History Main / ScientistVsSoldier

* ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'': In [[Recap/MonarchLegacyOfMonstersS1E3SecretsAndLies episode 3]], in the 1950s, Monarch shows the United States military proof of Godzilla's existence and convince them that he needs to be lured out because he's an existential threat to humanity. But whereas Monarch wanted to lure Godzilla out so they could study and learn about him, the military instead want to try and vaporize him with a nuclear bomb.

* ''[[Fanfic/StarWarsVsWarhammer40K Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K]]'' has this dynamic in Season 1 between Dr. Shina and Jedi General Renphi during the Galactic Republic's FirstContact with the Imperium of Man at Pzob. After a BrainwashedAndCrazy clone captain [[RammingAlwaysWorks hyperspace rams]] his Star Destroyer into the ''Atlas of Steel'', an Imperial refugee ship, Shina advocates for the Republic fleet to immediately retreat into hyperspace since the Imperial warships clearly outmatch them and any hope for a peaceful first contact has been irreparably damaged along with the ''Atlas of Steel''. Renphi, however, doesn't heed her suggestions, optimistically believing that it's still possible to salvage the situation by rescuing the crew of the attacked refugee ship, thereby hopefully deescalating hostilities. When Shina protests his decision, Renphi has her forcibly escorted off his flagship's bridge under armed guard and locked inside the ship's lab alongside her science team. Shina ultimately turns out to have been right as Renphi's rescue operation is [[HelpMistakenForAttack mistaken for a slaver raid]] by the Imperials and the captain of the ''Atlas of Steel'' reacts by overloading his ship's Warp core and causing it to self-destruct in a BetterToDieThanBeKilled / TakingYouWithMe moment. With the total destruction of the ''Atlas of Steel'', the Imperial Fleet immediately attacks and massacres the Republic fleet at Pzob, starting a new galactic war.

* ''Film/TheSwarm'' has the military wanting to use pesticides that would damage the environment while entomologist Dr. Brad Crane keeps suggesting other methods. Unfortunately, the threat of the killer bees is so over-hyped (at one stage, they cause the [[FailsafeFailure explosion of a nuclear power plant]]) that Crane's continuing refusal is hard to justify.

* ''[[Fanfic/StarWarsVsWarhammer40K Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K]]'' has this dynamic in Season 1 between Dr. Shina and Jedi General Renphi during the Galactic Republic's FirstContact with the Imperium of Man at Pzob. After a BrainwashedAndCrazy clone captain [[RammingAlwaysWorks hyperspace rams]] his Star Destroyer into the ''Atlas of Steel'', an Imperial refugee ship, Shina advocates for the Republic fleet to immediately retreat into hyperspace since the Imperial warships clearly outmatch them and any hope for a peaceful first contact has been irreparably damaged along with the ''Atlas of Steel''. Renphi, however, doesn't heed her suggestions, optimistically believing that it's still possible to salvage the situation by rescuing the crew of the attacked refugee ship, thereby hopefully deescalating hostilities. When Shina protests this decision, Renphi has her and her science team forcibly locked in his ship's laboratory. Shina ultimately turns out to have been right as Renphi's rescue operation is [[HelpMistakenForAttack mistaken for a slaver raid]] by the Imperials and the captain of the ''Atlas of Steel'' reacts by overloading his ship's Warp core and causing it to self-destruct in a BetterToDieThanBeKilled / TakingYouWithMe moment. With the total destruction of the ''Atlas of Steel'', the Imperial Fleet immediately attacks and massacres the Republic fleet at Pzob, starting a new galactic war.

* In ''[[Recap/TintinTheCalculusAffair The Calculus Affair]]'' by Creator/{{Herge}}, Colonel Sponz has Professor Calculus kidnapped, because he wants to use one of his inventions as a weapon in war. Calculus refuses to cooperate though, and burns his blueprints rather than let them end up in the wrong hands.

* General Ross is doing this again in ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour''. In a twist, his relationship with Reed is rather good, because Reed is just amoral enough to propose military applications for his work if he thinks it will help him get funding or smooth over his mistakes.
--> '''Ross''': I agree to [[PunctuatedForEmphasis One. Simple. Test.]] And you trash a shuttle, wreck Vegas, and reveal yourselves to the public in a way we cannot hide or go back from, and for '''what'''? For '''what''', Mr. Richards?
--> '''Reed''': This is a hand-held death ray, General. Pretty easy to reverse-engineer and produce.
--> '''Ross''': ... I love you, boy.
** Ultimate Reed eventually gets so frustrated about nobody considering non-weapon applications of his inventions that he pulls a FaceHeelTurn and tries to take over the world.

* Matt Hawkins ''Think Tank'' is an entire series that explores all the moral permutations of this trope; from the ex-ChildProdigy turned adult prodigy protagonist being too blinded by scientific curiosity to realize what he's building to him realizing it and rebelling to him becoming resigned to the dichotomy and attempting to gradually change things from the inside. The military by contrast remains gung ho all the way through.

* Some ''Fanfic/{{Bait and Switch|STO}}'' stories allude to an InterServiceRivalry between the Federation Starfleet's military and scientific functions, exemplified by occasional arguments between Captain Kanril Eleya (a PriorEnlisted career soldier who majored in naval weapons at the Academy) and her science officer Commander Birail Riyannis. Who wins varies.

