Men Against Fire — The Perfect Super Soldier

Interest in Super Soldiers

There’s a lot of speculating going on, that the US government is investing in making super soldiers. A super soldier can do things a conventional soldier can’t do. Even in the 2nd world war, German armies tried to build super soldiers in their labs. Serum was made out of Methamphetamine in 1944 in order to enhance the performance of Nazi soldiers. We can observe in the comic book literature the adaptation of super soldiers. Steve Rogers aka Captain America, Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke and Cyborg are 3 of the main super soldiers in Marvel and DC comic book genres. Throughout human history, it has always been paramount importance to build the perfect soldier who’s gonna win wars. The Black Mirror episode Men against fire gives a broader understanding of the matter. Without further a due let’s get to it.

The Black Mirror Episode

The show is illustrated in a vintage style filter throughout the entire screening. It gives a mystic “Call of Duty” type feeling to the viewer. The protagonist “Stripe" is an African American soldier in the US army. His battalion which is led by a female army officer “Medina" is located near a Slavic village. Stripe’s best friend and army buddy/companion is a badass female soldier known as “Railman". In this new era of the battlefield an electronic implant known as the “mass" has been implanted in each and every one of the army battalion giving them enhanced focusing abilities, enhanced strength, ability to shoot more accurately and more the merrier, mass gives you sexy dreams while sleeping. It is shown that Stripe keeps seeing having sex with the same woman in his dreams each night.

The Village Attack

They have been informed that the villagers have been attacked by some sort of monsters in the late days. The monsters who are known as “Roaches" have come to the village and plundered their food supply. Villagers believe even the left amount of food after pillaging by roaches is contaminated - unsuitable for further consumption. After visiting the village Medina gets to know that a villager known as “Parn Heidekker" who lives separately from the rest of the villagers in a house further away from the village serves ammunition and shelter to the monsters.

Search Party

Medina gathers her battalion including Stripe and Railman, travels to the forest in pursuit of Heidekker. After arriving they use a modern mapping technology to map the entire 3D model of the house in free space to brief the mission. The battalion enters the house and Medina starts questioning Heidekker while other soldiers go in pursuit of potential Roaches.

Through a hidden door Stripe goes in to find Roaches. Behind some clothing line there they are. The Roaches start making animalistic noises and jump towards Stripe. Now we get a view of a Roach and we get an idea of how the Roaches look like. They look like the monster soldiers with sharp teeth and animal-like faces like they are straight outta Lord of the Rings. Stripe opens fire from his semi-automatic rifle to the entire bunch of Roaches. Some die on the spot and some try to escape. Stripe follows them and shoots them mercilessly. One Roach fights back and pushes Stripe’s rifle away, however, Stripe manages to stab the Roach by a knife over and over even after the Roach is dead. However, while fighting, some minor strange incident occurs. A high pitched frequency coming from a tube echoes in Stripe’s ear. This piece of equipment is in the hand of a dead Roach.

Mission Possible

After a successful mission, the battalion arrives at their quarters. Stripe is very proud to have several kills in his first raid. And everything seems normal until in the training session, Stripe hears that echo of the high pitched shrieking sound making him pauses his training. Medina notices something odd is going with Stripe so she asks him to report to the sickbay. A doctor does a full body check up for Stripe and he comes out as completely healthy and fit. And Stripe has a conversation with the executive officer named “Arquette”. Arquette wishes him good luck in the missions to come. Now Stripe fresh as new, ready to go again for a mission.

The Abandoned Building

The battalion receives intel that Roaches are living in an abandoned building nearby. They go for a Roach- kill. Apparently, Roaches are somewhat developed because they use solar power for their energy requirements. So Medina, Stripe and Railman start to go inside the building. Suddenly a bullet comes racing from the sky and next thing you know Medina is shot to death. Now only Stripe and Railman are left. Railman tells Stripe to cover her while she attempts to go inside the building. Again that high pitched shriek echoes in Stripe’s ears. Stripe falls on the ground to recover from the shock. Railman says “ What the hell is wrong with you man? I asked to cover me". However, both of them manage to go inside the building. Stripe and Railman go in separate ways, while Railman examines and kills roaches in the ground floor, Stripe goes to upper floors. Stripe goes into a room kicking the door open and pointing a gun towards inside. A seemingly poor human woman is there in the corner who’s terrified to death. Stripe tells her that he’s not gonna hurt her and paves the way to her to leave the room. As soon as the poor woman leaves the room, a bullet comes thrashing towards her and makes her dead. Stripe comes out of the room expecting a Roach, but its Railman. Railman has shot an innocent civilian. Railman goes into a hallway and starts opening fire. Stripes arrive in the hallway and recognize that She’s shooting innocent civilians. A fight breaks through between Stripe and Railman ultimately Stripe getting shot in the stomach while Railman passing out for a while.

