History Main / Biopunk

* ''[[{{Literature/Dune}} Dune]]'' has the Bene Tleilax, who specialize in all things bio punk and all the horrible, nefarious ways in which they can be used - usually for the purposes of political intrigue and skullduggery.

** ''The Fluted Girl'' brings it to BodyHorror territory, as the titular girl has her entire body (along with her twin sister) turned into a music instrument, allowing the twins to play each other. If that's not enough, then there is the head of security, Burson, a military-grade mix of human, jackal, dog and nanotechnology, with ChameleonCamouflage skin. Most of "aristocracy" is made from ReallySevenHundredYearsOld people that keep revitalising their bodies to stay in charge and alter bodies of their serfs according to their whims.

* [[http://www.omegacom.demon.co.uk/gene.htm Gene Wars]] covers the life of a guy named Evan from making genetically engineered amoebas when he was eight, to dying as essentially the last ordinary human.
* Mira Grant's ''Literature/{{Parasitology}}'' revolves around a genetically engineered tapeworm designed to keep people healthy [[spoiler: that winds up integrating itself into people's brains and setting off a Zombie Apocalypse]]. Her ''Literature/{{Newsflesh}}'' trilogy, about what civilization would be like after a ZombieApocalypse if it didn't collapse also counts.
* Shit Narnia in ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd'', which is an alternate Earth where technology branched off into this in the mid 19th century. [[spoiler: It's also where EldritchAbomination and BigBad Korrok was born.]]
* Genetic augmentations are abundant in Literature/TheNexusSeries, for both combat and cosmetic purposes. [[NoTranshumanismAllowed Just don't go around using them in the US...]]

* In Mark Hodder's ''Literature/BurtonAndSwinburneSeries'', everyday technology has been advanced by the Technologist caste with the two main branches being the steampunk Engineers and the biotech Eugenicists. Among the Eugenicists' standard innovations have been the specially bred dogs and parakeets used for sending messages, giant swans that tow people on kites, draft horses capable of hauling house-sized weights, and the broom cat - a shaggy cat that slides across the floor trapping dirt in its fur which it then eats. The Eugenicists have also developed [[BrainTransplant transplanting brains]] and [[LongevityTreatment life extension treatments]].

** [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard The seventh game]] heavily implies that the [[spoiler:true]] main antagonist [[spoiler:Eveline]] was a genetically modified human-like mutant created by a different biotech corporation, who [[FesteringFungus creates spores]] that put infected people under [[HiveQueen her mind control]] and turn the ones who stay under her control long enough into mutant-like slaves for her, as seen with the Baker family throughout the game. [[spoiler:The sequel reveals that while the mold was cultivated by a MadScientist aristocrat, she was also one of the honorary founding members of Umbrella and was just as depraved as her student Spencer. Each of her minions uses a different type of parasitic creature to host the mold, resulting in the realization of classic folklore monsters to the townsfolk's detriment.]]

* ''Manga/{{Guyver}}'', partly because of being an DarkerAndEdgier {{Homage}}/{{Deconstruction}} of {{Tokusatsu}} shows like ''Franchise/KamenRider'', falls pretty well into the [proto-]Biopunk niche (every single bit of advanced tech surrounding the Guyvers and their enemies are at least in-part biotechnology, if not entirely biotech).

* ''Franchise/Dune'' has the Bene Tleilax, who specialize in all things bio punk and all the horrible, nefarious ways in which they can be used - usually for the purposes of political intrigue and skullduggery.

** [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard The seventh game]] heavily implies that the [[spoiler:true]] main antagonist [[spoiler:Eveline]] was a genetically modified human-like mutant created by a different biotech corporation, who [[FesteringFungus creates spores]] that put infected people under [[HiveQueen her mind control]] and turn the ones who stay under her control long enough into mutant-like slaves for her, as seen with the Baker family throughout the game.

* ''Webcomic/GenocideMan'': Open-source biotechnology enabled terrorists to create {{Synthetic Plague}}s and [[DesignerBabies genetic "deviants"]] designed as human weapons. In response the UN formed the Genocide Project whose [[SuperSoldier augmented geneticist-soldiers]] are sanctioned to [[NoTranshumanismAllowed exterminate deviancies and holders of hazardous ideas]], down to the last man, woman, and child.

