History Main / ViralTransformation

-->-- '''''[[TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} GURPS: Bio-Tech]]'''''

* In the 2001 Sci Fi Channel telefilm ''Film/{{Threshold}}'' an astronaut infected with alien DNA let loose moth-like carriers that infected other people. The government found the hybrids all had B negative blood and, furthermore, the hybrids had stolen a list from a blood bank so they could track down their targets. The title comes from the other governments of the world declaring the invaders had to be stopped before they reached a critical population or Southern California would be nuked to stop them.

* In the 2001 Sci Fi Channel telefilm "Threshold" an astronaut infected with alien DNA let loose moth-like carriers that infected other people. The government found the hybrids all had B negative blood and, furthermore, the hybrids had stolen a list from a blood bank so they could track down their targets. The title comes from the other governments of the world declaring the invaders had to be stopped before they reached a critical population or Southern California would be nuked to stop them.

[[folder:Film]]

* Mitochondria Eve of ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' fame is basically a sentient and controlled version of this by manipulating the mitochondria cells in any biological lifeform, whether it be man or beast. The beasts get some pretty wicked transformations. The humans however...[[SpontaneousHumanCombustion not so]] [[ImMelting much]]

* [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Scary Monsters]], the [[FightingSpirit Stand]] of Doctor Ferdinand from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun'' infects any living creature with a virus that turns them into a dinosaur under Ferdinand's control. Then the virus is spread by the dinosaurs themselves to practically create a [[ZombieApocalypse zombie infestation]]... of dinosaurs. Diego Brando is later able to keep and control the infection on him due to obtaining the [[PlotCoupon Saint's eye]] but Diego's version seems to lack the infecting properties.

* The world of ''Wiki/TaerelSetting'' has the kin'toni virus, a sickness made in a lab to make super soldiers. In a few weeks it turns the infected into a kin'toni, a strong, fast, and deadly predator. It is unknown if there is a cure as it is never brought up.

* In later films of The Matrix, this is what happens when you [[ClonebyConversion get the Smith virus.]]

8 In later films of The Matrix, this is what happens when you [[ClonebyConversion get the Smith virus.]]

* ''Literature/TheBookOfDragons'': In "Literature/{{Habitat}}", it's revealed that dragons [[spoiler:reproduce by infecting other beings with a kind of disease, which can be transmitted through even a small nick from their fangs, claws or scales, incubates for anywhere from a few days to several years, and eventually transforms the victim into a new dragon. Even the victim's death won't halt this process.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Cybergeneration}}'', a sequel to TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}, is run on the premise that a nanite infection will kill anyone over the age of 16. If you're under 16 you survive... or change.

* [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Scary Monsters]], the [[FightingSpirit Stand]] of Doctor Ferdinand from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun'' infects any living creature with a virus that turns them into a dinosaur under Ferdinand's control. Then the virus is spread by the dinosaurs themselves to practically create a [[ZombieApocalypse zombie infestation]]... of dinosaurs. Diego Brando is later able to keep and control the infection on him due to obtaining the [[PlotCoupon Saint's eye]] but Diego's version seems to lack the infecting properties.

** The plot was obviously copied from H. P. Lovecraft's ''The Colour Out of Space''.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]] sees people touched with infected water turned into zombie like creatures that spray more infected water to spread the virus further.

** The fourth season reveals that the Klingon loss of forehead appliques in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' was due to an attempt to splice the DNA of augmented humans into their own genome, only for a virus to mutate due to exposure and start spreading augment DNA to everyone infected. The loss of forehead ridges was one of the side effects, and wasn't reversed by the cure, though in a couple generations the trait wold come back into dominance again, in time for ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' (and the other early 80s movies) and ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.

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* Becoming an Homunculus in the world of ''Manga/BusoRenkin'' sounds great - increased strength, a range of superpowers, {{Immortality}}, immunity to disease... but the fine print is that [[ImAHumanitarian your diet now consists of people.]] And if you're not a super-special-awesome Human-type Homunculus, you go insane and become dominated by your instincts.
* [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Scary Monsters]], the [[FightingSpirit Stand]] of Doctor Ferdinand from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun'' infects any living creature with a virus that turns them into a dinosaur under Ferdinand's control. Then the virus is spread by the dinosaurs themselves to practically create a [[ZombieApocalypse zombie infestation]]... of dinosaurs. Diego Brando is later able to keep and control the infection on him due to obtaining the [[PlotCoupon Saint's eye]] but Diego's version seems to lack the infecting properties.

** The Technarchy's version, the Transmode virus, transforms living flesh into technology and allows them to feed on 'life-glow', and is also capable of resurrecting the dead - most notably, during the ''Necrosha'' event when Selene attempted to use it to resurrect all 16 million mutants who'd been killed on Genosha and then draining their lives to ascend to godhood.
* ''ComicBook/{{Druuna}}'' comics have diseases that change people into tentacled monsters. But, this being a PornWithPlot comic, you can probably guess [[NaughtyTentacles what happens next]].
* The "Monstar Virus", pretty much ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, in the ''AmoryWars''. [[spoiler: Used to turn Coheed and Cambria into "The Monstar" and "The White Ruineer" respectively.]]
* From the Franchise/TheDCU, the rare West African virus Sakutia, upon infection, will transform the user by turning their skin and hair green. Some varieties will also grant the ability to transform into any animal. This is the source of the powers of Beast Boy. Most varieties are inevitably fatal.

* ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 George A. Romero's]]'' films cemented this concept with zombies and pretty much birthed the entire genre of the ZombieApocalypse. Many many ''many'' works have followed since.

* ''Film/{{Underworld}}'' has examples of both this and TheVirus. The original flavor werewolves under William were all raving savages, but those who inherited it from Lucian spend most of their time in human form, and can eventually enter or leave were-form at will.
** Then you have the various takes on the hybrids. The movies show two different hybrids (Marcus and Michael) and mention a third (Lucian and Sonya's unborn child). The first two involve a member of one species getting exposed to the blood (and virus) of the other. While the viruses normally annihilate each other, the presence of the "Corvinus strain" in both allowed the viruses to merge into something new. In Michael's case, his original Lycan strain retained dominance, making him appear vastly more human than an average Lycan. Marcus, who started as a vampire, attained more bat-like characteristics, although he did gain several Lycan ones as well. It is unknown what Lucian and Sonya's child would look like, given that it was equal parts Lycan and vampire, or if it would survive at all, given the mutually-destructive "relationship" the two virus strains have.

* In ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'', humans are turned into vampires through a virus.

* ''Film/TheLazarusEffect'' in an unusual case, being resurrected with a special serum has the side effect that the person brought back keeps making it. If they get a second injection, they can start producing it on their own, and if there's anyone near they want to resurrect...
* ''Film/{{Bite}}'' deals with a young woman being transformed into a human-insect hybrid after being infected with a mutagenic virus via a bug bite.

** ''Series/StargateSG1'': A virus caused people to turn into cavemen (a minor version, it just gave them funny foreheads and heightened aggression). A nanotech version made O'Neill 100 years old in a few days. Teal'c was bitten by a bug whose venom would have converted his total body mass into more bugs.

* In Season Two of ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}'', [[Comicbook/MartianManhunter J'onn]] discovers that a blood transfusion from a White Martian is now causing him to turn into a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil White Martian]].

* In ''VideoGame/LostSoulsMUD'', a local implementation of ''VideoGame/NetHack'''s "eating a mind flayer makes you smarter" makes it so that eating the neural tissue of the vlekthid (read illithid) or gogtzul (read Star-Spawn of Cthulhu) races results in that neural tissue colonizing your own nervous system, making you smarter and less emotional, and giving you both psionic powers and often-crippling mental disorders.
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''' first expansion, the horror movie themed ''The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned'', has both zombies and Wereskags (skags being the planet's equivalent to dogs/wolves). Both transmit their infection/curse via bites.
* Albert Wesker of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' is infected with such a virus. It is not particularly transmissible, but it does make him something of an unstoppable badass.
* Redlight and Blacklight from ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}''. Redlight is a completely straight version of TheVirus, which transforms people into braindead, malformed husks serving [[HiveQueen Elizabeth Greene]], while Blacklight is a ViralTransformation. [[spoiler:The player character, Alex Mercer is essentially a corpse reanimated by Blacklight, and although he is a {{Jerkass}} AntiHero with horrifying powers, he's significantly less evil than the real Alex Mercer was in life.]]
* Everyone is infected in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''. If you're lucky, nothing about you changes and you become a carrier/survivor. If you're unlucky, you become a common infected. If you're EXTREMELY unlucky, you become a special infected.
* Mitochondria Eve of ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' fame is basically a sentient and controlled version of this by manipulating the mitochondria cells in any biological lifeform, whether it be man or beast. The beasts get some pretty wicked transformations. The humans however...[[SpontaneousHumanCombustion not so]] [[ImMelting much]]

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampirism]] and [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Lycanthropy]] are actually diseases (though divine in origin) which can be spread via any wound inflicted by a carrier of the disease. In the case of vampirism, it starts off fairly innocuous (fatigue, insomnia, nightmares) and is easily cured within the first few days of being contracted. Porphyric Hemophilia, Sanguinare Vampiris and Noxiphilic Sanguivoria are a few of the diseases that develop into full-blown Vampirism. Lycanthropy functions similarly, although in some cases consuming the blood of a lycanthrope can cause the disease to immediately take effect.

* In ''Webcomic/BeCalm'', it quickly becomes apparent that being exposed to the air in the underground facility for too long can have seriously bad effects. [[spoiler:Namely, mutating your body until you turn into a monstrous killing machine. The ARG attached to the reboot hints that part of the facility's original purpose was to figure out a way of studying these mutations in a controlled environment.]]

