Eerie AIDS vibes - fodder for the sequel?

This movie was made before anyone knew anything about a killer virus that was about to run rampant through the gay community.

HOWEVER, I found the scene where Zach gives Bart a physical examination, and Bart flippantly answers questions about drug use, to be eerily prescient of the onset of the AIDS Epidemic.

Bart's real concern initially - and what brought him to see Zach - was some enlarged something-or-other in Bart's neck! Dr. Zach dismisses it as nothing after examining it - BUT as anyone who is familiar with HIV-infection, one of the obvious signs of AIDS is enlarged lymph nodes. In the context of the movie and the reality of the year of its release, Bart's concern comes off as nothing more than an symptom of his narcissism, with him worried that his perfect body is not so perfect or on the brink of being threatened to some degree by disfiguring condition disease.

But within a few years, the exact same setup would happen innumerable times for real in examination rooms across the country and end on the same grim note: "You haven't just got HIV - you've got AIDS."

I also find it ironic that the Michael Ontkean's character "Zach" is a doctor, who prefers monogamy and finds it at the end LIVING IN NEW YORK CITY WHICH IS/WAS AIDS-CENTRAL-EAST starting in the mid-1980s.

The sequel I imagine takes place a short time after the end of ML, with the AIDS epidemic going full-throttle ahead and Zach finding himself switching from cancer (his specialty at the conclusion of ML) to HIV as his focus because he is a gay man as well as a doctor. Perhaps Zach finds himself unwittingly caught up with HIV by the very nature of his cancer expertise, treating gay man after gay man who has Kaposi's sarcoma and eventually wondering what is "going on"? Maybe Zach turns out to be one of the doctors who first alerted the Center for Disease Control that something odd was happening among gay men in New York City???

Given the nature of Harry Hamlin's character "Bart" - a gay male writer with a hot body - it seems only natural that "Bart" eventually finds major success and fame that lead him to New York, only to have him come down with HIV given his sexual promiscuity.

What would happen if Bart seeks Zach's help in dealing with HIV and AIDS? Might they even meet up accidentally, with Zach haphazardly encountering a gaunt, Kaposi's sarcoma-ridden Bart in a NY hospital emergency room?

The possibilities are endless...

"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"