* ''Film/JurassicPark'' is perhaps the TropeCodifier for modern audiences and was a huge box office success. The story focuses heavily on the themes of [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke scientific ethics]], [[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair man's hubris]] and [[NatureIsNotNice the force of nature being beyond our control]].

* Creator/SpiderwebSoftware's ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'' is this meets DungeonPunk. The majority of people use [[OrganicTechnology Organic]] {{Magitek}}, which is exclusively produced by TheMagocracy whose members are called Shapers. The process usually involves heavily modifying existing animals, plants and fungi. Oddly for a Bio Punk world (or any kind of PunkPunk as dark as ''Geneforge''), the system enforced by Shaper control starts out between 'real life Democracy' and 'PostCyberpunk' in how bad it is despite being an Oligarchy; the one good trait they possess as a group is recognising the responsibility behind the power to create life (they have all the right protocols to quarantine an island like it was an ''[[Website/SCPFoundation SCP]]'' while remaining as humane as the real life CDC or WHO), and the main character is always a Shaper themselves working within the system as best they can... and then as the Shaper's creations go steadily out of control over the series, causing everything to get worse instead of better.

* The main plot of the ''VideoGame/KillingFloor'' seriesis to fight off feral British genetically enhance clone mutants that are later revealed to be created by Dr. Kevin [[spoiler: "The Patriarch"]] Clamely, the original owner of that biotech company that enemies come from, in order to wreak vengeance against government for his immoral methods of creating supersoldiers.

* ''VideoGame/{{Quake IV}}'' makes heavy usage of this trope with the Strogg's technology, which involves the fusion of captured humans with their cybernetics, especially the [[FateWorseThanDeath Stroggification process]].

* ''Webcomic/GenocideMan'': Open-source biotechnology enabled terrorists to create {{Synthetic Plague}}s and [[DesignerBabies genetic "deviants"]] designed as human weapons. In response the UN formed the Genocide Project whose [[{{Supersoldier}} augmented geneticist-soldiers]] are sanctioned to [[NoTranshumanismAllowed exterminate deviancies and holders of hazardous ideas]], down to the last man, woman, and child.

* This trope is a major theme in the ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'' series, where genetic engineering plays a vital role in the iconic underwater city of Rapture, where the first two games take place. Thanks to a powerful, but addictive mutagen called ADAM, the city was capable of developing gene-modifying injections that grant extraordinaty abilities such as pyrokinesis, telekinesis, [[BeeAfraid shooting bees out of your hands]], etc., but at the price of addiction, insanity, and some truly nasty BodyHorror resulting from both said abilites and ADAM withdrawal. And that bee-shooting superpower we mentioned? [[NightmareFuel/BioShock1 It turns your hand into a meaty beehive for bees to crawl in and out of.]]

* ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}'' has shades of this. There are multiple types of bio-engineered ArtificialHuman (such as the Frozeners and Rebirthers), gene therapy used for everything from organ modification to gender reassignment, and the setting's most prominent crimes are the trafficking of genetically engineered heroin and black market organs.

* ''VideoGame/{{Policenauts}}'' has shades of this. There are multiple types of bio-engineered ArtificialHuman (such as the Frozeners and Rebirthers), gene therapy used for everything from organ modification to gender reassignment, and the setting's most prominent crimes are the trafficking of genetically engineered heroin and black market organs.

* The ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series has plenty of elements like this, from the few weapons that are basically [[LivingWeapon small weaponized aliens]], to the [[BigBad Combine]], whose army consists mainly of conscripts from their many, many {{Slave Race}}s with [[OrganicTechnology various augments.]]
* The main plot of the ''VideoGame/KillingFloor'' seriesis to fight off feral British genetically enhance clone mutants that are later revealed to be created by Dr. Kevin [[spoiler: "The Patriarch"]] Clamely, the original owner of that biotech company that enemies come from, in order to wreak vengeance against government for his immoral methods of creating supersoldiers.
* ''VideoGame/SepterraCore'' is all about OrganicTechnology. The core of the planet in the game is a colossal biocomputer with spines. [[PlayerCharacter Maya's]] weapon [[BottomlessMagazines grows its own bullets]]. Not only that, but there are also {{Living Ship}}s, which are grown by using Helgak.

