Bad Genes: Villains with Genetic Themes

Solidus Snake (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty)

Scientific advances towards unlocking the secrets of human DNA have given way to SF that explores the potential future of genetic experiments on human beings. On some level, scientific advances are hopeful—stem cell research and related studies could be the keys to unlocking the cures to diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's. But as with any new technology, genetics must be handled with care. Often in SF we run across villains who have no sense of belonging or purpose due to their status as genetic experiments. These characters often have little other choice than to embrace their darker side and do battle to subjugate those who reject them.

Humans were dabbling in eugenics long before DNA was mapped out. Attempts to create a “master race” culminated in the Nazi experiments during World War Two, and from that point on serious restrictions were placed on genetic science based on moral guidelines. A recurring theme in SF seems to be that when those guidelines are disregarded, the result is an unbalanced creation who finds him/herself at odds with the rest of civilization. Long before eugenics became popular, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Rappaccini's Daughter” (1844) in which a mad scientist feeds his daughter poison every day until she herself becomes toxic, protecting her from the evils of society but also isolating her from its joys. The result is a dead daughter and an innocent bystander corrupted by her poisons. Another example comes from SF Film. The second Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan , features a villain who, as the product of genetic engineering, features superhuman strength and intelligence. This sets him apart from others and gives him a superiority complex that encourages him to rule over the others on his ship and to avenge the slight to his inflated ego that the heroic Captain Kirk inflicts when Khan is marooned on a desert planet.

Even when the supermen created by genetics are stable, their lives are usually radically different from those of normal humans. Villains with genetic themes usually have an impending genetic crisis that inspires them to take action, or they have been denied some key function of humanity that they seek to capture for themselves to feel complete. Let's focus on the Metal Gear Solid video game series for an example of how genes have been integrated into modern SF.

All three games in Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid series focus heavily on the genes of a legendary soldier known as “Big Boss” who served as the villain in the original Metal Gear series. Using Big Boss's body and the secrets gleaned from the Human Genome Project, the government created a program known as “ Les Enfants Terribles ” (The Terrible Children)—a program which resulted in three clones of Big Boss. The first, Solid Snake, received all of the dominant genes, whereas Liquid Snake received all of the recessive genes, a slight which enrages Liquid and drives him to terrorism. The third is a direct, balanced clone code-named Solidus Snake, who despite his power desires to leave a mark in history, an action that those in power would deny to him. Liquid Snake explains the process of genetic cloning in detail to Solid Snake during their confrontation at the end of the first episode of the trilogy:

LIQUID SNAKE: Yes, twins, but we're not ordinary twins. We're twins linked by cursed genes. Les enfants terrible . You're fine. You got all the old man's dominant genes. I got all the flawed, recessive genes. Everything was done so that you could be the greatest of his children. The only reason I exist was so they could create you! . . . Les enfants terribles …that's what the project was called. It started in the 1970s. The plan was to create the most powerful soldier possible. The person that they chose as the model was the man known then as the most powerful soldier in the world…

SOLID SNAKE: Big Boss…

LIQUID SNAKE: But father was already wounded in combat and in a coma when they brought him in. So they created us from his cells, with a combination of 20 th century analog cloning and the Super Baby Method.

SOLID SNAKE: Super Baby Method?

LIQUID SNAKE: They fertilized an egg with one of father's cells, then let it divide into eight clone babies. Then they transferred the clones to someone's uterus and later intentionally aborted six of the fetuses to encourage strong fetal growth. You and I were originally octuplets. . . . Yes, the other six of our brothers were sacrificed in order to make us. We were accomplices in murder before we were even born. So it was you and I. Two fertilized eggs with exactly the same DNA. But…they weren't finished yet. They used me as a guinea pig to create a phenotype in which all the dominant genes were expressed to create you…I got all the recessive genes! You took everything from me before I was even born!

Would the life of the recessive child be considered by the scientists creating super soldiers? Likely not, and the result is a vengeful soldier prone to rebellion against the forces that made him.

Solidus Snake is likewise a victim of his origins. As the chief villain in the second episode, Solidus attempts to challenge The Patriots, a shadow-government organization that controls the United States . Solidus fears the digital censorship that The Patriots plan to unleash, and wishes to make a mark in history that The Patriots cannot erase:

SOLIDUS: We're all born with an expiration date. No one lasts forever. Life is nothing but a grace period—for turning our genetic material into the next generation. The data of life is passed from parent to child. That's how it works. But we have no heirs, no legacy…cloned from our father with the ability to reproduce conveniently engineered out. What is our legacy if we cannot pass the torch? Proof of our existence…a mark of some sort. When the torch is passed on from parent to child, it extends beyond DNA. Information is imparted as well. All I want is to be remembered. By other people. By history.

This, for Solidus, justifies acts of terrorism to free America from the grasp of The Patriots, who want to control which information is passed on along with DNA to the next generation. His beliefs echo the cynicism of an enemy operative from the first episode, a telepath code-named Psycho Mantis who helps Solid Snake after their battle, offering the following rationale:

PSYCHO MANTIS: Every living thing on this planet exists to mindlessly pass on their DNA. We're designed that way. And that's why there is war. But you…you are different. You are the same as us. . . . Humans aren't designed to bring each other happiness. From the moment we're thrown into this world, we're fated to bring each other nothing but pain and misery.

Mantis's thoughts could have some validity. Can all the struggles of the human race be summed up as a never-ending struggle for the continuance of our existence as a species?

With scientific breakthroughs occurring every day, could a genetic program such as Les Enfants Terribles be far off? How long before a military already obsessed with robotic technology turns to genetic implants to create super-soldiers, and what will be the results? Whatever lessons we learn from genetic villains in SF, a prominent one should be that no matter what we do in the name of science, we must never forget that people, when dehumanized into mere tools, strike out in search of the humanity they have been denied. As Albedo from the Xenosaga series points out: “We're not foolish because we're tools. It's because we're men.”