Jump to content

Evil corporation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 173.51.221.24 (talk) at 22:02, 26 May 2014 (→‎Uses in real-life). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

An evil corporation is a staple of science fiction[1] (but also features in other fiction genres), usually an enormous amoral multinational company—often a megacorporation or conglomerate with powers which are usually held by governments—which values profits over ethics and life, or at least started out as a company that meant well, but ultimately creates infinitely more harm then good.

These companies may be so powerful that they can ignore the law, possess their own heavily armed (often military-sized) private armies, hold 'sovereign' territory, and possibly even act as outright governments. They often exercise a large degree of control over their employees, taking the idea of 'corporate culture' to an extreme.

List of fictional evil corporations

- "Building Better Worlds." -
The fictional slogan and logo of Weyland-Yutani from Alien, an archetypal fictional evil corporation
- "Our Business Is Life Itself" -
The fictional slogan and logo of Umbrella Corporation from Resident Evil, an archetypal fictional evil corporation
- "We change the world. Every day, in a hundred different ways." -
The fictional slogan and logo of Abstergo Industries from Assassin's Creed, an archetypal fictional evil corporation
File:OCP logo.svg
- "We've Got the Future Under Control." -
The fictional slogan and logo of Omni Consumer Products from Robocop, an archetypal fictional evil corporation
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

In films

  • Weyland-Yutani Corporation (Alien vs. Predator) - This enormous inter-planetary/multi-national conglomerate, 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-DNA for their reverse-engineered biological weapons development.[2]
  • SPECTRE (James Bond) - This corporation is a global terrorist commercial enterprise that hides its true motives behind seemingly legitimate visage and turns hefty profits by playing both sides of the Cold War. Unlike other corporations, they are fully aware and embrace being an "Evil Corporation" (as evident by their acrconym: SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion).
  • Multi-National United (District 9) - This corporation, the second largest weapons manufacturer and private paramilitary security firm contracted by the South African government to contain newly arrived alien-refugees (living organisms that are more or less a metaphor for oppressed racial and ethnic groups of South Africa). They conveniently ignore their own slogan ("Paving the Way to Unity!") by isolating and marginalizing the aliens in segregated slums, secretly studying their advanced technology, experiments on creating bigger and badder weapons to auction to the highest bidder, and subjecting aliens to amoral and deadly experiments.
  • ICS (The Running Man) - This corporation airs gladiator-style television show called The Running Man, where convicted criminal "runners" must escape death at the hands of professional killers for a chance to be pardoned and set free.
  • Lunar Industries Ltd. (Moon) - This corporation made a fortune after an oil crisis by building a large, automated lunar helium-3 extraction facility on the dark-side of the Moon, called Sarang, thereby supplying 70% of Earth's energy needs. Publicly, the facility is operated by astronauts/engineers on three-year contracts; in reality, they used cloned-slave labor (that physically deteriorate three years after awakening) whom where subsequently euthanized and incinerated.
  • The Union (Repo Men) - This corporation (slogan: "You don't die, until we say so.") as perfected bio-mechanical organs; as they are prohibitively expensive, customers have no alternative but to buy them on credit rates. These loans are provided by The Union's predatory lending policies at extremely high interest rates. If a "customer" falls behind on payments, a "repo man" enforces repayment by blackmail, threats of violence, or "reclaims" the artificial organ (artiforg); the procedure frequently results in death.
  • Tyrell Corporation (Blade Runner) - This corporation, with a "More Human than Human" slogan, is a biotechnology firm which profits by producing bio-engineered robots (virtually identical to humans) forced to work hazardous off-world occupations with short life-spans; ensuring the need for replacements (and demand).
  • Soylent Corporation (Soylent Green) - This corporation (set in a dystopian future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dead oceans, and hot climate change) is the sole manufacturer of the "miracle food", "Soylent Green", that the worlds' population survives on. The secret ingredient to this processed nutritious high-energy ration: the industrialized production of human livestock.

