Carriers Movie Review

***Spoiler Alert***I rented the movie “Carriers” from RedBox yesterday.  It’s very similar to the Discovery special “Armageddon” –except the language is quite bad for a PG-13 movie.  A group of four young adults attempt to travel to a remote beach to escape a deadly and highly infectious virus plaguing the world.  Along the way they encounter a road block by a desperate man trying to get gasoline- later, they employ the same technique to get gasoline themselves.  They come across a doctor who advocates euthanasia to ease the suffering, a prepper group who try to abduct the girls, and a man-eating dog.  Eventually, one of girls and her boyfriend catch the virus. The female is abandoned at a truck stop and latter, the infected male is killed by his brother when he refuses to hand over the car keys.  Interesting plot and points for discussion.

At the point where the movie starts, the plague is full blown and most of the population has already died off- those still alive have learned the tricks of survival and have developed the callousness to pull it off.  During the movie, the group mentions “rules” for survival.  They wear masks when they are around infected people; they bleach anything an infected person has touched.  The never travel on interstates.  Harshest of all, they state, “the sick are dead.”  Anyone who is sick is already considered dead- they cannot be helped or saved. The children suffering in the movie was the hardest to watch- handling that in real life would be beyond difficult. 

While I do not advocate the actions taken by the group; the situation they are in makes one ponder.  What would you do in the event of a major plague?  How would you care for the sick in your family?  Would you risk infection yourself to care for them in their last days, or abandon them to save yourself? Do you have the equipment (MOP gear, plastic sheeting, bleach, duct tape) to help increase your chances of not catching it? Could you walk away from your group if you became infected, to prevent exposure to them? What is your moral obligation to others?  Where do you draw the line? 

In the end, two of the four survive and make it to the isolated beach.  Where they go from there is left to the imagination of the audience.