History Literature / TheFog

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_fog_7.jpg]]
Before ''ComicBook/BlackGas'', ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'', [[Series/{{Firefly}} the Reavers]], and all of the other HatePlague[=s=] that have been turning up lately, there was ''The Fog'', a 1975 horror novel by English horror author Creator/JamesHerbert.

It concerns what happens when an earthquake [[SealedEvilInACan cracks open a secret bioweapon buried underground for disposal]], and which causes people and animals who breathe it to go a little AxCrazy...and Knife Crazy, and Gun Crazy, and Rape Crazy. The main plot surrounds Jon Holman, an Environmental Officer for the British government, who is present at the fog's dramatic entrance and spends most of the book trying to stop the fog; meanwhile, Herbert occasionally takes us on little side trips to see what horrible thing the fog is making happen next.

There is no relation between this novel and Creator/JohnCarpenter's 1980 horror film [[Film/TheFog of the same name]].

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!!Provides examples of:

* AlmostLethalWeapons / PlotArmor: The fog drives everyone exposed to it permanently insane, except for the protagonist who was the first one to be exposed to it, and this for some reason conferred lifelong [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity immunity]] to it after suffering its effects for about a week. He spends the rest of the novel being only one of two people (the other being Casey when she's also cured) who can get close to the fog without succumbing.
** This is given a [[HandWave brief explanation]]; basically, while he was being treated for unrelated physical injuries he suffered before being infected, the doctors at a local hospital hit on an effective cure via a blood transfusion more or less by accident. Unfortunately, by the time anyone realises this the Fog has spread so far that people are being infected faster than they can be cured.
* AssholeVictim: A lot of the characters who get killed in the vignettes are jerks, or worse (as in the case with the deviants at the boarding school).
** This is also the fate of [[spoiler:the scientist who created the fog, having no moral compass. Unfortunately, when he succumbed to the fog's effects in the laboratory, [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup he destroyed all of his notes]].]]
* AxCrazy: The natural result of exposure.
* BuryYourGays: An absolutely heart-wrenching side-story where a lesbian is abandoned by her lover after the latter is 'cleansed' (i.e. has sex with a man) and goes to commit suicide in the sea, [[spoiler:only to have second thoughts but is then drowned by the horde of infected citizens of Bournemouth committing mass suicide, making her death a meaningless statistic and her true reasons forever unknown.]]
* DangerousDeviceDisposalDebacle: A lampshade is hung on the fact that [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot all this could have been avoided]] if the Fog had been destroyed instead of simply [[SealedEvilInACan buried deep underground,]] though it turns out that was something of a desperation tactic because nobody could figure out ''how'' to destroy it. The unfortunate breakdown in communications that led to a defence contractor dropping their new prototype bunker-buster on the damn thing is less excusable.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: In one side-story, some disrespectful soldiers loudly accuse their corporal of doing this ("Hey corp, watcha doing, havin' a wank?") when he disappears into a tunnel for an extended period of time to investigate something. Turns out the fog infected him, and he unleashes DisproportionateRetribution upon his underlings.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Could apply to most of the fog's victims; with their inhibitions removed, they take lethal revenge against their tormentors. Taken [[UpToEleven up to eleven]] by a pilot who has just lost his wife to a rival, and flies his airliner into the man's place of work - London's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Tower BT Tower]].
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: When the fog [[spoiler:overwhelms London]], high-ranking government officials take refuge in their secret headquarters.
* FaceHeelTurn: Happens repeatedly when characters get a whiff of the gas; in a few cases, it then results in a HeelFaceTurn after the effects wear off.
* GreenAesop: Slight. The fog consumes carbon dioxide to grow, gladly provided by pollution, which is why it tends to drift towards towns and villages, [[spoiler:and London]].
* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Cruelly averted in the very first chapter. One of the fog's first victims is a five-year-old girl, and she dies very quickly because her immature brain cannot handle the mycoplasma ravaging it.
* KillItWithFire: The mycoplasma's nucleus is destroyed by blowing up a pair of giant gasometers, [[IncendiaryExponent along with most of the surrounding area]].
* LiteralAssKicking: A bank manager (who was probably one bad day from GoingPostal anyway) affected by the fog starts relentlessly kicking random passers-by in the behind.
* LossOfInhibitions: En masse and in the worst possible way.
* OhCrap: Casey and Holman get this when [[spoiler:they open their curtains to reveal the fog has engulfed London]].
* RabidCop: Detective Inspector Barrow gives Holman a hard time. [[spoiler:In the final chapter, Holman fights an infected Barrow to the death]].
%%* TraumaInducedAmnesia: **Could you clarify on this one please?
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Induced. Holman notes that, despite going insane, some of the fog's victims simply go about their everyday lives like nothing is out of the ordinary, such as waiting at a bus stop amongst the pandemonium.
* TheVirus: Actually, a mycoplasma.
* WeaksauceWeakness: The fog is harmed by the hygroscopic compound calcium chloride. [[spoiler:This doesn't destroy it though, only redirect it.]]
* WorldHealingWave: Subverted. When the fog's core is incinerated, it disperses and reveals clear blue sky, but everyone affected is still insane.
* WrongGenreSavvy: At one point, a looter thinks a World War II gas mask is enough to protect him from the fog - alas it isn't, because the mycoplasma can be absorbed through the skin.

