History YMMV / Outbreak

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/PatrickDempsey started the titular outbreak.

** There was a bit of excitement over Creator/KevinSpacey, Creator/DustinHoffman, and Creator/MorganFreeman being together in film at last, which has faded due to all three of them being accused of sexual misconduct as part of the Weinstein Effect.
*** Lampshaded in the [[Creator/JonAndAlKaplan "legolambs"]] episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrEv2hAG2Vc ''Outbreak! The Musical'']] [[BaitAndSwitch in which the real outbreak isn't Motaba, but the "Weinstein Effect"]].

--->'''Chief of Staff''': Alright, alright, please. Please. The president's ETA from the East Asian Economic Summit is about 20 hours from now. He wants a recommendation by then from this group. Now, as I understand it, you want to firebomb the town of Cedar Creek, California, population 2,600, with something called a fuel air bomb, the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in our arsenal. The way it works: it explodes, sucks in all available oxygen to the core, vaporizes everything within a mile of ground zero, men, women, children, and one airborne virus. Destruction complete, case closed, crisis over.\\

-->'''Chief of Staff''': Alright, alright, please. Please. The president's ETA from the East Asian Economic Summit is about 20 hours from now. He wants a recommendation by then from this group. Now, as I understand it, you want to firebomb the town of Cedar Creek, California, population 2,600, with something called a fuel air bomb, the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in our arsenal. The way it works: it explodes, sucks in all available oxygen to the core, vaporizes everything within a mile of ground zero, men, women, children, and one airborne virus. Destruction complete, case closed, crisis over.\\

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Major General Donald "Donnie" McClintock]] is an InsaneAdmiral ''par excellence'' who sees the gruesome results of the Motaba virus and [[BiologicalWeaponsSolveEverything decides it would make an excellent bioweapon]]. Intent on keeping the truth about the virus secret no matter what, [=McClintock=] has an African military camp firebombed to kill everyone in it, infected or not, simply to keep the existence of the virus a secret. When the Motaba virus breaks out in a small American town named Cedar Creek, [=McClintock=] secretly [[WithholdingTheCure withholds the cure]] to see the virus kill its way through the town before placing pressure on the American government to blow up the town and everyone in it. [=McClintock=] even personally attempts to shoot down Sam Daniels and his innocent pilot to stop them from getting the cure to Cedar Creek, knowingly and willingly trying to throw away thousands of lives for the sake of [[ItsAllAboutMe his own military advancement]].

[Takes a copy of the Constitution from his pocket]\\

[Throws photos of virus victims on the table]\\
Those are the citizens of Cedar Creek. Go on, look at them. These are not statistics, ladies and gentlemen. They're flesh and blood! And I want you to burn those into your memories. Because those images should haunt us ''until the day we die''!

** The White House Chief of Staff (played by the uncredited Creator/JTWalsh) is in exactly one scene in which he gives a speech that deftly balances ReasonableAuthorityFigure and {{Realpolitik}}.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In Boston, Robby asks the dying Jimbo to tell her how he might have been infected. A doctor of her (or any) caliber should know that's going to be difficult for him to do with a breathing tube down his throat.

** There was a bit of excitement over Creator/KevinSpacey, Creator/DustinHoffman and Creator/MorganFreeman being together in film at last, which has faded due to all three of them being accused of sexual misconduct as part of the Weinstein Effect.

*** Lampshaded in the [[Creator/JonAndAlKaplan “legolambs”]] episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrEv2hAG2Vc ''Outbreak! The Musical'']] [[BaitAndSwitch in which the real outbreak isn’t Motaba, but the “Weinstein Effect”]].
** The UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic has killed millions across the world. It originated in China and has forced the Chinese to quarantine entire cities and build specialized hospitals literally overnight, and forced Italy to virtually quarantine the entire country, and as the page will tell you, that was only the start of it. We're lucky it is nowhere near as lethal as the Motaba, because it is just as infectious.

** The White House Chief of Staff (played by the uncredited J.T. Walsh) is in exactly one scene in which he gives a speech that deftly balances ReasonableAuthorityFigure and {{Realpolitik}}.

