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Is the movie Contagion ontopic here? And more specifically, questions which are not even remotely about any SF or fantasy aspect, such as this one: What happened to the village in Contagion?

I am told it cannot be moved because it's too old. Shouldn't we close it, then?

Again, there doesn't seem to be any SF aspect to either the movie or the question itself. A fictional virus isn't SF, either. A fine line, of course (I can imagine fictional virus which are firmly within the realm of SF&F, but not this one).

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  • Does it not fit the definition of science fiction to a t?
    – NominSim
    Commented Feb 16, 2013 at 23:36
  • @NominSim Well, my argument is obviously that it's not. It's effectively Outbreak, only with a stand-in for the Ebola virus (or the swine flu, whatever). Wikipedia categorizes it as a "medical thriller disaster film", not a SF movie. The question itself is not about any SF aspect of the movie, but about what happened to a village. Feel free to answer why you think it's on-topic here :)
    – Andres F.
    Commented Feb 16, 2013 at 23:48

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I don't think it's on topic because it doesn't contain any Sci-fi or Fantasy elements. It's just a "medical thriller disaster film", as Wikipedia puts it (thanks Andres). The film's only extraordinary element is the disease that the plot revolves around is a fictional disease, but everything about the plot and story is grounded in reality.

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I haven't seen the movie. Going by the discussion so far it looks like a technothriller.

We have some guidelines about technothrillers. If we classify Contagion as a technothriller, then questions such as this one, which are about a mundane element, are off-topic.

However, I'm not sure about the classification as a technothriller. Going by Wikipedia's plot summary, it looks like not only the disease is fictional, but the disease's properties are somewhat romanticized. When you start romanticizing scientific elements, that's science fiction.

In any case, for a borderline topic like this, I'm inclined to leave the question around. Since we cannot migrate the question because it is too old (a stupid restriction, but not one that moderators can do anything about), migrating to Movies.SE isn't an option. I prefer leaving the question open to closing it which would make it deletable.

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I would argue that they should be allowed. According to the Wikipedia definition

A subgenre of sci-fi is apocalyptic fiction:

Apocalyptic fiction is concerned with the end of civilization through war (On the Beach), pandemic (The Last Man)

I think that's close enough.

Plus, IMDB lists Contagion as "Scifi".

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