In televisions

  • Globex Corporation (The Simpsons) - This corporation only appeared in a single-if memorable-episode. A deliberate parody of "Evil Corporation", the company (owned by Hank Scorpio) at first appears to be one of those "progressive" 1990s workplaces (where the boss wears loafers and everyone is on "flexi-time") until it emerges the loafer-wearing boss is a James Bond-style supervillain hell-bent on destroying the world. All while offering his employees free lunch and back rubs.[2]

In video games

  • Umbrella Corporation (Resident Evil) - This omnipresent multi-national conglomerate arguably defines "Evil Corporation" and is a text-book example of "corporatocracy gone wrong" and "The Evils of Capitalism". It is an international biochemical and pharmaceutical company portrayed as an international player and the worlds' leading supplier in petroleum, cosmetics, consumer products and foods, pharmaceutical goods and medical supplies, healthcare and health insurance, computer technologies, along with more clandestine operations utilizing military hardware, biological agents and genetic engineering, their legitimate status being only a front for their secret research of bio-organic weapons (which forms the majority of their profits), 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.[7] 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)[8] capable of targeted killing, counterintelligence, rescue and reconnaissance paramilitary operations, "field testing" Umbrella's bio-weapon prototypes, and are even authorized in the use nuclear weapons (as evident in the nuking of Raccoon City after the "zombie outbreak", an event that they directly caused); the corporation used its top-secret special forces group to secure and protect its assets and high profile employees.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The Agency (Crackdown) - This corporation, in addition to outfitting and supporting Pacific City's Peacekeepers, used advanced surgical and cybernetic technology to create supersoldiers known as "Agents", tasked with defeating "untouchable" crime lords and their organized crime syndicates. This good PR hides an ulterior motive for the Agency's actions: the Agency had secretly empowered the criminal underworld first place to instill fear in Pacific City's residents, thus creating a need for the Agency to control the city, and acceptance in the populace when they did take over. The Agency Director's comments suggest that the Agency will replicate this plan in other cities across the globe to create a New World Order.[9]

In toys and card games

  • Cobra Industries (G.I. Joe) - This corporation's subsidiaries (such as M.A.R.S. Industries and Extensive Enterprises) are involved in communications, pharmaceuticals, and military technologies. Numerous governments have long suspected them of criminal activity, but has no evidence.


Uses in real-life

Several real life corporations have been named "evil" by activists[10] and the media.[11] The labeling of corporations as such may be an indicator of anti-corporate activism.

See also

References

  1. ^ Sarath, Patrice (2011-03-08). "Bad company: science fiction and the "evil" corporation". Bizmology. Retrieved 2011-08-18.
  2. ^ a b Five Most Reprehensible Corporations in Science Fiction|work=Gameinformer|accessdate=March 25, 2010|author=Stick-at-naught Strider Cite error: The named reference "reprehensible" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ RoboCop (1987)
  4. ^ RoboCop 2 (1990)
  5. ^ '"Flesh and Steel: Making RoboCop on the 20th Anniversary RoboCop DVD
  6. ^ "Dr. Steven Best, PhD - Robocop: The Crisis of Subjectivity (1987)". Drstevebest.org. Retrieved 2009-04-17.
  7. ^ Resident Evil Zero BradyGames Official Strategy Guide, page 19
  8. ^ Resident Evil 3 Dreamcast manual
  9. ^ Realtime Worlds. Crackdown. Agency Director: Who do you think supplied Los Muertos? Who do you think turned a blind eye to the Volk's activities? Who do you think was Shai-Gen's biggest supporter? Who do you think ran organized law ... And ran it into the ground? The people had to experience firsthand absolute anarchy before they would accept unconditional control. You are the portent of a new world order, Agent. Pacific City was only the beginning.
  10. ^ Connor Adams Sheets. "Monsanto Named 2013's 'Most Evil Corporation' In New Poll". International Business Times. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
  11. ^ Goldacre, Ben (August 4, 2007). "Evil ways of the drug companies". The Guardian. Retrieved August 26, 2011.

Template:Rogues Gallery

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evil_corporation&oldid=610265435"