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* TraumaInducedAmnesia

* AlmostLethalWeapons / PlotArmor: The fog drives everyone exposed to it permanently insane, except for the protagonist who was the first one to be exposed to it, and this for some reason conferred lifelong [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity immunity]] to it after suffering its effects for about a week. He spends the rest of the novel being the only one who can get close to the fog without succumbing.
** This is given a [[HandWave brief explanation]]; basically, while he was being treated for unrelated physical injuries he suffered before being infected, the doctors at a local hospital hit on an effective cure more or less by accident. Unfortunately, by the time anyone realises this the Fog has spread so far that people are being infected faster than they can be cured.

* ElaborateUndergroundBase: When the fog overwhelms London, high-ranking government officials take refuge in their secret headquarters.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Could apply to most of the fog's victims; with their inhibitions removed, they take lethal revenge against their tormentors. Taken [[UpToEleven up to eleven]] by a pilot who has just lost his wife to a rival, and flies his airliner into the man's place of work - London's Telecom Tower.

* DisproportionateRetribution: An airliner pilot gets his revenge on the man who stole his wife by flying his airliner into the man's place of work - London's Telecom Tower.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Induced. Holman notes that, despite going insane, some of the fog's victims simply go about their everyday lives like nothing is out of the ordinary, such as waiting at a bus stop amongst the pandemonium.

Before ''ComicBook/BlackGas'', ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'', [[Series/{{Firefly}} the Reavers]], and all of the other HatePlague[=s=] that have been turning up lately, there was '''''The Fog''''', a 1975 horror novel by English horror author JamesHerbert.

* DangerousDeviceDisposalDebacle: A lampshade is hung on the fact that [[CouldHaveAvoidedAllThisPlot all this could have been avoided]] if the Fog had been destroyed instead of simply [[SealedEvilInACan buried deep underground,]] though it turns out that was something of a desperation tactic because nobody could figure out ''how'' to destroy it. The unfortunate breakdown in communications that led to a defence contractor dropping their new prototype bunker-buster on the damn thing is less excusable.

* AlmostLethalWeapons / PlotArmor: The fog drives everyone exposed to it permanently insane, except for the protagonist who was the first one to be exposed to it, and this for some reason conferred lifelong [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity immunity]] to it after suffering its effects for about a week. He spends the rest of the novel being the only one who can get close to the fog without succumbing.

* LiteralAssKicking: A banker affected by the fog starts relentlessly kicking a random man in the behind.

* AlmostLethalWeapons / PlotArmor: The fog drives everyone exposed to it permanently insane, except for the protagonist who was the first one to be exposed to it, and this for some reason conferred lifelong immunity to it after suffering its effects for about a week. He spends the rest of the novel being the only one who can get close to the fog without succumbing.

* AlmostLethalWeapons/PlotArmor: The fog drives everyone exposed to it permanently insane, except for the protagonist who was the first one to be exposed to it, and this for some reason conferred lifelong immunity to it after suffering its effects for about a week. He spends the rest of the novel being the only one who can get close to the fog without succumbing.

** This is also the fate of [[spoiler:the scientist who created the fog, having no moral compass. Unfortunately, when he succumbed to the fog's effects in the laboratory, [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup he destroyed all of his notes when he went insane]].]]

* TheVirus: Actually, a mycoplasma

Before ''BlackGas'', ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'', [[Series/{{Firefly}} the Reavers]], and all of the other HatePlague[=s=] that have been turning up lately, there was '''''The Fog''''', a 1975 horror novel by English horror author JamesHerbert.

Before ''BlackGas'', ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'', [[Series/{{Firefly}} the Reavers]], and all of the other HatePlague[=s=] that have been turning up lately, there was The Fog, a 1975 horror novel by English horror author James Herbert. It concerns what happens when an earthquake [[SealedEvilInACan cracks open a secret bioweapon buried underground for disposal]], and which causes people and animals who breathe it to go a little AxCrazy...and Knife Crazy, and Gun Crazy, and Rape Crazy. The main plot surrounds Jon Holman, an Environmental Officer for the British government, who is present at the fog's dramatic entrance and spends most of the book trying to stop the fog; meanwhile, Herbert occasionally takes us on little side trips to see what horrible thing the fog is making happen next.