This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vidantam.

In 1950, before he directed the film on the waterfront,

Elia Kazan made another dramatic thriller,

a movie called Panic in the Streets.

There's a reason you probably haven't heard of it.

It is in a great movie.

The film tells the fictional story of a murder in New Orleans.

When the police investigate, they find the victim

suffered from a deadly infectious disease, a version of the plague.

Public health officials believe the killers may have contracted the disease

as they carried the victim's body away.

What follows is a race to track down the criminals and halt an epidemic,

a collision of law enforcement and public health.

If the killer is incubating humanic plague,

he can start spreading it within 48 hours.

48 hours?

Yes, we have 48 hours.

Shortly after that, you'll have the makings of an epidemic.

In the first half of our show, we have a story about chaos and an effort to contain it.

It's a story about life-imitating art.

It's a story about disease and panic, but it's also a story about psychology.

To control an epidemic takes more than medical skill.

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