* ''Ciem 2'' combines Biopunk with CyberPunk and [[EspionageTropes Spy Punk]]. And a sprinkling of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror just for the heck of it. So in some chapters, [[ViceCity Dirbine]] feels like a ([[EarnYourHappyEnding mutable]]) [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Town]].

* The ''ComicBook/XMen'' series and its spinoffs trade pretty heavily in biopunk themes. ''ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen'' has particularly emphasised it, with Sentinels - especially Omega Sentinels (cyborgs) and the like - being the ultimate enemies of mutantkind. Additionally, one of the future timelines [[spoiler: (the 6th life of Moira [=MacTaggert=])]] shows how while mutants surpassed humans through evolution, a third species, ''Homo Novissima'', surpassed them both, because evolution became unnecessary once humans could alter themselves and their genetics however they wished, rather than relying on a random process.
* ''ComicBook/IronMan'', while closer to CyberPunk and the tech end of the spectrum in general, deals heavily in {{Transhuman}} themes and overlaps with this trope with the original ''Extremis'' storyline and Tony's self-enhancement with titular technology (originally nanotech that played with LegoGenetics, later a virus) to be faster, stronger, a {{technopath}}, and contain much of the armour in his bones. This was later upgraded to the 'Bleeding Edge' armour, where nanomachines were contained inside his body and could transform into his armour at a mere thought - and unlike previous versions, didn't have motors and servos, but a kind of artificial muscle. This had downsides, however, as it at one point allowed Ultron to possess him and transform his body into a replica of Janet Van Dyne's, and because of this/since StatusQuoIsGod, it was eventually purged.
* ''ComicBook/{{Finder}}'' fits into this very well, being set in an AfterTheEnd scenario where a biotech-based civilisation collapsed, but many of its products, being self-reproducing living things, are still around.
* In SCI-Spy apparently genetic modification with animals/aliens whatever is so mainstream that being a normal Joe attracts prejudice.

%%* ''Film/{{Gattaca}}'',

* One of the trademarks of Creator/PaoloBacigalupi short stories and books. His anthology, ''Literature/PumpSixAndOtherStories'', comes with few different flavours. The bio-punk elements don't exist just for aesthetics of the setting, but rather provide the pivotal issue of given short story or important plot devices:

* ''Literature/TheWindupGirl'' is set in the future, post-peak oil Thailand where calories are the most important resource and genetically-engineered organisms, including man-made plagues, are common.
* ''Literature/BelDameApocrypha'' by Kameron Hurley, is set in the far future on a planet where descendants of Muslim colonists have schismed into two warring countries. Since this world is arid, water intensive animal husbandry isn't used. Instead, insects have been engineered to be the main source of protein and the level of genetic engineering is so advanced, the insects have become replacements for electronic equipment. Also, there are humans who have evolved on this world with the ability to control these insects via pheromones. The war between the two countries also makes extensive use of biological warfare, it's reached a point where the population has to regularly be checked and operated on for cancerous growths.

* ''Change Agent'' by Daniel Suarez, set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture in 2045 where KRISPER has set off a biological version of the Industrial Revolution about an Interpol cop transformed into the criminal he was pursuing.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', Bio-Tech is the purview of the most advanced races. The Vorlon and Shadow ships are stated to be bio-ships, and it's hinted through their aesthetics, similar to those of the Vorlons and Shadows, that so are the other First One ships. To raise the tech level of their client races (Minbari for the Vorlons and Drakh for the Shadow) they grant them bio-tech (mostly ships armor). It's also heavily implied in the last episode of season 4 that bio-tech is also the future of human technology as a human from AD 1000000 is shown boarding a bio-ship right before the Sun goes Nova.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fracture}}'' presents the world where the East and West coasts of the [[DividedStatesOfAmerica USA]] are split over biotech use. On the Pacific coast, gene modification and grown biotech is embraced as the key to humanity's survival in the post-climate change world, while on the Atlantic coast, it's banned and instead heavily used of cybernetics is the go-to future tech.
* Creator/SpiderwebSoftware's ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'' is this meets [[DungeonPunk Dungeon punk]]. The majority of people use [[OrganicTechnology Organic]] {{Magitek}}, which is exclusively produced by TheMagocracy whose members are called Shapers. The process usually involves heavily modifying existing animals, plants and fungi. Oddly for a Bio Punk world (or any kind of PunkPunk as dark as Geneforge), the system enforced by Shaper control starts out between 'real life Democracy' and '[[PostCyberpunk Post-Cyberpunk]]' in how bad it is despite being an Oligarchy; the one good trait they possess as a group is recognising the responsibility behind the power to create life (they have all the right protocols to quarantine an island like it was an ''[=SCP=]'' while remaining as humane as the real life CDC or WHO), and the main character is always a Shaper themselves working within the system as best they can... and then as the Shaper's creations go steadily out of control over the series, causing everything to get worse instead of better.

