Antiviral

The story unfolds in a near-future bioscience landscape where pathogens are commercialized and celebrity DNA is mined for profit. Advances in biotech enable copy protection and illicit distribution, fueling a shadow market and reality-TV-style scrutiny of personal biology. The setting blends clinical spaces with flashy corporate environments, highlighting a world where ethics struggle to keep pace with technological power.

The Lucas Clinic serves as the central hub where celebrities' viruses are harvested and sold to fans. Astral Bodies operates as a celebrity meat market, growing products from living cells. Vole & Tesser stands as a rival firm patenting strains and pushing aspirational products like Afterlife into a consumer market. A hidden facility houses Hannah Geist in a frail, dying state, while the Cell Garden chamber reveals the disturbing replication of celebrity cells into grotesque installations.

🧬 Biotech Exploitation

Pathogens harvested from celebrities become commodities, with Syd pushing boundaries to profit from living viruses. The theft of samples, self-incubation, and black-market sales reveal how corporate incentives can corrupt science and endanger lives. The narrative critiques the normalization of turning human biology into a marketable product.

🎭 Celebrity Culture

Hannah Geist's fame creates demand for her biology, even after illness and death. The Afterlife product and virtual representations exploit fans and blur the line between reverence and commodification. The film shows how media transforms identity into a tradable asset and fuels ethical decay.

🕵️ Surveillance and Control

The spread of experience through reality TV and the commodification networks demonstrates how information and biological material are controlled by powerful entities. Piracy groups, corporate rivals, and prying physicians manipulate data to protect profits. The film presents a chilling view of a society where life itself is a capital asset.