-->''And now we join a man obsessed with sales and liquidation,\\
Dabbling with fiendish tests and genetic experimentation.\\
But you all know how these things go, with unnatural creations.\\
A puff of smoke! A greenish glow! Voila! Horrible abominations!''\\
--'''[[HomestarRunner Strong Sad]]'''

StockPhrase used whenever that [[ScienceIsBad nasty old "science"]] inevitably [[FantasticAesop messes up royally.]]

The set up is simple: You have an outpost, laboratory, factory, or other facility dedicated to the research and production of technological marvels, staffed with [[ForScience flighty scientists]] and [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious people]] pursuing a goal with the aims of profit, peace, or other [[JustThinkOfThePotential potential applications.]] Oh. Did we mention that the research is into [[ScaleOfScientificSins cheating death?]] Also, the forest those free market capitalists are clear cutting happens to be rumored to have an Ancient IndianBurialGround somewhere in it.

WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong?

[[{{Pride}} Well,]] [[TemptingFate let's]] [[PhlebotinumRebel see]] [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters here.]]

In their quest to advance human understanding, make a profit, help humanity, design a doomsday device, or otherwise undertake a high risk, high payoff enterprise, these people will have something '''Go Horribly Wrong!'''

The variations are limitless. Perhaps the non-polluting energy source [[PoweredByAForsakenChild actually]] taps into the delicately balanced forces locked in a CosmicKeystone or drains the planet's LifeEnergy. Or the hunger killing super-wheat is actually a super-weed that destroys all ecosystems. And that's for purely ''peaceful'' things. Weapons of any sort will have things go horribly wrong on a [[ApocalypseHow cataclysmic scale]]. The "completely loyal" robot workforce has a [[IsaacAsimov programming flaw]] that makes them [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters revolt]]. Maybe the SuperSoldier program [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity inherently causes insanity]], [[{{Mutants}} mutation]], or plain old [[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper megalomania.]]

These researchers will observe [[NoOSHACompliance lax safety standards]], laxer morals, and be prone to [[ProfessorGuineaPig test things out on themselves]] or [[StrappedToAnOperatingTable unwilling visitors]]. The CorruptCorporateExecutive will callously and maliciously disregard all warnings, even for basic safety and good PR.

Expect these people to send out a DistressCall or chronicle the debacle in an ApocalypticLog, be visited by a group [[ClosedCircle whose car broke down,]] or have things go wrong when the stockholders/government oversight committee comes to shut them down.

This is comparable to a FreakLabAccident, except at the beginning of a story. Heck, a lot of SpeculativeFiction serves no purpose ''but'' to have something GoHorriblyWrong.

See also CameBackWrong for when an attempt at resurrecting somebody from the dead Goes Horribly Wrong. Contrast GoneHorriblyRight, for when a project succeeds ''too well'' and the result is far worse than any accident could have been.