* The trouble in ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' comes about because of the military trying to use psychic powers as a weapon. The main conflict between scientists and the military is represented by the head scientist of the Akira Project and Colonel Shikishima. The head scientist is very much [[JustThinkOfThePotential interested in the potential]] that the psychics have, while the Colonel is concerned about the risks that trying to mess with such power can have. When Tetsuo goes off the deep end, the Colonel changes his focus from trying to control the power to ending a threat to the city.

* ''Film/{{Arrival}}'': Louise Banks (a linguist and the protagonist) is the Scientist and everybody else in her camp is the Soldier. When an alien race arrives to Earth and she is one of the many people assigned to a world-wide effort to make FirstContact, she repeatedly mentions the fact that the (literal) StarfishAlien species is alien in terms of mentality (and they remain InscrutableAliens to the end) and what they think in and what ''humanity'' thinks of what they're trying to say is not going to gel without a ''hell'' of a lot of work in making sure that humanity isn't trying to attach the wrong context. [[spoiler:Two random soldiers on her camp sneak explosives onto the ship in an attempt to get rid of the aliens that nearly kills her as collateral damage and when the contact team in China assumes that they have managed to catch the aliens into a confession that they are here to conquer (and, oh yeah, they use "weapon" when they mean "tool"), Banks has to race to convince everybody that the aliens had no clue that they're using the terms the team was teaching them in an erroneous fashion, in order to prevent the start of an intergalactic war.]]

* ''Film/{{Bumblebee}}'' has Agent Burns and Dr. Powell, who have differing opinions on whether to trust their new Decepticon buddies. Naturally, Burns is right to mistrust them, but there's a neat twist in that we're led to believe Burns will go down the road to FantasticRacism against ''all'' Transformers- [[spoiler:but instead he acknowledges Bumblebee as an ally and salutes him at the end]].
* Combined with WorkingWithTheEx in ''Film/CosmicSin'' (2021). James Ford is a former general who became disgraced and divorced after using a DoomsdayDevice to end a revolt. He's assigned to work with his ex wife Dr. Lea Goss, who as a young student wrote a thesis advocating genocide in response to an OutsideContextProblem but is having second thoughts when faced with actual FirstContact. [[DebateAndSwitch Unfortunately this conflict comes to a premature end]] by having her be [[TheAssimilator possessed by the aliens]] and start EvilGloating about how they are AlwaysChaoticEvil.

** ''Film/Godzilla2014'': PlayedStraight during Monarch and the US Navy's cooperation. Monarch didn't try killing the MUTO in its cocoon during the years they were studying it (allegedly with a reasonable explanation that they feared trying to kill it might release the absorbed radiation, although it's also implied they kept it alive so they could study it and out of admiration while they believed it was no threat), but they still play AdmiringTheAbomination straight when they cooperate with the military to see the [=MUTOs=] destroyed to save humanity. When it comes to Godzilla, Drs. Graham and Serizawa clearly admire him as a PhysicalGod a great deal, whilst the US military operation led by Admiral Stenz has no such attitude towards Godzilla and prefers to attempt killing him with the [=MUTOs=]. True to its GreenAesop and how Godzilla fits into it as a force of nature, the film ultimately leans towards the Scientist side of the conflict, but despite the recklessness of the military's NukeEm plan which could make the kaiju problem worse, the military are not portrayed in an unsympathetic light, with Admiral Stenz ultimately being a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and the protagonist being a soldier caught up in the chaos.

* ''Film/TheThingFromAnotherWorld'': The head scientist on this scenario (Dr. Carrington) wishes to preserve and make contact with the titular alien creature (and also tries to breed mini-Things by using the dead carcasses of the station's sleigh dogs, denies any deaths as "accidents" and sabotages attempts to kill the Thing by the others), because he assumes that the alien has great wisdom and knowledge that it could share with mankind ([[LogicalFallacies just because it's an ancient alien]]). On the flip side of the coin, the main characters (military men, as well as the scientist's GirlFriday, a reporter and -by the end of the movie- Carrignton's fellow scientists) clearly see the writing on the wall (that The Thing is a [[AliensAreBastards murderous brute]] that will kill everybody that gets in arm's reach) and aim to kill it first.
* ''Film/MarsAttacks'': The scientists of the film ([[TheProfessor Professor Kessler]] (played by Pierce Brosnan) being the face of them) posit that the Martians, being a more advanced civilization, ''must'' be pacifistic and need be approached in the same way, while [[WarHawk General Decker]] recommends going to Martial Law ([[EstablishingCharacterMoment while the aliens are just floating around Earth and not done any contact]]) and ''instantly'' recommends [[NukeEm the use of nukes]] ("Annihilate! Kill! Kill!") when the Martians prove themselves hostile (although maybe just overreacting to the dove, which the scientists use to convince the President to try a second contact). [[spoiler:Turns out that the Martians are homicidal bastards on top of being technologically advanced, and humanity is screwed no matter what.]]
* ''Film/{{Stargate}}'': While archaeologist Daniel traveled through the titular stargate to learn about what's on the other side, Colonel Jack O'Neil was sent through with a nuke, with orders to use it against anything that could pose a threat.
* ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''. The scientist David Marcus is distrustful of Starfleet, as he considers scientists to be pawns of the military. He worries that Starfleet will use the Genesis device he co-created as a WeaponOfMassDestruction. He particularly dislikes Admiral Kirk, who he thinks murdered everyone who was left on board the Regula-1 space station.
* ''Film/JurassicWorld'': Owen Grady is training the raptors to get a better understanding of them. Vic Hoskins wants to used trained raptors as war animals. This extends even higher up the chain. Owen seems to be the only guy in the park willing to treat the dinosaurs with the respect they deserve as powerful wild animals. Others are trying to engineer weapons like the Indominus Rex. Played with in that Owen actually ''is'' an ex-military man, while those who want to weaponize the dinosaurs are not. [[spoiler:He takes something of a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from the BigBad of ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' for it, when said villain asks him if he even once considered that his research could be used to weaponize the dinosaurs and blaming him for their use as bio-weapons for not realizing it. [[VillainHasAPoint Owen's taken aback by it]].]]

