Weapons are often integral to fiction, but rarely can audiences find implements of death more effective than those in the minds of sci-fi authors. Entire galaxies and everything in them are easily erased, but, often the deadliest thing in the universe is a living organism too small to see.
In this modern age, rife with the unpleasantness of the ongoing pandemic and sundry other disasters that threaten human survival, paranoia has had to evolve. In many ways, science fiction often boils downto well-crafted paranoia aboutthe nightmares the future may hold. So, the fear of the bomb has slowly given way to a new fear of a delicately handcrafted plague and the fantastical mutations it could create.
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Biological weaponry has a rich history in the real world, though typically in a much less advanced form. It’s just a part ofthe horrors of war. In the 1300s, Mongol warriors hurled the infected corpses of those who died from the Black Plague over the walls of their enemies' cities. The Spanish sold wine mixed with the blood of leprosy victims to the French during the Italian War of 1494. Confederate soldiers sold clothes infected with yellow fever and smallpox to their American enemies. Sci-fi stories take that concept and elevate it through a number of technological advancements.
Imagine that level of dirty tactics in combat, but with a team of scientists working around the clock to perfectly synthesizea more effective pathogen. Then imagine that the method of distribution is equally fine-tuned. This trope imagines the most nightmarish diseases, made only more powerful by human meddling, weaponized against the enemies of whoever holds the syringe. In some cases, the bioweapon is a heightened version of a once-existing disorder. In others, it’s entirely bespoke to the scientists and whoever commissioned them. Evil business overlords and government autocrats love the deniability and effectiveness of using a lethal pathogen where more conventional arms would be equally effective. Unfortunately, it almost always backfires in every conceivable direction.
Sometimes the disease is a bit more contagious than intended, expanding beyond the target range and leaving everyone in danger. For example, the Hate Plague fromThe Crazieswas designed as a weapon but unintentionally used on American soil. This usually plays out as a story about mankind’s hubris, a treatise against “playing God” and meddling in forces we don’t understand. In other cases, the scientists start with good intentions and wind up failing disastrously.I Am Legend’s zombieapocalypse was a result of an attempted cure for cancer that went awry. In the worst cases, a small group or a single crazed villain tricks others into building his perfect plague. The most interesting situations of intentional plagues occur when death isn’t the only effect of the virus.
The most iconic example of this trope at large is theResident Evilmultimedia franchise, and its most memorable figures are the Bio-Organic Weapons or B.O.W.s. Alongside every horrific virus Umbrella and their competitors cooked up is a host of deadly monsters to kill off the survivors. Nemesis, the Licker, and theTyrant are all thrillingside effects of Umbrella’s ill-advised biological weapons. An even better-known example would be the xenomorphs of theAlienfranchise. Though the earliest films intentionally left their origin ambiguous to allow the audience to imagine, later films felt the need toexplain their perfect killing machines. Xenomorphs are the perfect biological weapon, gradually honed over generations by the Engineers, then by the android David. In this unusual case, the biological weapon goes exactly according to plan.
Biological weaponry is an inexact science in science fiction, almost always resulting in mass death on all sides. The underlying moral behind most stories about engineered monsters is that humanity is the real monster, a well-worn but common truism. A huge percentage of the monsters that appear in sci-fi works were madeintentionally by some sapient being. This is a natural outcome of the main themes of the genre. So much of science fiction is inherently tied to the way major advancements in technology and society affect the people who live through them. Where fantasy creatures often spawn from scary parts of the woods or appear to fulfill some great prophecy, most of sci-fi’s worst horrors are made, not born.
The horrors of science often pale in comparison to the horrors of humanity’s inhumanity. The fact that a team of scientists, given unlimited resources anda complete lack of ethical scruples, could create a pathogen or predator to kill all people on Earth isn’t the scary part. The fact that someone would willfully choose to put that plan into motion, devote the resources necessary, and gather a team willing to participate is terrifying. Biological weaponry is already one of mankind’s great shames, sci-fi just grabs that idea and pushes it into the nightmarish future.
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