It is said that the greatest threat to the survival of mankind may not be a world war or a nuclear crisis, but an infectious virus. Since the outbreak of COVID-19,I have taken the opportunity while being stuck at home to watch a lot of disaster films about “infectious diseases”: Outbreak (1995), The Andromeda Strain (2008), Contagion (2011), Infection (Japan, 2009), Gamgi (Korea, 2013)…The end-of-the-world panic depicted in these films may be familiar to Macau people who went through Typhoon Hato. This time, Macau’s anti- epidemic measures have been quite effective, yet the wave of fear shown in snapping up face masks and hand sanitiser gives us another perspective of global politics: in an era of irreversible globalisation and regionalisation, the “pause” in the domestic society and “decoupling” from the international community prompts us to rethink the relationship between communities, cities, and nations.
I can’t help but think of The Cassandra Crossing (1976), probably one of the earliest films about an “infectious virus” in my memory. The film was jointly made by the UK, Italy and former West Germany. In the film, two terrorists accidentally break into a US biochemical lab at the World Health Organization and stow away with a pneumonic plague infection – the result of a secret study by the US military – on a train traveling through Europe. Under pressure from the US military and government, countries in Europe decide to sacrifice the lives of over a thousand passengers on the train and reroute the train to a disused railway line which goes to Janov, Poland.The Cassandra Crossing, a deserted bridge midway, becomes the final destination of the train carrying the deadly virus.
With a complex and nail-biting plot, dynamic cinematic style, and an all-star cast including Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg and O. J. Simpson, the film began a classic pattern of disaster thrillers highly regarded by later generations. Re-watching the film while an epidemic was reging outside, I was able to reflect on the political metaphors hidden in the plot.
The film was made in 1976, when the Cold War was still dragging on and European countries were split into two rival camps. Individual lives gave way to the “bigger picture” – in the name of “saving the world”, the military and the government were trying to cover up the fact that they were secretly developing bioweapons. The lives of passengers on the train were deemed insignificant. Faced with being infected by the virus, nations closed their doors, not allowing the train to stop and even sending armed personnel to seal the carriages.
Finally, setting up the quarantine area in Janov – where one of the most brutal Nazi concentration camps was located – highlights the theme of the film: World War II may have ended, but the breeding ground for Nazi ideology is still here.
If decision-making continues to be dominated by fierce battles between camps, racial conflicts, and ruthless calculations of self-interest, then the respect and protection of individual lives may still be an extravagant hope.
Decades have passed, Europe has almost become a unified territory and great progress has been made in science and technology, but we still seem to have the same problems. In the face of a major public crisis, the road to seeking truth is still bumpy; as the virus is rampaging, protectionism prevails in regions and countries, which leads to blind fear and discrimination.
As the saying goes, scrambling leads to insufficiency and cooperation contributes to surplus. The fight against the epidemic now is also a test
of human nature and the trust and support of the government and among people. Looking back at the world of The Cassandra Crossing, it seems that the train that started almost half a century ago has still not reached its destination.