* ''Film/DrStrangelove'': Admittedly, everyone is equally unsuited for addressing the threat, but the titular ex-Nazi doctor actually acknowledges the Cobalt-Thorium G bomb as horrific risk to all life everywhere, while General Buck Turgidson wistfully wishes that the US had one.
* ''Film/DrStrangelove''[='s=] scenario is inverted (or at least played with) in the [[DuelingWorks dueling movie]] ''Film/FailSafe'': The "soldiers" in this scenario, the men from the U.S. Air Force that are struggling to stop the accidental bombing of Russia, are people who prepare for war because that's their job and patriotic duty but are understandably horrified at the concept of WorldWarIII happening (because they know perfectly well how apocalyptic it will be) and are willing to do anything (even work alongside the Russians) to prevent it, while the "scientist" Professor Groeteschele is a belligerent WarHawk that thinks war '''should''' happen because it's statistically likely that America would "win" and calls for a second wave with every other available nuke until he's put in place:
-->''"You have become no better than those you want to kill."''
* This theme is front and center in Romero's ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985'', where a bunker with a small group of soldiers and scientists continue to live and try to deal with the ZombieApocalypse. Captain Rhodes, the leader of the soldiers, sees the only way to deal with things are to either put a bullet in the head of every zombie or to escape the post, in the belief that their superiors are likely all dead. Logan, the head scientist, wants to communicate with and understand the zombies, and has made some small progress toward doing so with at least one particular zombie, but it's likely that his efforts are doomed.
* Young maverick prodigies Mitch Taylor and Chris Knight from ''Film/RealGenius'' build an awesomely powerful laser ForScience, which they believe will only further their studies as sponsored post-graduates. When their mentor reveals his intent to remand the laser to the military, Mitch and Chris engineer a DisastrousDemonstration.

* ''Film/Evolution2001'': The protagonists are local, second-rate scientists vying with the military for control over a cave where a meteor strike has caused an alien ecosystem to develop. The scientists mainly want to study the aliens (and earn Nobel prizes for their efforts) and are the most proactive in hunting down the rogue alien beasts that are attacking random civilians. The military, meanwhile, are concerned with containment of the site, but carelessness and lack of serious research results in numerous security breaches, and when they decide to destroy ground zero with napalm, they fail to realize this will only [[FeedItWithFire accelerate the aliens' evolution]] and make them more of a threat.
* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', The Kryptonian military dictator Zod is pitted against Jor-El, who is a Kryptonian scientist. Zod wants to save Kryptonian civilization with what basically amounts to fascism (conquering other worlds and only allowing "worthy" bloodlines to exist) while Jor-El acknowledges that Krypton is done for and wants to build a peaceful bridge between the remnants of their species and Earthlings.
* ''Film/TheCore'': The Military men on this story are [[spoiler:the ones that made the titular center of the freaking Earth stop moving. They funded the developing of a WeaponOfMassDestruction that would trigger man-made earthquakes and their only reasoning behind it is that if [[DoUntoOthersBeforeTheyDoUntoUs they weren't the ones developing and using the weapon, someone else would have done so anyway (and tried to destroy America with it)]],]] to not mention that using Project DESTINI to try to make the core move again was their Plan B. The scientists of the story not only point out how brain-dead stupid was to develop the Project in the first place, but that said Plan B has a serious chance of making things worse.
* ''Film/{{Meteor}}'': The main conflict between Sean Connery's scientist and Martin Landau's general is that the scientist created the "Hercules" satellite (an orbital nuclear missile silo) in order to protect Earth from possible asteroid strikes (like the one that is coming towards Earth), while the general was one of the men who advocated putting it on Earth's orbit... [[KillSat only pointing down towards the Soviet Union instead]]. After the scientist figures out that there is not enough firepower on "Hercules" alone to prevent the asteroid from destroying Earth, he enlists the help of the scientist who helped develop "Peter The Great" (the Soviet counterpart to "Hercules", which is also in orbit and pointing down towards the U.S.). Both scientists have no problem helping each other, but the military men on both sides are absolutely raging about it (Landau's general [[LargeHam being the most belligerent of all]]).
* ''Film/Armageddon1998'': Once the asteroid appears, the Joint Chiefs of Staff want to toss the entire nuclear arsenal of the world at the thing. The scientists at NASA know that, unless the meteorite is drilled into at precisely 250 feet, any nuclear weapon launched at it or used on its surface will only cause some pretty fireworks. It takes some effort for them to make the Joint Chiefs of Staff understand, and when they decide that the plan to send astronauts to perform the drilling seems to have gone belly-up, they immediately take over the Space Center and try to remotely detonate the nukes, even after being reminded that a surface explosion is useless.
* ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'': Reed Richards and General Hager (implied to be former high school enemies) butt heads over how to stop the titular Silver Surfer from destroying Earth. Reed lets Hager know when he's making destructively stupid decisions, while Hager berates Reed for not being at his beck and call to design something to catch the Surfer and even goes as far as recruiting the far less trustworthy Dr. Doom simply because both of them can't stand Reed. Hager ultimately pays the price for his foolishness when Doom kills him to get the Surfer's board. (Note that in the comics, Reed was a WWII vet, which is mostly ignored today.)
* ''Film/IceSpiders'': Upon finding out that the genetically-engineered giant spiders might be escaping from the lab, the main scientist drags his feet at even considering there's a problem (although his colleague is much more helpful) and tries to keep his man-eating creations from being destroyed, while the soldiers rapidly deploy to contain the threat and protect the nearby civilians and tend to ignore him.
* ''Film/{{Python}}'': Parker is an NSA agent rather than a soldier, but otherwise this describes his relationship with Dr. Rudolph (who keeps urging him to JustThinkOfThePotential and constantly sabotages his efforts to kill the snake) in a nutshell. [[spoiler:Ironically, it's Parker's death causes Rudolph to get a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment and work to kill the python]].