* A SharedUniverse called ''The Blind Pig'' - and its reboot/successor [[http://shifti.org/wiki/Pig_and_Whistle Pig and Whistle]] - take place after a virus with unknown origins spreads throughout the Earth. A lot of the people who get it die. Some percentage of the survivors transform. A smaller percent of ''them'' get unusual abilities.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E18AHealthOfInformation A Health of Information]]" introduces Swamp Fever, a rase disease contracted by breathing in the pollen of a certain swamp flower. Its initial symptoms are a bit odd -- [[PolkaDotDisease orange spots all over the victim's body]], then coughing up bubbles, then sneezing small lightning bolts -- but nothing too worrying as far as this trope goes. Things change when the disease reaches its end stage, at which point branches start growing out of the orange spots and the victim is permanently [[{{Transflormation}} turned into a tree]] -- the very same kind of tree that grows the flowers whose pollen spreads Swamp Fever.

* Ilyria was played as a variant of this on ''Series/{{Angel}}'', infecting Fred after she inhaled dust from Illyria's sarcophagus and then turning her slowly into the shell.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', the scratches of the blue slaad transmit a magical disease called chaos phage. Anyone who succumbs to the phage transforms into a ''red'' slaad, which can make more blue slaads by impregnating people with ChestBurster tadpoles.
* In ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' werewolves and most other werebeasts are actually hereditary rather than contagious. But were-ravens and ratkin both transform normal humans (or animals) rather than breeding. Ravens by creating a "spirit egg" that they bond to a child or fledgling, ratkin using a rite that usually kills the prospective ratkin.
* The process of becoming an Amorphage in the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh card game'' involves a scaled up bacteriophage attaching itself to your body and dragonic body parts sprouting from your body. In some cases, the transformed retains characteristics of its previous self such as Olga having its original head on top of its new one.

* In ''Literature/EdenGreen'', an alien needle symbiote spreads across a small group of humans, gradually taking over their bodies [[HealingFactor as it heals their wounds]]. Each infectee can eventually reach milestones at which their brain and even entire body is made up of needles, with horrible mutations possible along the way.
* It's very common in zombie novels for the zombification to be caused by a virus, the most famous or at least one of the earliest probably being ''Literature/IAmLegend'', both the book and movies.
* In ''[[Literature/TheMazeRunner The Maze Runner Trilogy]]'', Cranks, zombielike victims of the Flare, end up becoming more and more undead-like in physical appearance as they spiral into madness. Specifically, their hair and some of their teeth fall out, gashes and patches of blood appear on their skin, and black veins begin to snake down their limbs. [[spoiler:Newt gets the symptoms rather severely when he becomes a Crank in ''The Death Cure'']].
* In ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', this is common from exposure to angelic or demonic influences and/or bodily fluids.

* Played for laughs with Australium from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', which induces TestosteronePoisoning upon those who use it. Specifically, this causes men to become incredibly muscular and grow impressive [[CarpetOfVirility body]] and [[BadassMustache facial hair]]. As such, Australians in the setting are a race of hyper-advanced {{Boisterous Bruiser}}s with mustachioed women.

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There are forces, be they biological, mystical or technological, that can infect and change a person into something... ''[[WasOnceAMan else]].'' These tend to be highly contagious, spreading easily via physical contact, bite, ritual, or other means. The changes are seldom subtle, and often [[TomatoInTheMirror quite a shock]] for the victim, who will likely [[WhatHaveIBecome wonder what they have become]]. On the plus side, the Viral Transformation is usually CursedWithAwesome, giving the "victim" {{Stock Superpower}}s ''and'' [[SuperEmpowering the ability to give them to others.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E18AHealthOfInformation A Health of Information]]" introduces Swamp Fever, a rase disease contracted by breathing in the pollen of a certain swamp flower. Its initial symptoms are a bit odd -- [[PolkaDotDisease orange spots all over the victim's body]], then coughing up bubbles, then sneezing small lighting bolts -- but nothing too worrying as far as this trope goes. Things change when the disease reaches its end stage, at which point branches start growing out of the orange spots and the victim is permanently [[{{Transflormation}} turned into a tree]] -- the very same kind of tree that grows the flowers whose pollen spreads Swamp Fever.

* The Bio-mechs in ''WesternAnimation/VorTech'' were infected with a technological plague transforming them into creatures much like the Phalanx in the X-Men comicbook titles.

* The Brood from [[MarvelUniverse Marvel comics]] propagate their species this way. They inject parasites into viable hosts (which is basically everyone) that gradually transform the hosts into more Brood. By the time the transformation's complete, the original psyche of the host is all but gone. Incredibly, despite being (nearly) AlwaysChaoticEvil, it's still possible to pity the Brood because this is the ''only'' way they can reproduce.

* From the DC universe, the rare West African virus Sakutia, upon infection, will transform the user by turning their skin and hair green. Some varieties will also grant the ability to transform into any animal. This is the source of the powers of Beast Boy. Most varieties are inevitably fatal.

* ''Druuna'' comics have diseases that change people into tentacled monsters. But, this being a PornWithPlot comic, you can probably guess [[NaughtyTentacles what happens next]].