History Main / ThePlague

* In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1'', following a CosmicRetcon, Tarkatans are no longer a distinct race in Outworld, but victims of a virulent illness known as "Tarkat". Symptoms include mutating into violent creatures with mouths lined with razor-sharp teeth, red eyes with slitted pupils, blade-like protrusions from the arms, and diminishing sanity that eventually gives way to ravenous violence.

* The Ebola Gulf-A, a.k.a. The Clench from ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' ''Contagion'', originally unleashed in Gotham City by the Saint Duma's Order [[spoiler:but later revealed to have been created by Ra's al Ghul]].

** In the short story "[[Literature/TheShipWhoSang The Ship Who Mourned]]", a plague has wiped out most of a planet's population. The handful of survivors of this disease are either immune or are left paralyzed. Helva supports Theoda in an attempt to demonstrate that physiotherapy may be effective for the latter.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': This is Nurgle's domain, and he's always cooking up new and horrible concoctions to try out. Some of his creations include Nurgle's Rot, which can decompose a man in seconds, and plague zombies, which... [[ZombieApocalypse yeah.]] Despite this, he's definitely the cheeriest of all Chaos gods, genuinely loving his followers, and they in turn know him as Grandfather Nurgle. See, he loves all life, and bacteria and vermin count as life...

* ''The White Plague'' by Creator/FrankHerbert has it where mad scientist, after the deaths of his family, creates a virus that's only fatal to women but can be carried by men. This plague has the effect of almost ending the human race creating a GenderRarityValue.
* Geraldine Brooks' ''Year of Wonders''. However, the protagonist wasn't trying to find a cure (it was the Black Death), rather, her village was purposely isolating itself in order to stop the plague from spreading more than it had to. Something of a HeroicSacrifice... Most of them died.

[[folder:Film — Animation]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* The unnamed virus in the 2009 film ''Film/{{Carriers}}'' has already decimated humanity when the movie starts.

* ''Film/TheCrazies'' and its 2010 remake feature "Trixie," a biological weapon which causes [[HatePlague violent psychosis]] and death within a matter of days.

* Film/JamesBond:

* In the 1950 film ''Film/TheKillerThatStalkedNewYork'', health officials struggle to vaccinate the city's populace while police track down the diamond smuggler who'd unwittingly brought smallpox into the country. Meanwhile, the smuggler unknowingly spreads the sickness as she dodges the cops she assumes want to arrest her. (This was InspiredBy a RealLife incident in which NYC engaged in an emergency vaccination campaign after a visitor to the city was diagnosed with smallpox.)

* The ''Film/TombRaider2018'' movie featured [[spoiler: a deadly contagion instead of usual supernatural events. Himiko, an ancient Japanese empress (whose Tomb is Raided in the movie) was an asymptomatic, infectious carrier for the disease, which made her people think she possessed dark magical powers.]]

** War criminal Jha'dur became infamous for [[{{Plaguemaster}} creating them]] during the Dilgar War. Whatever they did, the plagues were so terrible that relatives of at least one survivor, after seeing ''how'' he died, sworn to kill her... And when she's revealed to have survived her supposed death during the Dilgar War one of said relatives beats her within an inch of her life with a fire extinguisher before the security stops her.
** The Markab get wiped out by a long-dormant disease. They ''could'' have survived it... Except it's culturally associated with immorality to the point that individuals refuse to seek treatment and the government ''bans attempts at finding a cure''.
** The Drakh plague.

* A deadly epidemic strikes [[{{UsefulNotes/Mexico}} New Spain]] in Film/TheHolyOffice. The Jews are blamed for it.

* UsefulNotes/{{COVID|19pandemic}}[[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic -19]], a disease pandemic caused by the coronavirus [=SARS-CoV-2=], was first identified in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, China and spread globally in the first half of 2020. This in turn led to significant increases in mortality around the world and rolling lockdowns globally. Late 2020 saw the advent of vaccines to inoculate the population against the disease, but in turn the virus has started mutating to be more contagious and at least one variant can get around vaccines, so the fight continues.

* In ''LightNovel/LChangeTheWorld'', a former Wammy's student unleashes a genetically-engineered virus on Thailand, with the goal of eventually destroying the human race, on the grounds that HumansAreBastards. One particular village ended up being used as a "testing site", successfully; only one little boy survived. (L eventually renames him Near, although he doesn't seem to actually be in any way related to the Near from the ''Manga/DeathNote'' series proper.) L has to stop her from unleashing more of the virus.

** In "Resurrection", every last human on Earth was killed in a biological war on July 24, 1997.
** In "The Vaccine", the vast majority of humanity was killed by the Berlin C virus, which was genetically engineered by a doomsday cult, within three months.

** In "Essence of Life", billions of people were killed by the [=HR2=] virus in 2003. In this episode, humanity is not quite as badly affected as in the others since civilization is in the process of being rebuilt in 2014. It is predicted that the population will grow in 2015 for the first time since the outbreak of the virus.
** In "Final Appeal", the time traveler Dr. Theresa Givens testifies before the US Supreme Court in 2076 that a plague will wipe out humanity -- at least the 20% that remains after the War of 2059 -- in 2105. Clips from "The Vaccine" are used to depict the devastated world of 2105.
** In "Patient Zero", the Gehenna Strain killed 500 million people within two months of its outbreak in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity in 2001. By 2015, the death toll stood at more than three billion. As with "Final Appeal", clips from "The Vaccine" are used to represent the devastation.

** Rigelian Fever in "Requiem for Methuselah".

* The MEV-1 virus from ''Film/Contagion2011''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}'' is basically a survival game in an infected town.

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1415300078076090800

* In ''LightNovel/LChangeTheWorld'', a former Wammy's student unleashes a genetically-engineered virus on Thailand, with the goal of eventually destroying the human race, on the grounds that HumansAreBastards. One particular village ended up being used as a "testing site", successfully; only one little boy survived. (L eventually renames him Near, [[NamesTheSame although he doesn't seem to actually be in any way related to the Near]] from the ''Manga/DeathNote'' series proper.) L has to stop her from unleashing more of the virus.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f57c7903_130d_4dd3_a8af_4723d4d06a33.jpeg]]]]

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1415300078076090800
%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to suggest an image:
%%

* The T-Virus from ''Franchise/ResidentEvil''.

* The HistoricalFiction manga ''Manga/RedRiver2996'' has as one of its subplots a terrible plague that affected the Hitite empire. In actual history, the plague raged in Hattusha for some 20 years and killed a large portion of the population, including [[spoiler: King Suppiluiuma, King Arnuwanda, and Gassalawiya, Mursili's wife that Yuri's character is partially based upon.]]

* [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] has a very nice [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_plagues list of historical plagues]].

* [[MadScientist Vul Isen]] in ''ComicBook/{{Legacy}}'' [[spoiler: creates one to be unleashed against the galaxy]]
* Hronmeer's Curse, a.k.a. the reason the ComicBook/MartianManhunter is the LastOfHisKind.

For artificially and magically created diseases, see SyntheticPlague and MysticalPlague respectively. For a being whose main ability is to spread similar diseases, see PlagueMaster. Compare DepopulationBomb and SterilityPlague.