* ''Literature/{{Sphere}}'': [[TheWormGuy Everybody else]] on [[UnderwaterBase The Habitat]] vs. Barnes. While he makes certain good points (like insisting on Jerry's "real name" because there is ''no way'' that an alien hundreds of years old can have that as a real name, and so it must be hiding something), he still disregards the potential of a FirstContact to instead try to focus on looking on technology that could be applied as a weapon.

* Averted in the ''Literature/IslandInTheSeaOfTimeSeries'', where Commodore Marian Alston, the head of the Nantucket Army, gets along just fine with Ian and Doreen Arnstein, Nantucket's premiere science geeks. It probably helps that Alston's partner Swindapa is something of a scientist herself.
* A major theme in ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'', as the protagonist is both soldier and scientist and can therefore see both arguments (the scientists want to study the alien invaders, but that means allowing their ecology to gain enough of a foothold to understand how it works. The military want to burn the Chtorr ''before'' they can get a foothold, but this approach is inherently flawed, as without better knowledge of the Chtorr the war is hopeless anyway). He's not alone in this viewpoint, but it just tends to make the shouting matches even more confusing.
* In Creator/HarryHarrison's 1982 novel ''Literature/InvasionEarth'', there is some conflict in the novel between Colonel Rob Hayward and the linguist Nadia Adrianova, the people chosen by the U.S. and the Soviet Union to make contact with the friendly aliens that arrived to Earth, seeking resources (radioactive material) to help fight a hostile race. The former, naturally, sees everything from a military viewpoint, while Nadia is a civilian. At the end, [[spoiler:Nadia admonishes the military for destroying an alien ship and bluffing TheMothership into leaving the system, when humanity could've extended a hand of friendship to the aliens. On the other hand, the alien ship she was talking about has just threatened to drop radiation bombs on cities, and the aliens have already wiped out two cities, killing over a million people, and the fortress could have done the same. Fact is, the military may have been right here, given the aliens' intentions (turns out, ''both sides'' are hostile -- a team of con men PlanetLooters that have pulled the "invasion" scheme before and have no problem doing it for real if push comes to shove)]].
* Both of the ''Literature/TheHungryPlague'' novels follow scientists working with soldiers during the ZombieApocalypse. ''Literature/TheBoyOnTheBridge'', has the military leaders caring only about dominance and merely using the scientists efforts to distract people. The common soldiers have more integrity but view the scientists as naive, judgmental, and unlikely to accomplish something, while the scientists seem them as too callous towards killing [[NotUsingTheZWord Hungries]], and likely to exploit their discoveries by [[spoiler:[[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman breeding the hungries children like cattle and slaughtering them to make a vaccine which will only provide short-term relief]]]]. By the time of ''Literature/TheGirlWithAllTheGifts'', the dynamic has evolved, but Dr. Caldwell bosses around her soldiers guarding her with a certain sense of entitlement, while caring little for their sacrifices, while the soldiers are hardened and dismissive of the scientists efforts, believing them to be unnerving and inefficient.

* On ''Series/{{Bones}}'', Agent Booth, a former military sniper, initially shows a lot of disdain for scientists, and this fuels much of the early UnresolvedSexualTension between him and Dr. Temperance Brennan. As the series goes on, he develops more respect for scientists.