** The 2020 Coronavirus outbreak has infected many across the world. It originated in China and has forced the Chinese to quarantine entire cities and build specialized hospitals literally overnight. Italy also heavily suffered from the outbreak and had to virtually quarantine the entire country. Also other countries have to take drastic precautions, like cancelling sport events and sending kids back from school. And besides public health, the outbreak also affected the world economy in a way not experienced since the financial crisis of 2008.

*** Lampshaded in the [[Creator/JonAndAlKaplan “legolambs”]] episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrEv2hAG2Vc ''Outbreak! The Musical'']] [[BaitAndSwitch in which the real outbreak isn’t Motaba, but the “Weinstein Effect”]].

* RetroactiveRecognition: [[Series/GreysAnatomy Dr. McDreamy]] started the titular outbreak.

* OneSceneWonder: The White House Chief of Staff (played by the uncredited J.T. Walsh) is in exactly one scene in which he gives a speech that deftly balances ReasonableAuthorityFigure and {{Realpolitik}}.

** And for the hat-trick, the most recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa infected two Americans who were recently (at the time of this posting anyway) brought BACK to the United States. Clearly, no one who made this decision to do this had seen this movie... or any movie dealing with our favorite microscopic mass-murderers.
*** Or perhaps they did. Those patients who were transported back were cured and aside from some slips in quarantine, there was no major outbreak in a population center. As of this posting.
*** During that same outbreak, a Spanish missionary was brought back to Spain, which caused no end of controversy among Spanish public opinion. Not helping matters was the fact that said missionary not only didn't survive, but also managed to infect a nurse who became the first person '' ever'' to contract Ebola outside African soil. Fortunately, she recovered and no further infections were reported.

** The 2020 Coronavirus outbreak has infected many across the world. It originated in China and has forced the Chinese to quarantine entire cities and build specialized hospitals literally overnight. Italy also heavily suffered from the outbreak and had to virtually quarantine the entire country. Also other countries have to take drastic precautions, like cancelling sport events and sending kids back from school. And besides public health, the outbreak also affected the world economy in a way not experienced since the financial crisis of 2008.

** The 2020 Coronavirus outbreak has infected many across the world. It originated in China and has forced the Chinese to quarantine entire cities and build specialized hospitals literally overnight. Italy also heavily suffered from the outbreak and had to virtually quarantine the entire country. Also other countries have to take drastic precautions, like cancelling sport events and sending kids back from school. And besides public health, the outbreak also affected the world economy in a way not experienced since the financial crisis of 2008.

*** Lampshaded in the [[Creator/JonAndAlKaplan “legolambs”]] episode [[https://youtu.be/WrEv2hAG2Vc ''Outbreak! The Musical'']] [[BaitAndSwitch in which the real outbreak isn’t Motaba, but the “Weinstein Effect”]].

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Major General Donald "Donnie" McClintock]] is an InsaneAdmiral ''par excellence'' who sees the gruesome results of the Motaba virus and decides it would make an excellent bioweapon. Intent on keeping the truth about the virus secret no matter what, [=McClintock=] has an African military camp firebombed to kill everyone in it, infected or not, simply to keep the existence of the virus a secret. When the Motaba virus breaks out in a small American town named Cedar Creek, [=McClintock=] secretly [[WithholdingTheCure withholds the cure]] to see the virus kill its way through the town before placing pressure on the American government to blow up the town and everyone in it. [=McClintock=] even personally attempts to shoot down Sam Daniels and his innocent pilot to stop them from getting the cure to Cedar Creek, knowingly and willingly trying to throw away thousands of lives for the sake of [[ItsAllAboutMe his own military advancement]].

** The 2020 Coronavirus outbreak has infected many Americans and has forced the Chinese to quarantine entire cities and build specialized hospitals literally overnight.

*** Lampshaded in the [[Creator/JonAndAlKaplan “legolambs”]] episode [[https://youtu.be/WrEv2hAG2Vc '' Outbreak! The Musical '']] [[BaitAndSwitch in which the real outbreak isn’t Motaba, but the “Weinstein Effect”]].