It happens every so often, that a scene from a past movie, or maybe a passage from an old novel is culled and brought out to show an eerie relevance to current news events. While those are sometimes curious they also often require a bit of interpretational work to make fit.
Not this series of scenes from a 17-year-old television show. The television adaptation of Stephen King’s ”The Dead Zone” starred Anthony Michael Hall, and in one particular episode, it dealt with a viral contagion and…well it is freakishly spot-on. Stick around for the appearance of Donald Trump’s ”irresponsible” remedy.
Let’s all watch some clips from The Dead Zone, circa 2003 “Plague”.
Wonder if you’ll find anything interesting….. pic.twitter.com/WhvTArmIvg
— Pug_Apu….Revolution-ing (@Pug_Apu) May 4, 2020
The account that found this actually reached out to the writer on that episode, Jeremy Bernstein, and got a response. Bernstein was asked directly about what brought up all of that content, providing some insights.
Wow. Did not expect to be answering questions about this episode… like… ever. The inspiration was mostly general research. That and SARS, which hit about the same time as I pitched this episode. Everything we wrote in there was straight out of the CDC handbook. https://t.co/S3UQd484Fp
— Jeremy Bernstein (@fajitas) May 5, 2020
By no means is this approaching any level of scientific evidence, but there is some compelling content here when held up to the current condition of things. Mentioning of high fever with respiratory issues, the months needed to work on a new strain, and requiring of masks are some commonalities but rather general ones.
More interesting was the mentioning of how it is flu-based, it derived in China (with a bonus air travel mention) and a mention of it being a strain of coronavirus. Then the bold mention of chloroquine is made, and suddenly we all hear the same record scratch.
Is this an old movie? Or a preview for every movie that will be coming out for the next 5 years….
— K Michael (@JedaiiMindTrick) May 5, 2020
It's official, we're in the Matrix.
— Shaun (@ShaunSilva7) May 5, 2020
The simulation looping back on itself
— CCPLied (@vicioussqyd) May 5, 2020
So you’ve got this, you got the reference to the Wuhan virus in that Dean Koontz book from decades ago… was there some copy of the Illuminati’s meeting leaked, or is it that the simulation is experiencing glitches?
— Lynx (@RandomLynx) May 5, 2020
And, there was one other issue —
i had no idea this movie was racist
/s— Drunkn (@Drunkn73) May 5, 2020
Heh.
Wonder if he used the Conjoined Triangles of Success… pic.twitter.com/Qu5m3SNaWc
— Fasting Libertarian (@Bdleejr) May 5, 2020
Maybe if we get Ned Ryerson on the case we will all be fine.