* Parodied in a ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' sketch. A scientist is visited by a militaristic politician to view his inventions, which include a giant laser, an enormous robotic scorpion that fires bullets out of its tail and mind-controlling ants. The scientist insists that he designed them all to help people and further world peace (the laser beam, for example, is a barcode reader. The fact that it's called the "Giant Death Ray" is just because his name [[IronicName is literally]] "Professor Death"), and whenever "military applications" are mentioned he [[BerserkButton freaks out and starts destroying the machines]].
* On ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', former marine Det. Elliot Stabler has been known to butt heads with the unit's resident shrink, Dr. George Huang.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'': On a given crisis, the scientists want to either make contact (if it's an alien species) or at least be given the opportunity to find a solution to the problem which will be thorough in getting rid of said problem, while the military wants to go in guns blazing and shoot/nuke the problem as dead as they can, even if 1) it's a useless war (in the case of alien species) and/or 2) it will create massive collateral damage. Eventually, the series also becomes Military Man vs. Military Man, that of the Military Man (who is a series regular) who knows that the scientists are very effective and wish to give them a chance and the Military Man (who is a guest star -- even if he was a "regular" in another show of the franchise) who (in comparison) is ''absurdly'' GungHolierThanThou and is willing to label anything bad that happens as "IDidWhatIHadToDo".
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' has the [[BadassCrew starship personnel]] who are supposed to be combined scientists, soldiers and diplomats. Naturally, according to the individual, one side or the other dominates, and several episodes have the philosophical clash between the [[TrueCompanions command team]] on how to handle the current threat.
** One example would be ''The Devil In The Dark'' where the Enterprise team is up against a 'monster' which has already killed several civilians. Kirk, the Soldier, naturally wants to take out the creature with minimum danger to his men and thus orders them to shoot to kill. Spock, the Scientist, is not quite so sure that the creature is a monster and argues that they must try to capture it alive. Kirk [[ThatsAnOrder wins the argument]] and tries to keep Spock out of the search for fear that he would hesitate to shoot and get himself killed. Of course, this being [[SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers Star Trek,]] Spock turns out to be right - the 'monster' was a hive mother protecting its eggs which were being destroyed by the oblivious human miners, and once they get to communicate with the creature, it's easy to reach a mutually beneficent agreement.
*** Slightly subverted in that, when Kirk gets trapped with the 'monster,' he notices that it is reluctant to attack and doesn't shoot. Spock, on the other hand, once he realizes that [[TheNotLoveInterest his captain]] is trapped with the creature, changes his tune, asking Kirk to shoot it.
* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Little Green Men" was deliberately set up to parody this arrangement. You've got a soldier who sees the alien as a threat, and a scientist who believes they can speed us on the path to great scientific advancement. Neither is right: the alien in question is just Quark, who's looking to swindle them.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': When it comes to Necron Tomb Worlds, the Adeptus Mechanicus are Scientists (study them) and the Imperial Guard are the Military Men (nuke them from orbit). In this case, the "scientists are right" bit could not be more averted.
** Of course, considering the sheer scale of the setting, inversions are possible. The Imperial Guard may be the Scientists (look at all that {{Plunder}} ) with the Mechanicus as the Military Men ([[AbsoluteXenophobe all alien tech is evil and must be destroyed]]). In such cases, the Scientists are still wrong (the Necrons will relentlessly hunt down anyone who steals their stuff, Mummy-style).

* Parodied in ''WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow'' during the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' review, where a scientist and a warrior ([[ActingForTwo Actually they're both Angry Joe]]) argues whether or not they should progress their military or their science.
* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[ArtifactCollectionAgency The Foundation]] have this relationship with a rival [[TheMenInBlack Men in Black]] organisation called the [[CreatureHunterOrganization Global Occult Coalition]] - while the former devote great resources to studying anomalies and building [[TailorMadePrison containment chambers]] which neutralise their threat, the latter tend to shoot first and ask questions later. Infamously, the [=GOC=] once discovered a chair which teleports to anyone who needs a seat, and reacted by blowing it up... which just created a ''cloud of splinters'' that teleports ''[[TeleFrag inside]]'' people. For their part, the [=GOC=] dislike the Foundation's {{Utilitarian|ism}} approach to protecting humanity, and claim that the soldiers responsible for the chair incident were in breach of protocol. The Foundation's own soldiers, the Mobile Task Forces, are proudly loyal to their scientist command and have nothing but contempt for the GOC, which they regard as stupid thugs.

* Parodied in a flashback in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode ''Mother's Day''. Back when Prof. Farnsworth was young(er) and worked at Mom's Friendly Robot Company, he presented his latest invention, a cutesy toy cat for children called Q.T. [=McWhiskers=] that projects rainbows out of his eyes. When Mom reveals she intends to make the toy eight feet tall, replace the rainbow projectors with atomic lasers, and sell it to the military as a weapon, the Professor is ''outraged'' -- not because his peaceful invention would be used to kill people, but because "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint things 8-feet tall aren't cute]]".