[[GodzillaThreshold Of course,]] it can [[ItGotWorse always get worse.]]
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''[[{{Daitarn3}} Daitarn 3]]''. Creating cyborgs who are superior in every way to normal humans? [[SarcasmMode There is absolutely no way]] [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters this is going to backfire]].
* ''ElfenLied''. Keeping that diclonius called Lucy seemed so easy, but as it turns out, it wasn't. [[ItGotWorse It Gets]] ''[[ItGotWorse Sooooo, Sooooo Much]]'' [[ItGotWorse Worse]].
* ''FullMetalAlchemist.'' Try to bring back mommy dearest to life? [[EquivalentExchange I don't think so.]]
* YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries
-->'''Shadi''': ''But then something go horribly wrong.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* The [[SoBadItsGood not-bad-enough-to-be-good]], [[SoBadItsHorrible not-bad-enough-to-be-bad]] film ''Film/{{Alien}} Resurrection'' had scientists clone Ripley in hopes of creating a Xenomorph for [[JustThinkOfThePotential potential military applications]]. Needless to say, things go horribly wrong when the cloning gave the aliens more grey matter than the scientists, allowing them to escape and wreak havoc.
* The {{Terminator}} series. Because it's SUCH a good idea to make computers smarter than you then hand them military control. How come the only one smart enough to keep the Terminators from learning too much is Skynet?
* The reason they have to drill into ''TheCore'': [[spoiler:secret government experiments with a giant earthquake-causing weapon has somehow ruined the Earth's EM field by causing the core to slow down and eventually stop]].
* ''Crack In The World'': Scientists try to tap magma from the Earth's core by detonating a nuclear bomb deep underground. This turns out to be a very bad idea indeed.
** Considering the fact that you can tap magma from the Earth's core at one of the hundreds of active volcanoes all over the ''surface'' of the world, they probably deserved to have it go horribly wrong.
*** Or, y'know, the fact that they used [[ILoveNuclearPower nuclear bombs to do it.]] ''Weapons of mass destruction''. Even if they didn't have ways to tap magma without resorting to bombs, it's still pretty stupid to use ''nuclear'' bombs.
** ''DoctorWho'' used a similar plot in "Inferno".
* In ''DeepBlueSea'', scientists try to cure Alzheimers by harvesting the brain matter of super-smart genetically modifed sharks. What went horribly wrong? well for one thing, experimenting with really aggressive sharks, underwater, with no way of easy escape might not be the best idea ever... [[spoiler:A shark fucking ate Samuel L. Jackson, for one thing.]]
**While he was indoors. So Yeah . . .
* The movie ''EventHorizon'' is about an attempt at FTL travel GoneHorriblyWrong.
** Really, [[{{Gorn}} REALLY horribly wrong.]]
*** [[{{Warhammer40000}} Really, really, REALLY horribly wrong.]]
* ''TheFly''. [[TeleportersAndTransporters Teleportation experiment]] is upset by a literal fly in the ointment. And then it happens again. Twice. And then DavidCronenberg gets hold of the idea and does it twice as well.
* ''IRobot''. A new generation of robots built to be humanity's ultimate servants [[spoiler: rebels under the direction [[MasterComputer VIKI]] and attempts to protect humanity from itself under an overly strict interpretation of The Three Laws of Robotics.]]
* ''JurassicPark''. (And every other movie based on a MichaelCrichton story, for that matter.)
* Omni Consumer Products "improved" police robots went Horribly Wrong in both ''{{Robocop}}'' and ''Robocop II.''
* The big reveal of ''{{Serenity}}'' involves [[spoiler:a test of an experimental chemical on a planet's inhabitants]] that Went Horribly Wrong.
**And what the Academy [[MindRape did to River]] also went ''very'' horribly wrong - for both them ''and'' her.
* ''{{Species}}'': They try to grow an alien child. Then they try to dispose of it when the experiment is shut down. ''Not happening.''
* ''TotalRecall'': a routine implantation of false memories at Rekall goes haywire.
** [[spoiler:Or worked perfectly.]]
* TheFilmOfTheBook ''TimeMachine'''s TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is triggered when humanity starts excavating more living space into the moon with nuclear weapons. When the hero uses the titular machine to go forward a few years, he finds himself in a dystopia and the fragments of the moon in the sky are getting bigger and bigger...
