Fictional Biological Weapons:
Biological warfare has been a staple of science fiction since time immemorial. Movies, TV Shows, and Novels have all tried to come up with the greatest organic doomsday device to ever exist. If you think the Coronavirus is dangerous, you do not want to be in a world where these things are real.
1. Rage Virus
No list about deadly viruses is complete without the Rage Virus. Introduced into humans when an infected monkey bites a human being due to the actions of an eco-terrorist group, the Rage Virus becomes the bane of the whole world. It does not turn people into zombies as what the people would have you believe. What it does is reduce your cognitive abilities and make you act primarily on your base instincts – of hunger and rage, hence the name. The virus is transmitted via blood and has no cure.
It was the subject and prima facie of the 28 Days later movie. The virus gives the infected inhuman feats of strength, speed, and agility on account of the fact that it makes the human body keep pumping adrenaline into the bloodstream, giving the infected their signature animalistic rage.
2. The Andromeda Strain
The Andromeda Strain is deadly because it is not of earthly origin. Coming into the earth within the clutches of a satellite, the strain quickly goes airborne and transforms the world into one juicy target for a global pandemic. It is not a virus but a bacterial organism or a viral agent depending on which source you look into. The strain can attack not only humans but also animals and plants. It could literally end all life on earth as we know it. In the movie, by the time the world’s governments band together and manage to find a cure for the virus, it had already dissolved in seawater and created a new, incurable version of itself.
3. Kosong-Ni
The Kosong-Ni virus was created by the North Koreans in 2070. The Kosong-Ni virus is dangerous because it has a very low incubation period. It can affect the host post which the host will show symptoms in as little as five seconds. The virus creates massive hemorrhages and organ failure within the host.
The reason so much organ failure happens is because the virus readily starts replicating and creating viral spores within the human body. Even if the host dies, merely touching the corpse is enough for the viral spores to be transmitted to the next human being. It cans survive without a host in its spore form for an indefinite amount of time. No one has ever been found to be immune to this viral agent.
4. Cobra
If you thought fusion was only reserved for the culinary arts, you would be dead wrong. In Richard Preston’s The Cobra Event, bioterrorists develop a virus that is a genetically modified version of two separate viruses – the highly contagious but harmless Common Cold virus and the deadly but extinct Small-Pox virus. This new virus mimics the symptoms of Lesch-Nyan Syndrome and the common cold. The result – total human extinction! The most lethal aspect of this virus is that it gives Brain-Pox to the people it infects. They literally develop lesions inside their head and die.
5. Captain Trips
Stephen King came up with this virus in his book The Stand. A scientific research division called Project Blue worked along with the United State Army’s Special Weapons Division to create a mutated version of the A-Prime Flu virus. The outcome was Super-Flu or Captain Trips. Captain Trips was scarier because it could be instructed to target people and leave others be. Once the virus is given a genetic structure or DNA of a certain person is fed into its stream, the virus will enter a search and destroy mode, acting like a microscopic hunter-killer that will never miss its target.
The virus was designed to keep mutating and thus Captain Trips mutated itself to become the ultimate extinction agent. Because of its highly adaptable nature, it can never have a cure and it has a communicability rate of 99.4 percent. And yes – the infected have symptoms of the common cold.
6. MM88
What if we could create a virus that could increase the potency and fatality rate of other viruses and diseases? It will be like the Gatorade for other diseases. That is exactly what the MM88 does. The MM88 is harmless by itself but injects it into a person infected with say the Coronavirus or the Ebola Virus, and the MM88 can turn that disease ten times deadlier. The virus works by accelerating the other viral agents’ incubation rate, increasing their rate of mutation. The viral agent is soon stolen by a rogue faction. It is then released in Italy leading to the emergence of a modern-day plague called the Italian Flu, which kills thousands in the process. Sound familiar??
7. Trixie
Do not let the cute name fool you. Trixie is the codename for a biological agent developed for warfare by the United States. In the 1973 movie, The Crazies, the aircraft carrying a shipment of containers carrying the agent goes missing. It is later found to have crash-landed near a US Town and into the water body that is where the town sources most of its water from. Trixie is a modified and weaponized version of a highly lethal biological agent called the Rhabdoviridae.
It affects the human nervous system in seconds. Within minutes, the subject is either dead from shock or turned into a violent sociopath. It is scary to see just how quickly this virus spread throughout the town and turned it into living hell for the residents. It is even scarier to think that the US Government could come up with such a thing, even in a fictional universe.
8. Solanum
Commonly called the Zombie Virus, it is what turned the world into a gigantic wasteland in the movie World War Z. We literally see it affecting a person in the movie. And boy is it quick. In a matter of ten seconds, a fully healthy and functional human being turns into a rabid monster. The virus has no cure. The movie makes a turn towards a different plot ending when they find out a way to prevent the uninfected from being infected by the virus. While it cannot be cured, the possibility of a vaccine exists.
Solanum has several other names in the World War Z novel including African Rabies, the Blight, and our personal favorite – the Walking Plague. The actual name of the virus is never mentioned in the book but it is the source of the movie that gives us a clearer picture. Any virus that can turn a human into zombies in ten seconds is bad news. Period!
9. Kalavirus
The Kalavirus is what decimated the world population in the 12 Monkeys Universe. The 12 Monkeys released the virus in order to destroy the world and time itself. The Kalavirus is extremely contagious, probably the most contagious virus on this list. Airborne, waterborne and touch-based contamination exists for this virus. It can be transferred via the exchange of bodily fluids too. The Kalavirus makes the infected have severe chills, incessant coughing, fever, and eventual death. The fatality rate of the virus is 95 percent.
The first outbreak by the first strand of the virus released onto the world killed more than 7 billion people in one go! The second and third strain reduced the world population to less than 44 Million. The fourth and final mutated strain reduced the global population to less than 28 Million in numbers. No one has ever found a cure to the virus. No one stays immune since the virus is notoriously easy to mutate and can adapt to any anti-viral agent quickly.
10. The Satan Bug
The Satan Bug is the name of the popular 1965 movie starring Anne Francis and George Maharis in titular roles. A private investigator is asked by a scientist working on a secret government project on creating biological weapons of war. The scientist claims that there has been a robbery. Two kinds of vials are missing from their inventory.
One is a weaponized version of the highly toxic Botulinus strain that can oxidize in a matter of eight hours and quickly kill an entire city in a matter of a few days once released into the air. The other vial contained a top-secret viral agent called the Satan Bug. The Satan Bug is not at all described in detail but the scientist claims that it was designed to end all life on Earth in a matter of months once released. From the looks of it, it was a biological doomsday device created by the United States government.