** In the episode "AWESOM-O", the government scientist sees the "robot" (actually Cartman in a cardboard costume) as a living thing with feelings and a soul, while the military just wants it dissected to gain it's percieved technological marvels (which mostly consist of Cartman managing to conceive thousands of nearly-similar Adam Sandler movie scripts). In the end, the scientist rips out his own organs to bring home the point that it's not our body that makes a human human.
** Oddly enough, ''Cartman'' (alongside Kyle's dad) are the "scientists" on the episode with the hippie concert (that is also a parody of ''Film/TheCore''): they are the ones that recommend a non-violent solution (by "digging" to the center of the hippie crowd and playing a ''Music/{{Slayer}}'' tape to spook the hippies off) while the military men recommend nuking the crowd (and South Park) off the map.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', it turns out that the school janitor Hank [[HiddenDepths is a brilliant mathematician]]. When this info spreads around, Hank gets job offers from a university professor, a military general, and a NASA scientist, all of whom wish to use his expertise in different ways. [[StatusQuoIsGod But he decides to just stick with mopping floors in an elementary school]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Get Schwifty", we have Rick the Scientist vs. General Nathan the Soldier, arguing over whether to appease the Cromulons by producing a hit single or else blow them up. Rick turns out to be a hundred percent correct, anyone surprised?

** ''[[Film/{{Gojira}} Godzilla]]'' (1954). Professor Serizawa is the "scientist" in question in the dillemma of the Oxygen Destroyer. He knows perfectly well that if he makes it known to the world that it exists, the governments will stop at nothing to make him manufacture it as a weapon of mass destruction. When the original GodzillaThreshold is crossed, Serizawa makes sure that the Oxygen Destroyer will be used once and ''only'' once by destroying all of his research and dying alongside Godzilla.

* ''Film/{{Super 8}}'': The Air Force want to keep [[spoiler:the burrowing alien]] under wraps and consider it a threat, not necessarily without reason. Dr. Woodward, who has rather more insight into the situation, wants to help it return home.

* The above film's scenario is inverted (or at least played with) in its dueling movie ''Film/FailSafe'': The "soldiers" in this scenario, the men from the U.S. Air Force that are struggling to stop the accidental bombing of Russia, are people who prepare for war because that's their job and patriotic duty but are understandably horrified at the concept of WorldWarIII happening (because they know perfectly well how apocalyptic it will be) and are willing to do anything (even work alongside the Russians) to prevent it, while the "scientist" Professor Groeteschele is a belligerent WarHawk that thinks war '''should''' happen because it's statistically likely that America would "win" and calls for a second wave with every other available nuke until he's put in place:
--->"You have become no better than those you want to kill."

* The Creator/IrwinAllen disaster film ''Film/TheSwarm'' (1978) has the military wanting to use pesticides that would damage the environment while Creator/MichaelCaine keeps suggesting other methods. Unfortunately the threat of the killer bees is so over-hyped (at one stage they cause the [[FailsafeFailure explosion of a nuclear power plant]]) that Caine's continuing refusal is hard to justify.
* ''Film/{{Evolution}}'': The protagonists are local, second-rate scientists vying with the military for control over a cave where a meteor strike has caused an alien ecosystem to develop. The scientists mainly want to study the aliens (and earn Nobel prizes for their efforts) and are the most proactive in hunting down the rogue alien beasts that are attacking random civilians. The military, meanwhile, are concerned with containment of the site, but carelessness and lack of serious research results in numerous security breaches, and when they decide to destroy ground zero with napalm, they fail to realize this will only [[FeedItWithFire accelerate the aliens' evolution]] and make them more of a threat.

* Combined with WorkingWithTheEx in ''Cosmic Sin'' (2021). James Ford is a former general who became disgraced and divorced after using a DoomsdayDevice to end a revolt. He's assigned to work with his ex wife Dr. Lea Goss, who as a young student wrote a thesis advocating genocide in response to an OutsideContextProblem but is having second thoughts when faced with actual FirstContact. [[DebateAndSwitch Unfortunately this conflict comes to a premature end]] by having her be [[TheAssimilator possessed by the aliens]] and start EvilGloating about how they are AlwaysChaoticEvil.

* ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'' shows friction between Reed Richards and General Hager. Hager berates Reed for not being at his beck and call to design something to catch the Surfer, Reed lets Hager know when he's making destructively stupid decisions. Note that in the comics, Reed was a WWII vet, which is mostly ignored today.

* ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'': Reed Richards and General Hager butt heads over how to stop the titular Silver Surfer from destroying Earth. Hager makes it clear he has little respect for Reed (it's mentioned the two knew each other in high school and didn't get along back then either), and even goes as far as recruiting the far less trustworthy Dr. Doom simply because both of them can't stand Reed. Hager ultimately pays the price for his foolishness when Doom kills him to get the Surfer's board.

* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[ArtifactCollectionAgency The Foundation]] have this relationship with a rival [[TheMenInBlack Men in Black]] organisation called the [[CreatureHunterOrganization Global Occult Coalition]] - while the former devote great resources to studying anomalies and building [[TailorMadePrison containment chambers]] which neutralise their threat, the latter tend to shoot first and ask questions later. Infamously, the [=GOC=] once discovered a chair which teleports to anyone who needs a seat, and reacted by blowing it up... which just created a ''cloud of splinters'' that teleports ''[[TeleFrag inside]]'' people. For their part, the [=GOC=] dislike the Foundation's {{Utilitarian|ism}} approach to protecting humanity, and claim that the soldiers responsible for the chair incident were in breach of protocol.

