When the first trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion hit earlier tonight, Twitter lit up with screams of “Spoiler!” and “Too much!”     I thought about skipping it, but I became infected by curiosity. Also, it’s Soderbergh making a plague movie. How can you not watch the first footage?

If you really want to go in ice cold, yes, there’s a few spoilers.  But I don’t think it’s anything that ruins the film at all.  It’s about a mutating bird flu epidemic. People will die, systems will break down, and chaos will reign.   That’s not a surprise.   The identity of Patient X is, I suppose, but you’d see that coming four minutes into the film anyway.

Trust me, you want to watch this trailer. Contagion is going to be the scariest film of 2011.   I have the great fortune of being related to someone who works in disaster relief and has had lovely chats with WHO scientists.  Believe me when I tell you this could happen tomorrow. You really should be stocking up on bottled water and cans of soup.

The trailer is online at Apple.  You’ll immediately feel as though your glands are swelling, your throat is sore, and you might be coming down with something. You’re not. But you might really want to do some disaster prep.