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Original poster

AIBU to be surprised there is no proper film about the plague?

113 replies

AliceNotInChains · 28/05/2026 21:13

Would love to see a proper well done movie about the plague - AIBU to be suprised that it hasn’t been done?? Titanic style

OP posts:
NewspaperTaxis · 28/05/2026 22:40

There is a mystery 1950s film with Dirk Bogarde I think, a sort of The Lady Vanishes, where someone's sibling goes missing on holiday - but it's the punchline or twist so I suppose I mustn't name it or ruin it.

Thiswasanescapeplan · 28/05/2026 22:31

🫠

Notmyreality · 28/05/2026 22:20

Thiswasanescapeplan · 28/05/2026 22:18

Except the op, just now. 🙃

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Yeah but she doesn’t mean it.

YelramBob · 28/05/2026 22:19

Plague Off with Nicolas Cage and John Travolta was good

Nopenott0day · 28/05/2026 22:18

There's enough bad historical "knowledge" about "the plague" (everyone usually means the one of the 14th c, when really there was a few), such as bird masks (which didn't appear til mid 17thc) that I'm not sure Hollywood could possibly make it worse.

Thiswasanescapeplan · 28/05/2026 22:18

Notmyreality · 28/05/2026 22:13

“I want to see a proper plague movie”

Said no one ever.

Except the op, just now. 🙃

Thiswasanescapeplan · 28/05/2026 22:17

PomplaMouse · 28/05/2026 22:12

"Rats"

Hopefully they wouldn't have a prominent role in the movie - the modern, mainstream scientific view is that it was spread by humans (and human fleas/lice) rather than the rats.

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Dunno. Ratatouille style, plague prequel of the Disney movie? Vermincelli

Diseased rodent chef makes excellent Italian cuisine but accidentally brings a pox upon a negative reviewer.

Notmyreality · 28/05/2026 22:13

“I want to see a proper plague movie”

Said no one ever.

PomplaMouse · 28/05/2026 22:12

5128gap · 28/05/2026 21:20

No thank you. The plague is the stuff of my nightmares. Rats, big ugly boils, locked in your house with the corpses of your loved ones and those sinister long nose mask things. I learned about it an impressionable age in junior school and have found it deeply disturbing ever since. I saw a plague mask the other day in a museum and it made me shudder.

"Rats"

Hopefully they wouldn't have a prominent role in the movie - the modern, mainstream scientific view is that it was spread by humans (and human fleas/lice) rather than the rats.

piscofrisco · 28/05/2026 22:05

There is a book called ‘year of our sorrows’ set in Eyam during the plague, following the story of how they quarantined themselves but with a sort of romance bit intertwined. I always thought it would make a cracking good film. But I am biased because I’m from near there and I love historical drama.

SquirrelFan · 28/05/2026 22:03

An adaptation of Mary Hooper's Sign of the Sugared Plum, which is a young adult novel, might make a more palatable film, but not a sweeping epic. It's got a sequel set during the Great Fire, too.

swapsicles · 28/05/2026 21:55

The decameron on Netflix is a series about the plague, I enjoyed it, it's more a dark comedy so quite funny in parts, I was hoping for a 2nd series but none as yet.

Backedoffhackedoff · 28/05/2026 21:52

HelenaWilson · 28/05/2026 21:39

think it would be quite hard to do a movie - maybe we could have the great fire of London instead

Just go and read Pepys' Diary. You get Plague and Fire and the year after that the Dutch attack on the Medway.

Anyone making a film would be using Pepys as the primary source, so you might as well go straight to the original.

(And also John Evelyn's Diary, but Pepys is better.)

Pepys is free on kindle too 😁

OP if you like immersive theatre the gunpowder plot of set at the time of a wave of plague (really good too!)

I mean I hadn’t considered it before - you’re right. But it is a bit miserable

Genevieva · 28/05/2026 21:47

FourSevenThree · 28/05/2026 21:43

Bergman's The Seventh Seal?
Not Titanic style, but definitely a proper movie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal

Great minds think alike. One of the best and most important films of all time. Completely mesmerising. No one will beat it.

FourSevenThree · 28/05/2026 21:43

Bergman's The Seventh Seal?
Not Titanic style, but definitely a proper movie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal

The Seventh Seal - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal

LegallyBlondish · 28/05/2026 21:42

The Roses of Eyam - a 1970s adaptation of a play based around true facts. I remember watching it as a child. I did a history degree back in the olden days & I find this era, and this particular story, to be fascinating.

BeardySchnauzer · 28/05/2026 21:39

HelenaWilson · 28/05/2026 21:39

think it would be quite hard to do a movie - maybe we could have the great fire of London instead

Just go and read Pepys' Diary. You get Plague and Fire and the year after that the Dutch attack on the Medway.

Anyone making a film would be using Pepys as the primary source, so you might as well go straight to the original.

(And also John Evelyn's Diary, but Pepys is better.)

I could also read a book about the plague or the titanic - film is a different sort of entertainment

BeardySchnauzer · 28/05/2026 21:39

Will people be asking why there isn’t ’Covid, the movie’ in 400 years time

HelenaWilson · 28/05/2026 21:39

think it would be quite hard to do a movie - maybe we could have the great fire of London instead

Just go and read Pepys' Diary. You get Plague and Fire and the year after that the Dutch attack on the Medway.

Anyone making a film would be using Pepys as the primary source, so you might as well go straight to the original.

(And also John Evelyn's Diary, but Pepys is better.)

Genevieva · 28/05/2026 21:38

The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman.

GooseCreekandtheRiver · 28/05/2026 21:38

Thiswasanescapeplan · 28/05/2026 21:37

Four (thousand) Funerals and No Wedding

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😂

Thiswasanescapeplan · 28/05/2026 21:38

..."is it raining? I hadn't even noticed (because I'm stuck in quarantine)"

LorenzoCalzone · 28/05/2026 21:37

FastFood · 28/05/2026 21:22

I think it'd be better as a series than a film, covering a different aspect in each episode, with different characters (that all end up dying anyway ¯ \ ( ツ ) / ¯)

It has such a massive impact on every single aspect of life, impact that we still feel to this day, it'd be a shame to treat it as Plague Rose and Plague Jack on a Plague Boat.

This made me Google the impact - absolutely fascinating!

Thiswasanescapeplan · 28/05/2026 21:37

faithfultoGeorgeMichael · 28/05/2026 21:20

It would be pretty miserable wouldn't it? What genre are you hoping for? Rom Com would be a novel idea, maybe Richard Curtis could have a bash 😂

Four (thousand) Funerals and No Wedding