** [[RippedFromTheHeadlines O shi-]]
* The {{MST3K}} episode ''It Conquered The World'' where SCIENCE almost lets a giant Venusian pickle take over the world. Too bad that the chief head science guy "learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature… and, because of it, the greatest in the universe..." This episode also spawned its own {{Meme}} and possible alternative title for this trope in "He tampered in God's domain..."
*TheToweringInferno
* In ''CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', Flint Lockwood creates a device that makes it rain food. At first, everything is fine, but through constant overwork, the machine develops a mind of its own, and starts sending down bigger and bigger food, threatening to destroy the world.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''TheDayOfTheTriffids'' by JohnWyndham. No one knows for sure such weird plants came from. But they produce high-quality oil and that's what matters, JustThinkOfThePotential! Of course, the oil's even better if their deadly stings are left intact, but simple safety measures are enough, right? And yes, that meteorite shower is... ''strange'', but all the more reason that we cannot miss such an opportunity! Let's ''all'' go and look! Right?.. It's only natural... [[spoiler: Wait, we just became hapless food for ''plants''?]]
* ''[[FrankensteinsMonster Frankenstein's Monster]],'' anyone?
* MichaelCrichton made his living writing novels about science that GoesHorriblyWrong
** With the exception of Next, where Science does reasonably fine, except for a few cases of rapidly aging a couple of drug addicts that it managed to cure anyway (there were 5, at most). Its greed that goes horribly, horribly wrong.
* ''{{Mutant 59}}: The Plastic Eaters'' by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler. Look, we really need to do ''something'' with all that plastic junk anyway. Look how many things are made of plastics. So why couldn't microbiologist conduct some experiments privately? After all, little buggers eat only freakin' plastic, so even if some strain ''could'' go loose it's still completely safe, right? At worst, they'll eat... Oh. By the way, if low-oxygen organics decays, what we can get in result?
* ''Striking Steel'' by Lukins. Defend your planet with a replicating anti-personnel complex! This [[MechanicalLifeforms metal hive]]'s [[MacrossMissileMassacre mini-rockets]] shred anything its radar see moving: small arms, aircraft or shuttle, can even incapacitate armored vehicle. Then little robots collects the scraps and grow thousands of new complexes -- no extra burden for your war-torn industry. They has proper communication and Friend-or-Foe, so you can keep them away from ''your'' troops and objects, but it's very secure, don't fear they will be hacked, in this you're ahead of the enemy. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong? [[spoiler:Accumulation of their tolerable limits with copying, for once. Especially in the radio resonators of Friend-or-Foe and control. Three generations, and you're in DeathWorld. And the time for Wi-Fi hacking is just too limited when all this ReverseShrapnel rips your antennae.]]
* Lots of ''WhateleyUniverse'' examples, but how about the Russian program to create a nanotechnology SuperSoldier? The ''best'' iteration had one functional survivor... who melted into goo a year later.
** Or how about the bioengineering mad scientist who was found on a personal military submarine... or, rather, the people searching that submarine found around a dozen or two protozoan monstrosities, and [[{{Squick}} no trace of the crew]].
* A rare example of sociology going horribly wrong is Joe Haldeman's ''TheForeverWar''. Instead of conscripting all the stupid people into the army, TheGoverment conscripts all the smart and fit people for military service. Needless to say, things [[GoneHorriblyWrong go horribly wrong on Earth soon afterwards.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live ActionTV]]
* Dr. Weird from the openers of the first two seasons of ''AquaTeenHungerForce.''
* ''TheIncredibleHulk'' TV show.
--> "Doctor David Banner: physician, scientist; searching for a way to tap into the hidden strengths that all humans have. Then an accidental overdose of gamma radation alters his body chemistry."
* ''{{Lost}}'': the DHARMA Initiative has gone horribly wrong at least once, with "the incident" that necessitated pushing the button every 108 minutes. (The demise of most DHARMA members may count, too, after we find out the whole story.)
* ''[[TheXFiles The X-Files]]'' is proof positive that you should not let scientists anywhere near a laboratory without very strict supervision by a non-governmental agency.