The Betrayal

Injured Stripe takes a civilian child and a woman who are still alive and takes them to an army truck and starts driving away from Railman. Since Stripe is bleeding out soon he falls asleep while driving resulting the truck to stop in the middle of the forest. The woman opens an underground pathway in the middle of the forest and takes Stripe into it. Eventually, Stripe wakes up and his bleeding has stopped. The woman has sewed him.

The Big Reveal

An interesting conversation carries out between Stripe and the woman. She says that she’s a Roach and asks Stripe why doesn’t he recognize her as a Roach. All Stripe sees is a regular normal woman sitting in front of him. Shocked by the reveal Stripe wanders here and there inside the underground barack. She says that her tribe doesn’t acquire strong DNA so the government is sending soldiers such as Stripe to eradicate them. At this point, Railman has followed Stripe, Woman and the child into the underground settlement. Railman starts shooting the child and the woman resulting in their instant death.

Back to Square One

Next thing Stripe remembers is waking up in a white room with Arquette the army executive interrogating him. Arquette reveals that the “mass" implant not only makes you a better soldier it acts as a virtual reality (VR) experience too. He says that it is easy to shoot when the enemy looks like the boogeyman. Apparently the entire concept of “Roaches" is a lie. Roaches are normal human beings with a normal look, but their DNA has some weaknesses and diseases embedded in it. So the government has ruled out that the entire population of those people should be terminated from the planet. Since obviously, any army soldier doesn’t want to kill an innocent civilian, the mass implant alters their vision showing a monster that is easy to kill. Not only that, mass implant alters your smelling ability too. It deliberately cuts out the smell of unpleasant things such as rotten things, blood so that the super soldier can do the government’s dirty work without any hesitation. Also, the mass implant can alter your memories and replace them with completely new memories that never happened. In other words, soldiers become obedient pawns with the abilities of a queen in a chess game played by the government.

Are You in Control?

The Roach humans have developed a device that can burn the mass implant by sending a high pitch frequency signal. That is how Stripe got his mass implant destroyed. And with that he started seeing Roaches for who they really are. He saw their true human nature. That was the only time he was free of control from the mass implant and he was free to make his own decisions without the interference of the government. The most terrifying part is Arquette shows him a video clip of Stripe giving consent to do the mass implant when he was recruited to the army. Of course Stripe doesn’t remember any of it, the government has taken that memory away from him. A common disadvantage of soldiers who go to war is they suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after many kills in the war. They come back home shocked and some need psychiatric attention because the memories seem to be overlapping amplifying their PTSD. The mass implant clearly addresses this issue by selectively removing bad memories from your brain and keeps it brand new each and every morning. The sad part is by mass implant, soldiers become slaves who acts in the sole impure intentions of the government without any choice. It is like Roman empire repeating again. The gladiators who fought in the grand Colloseum for the pleasure of their noble masters, resemble these super soldiers fight for their government.

Is the Government Your Best Friend?

Finally, Arquette threatens Stripe that he’ll put Stripe in a visual memory loop of his own killings of innocent civilians. That is a nightmare which can drive any sane man crazy. The other choice Stripe is left with is to serve the army as a brand new soldier without the previous memories of his horrific discoveries. Stripe chooses the latter choice showing how people repeatedly become victims and slaves of a higher authority with a higher power throughout the evolution of the human civilization.

Real Life Applications and Future

Wars are inevitable. That’s why most of the countries spend millions of dollars on military research each year.

DARPA funded Warrior Web Exoskeleton Suit

The project’s goal is to create a low power (under 100 watts), lightweight (40 lbs), an under-the uniform exoskeleton that lets soldiers walk, run or climb farther and faster without extra effort with increased agility. A computer that is attached to the soldier’s backpack can sense movement and it can control soldier’s speed.

Drugs that Enhance Capabilities

Recently many soldiers have used a drug called Captagon to increase their concentration, awareness, alertness and to decrease fear. In the 1960s this drug was used to treat Narcolepsy and Depression but was banned due to its many negative effects. But nowadays scientists try to remake the drug in order to let soldiers stay awake for days without feeling an inch of tiredness. Another is a cardiac drug called Meldonium which is used by the Soviet army troupes to enhance their Oxygen carrying capacity and to increase their endurance which comes handy when climbing mountains. Also, vaccinations are in development that lets the soldier feel numb and no pain during combat. However, these drugs are highly dangerous and not suitable for human consumption.

Nano Implants

These nano implants which are sort of nanorobots are to be inserted inside the soldier’s brain. This will boost up his knowledge level tremendously giving the ability to learn a new language or a new martial art just like in Matrix movies.

These are some growing trends in Super Soldier research in the world right now. If these technologies become a reality in the future as I was trying to speculate throughout this article there will be negative effects as well as positive effects in the future society.