* The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series is all about biotechnology gone wrong, with the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil1 first]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 three]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3 games]] being about a man-made [[ZombieApocalypse zombie outbreak]] engineered by MegaCorp-turned-terrorist group Umbrella Corporation, plus a [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 couple]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 games]] that have [[PuppeteerParasite mind control parasites]] as the [[spoiler:true]] main villains. Not to mention the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil6 sixth game]] which returns to the genre's monstrous roots, and also a few genetically engineered mutants created by couple of groups throughout the series.

* ''VideoGame/KillingFloor'' series main plot is to fight off feral British genetically enhance clone mutants that were later revealed as created for experiments by Dr. Kevin [[spoiler: "The Patriarch"]] Clamely ''the original owner of that Biotech company'' that enemies come from to set vengeance against government for his immoral methods of creating supersoldier.
* ''VideoGame/SepterraCore'' the whole game is about [[OrganicTechnology Organic Technology]]. The core of the planet in the game is a colossal biocomputer with spines. Maya's (the main protagonist) weapon [[BottomlessMagazines grows its own bullets]]. Not only that, but there are also [[LivingShip living ships]], which are grown by using Helgak.

* ''Webcomic/GenocideMan'': Open-source biotechnology enabled terrorists to create tailored plagues and genetic "deviants" designed as human weapons. In response the UN formed the Genocide Project whose augmented geneticist-soldiers are sanctioned to exterminate deviancies and holders of hazardous ideas, down to the last man, woman, and child.

** The citizens of Alternia are a spacefaring race. The troll Empress's personal vessel, the Battleship Condescension, is powered by nonconsensual sapping of the psionic energy of a yellow-blood adult troll, who has [[LivingShip had his life artificially extended indefinitely and been cybernetically integrated with the technology of the ship]]. Doc Scratch [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/4060 implies]] that ''all'' adult psionics are conscripted (read: forced) into being [[BodyHorror living batteries]] for the ships belonging to trolls of higher status.

* ''WesternAnimation/AeonFlux'' inhabits the world where self-modification is the new makeup.

* ''Animation/{{Gandahar}}'' first seems like a low-tech world with bizarre alien biology. However, most of them are the result of human bioengineering.

* Not really a huge concern as of yet, but western culture is well on the precipice of this being an actual thing in the not-too-distant future, with technologies such as the creation of organic body parts in labs being already being developed. [[http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31594856 The United Kingdom was the first nation to legalize the creation of babies from the DNA of three separate parents]], and technology capable of actually modifying genes already exists (CRISPR, for example), although its capabilities are limited ([[ScienceMarchesOn for now]]).

* Not really a huge concern as of yet, but western culture is well on the precipice of this being an actual thing in the not-too-distant future, with technologies such as the creation of organic body parts in labs being already being developed. [[http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31594856 The United Kingdom was the first nation to legalize the creation of babies from the DNA of three separate parents]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking real biotechnology which is named CRISPR can actually modified genes]] [[RealityEnsues in a limited way]] ([[OhSnap for now]]).