* Many of the [[CrowningMomentOfFunny funniest moments]] of ''WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' happen when a game goes terribly wrong. Such as Wayne's H-O-R-W-A-R-D song, Ryan breaking the light on Drew's desk with his head, and the legendary "Quacking Elephants" sound effect game.
** This Troper fondly remembers Ryan Stiles eating an entire tin of Altoids mints as a joke ''after'' a sketch ended. (Colin Mochrie had given him a quick kiss as part of the prior sketch.) It didn't take long for him to realize what a really bad idea it was.
* In the ''{{Dollhouse}}'' episode "Omega" has Alpha's plan to [[spoiler:turn Echo into another Alpha by causing her to undergo a composite event]] [[GoneHorriblyWrong Go Horribly Wrong]]... for Alpha. [[spoiler:Since the bulk of Echo's imprints were good guys, Composite!Echo is a moral person, and turns against Alpha. From the perspective of everyone else, the experiment Went Horribly ''Right'']].
* Pretty much all science on ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' with the possible exception of Warren's robots. Whether it's mutant steroid fish men, demonic Frankensteinian cyborgs, the animated dead looking for a girlfriend, or just the plan to collect the school library info on a database, if it's on the Hellmouth it will work and then start killing people.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Happens all the time in ''GeniusTheTransgression.''
* Each Lineage in ''PrometheanTheCreated'' started with one human trying to raise the dead for whatever reason - companionship, curiosity, slavery - and getting bitten hard in the ass by this trope.
* Happens every now and then in the backstory of ''{{Warhammer 40000}}''. Not infrequently, the result is the Imperium destroying the planet where it has gone wrong.
* Happens ''all the time'' in {{Ravenloft}}, where ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow seem to be a required course in any university science program.
* Any given mission in ''Paranoia'' will inevitably go horribly wrong, as will all the experimental gadgets. In fact in Alpha Complex getting new pair of boots can go horribly wrong.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''BioShock'' had an Objectivist Utopia go horribly wrong. Basically, the resident PsychoSerum caused everyone go insane, then PresidentEvil had a civil war with TheMafia.
* If you're going to make an MMORPG set in a ComicBook universe, you're probably contractually obligated to lampshade this at least once. ''[[CityOfHeroes City of Villains]]'' brings us the surprisingly GenreSavvy [[http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Vernon_von_Grun Vernon von Grun]], a [[CardCarryingVillain card-carrying]] MadScientist who not only expects things to go wrong, ''he looks forward to it'':
-->''This is terrible! Nothing bad is happening! We did everything perfectly, but something has gone wrong! My plans are all off-track. Mad science isn't supposed to go wrong like this! But the true test of a mad scientist is how much worse you can make things go wrong.''
** His "colleague" [[http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Doc_Buzzsaw Doc Buzzsaw]] appears to be not so savvy:
--->''Oh, what has science wrought? I sought only to turn a man into a metal-encased juggernaut of destruction powered by the unknown properties of a mysterious living crystal. How could this have all gone wrong?''
* ''ChronoTrigger'' has everything start going bad with Lucca's teleporter experiment. In hindsight, though, [[BecauseDestinySaysSo that was probably preordained.]]
* In ''DeadSpace'', not only is the mission to Aegis 7 by the CEC prone to this but so is the story behind the marker found there. [[spoiler: The marker found on Aegis 7 is a copy of the original Black Marker found on earth, which is an alien artifact of unknown origin. The Military brought the copy to Aegis 7 in order to run experiments with it using the information contained on it. And of course no one put much thought to WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong and they put the experiments in rooms with easily accessible vents. Predictably, by the player who has by now learned to check vent openings in case a necromorph is about to crash through it, the experiments escape using said vents and slaughter the entire research base. They are barely contained by placing the Red Marker, where the colonists of DeadSpace find it 200 years later, to suppress the HiveMind since the Marker projects what is called a Dead Space where necromorphs are suppressed. This is without mentioning the fact that it has a 50% of driving anyone who goes near it insane to the point where they will scribble compulsively on the walls in complete nonsense. In fact out of all the scribbles these individuals scrawl only "Make us Whole" makes much sense. Though of course what that means exactly is a bit obscure though it is implied to mean putting the marker back where it was found. The HiveMind is also implied to be created by this same experiment.]]
