Antiviral 2013

Syd March [Caleb Landry Jones] works for Lucas Clinic, a company that buys viruses and other pathogens from celebrities and then deliberately infects paying fans who crave a tangible connection to their idols. The operation adds copy protection to its products, rendering the pathogens untouchable and unusable once a client has been infected. The most coveted pathogens come from Hannah Geist [Sarah Gadon], whose viral material is exceptionally popular. Derek Lessing [Douglas Smith] is the lab expert who directly harvests these specimens from Hannah.

To turn a bigger profit, Syd steals pathogens from the lab, bypasses the copy protection with a stolen console, and uses himself as an incubator. He then passes the samples to Arvid [Joe Pingue], who sells them on the black market through Astral Bodies, a notorious celebrity-meat market where products are grown from the cells of famous figures. This illicit underworld shows how far the desire for celebrity devotion can push commerce and humanity.

When Derek is caught smuggling, Syd is ordered to fill in and harvest a pathogen from Hannah, who has recently fallen ill. After taking a blood sample from Hannah, Syd injects himself with a portion of her blood, hoping to uncover the cure or the key to the protection mechanism. He wakes the next day with fever and confusion, but his attempts to bypass the virus’ copy protection fail, and his console breaks during the process. The following morning, he learns with a shock that Hannah has died from an unknown disease, and the demand for anything associated with her has surged.

As the market heats up, Syd tries to repair his broken console. He turns to Arvid, who then arranges a meeting with Levine [Nicholas Campbell], the head of a piracy network. Levine invites Syd to exchange blood samples for a fix to the console, but Syd refuses. Levine knocks him unconscious and forcibly grabs samples, knowing that the legal stakes are high because lethal pathogens cannot be distributed. The public’s hunger for the pathogen behind Hannah’s death only intensifies.

Soon after, Syd is abducted and taken to a hidden site where Hannah—whose death was staged to protect her identity—lies in a frail, bleeding state. Her physician, Dr. Abendroth [Malcolm McDowell], explains that the virus they’re dealing with has been engineered with a mechanism to thwart analysis, which is why Syd’s console failed. Abendroth reveals his fixation with Hannah, showing off skin grafts from Hannah on his own arm, and deriding Syd as “just another fan.”

Back at Lucas Clinic, Syd traces the pathogen’s origin to Derek, who sold it to a rival company, Vole & Tesser. Abendroth discovers that Vole & Tesser has patented a modified strain, though their motives remain unclear. Before Syd can press further, Levine abducts him once more. He is imprisoned in a room where his decline and death will be broadcast on reality television to satisfy Hannah’s fans—a grim reminder of how far the fixation with celebrity can go when entertainment meets medical science.

Syd makes a daring move, stabbing Levine in the mouth with a syringe and using a nurse as a hostage to escape. Realizing that Vole & Tesser engineered Hannah’s death to harvest their own patented strain, Syd reaches out to the rival company and negotiates a deal that shifts the balance of power.

In the aftermath, a virtual version of Hannah appears to promote the “Afterlife” product, advertised through Vole & Tesser’s platform. Syd ends up working for Vole & Tesser, where Hannah’s cells have been replicated into a distorted cell garden—an eerie extension of Astral Bodies’ celebrity-meat technology. In this new role, viruses injected into Hannah’s system are sold as part of their catalog. During a demonstration, Syd unveils a new virus by sticking a needle into a genetically created arm; later, alone, he cuts the arm and drinks the flowing blood. The arm turns out to be Hannah’s, and her deformed face and body loom in the Cell Garden chamber, completing a chilling arc where the line between adoration, exploitation, and biology has been irreversibly blurred.

just another fan.