Warning: This post may contain spoilers. ‘I Am Legend‘ is the story about the possibly last human on Earth struggling to survive after a virus turns humans and other animals into horrid, aggressive mutants. Unlike zombies, these mutants are incredibly fast, nimble, and strong.
Overall, the movie was good, and Will Smith’s acting was great. While it was a horror/thriller/sci-fi movie, it was also a drama, and that led to one of the disappointments: I expected to be on the edge of my seat, but I wasn’t quite there, and I think mixing in good drama was part of that. It had some scary parts that jumped out at me, but it wasn’t enough to get my heart pounding enough.
The main point of this post is to nitpick the scientific elements of the movie regarding genetic engineering, viral biology, and mutations. The other part that left me somewhat disappointed is the bad, imaginary science involved. It seems to follow a trend in sci-fi of whenever there’s a new science or discovery that isn’t well understood yet, sci-fi is there to explore the most imaginative and crazy aspects of it, much like New Age pseudo-scientists (example: the movie ‘What the Bleep do we Know’).
At the beginning, it shows a news report of a genetic engineer who supposedly found a cure for cancer by genetically engineering the measles virus to hunt down and kill or repair cancer cells. Then three years later, civilization is in ruins, which leads you to believe the engineered virus mutated or had unintended consequences.
- Scientists do rigorous and extensive testing of drugs and genetically engineered life forms to analyze long term consequences. They wouldn’t consider a product safe if it had the tendency to cause unintended mutations in the test animals or if the virus had the undesirable habit of mutating on its own.
- Unless the viral coating was also altered from the original measles virus, people who’ve had measles vaccinations would have easily beaten this altered virus. It would take intentional immuno-suppressive therapy in order to reduce the immune response so the genetic alternations in human cells can be performed.
- Mutations aren’t engineered, so it takes a long while (think thousands or millions of years) to develop specific beneficial and complimentary traits that gives an animal (or virus) greater chances of natural selection. In other words, the mutations for the combined strengths and aggression of these mutants wouldn’t have occurred over night nor within three years. Here’s a list of things that would coincidentally (infinitesimal probability) have to happen to make the mutants described in the movie:
- To give that awesome strength and aggression, the virus would have to wreak havoc on the endocrine system to increase the amount of adrenaline, testosterone, and pituitary hormones. A bad case of ‘roid rage.
- To make them mindless, primitive, and zombie-like, the virus would have to disrupt the rest of the brain including cognitive thinking processes.
- The virus would have to tell the body to accelerate and increase the amount of tissue generation for added muscle and bone mass. Apes are very strong and agile like the mutants in the movie.
- Losing hair and pigmentation, so they fear being burned by UV light. It’s not really an added benefit, but it adds to the suspense of the movie for fear of the dark and unknown.
- The endocrine system would go haywire, possibly leading to increased fast heart beats and body temperature (the movie points this out), but it would also kill the body. The endocrine system maintains homeostasis, the ability for the body system to maintain systemic balance (think of diabetes and dehydration as being out of balance).
- If the virus disrupts cognitive processes and the hormone system, then chances are, it’s really messing up the neural system instead of partially disrupting it. Think of cerebral palsy, schizophrenia, autism, and other neurological diseases.
- The virus was incredibly fast at altering the animals and humans, changing them within a matter of hours. No, diseases don’t work that fast. The body may respond quickly and cause flu-like systems within a day of infection, but that’s a bodily response, not something caused directly by a virus. Rabies usually causes problems within a few weeks, not a few hours.
- The good scientist finds a cure for the virus, and supposedly, it returns the mutant back to a normal being. An anti-body is supposed to correct all the genetic damage that was already done? Anti-bodies don’t do that. They only get rid of the virus from the body. The mutants would stay in their present physical and mental state, even after their bodies were rid of the virus.
Genetic engineering has the possibilities of many good benefits and bad consequences, and bio-ethicists are there to warn us of the consequences, and we should pay attention to them. Still, I’m not a Luddite and I’m not against GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The benefits are plenty, and the risks can be kept to a minimal with proper oversight (thank big government).
Since most people don’t understand it enough, they have misconceptions, and the zombie movies will make use of those misconceptions. Like other bad science fads in sci-fi, I’m sure this one will pass as society adjusts to scientific realities. I’m sure experts in genetic engineering and medicine can find details in this post that aren’t quite totally accurate, but that’s to be expected.