanzee Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his followers have built a colony outside San Francisco. But he faces a challenge from a small group of human survivors.

Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures

3. Children of Men (2006)
> IMDb user rating: 7.9/10 (479,501 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 85% (531,198 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 92% (255 reviews)
> Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón

“Children of Men” is a star-studded futuristic tale of a world in which women have been rendered infertile and a former activist (Clive Owen) agrees to bring a pregnant woman to a sanctuary boat at sea that will take her to the Human Project, giving hope for humanity’s future. The film also features Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Critic Brian Eggert said “‘Children of Men’ is an achingly, almost dreamily optimistic film in the face of such brutally cynical conditions, offering a humanist message.”

Source: Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

2. Isle of Dogs (2018)
> IMDb user rating: 7.9/10 (151,258 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 87% (9,249 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 90% (367 reviews)
> Directed by: Wes Anderson

The animated film was directed by Wes Anderson and voiced by Bryan Cranston, Ed Norton, Scarlett Johansson, and Bill Murray. The plot is about an outbreak of canine flu in Japan that forces the mayor of a fictitious city to ban all dogs to an island to halt the risk of humans becoming infected. One of the dogs belongs to a 12-year-old who later hijacks a plane and flies it to the island to find him. Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus said “the beautifully stop-motion animated Isle of Dogs finds Wes Anderson at his detail-oriented best while telling one of the director’s most winsomely charming stories.”

Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures

1. 12 Monkeys (1995)
> IMDb user rating: 8.0/10 (595,919 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 88% (391,252 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 89% (72 reviews)
> Directed by: Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam, the animator for the television shows and movies for tMonty Python’s Flying Circus, directed this time-travel tale. Bruce Willis plays a convict imprisoned in the 2030s who’s sent back in time to gather information about a man-made virus that will depopulate the planet in the future. A strong cast features Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, and Christopher Plummer. Critic Travis Johnson said “in the grim Spring of 2020… ’12 Monkeys’ looks startlingly prescient, even if the dates are wide by a decade or two.”

To top