* The plot of the ''{{Doom}}'' games has [[TeleportersAndTransporters experiments in teleportation]] going Horribly Wrong, unleashing a plague of demons upon the surface of Mars. The Marines are called in to deal with the threat, and are wiped out except for [[OneManArmy one survivor who has to kill his way through the forces of Hell]].
* In ''[[FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'', saying that things have GoneHorriblyWrong is a ''massive'' {{Understatement}}.
* Say it with me now: ''FinalFantasyVII.'' Contains both the "power source draining the planet's LifeEnergy" and "borked SuperSoldier program" varieties.
**''FinalFantasyVI'' also has the SuperSoldier variety. Hey, [[TwoOutOfThreeAintBad two out of three]] non-OmnicidalManiac Generals ain't so bad!
*** [[BadassNormal Leo]] wasn't part of the experiment. That gives it a 50% Omnicidal Maniac output.
* In the ''{{Geneforge}}'' world, experiments go wrong so often that laboratories, workshops, and schools are designed with the expectation that this will happen sooner or later. Some are built on uninhabited island, some are [[CollapsingLair built underground]], and some just rely on thick doors to [[SealedEvilInACan seal the place off]].
* ''HalfLife.'' A routine... whatever-it-was-they-were-trying-to-do procedure, but "Unforeseen Consequences" happen. The fact that they mention it's standard protocol implies they've done it plenty of times before without causing aliens to overrun the complex.
** Episode Two informs us that the sample being tested that day was brought in by G-Man... Also WordofGod points out that the crystal inserted into the anti-mass spectrometer is the same type as the ones found in Nihilanth's chamber
** The procedure was supposedly a normal procedure, but throughout the test, the scientists consistently allude to safety protocols being bypassed and anomolies being ignored. They got what they deserved.
** [[{{Concerned}} FROHMAN!]]
** In the same universe, [[{{Portal}} GLaDOS]] can be considered an experiment GoneHorriblyWrong.
*** Or an experiment [[{{WildMassGuessing}} gone]] ''[[{{WildMassGuessing}} right]]''.
* In ''{{Quake}} 4'' every mission seem to do this [[spoiler: first your drop ship get shot down nearly killing you,then the EMP bomb plan fails, then you get turned into a Stroog, then you get shot into battle in a flying coffin (drop pod)which crashes.]] Basically then entire game is a series of plans gone wrong that somehow works out in the end.
* In ''Timesplitters: Future Perfect'', [[spoiler: Jacob Crow's attempts at eternal life result in zombies and the Timesplitters.]]
* ''Transarctica'''s backstory for the new IceAge is "[[MeaningfulName Operation Blind]]", a plan to cool global warming by kicking up dust with [[DeusExNukina nuclear weapons]] at the poles.
* ''[[JakAndDaxter Jak II]]'' has the main character as the subject of an experiment which went horribly wrong for the responsible parties and [[VideogameCrueltyPotential anyone you accidentally or deliberately kill over the course of bringing them down]].
** Hinted in the previous game as well, though it could have been at least partially on purpose. "I ''told'' you the Dark Eco would change you two!"
* {{Infamous}}: Cole gains control over electricity through an experiment gone horribly ''right''. You did not misread that, folks. [[spoiler: You learn early on that the Ray Sphere that caused the explosion, making things the mess they are, is intended to take the Neuro-Electric impulses of many people and concentrate it into one person. The "explosion" absorbed the people killed in the explosion and concentrated it all into Cole, the poor shmuck who delivered it and was told to open it.]]
* ''OutpostTwo'': Eden's terraforming microbe was intended to break apart organic molecules and release oxygen to make New Terra into an earth-like planet in a single generation. Organic molecules like the ones ''in our bodies''. Needless to say, it gets loose and starts eating everything on the planet.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Pretty much anytime Riff begins playing around with TimeTravel or [[AnotherDimension dimensional portals]] in ''SluggyFreelance'', things go horribly wrong ''fast''.