* The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series is all about biotechnology gone wrong, with the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil1 first]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 three]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3 games]] being about a man-made [[ZombieApocalypse zombie outbreak]] engineered by MegaCorp-turned-terrorist group [Umbrella Corporation, plus a [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 couple]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 games]] that have [[PuppeteerParasite mind control parasites]] as the [[spoiler:true]] main villains. Not to mention the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil6 sixth game]] which returns to the genre's monstrous roots, and also a few genetically engineered mutants created by couple of groups throughout the series.

* The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series is all about biotechnology gone wrong, with the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil1 first]][[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 three]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3 games]] being about a man-made [[ZombieApocalypse zombie outbreak]] engineered by MegaCorp-turned-terrorist group [Umbrella Corporation, plus a [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 couple]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 games]] that have [[PuppeteerParasite mind control parasites]] as the [[spoiler:true]] main villains. Not to mention the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil6 sixth game]] which returns to the genre's monstrous roots, and also a few genetically engineered mutants created by couple of groups throughout the series.
** [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard The seventh game]] heavily implies that the [[spoiler:true]] main antagonist [[spoiler:Eveline]] was a genetically modified human-like mutant created by a different biotech corporation, who [[FesteringFungus created spores]] to put infected people under [[HiveQueen her mind control]] and turning the ones who stay under her control long enough into mutant-like slaves for her, as seen with the Baker family throughout the game.

* The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series is about Biotechnology gone wrong with [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil1 first-]][[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 three]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3 games]] is escaped from man-made [[ZombieApocalypse zombie outbreak]] by [[FromNobodyToNightmare Megacorp to terrorist group]] [[StealthPun Umbrella Corporation]] plus [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 couple]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 games]] that have [[PuppeteerParasite mind control parasites]] as [[spoiler:true]] main villains. And the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil6 sixth game]] which returns to the genre's monstrous roots, and there also a few genetically engineered mutants created by couples groups throughout of series.
** [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard Seventh game]] and current in the entry have heavily implied that [[spoiler:true]] Main antagonist [[spoiler:Eveline]] was genetically modified human-like mutant created from different Biotech corporation, what [[FesteringFungus created Spores]] to infected people under [[HiveQueen her mind control]] and ones who stay control long enough become mutant-like slaves for her seen from the Baker family throughout game.

** The citizens of Alternia are a spacefaring race. The troll Empress's personal vessel, the Battleship Condescension, is powered by nonconsensual sapping of the psionic energy of a yellow-blood adult troll, who has [[LivingShip had his life artificially extended indefinitely and been cybernetically integrated with the technology of the ship.]] Doc Scratch [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/4060 implies]] that ''all'' adult psionics are conscripted (read: forced) into being [[BodyHorror living batteries]] for the ships belonging to trolls of higher status.

* ''Manga/{{Gunnm}}'' features this in Venus, where everything is biological: furniture, vehicles, and clothes. All of them are genetically enginereed, and [[{{Squick}} based on human DNA]].

* The ''ComicBook/XMen'' series and its spinoffs trade pretty heavily in biopunk themes. ''ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen'' has particularly emphasised it, with Sentinels - especially Omega Sentinels (cyborgs) and the like - being the ultimate enemies of mutantkind. Additionally, one of the future timelines [[spoiler: the 6th life of Moira MacTaggert]] shows how while mutants surpassed humans through evolution, a third species, ''Homo Novissima'', surpassed them both, because evolution became unnecessary once humans could alter themselves and their genetics however they wished, rather than relying on a random process.

* The ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series has plenty of elements like this, from the few weapons that are basically [[LivingWeapon small weaponized aliens]], to the [[BigBad Combine]], who's army consists mainly of conscripts from their many, many {{Slave Race}}s with [[OrganicTechnology various augments.]]

*** It is especially worth noting that exhaustive, dispositive scientific investigation has concluded that existing genetic modifications of food are safe for human health and for the biosphere. As of 2019, it is also worth noting that Monsanto has not existed for several years. However, research continues, and the context evinced by the preceding two bullets persists, in that the scientific consensus supports GM while a generally uncredentialed fringe opposes it.

* TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}} offers Bioware, genetically modified cultured tissue that can be implanted in characters to provide many of the same benefits of the more traditional Cyberware.

[[caption-width-right:350:All the cynicism of {{Cyberpunk}}, but 100% All-Natural. Well, okay, that's not true and we know it.]]