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Evil corporation

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An evil corporation is a staple of science fiction[1] (but also features in other fiction genres), usually a big amoral multinational company—often a megacorporation with powers which are usually held by governments—which values profits over ethics.

Several real life corporations have been named "evil" by activists[2] and the media.[3] The labeling of corporations as such may be an indicator of anti-corporate activism.


List of fictional evil corporations

The fictional logo of Weyland-Yutani from Alien, an archetypal fictional evil corporation
The fictional logo of Umbrella Corporation from Resident Evil, an archetypal fictional evil corporation
The fictional logo of Abstergo Industries from Assassin's Creed, an archetypal fictional evil corporation
File:OCP logo.svg
The fictional logo of Omni Consumer Products from Robocop, an archetypal fictional evil corporation
  • Umbrella Corporation (Resident Evil) - This corporation arguably defines "Evil Corporation". It is an international pharmaceutical company portrayed as a major international player in cosmetics, consumer products and foods, pharmaceutical goods and medical supplies, along with more clandestine operations utilizing biological agents and genetic engineering, their legitimate status being only a front for their secret research of bio-organic weapons, developed through the use of a unique vector-virus (a powerful mutagen that could dramatically alter living and recently dead organisms) discovered by the company founders shortly after World War II.[4] One of Umbrella's subsidiaries is UBCS (Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service), a private military company with a highly trained security force (composed mostly of convicts, war criminals and exiled soldiers)[5]) capable of targeted killing, Counterintelligence, rescue and reconnaissance paramilitary operations; the corporation used its top-secret special forces group to secure and protect its assets and high profile employees.
  • Weyland-Yutani Corporation (Alien vs. Predator) - This corporation, generally referred to as "The Company" (indicating its sheer size and realm of influence), apparently finds it morally acceptable to impregnate its employees with chestbursters, disregarding the very real possibility that a single xenomorph could wipe out the human race, in order to acquire the Alien for their reverse-engineer biological weapons development.[6]
  • VersaLife and Page Industries (Deus Ex) - This corporation manufactured an extremely aggressive nano-mechanical virus with a 100% mortality; which could have destroyed human life on Earth -- all in the name of shameless power-grabbing and profiteering.
  • Union Aerospace Corporation (Doom) - This corporation's experimental teleportation technology opened a portal directly to Hell and spilled all the evil denizens in existence over into the high-tech R&D facility on Mars.
  • Fontaine Futuristics (Bioshock) - This corporation has no qualms with abducting little girls and subjecting them to ghastly physical and psychological conditioning to further the goals of a sociopathic conman and, after he was dead, a deranged political extremist. They worsened the Rapture Civil War by increasing the supply of the very substance that drove everybody insane.
  • Multi-National United (District 9) - This corporation, experiment on creating bigger and badder weapons for paramilitary organization backing thems, using living organisms that are more or less a metaphor for oppressed racial and ethnic groups of South Africa.
  • Abstergo Industries (Assassin's Creed) - This corporation is the the public face of the Templars, a monastic military order-turned-corporate giant. Much like the Assassins, the Templars have existed through the entirety of recorded human history. They are a secret society of people whose only goal is "save humanity from itself." To achieve their goal, the Templar's plan to obtain the Pieces of Eden, which will allow them to control human minds.
  • Aperture Science (Portal) - This corporation, while technically misguided (if not evil), they did create GlaDOS who represent man's attempt to construct an idealized mother figure through the cold logic of science.

See also

References

  1. ^ Sarath, Patrice (2011-03-08). "Bad company: science fiction and the "evil" corporation". Bizmology. Retrieved 2011-08-18.
  2. ^ Connor Adams Sheets. "Monsanto Named 2013's 'Most Evil Corporation' In New Poll". International Business Times. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
  3. ^ Goldacre, Ben (August 4, 2007). "Evil ways of the drug companies". The Guardian. Retrieved August 26, 2011.
  4. ^ Resident Evil Zero BradyGames Official Strategy Guide, page 19
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference dm was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Template:Http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/members/b/stick-at-naught strider blog/archive/2010/03/25/top-five-most-reprehensible-corporations-in-science-fiction.aspx
  7. ^ RoboCop (1987)
  8. ^ RoboCop 2 (1990)
  9. ^ '"Flesh and Steel: Making RoboCop on the 20th Anniversary RoboCop DVD
  10. ^ "Dr. Steven Best, PhD - Robocop: The Crisis of Subjectivity (1987)". Drstevebest.org. Retrieved 2009-04-17.