** ''Film/Godzilla2014'': PlayedStraight during Monarch and the US Navy's cooperation. Monarch didn't try killing the MUTO in its cocoon during the years they were studying it (allegedly with a reasonable explanation that they feared trying to kill it might release the absorbed radiation, although it's also implied they kept it alive so they could study it and out of admiration while they believed it was no threat), but they still play AdmiringTheAbomination straight when they cooperate with the military to see the [=MUTOs=] destroyed to save humanity. When it comes to Godzilla, Drs. Graham and Serizawa clearly admire him as a PhysicalGod a great deal, whilst the US military operation led by Admiral Stenz has no such attitude towards Godzilla and prefers to attempt killing him with the [=MUTOs=]. True to its GreenAesop and how Godzilla fits into it as a force of nature, the film ultimately leans towards the Scientist side of the conflict, but despite the recklessness of the military's NukeEm plan which could make the kaiju problem worse, the military are not portrayed in an unsympathetic light.
** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': More minor or in the background than in the 2014 film, but still very much present. This film very much leans more towards the Scientist side of the equation: the scientists are advocating coexistence with the Titans as they are ecologically essential to the planet, and while some Titans are hostile to humans others are indeed benevolent, and a benevolent Alpha Titans can potentially get all the others in line; the government and military meanwhile ignore and care little for Monarch's arguments, and are just trying to use any good excuse to take over and try killing all the Titans indiscriminately with a short-sighted lack of regard for the consequences or how that might backfire. The military even [[spoiler:unleash an ''untested prototype'' weapon of mass destruction trying to accomplish their goal]] when they briefly take matters into their own hands, and they are arguably responsible for enabling Ghidorah's NearVillainVictory that takes up the second half of the film.

* ''Film/DrStrangelove'': Admittedly, everyone is equally unsuited for addressing the threat, but the titular doctor actually acknowledges the Cobalt-Thorium G bomb as horrific risk to all life everywhere, while General Buck Turgidson wistfully wishes that the US had one.

* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', The Kryptonian military dictator Zod is pitted against Jor-El, who is a Kryptonian scientist. Zod wants to save Kryptonian civilization with what basically amounts to fascism and imperialism (conquering other worlds and only allowing "worthy" bloodlines to exist) while Jor-El acknowledges that Krypton is done for and wants to build a peaceful bridge between the remnants of their species and Earthlings.

* Almost any ''Series/DoctorWho'' story featuring a military force that isn't outright evil will use this to create conflict at some point between them and the Doctor. The Third Doctor and Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart have this kind of relationship in spades. The Doctor tries to save the day with science while the Brig just wants to send in men guns a-blazing.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'': While Emmerich likes to pretend to be the sympathetic scientist, he's psychotically greedy and murderous; at the same time, military leader Venom Snake tends to be much more reasonable and pragmatic, depending on how you play him.

One side may be portrayed as ProperlyParanoid. The scientist might be a MadScientist, ReluctantMadScientist (or worse, KidnappedScientist), TheWormGuy or an IgnoredExpert, while the military might have GeneralRipper, InsaneAdmiral or ReasonableAuthorityFigure involved.

* ''Series/{{Jeremiah}}'': In the flashbacks in "Firewall", Major Quantrell, the [[YouAreInCommandNow final]] military leader of Thunder Mountain, and Markus Alexander's [=CDC=] scientist father come over blows regarding their attitudes toward what to do in the face of a global pandemic. Quantrell wants to lock down Cheynne Mountain and try to ride things out without making any effort to combat the Big Death. Dr. Alexander is convinced that this won't keep the plague out and wants to let his infected wife inside under quarantine conditions to keep working on a potential cure that he doubts he can find otherwise (not that his chances of finding it anyway are super good).

* On ''Series/{{Bones}}'', Agent Booth, a former military sniper, initially shows a lot of disdain for scientists, and this fuels much of the early UnresolvedSexualTension between him and Dr. Temperance Brennan. As the series goes on, he develops more respect for scientists.

* The ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode "[[Recap/FarscapeS04E13TerraFirma Terra Firma]]" has John Crichton argue with the US government over access to Moya and her crew. John wants the advances he's brought to be for the benefit of all humanity, but the US wants to gain an edge over Earthly enemies (John missed 9/11). John's father Jack Crichton, the Director of Extraterrestrial Affairs, initially agrees with the government but eventually changes his mind.
* Goes back and forth in ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', with politicians often taking the traditional "soldier" role. Legasov and Khomyuk, the scientists, push against the party men for either trying to downplay the disaster or choosing bad solutions for political expediency. However, Khomyuk pushes against Legasov himself because he's done his own share of covering up and doesn't want to stick his neck out anymore. Local political leaders (like Bryukhanov, Zharkov, and Garanin) are prone to ass-covering and try to discredit the scientists, but Shcherbina, the apparatchik in charge, is initially resistant only because he doesn't ''understand'' the stakes. Once he does, he becomes a BadassBureaucrat and at one point has his own nuclear meltdown on the Kremlin when their propagandizing fouls up a key part of the decontamination efforts. As for the actual soldiers, they are shown as {{Reasonable Authority Figure}}s, with General Pikalov ''personally'' driving a shielded truck up to the reactor to take an accurate dosimeter reading, and regular soldiers like Bacho being as humane as they can in their [[ShootTheDog unpleasant duties]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[ArtifactCollectionAgency The Foundation]] have this relationship with a rival [[TheMenInBlack Men in Black]] organisation called the [[CreatureHunterOrganization Global Occult Coalition]] - while the former devote great resources to studying anomalies and building [[TailorMadePrison containment chambers]] which neutralise their threat, the latter tend to shoot first and ask questions later. Infamously, the [=GOC=] once discovered a chair which teleports to anyone who needs a seat, and reacted by blowing it up... which just created a ''cloud of splinters'' that teleports ''[[TeleFrag inside]]'' people. For their part, the [=GOC=] dislike the Foundation's {{Utilitarian|ism}} approach to protecting humanity, and claim that the soldiers responsible for the chair incident were in breach of protocol.

* ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'': Once the asteroid appears, the Joint Chiefs of Staff want to toss the entire nuclear arsenal of the world at the thing. The scientists at NASA know that, unless the meteorite is drilled into at precisely 250 feet, any nuclear weapon launched at it or used on its surface will only cause some pretty fireworks. It takes some effort for them to make the Joint Chiefs of Staff understand, and when they decide that the plan to send astronauts to perform the drilling seems to have gone belly-up, they immediately take over the Space Center and try to remotely detonate the nukes, even after being reminded that a surface explosion is useless.

* ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage'': The Fugitoid invents the teleportal as a means of instantaneous long distance travel. The Federation and the Triceratons want to use it as an instantaneous bomber. For instance putting a nuke in a planet's core. Eventually the professor decides it better to destroy it so no one can use it at all, than risk it being turned into a weapon.

* ''Film/{{Bumblebee}}'' has Agent Burns and Dr. Powell, who have differing opinions on whether to trust their new Decepticon buddies. Naturally, Burns is right to mistrust them, but there's a neat twist in that we're led to believe Burns will go down the road to FantasticRacism against ''all'' Transformers- [[spoiler: but instead he acknowledges Bumblebee as an ally and salutes him at the end]].

* ''Film/{{Super 8}}'': The Air Force want to keep [[spoiler: the burrowing alien]] under wraps and consider it a threat, not necessarily without reason. Dr. Woodward, who has rather more insight into the situation, wants to help it return home.

* ''Film/{{Python}}'': Parker is an NSA agent rather than a soldier, but otherwise this describes his relationship with Dr. Rudolph (who keeps urging him to JustThinkOfThePotential and constantly sabotages his efforts to kill the snake) in a nutshell. [[spoiler: Ironically, it's Parker's death causes Rudolph to get a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment and work to kill the python]].

* Both of the ''Literature/TheHungryPlague'' novels follow scientists working with soldiers during the ZombieApocalypse. ''Literature/TheBoyOnTheBridge'', has the military leaders caring only about dominance and merely using the scientists efforts to distract people. The common soldiers have more integrity but view the scientists as naive, judgmental, and unlikely to accomplish something, while the scientists seem them as too callous towards killing [[NotUsingTheZWord Hungries]], and likely to exploit their discoveries by [[spoiler: [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman breeding the hungries children like cattle and slaughtering them to make a vaccine which will only provide short-term relief]]]]. By the time of ''Literature/TheGirlWithAllTheGifts'', the dynamic has evolved, but Dr. Caldwell bosses around her soldiers guarding her with a certain sense of entitlement, while caring little for their sacrifices, while the soldiers are hardened and dismissive of the scientists efforts, believing them to be unnerving and inefficient.

** One example would be ''The Devil In The Dark'' where the Enterprise team is up against a 'monster' which has already killed several civilians. Kirk, the Soldier, naturally wants to take out the creature with minimum danger to his men and thus orders them to ShootToKill. Spock, the Scientist, is not quite so sure that the creature is a monster and argues that they must try to capture it alive. Kirk [[ThatsAnOrder wins the argument]] and tries to keep Spock out of the search for fear that he would hesitate to shoot and get himself killed. Of course, this being [[SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers Star Trek,]] Spock turns out to be right - the 'monster' was a HiveMother protecting its eggs which were being destroyed by the oblivious human miners, and once they get to communicate with the creature, it's easy to reach a mutually beneficent agreement.

* Parodied in a flashback in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode ''Mother's Day''. Back when Prof. Farnsworth was young(er) and worked at Mom's Friendly Robot Company, he presented his latest invention, an [[TastesLikeDiabetes overly cute]] toy cat for children called Q.T. [=McWhiskers=] that projects rainbows out of his eyes. When Mom reveals she intends to make the toy eight feet tall, replace the rainbow projectors with atomic lasers, and sell it to the military as a weapon, the Professor is ''outraged'' -- not because his peaceful invention would be used to kill people, but because "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint things 8-feet tall aren't cute]]".

* Averted in the ''Literature/NantucketTrilogy'', where Commodore Marian Alston, the head of the Nantucket Army, gets along just fine with Ian and Doreen Arnstein, Nantucket's premiere science geeks. It probably helps that Alston's partner Swindapa is something of a scientist herself.

A common character relationship in ScienceFiction and DisasterMovie, although this doesn't mean it can't appear in other genres. The Scientist wants to study and understand the unknown, or discovering/inventing something new, while the Military either tries to exploit it, or destroy it (out of fear of endangering the populace).