* Many of the spells Anne performs in TheWotch (There's a whole arc titled "Consequences".) Cassie too, even the most innocent situations seem to have these problems.
* [[BigBad Damien]] in ElGoonishShive.
* Happens about as often as one would expect in GirlGenius, given its mad science setting, including the as-yet unspecified disaster deep within the bowels of Castle Heterodyne that ultimately led to the devastation of much of Europe.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''JonnyQuest'' TOS episode "The Invisible Monster". Dr. Isaiah Norman's experiment gets away from him and creates a mass of energy that exists only to feed on other energy - including living things.
* In ''{{Futurama}}'', for some reason, a bunch of scientists decided to put together the most evil parts of the most evil cars, only to create a car of pure evil.
* The underlying premise of the 90's cartoon ''Exosquad'' was that, in an effort to terraform Mars and Venus, humanity genetically engineered a race called "Neo-sapiens" that were bigger, stronger, and more durable in pretty much every conceivable way... and used them as [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture slave labor]]. Nope, can't see any way *that* could go wrong.
** Luckily, they're sterile. And can collapse into a pile of mush. Yay, science.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Nothing to do with science, but this troper and his brothers were all linemen on their football teams, so when discussing the game he would often say that, "if one of us has the ball, something has GoneHorriblyWrong."
** And yet, some of the best (read: most bizarre "that-should-never-have-worked") plays in football are designed to give the football to an offensive lineman. And they only work once. ''Ever''. Not once per game, or once per team. ''Once in the history of football.''
** Our physician responded the same way when asked why he didn't carry his pistol on his morning runs around the airfield of an American military base in Afghanistan. He would hand it to another officer, stating, "If we're attacked and I'm shooting, it's gone horribly wrong."
* TVTropes! This was supposed to be a repository for medical information so doctors could cure any disease in the world, and now look at it!
** [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans It was worth it.]]
*** [[IDidWhatIHadToDo We did what we had to do.]]
**** ForScience!
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_bee killer bees]] were an attempt, gone horribly wrong, to create a honey bee better suited for the South American climate.
** It's also a case of GoneHorriblyWrong ''Gone Right'': Killer bees do thrive in the South American climate. [[ItGotWorse They apparently do just fine in deserts too]].
** Right for them. Wrong for [[NightmareFuelUnleaded the people who get attacked by them.]]
* The introduction of cane toads to Australia.
* The introduction of mongooses to Hawaii.
** Basically the introduction of anything to anywhere (except apparently potatoes).
*** Even ''that'' went wrong when the Irish started depending on them a little too much.
* Cotton that's been genetically engineered to produce a natural insecticide actually ''speeds up'' the rate the insects can adapt to it as opposed to regular spraying (decades of spraying = one adapted insect species; 13 years of GM plants = ''three species'').
* The explosion on Chernobyl nuclear power plant was caused by an experiment to test a new '''[[{{irony}} safety measure]]'''
* [[UsefulNotes/{{Scientology}} Scientology]], according to ex-Scientologists has gone horribly, ''horribly'' wrong since Dave Miscavage took over. Ex-members say things have been steadily going downhill since the death of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_McPherson Lisa McPherson]] caused Dave Miscavage to become an [[DomesticAbuser abusive]] [[ParanoiaFuel paranoid]] [[SmallNameBigEgo dictator]] and it pains them to see the religion that helped them through some very dark times become a [[BlackAndGrayMorality dark and twisted]] parody of itself.
** For example, the infamous practice of "disconnecting" or completely cutting all ties with people who are critical of Scientology originally meant to sever ties with ''abusive and controlling influences'', the equally infamous "[=SPs=]" or Suppressive Persons.
**Hence the [[CallARabbitASmeerp Scientologese]] protest slogan "DM (Dave Miscavage) is your SP!"
[[/folder]]

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