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The Nine Most Common Fictional Diseases Derived From Films
The following nine numbing conditions were made up in the movies, but sound totally real.
The following are arranged by name followed by their source and then their symptoms:
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Brain Cloud-Joe Versus the Volcano
The brain cloud has no symptoms-apart from quickly and painlessly killing in about six months.
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Closed Shell Syndrome- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
A type of autism caused by cyber brain implants.
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Cyber Brain Sclerosis-Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Cyber brain implant malady resembling multiple sclerosis, eventually fatal.
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Hemoglophagia (HGV)-Ultraviolet
Disease responsible for turning many humans into vampire-like creatures.
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NAM37-The Patriot (1998)
A highly contagious airborne virus, which has been stolen from a government biological warfare laboratory. Its early symptoms include a rash, and it is quickly fatal. It is not clear in the film whether the virus was supposed to have been harvested from the wild (such as Ebola) and then grown as a weapon, or whether the laboratory first engineered it in some way. In the film, the leader of a local militia has obtained both the virus and what he believes to be a vaccine for it, and decides to start an epidemic with the virus, believing that he will be safe because he has taken the vaccine. A local doctor of Indian (Native American) ancestry fights to find a cure for it.
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Unknown-Twelve Monkeys
Little is known about Unknown, other than it’s a virus. The main protagonist James Cole is sent into the past to gather information on the twelve monkeys, the organization that spread the pathogen that nearly exterminated all humanity.
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“The Fever”-Cabin Fever
A flesh eating disease, which causes massive hemorrhage and tissue necrosis. Victims typically bleed directly through the skin in early stages. In later stages, tissues become soft and slough away. It is known to be transmitted through drinking contaminated water.
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SP-43-Derailed (2002)
SP-43 is a modified form of smallpox (variola) that has an extremely short incubation period. Its development is part of the back story, which is not completely clear, but given the fact that it appears to have been stolen in Slovakia and is being transported to Munich by a NATO agent, it appears to have been developed by the Slovak government or some other Eastern Block country during the Cold War. The theft and transfer of the virus to the West is complicated by a birthday surprise and a terrorists hijacking.
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X-5 Virus-Beavis and Butthead Do America
Genetically engineered disease created by the U.S. Military. Causes Ebola-like symptoms and eventual death. Apparently lethal and quick enough to “wipe out five states in five days”.
