Ebola inspired entertainment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The highly lethal virus known as Ebola has served as a rich source of ideas and plotlines for many forms of entertainment. The infatuation with the virus is likely due to the high mortality rate of its victims, its mysterious nature, and its tendency to cause gruesome bleeding from body orifices.

1 Literature
2 Television
3 Film
4 Video games
5 Music

[edit] Literature

In his book Biohazard, former Soviet biological warfare researcher Kanatjan Alibekov claimed that the former Soviet Union experimented extensively with use of Ebola as a biological weapon, including a genetically engineered version combined with the smallpox virus to increase the degree of contagion and lethality.

The book Executive Orders by Tom Clancy describes an extensive bioterrorist attack on the United States via a newly discovered strain of Ebola (titularly the same strain that killed Mayinga) that propagates by air. A modified version of the Ebola virus also appears in another Tom Clancy novel, Rainbow Six. The modified virus is slated for release at the Olympic Games, with the intent to kill every living person, except for those who are radical environmentalists.

Richard Preston’s book The Hot Zone contains a history of the research and discovery of the virus, as well as an account of an outbreak of a strain of the virus near Washington, D.C.

In the DC Universe, a mutation of the virus was created by The Order Of Saint Dumas (those who created Azrael) and subsequently released by Ra’s Al Ghul himself in Gotham City, causing the death of many citizens. This version is named Ebola Gulf-A and called “The Clench.” Many years later, in a possible future (Elseworlds' book Brotherhood of the Bat) a new version of this virus is released by Ra’s causing the death of 99% of all humans. This new version is named “Ebola Honduras.”

Ken Follett’s 2004 novel Whiteout is about the theft of Mandoba-2, a virulent strain of the Ebola virus, from a research facility in Scotland.

In the Doctor Who spin-off novel Only Human (part of the New Series Adventures), a hospital is evacuated after authorities falsely claim that a patient has Ebola. The Ninth Doctor says that the cure to the disease is found in 2076.

In Gary Paulson's book The Transall Saga, the protagonist travels to a future world in which widespread Ebola infection has severely altered the course of human evolution. Upon his return to his own world, he becomes a geneticist and develops a vaccine for the virus.

In Robin Cook’s book, Outbreak, the protagonist investigates a series of Ebola outbreaks in the United States of America

In Ilkka Remes's 2003 novel Ikiyö (Finnish for Eternal Night) the fictional Pope Benedictus XVI is injected with Ebola virus and ultimately killed by it.

[edit] Television

A victim in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is thought to be infected with Ebola, which turns out to be a false positive.

On the television show, 7 Days, a government lab in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania had created an engineered, highly contagious, one-hundred-percent-fatal form of the Ebola virus for medical and vaccine research. A religious zealot steals a sample of the virus and releases it in the flight crew lounge in the Gettysburg International Airport, believing it to be the will of God to purge the world of the wicked. In less than a week, the virus infects over 98% of the world’s population. Only through the actions of chrononaut Frank Parker and the Back Step crew is the event undone by traveling back in time seven days. This episode was called “The Gettysburg Virus.”

In season 3 of the hit show 24, a virus is threatened to be released in the United States. The symptoms of the virus relates to Ebola hemorragic fever. One of the characters who believed that he was infected with the virus said, “It’s like that Ebola thing, right? It’s gonna eat me alive…”

[edit] Film

In the 1995 movie, Outbreak, a disease that is Ebola-like, causing extreme hemorrhaging, is fought against by the protagonists. The disease is called “Motaba,” and comes from Zaïre. During the movie, the death rate of the virus is pronounced to be 100%, killing all that contract it. In a scene they show a picture of the Motaba virus, which is actually a picture of the Ebola virus.

The 1996 Hong Kong exploitation film Ebola Syndrome revolves around an outbreak of the virus following the main character’s visit to an infected South African tribe. The film uses creative license with the virus; Victims die within 72 hours and 1 in 10 million people is a “carrier” of the virus (that is to say, they can spread the virus but do not suffer themselves).

The general concept of a highly infectious bloodborne hemorrhagic fever virus was used to horrifying effect in the 2002 movie 28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle. Although the agent in 28 Days Later was a fictional, engineered pathogen called “Rage,” some parallels with Ebola are very evident.

[edit] Video games

In the bestselling video game series Resident Evil, the T-Virus, which kills its carriers and brings them back to life as flesh-eating zombies, is created from the Ebola virus and another virus.