Here, certain safety-blind scientists don't see the problem in carrying out their groundbreaking experiments in urban areas — not because there's something about the city that the research is dependent on, but simply because the narrative needs more drama for when the inevitable accident occurs.
Sometimes, this can be justified by the researchers honestly not realizing how dangerous the subject is but more often than not, no such excuse exists.
Depending on the genre of the story, this danger can be an imminent cataclysm that the hero needs to prevent before innocent citizens are hurt, it can be the source of an apocalyptic threat that's already spread across the city and is in danger of spreading even further, or it can be a background reference to show just how cavalier or stupid the researchers are. In the event that the researchers are villains, the city laboratory might even offer escaping test subjects an entire city of places to hide — or a very obvious target for the subjects' friends to break in and rescue them.
For added insanity, it's not uncommon for the research to take place in a massive skyscraper right at the heart of the metropolis, sometimes at the headquarters of the corporation funding the experiments. Needless to say, this is likely a sign of Incompetence, Inc., since doing so not only means putting innocent people at risk in the event of an accidental release but also leaving company executives at risk — which you'd think they'd be more worried about.
Compare with For Science!, where a character is willing to bypass everything (from laws to basic ethics) for the sake of scientific discovery, and Mad Scientist, as this is likely the kind of person who would conduct an experiment somewhere it could cause collateral damage.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- AKIRA:
- The psychic research takes place in the heart of Neo-Tokyo, in a massive skyscraper with security that clearly isn't equipped to handle anything more powerful than the relatively placid Psychic Children who've been living there for the last few decades. This results in absolute carnage when Tetsuo's newly awakened powers turn out to be stronger than anticipated, allowing him to wreak havoc across the building and escape into the city beyond.
- It's also revealed that this trope is the very reason why Tokyo was destroyed in the first place: research into Akira's psychic powers occurred right in the middle of Tokyo, resulting in a city-levelling disaster when he lost control — triggering World War III in the process.
- Bubblegum Crisis: GENOM is noted for running dangerous experiments around the city of Mega-Tokyo, with industrial "accidents" resulting in explosions being a common occurrence throughout the OVA series. And this is made doubly dangerous as the company has been known to send combat-boomers after targets that have displeased them or because they have information that the company wants contained.
- Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040: An experiment to create a fusion between organic life and cybernetic life (resulting in the creation of the Boomers), was responsible for a devastating earthquake that utterly destroyed Tokyo, and created the artificial lifeform, Galatea. In addition, Boomers, being semi-organic, are prone to going rogue due to the need of organics life to change, while GENOM keeps them locked into a particular task as automatons, resulting in the reality that ANY Boomer the company sells can snap and go rogue and murderous. This proves especially dangerous for the Knight Sabers when an attempt is made to use a Boomer for combat applications: it goes rogue and begins to destroy portions of Tokyo, with its armor being too tough for their standard weapons to harm it.
- Cyberpunk: Edgerunners: David Martinez ends up as an enhanced cyborg after being taken by Arasaka to test the limits of his tolerance to cybernetic implants. After David's girlfriend Lucy gets kidnapped by an Arasaka-affiliated Fixer, he goes on a rampage through Arasaka Tower, leading to enough damage that the corporation sends in their top hitman, Adam Smasher, to deal with him. The resulting battle between David and Smasher (along with David's crew), would spread from the tower to the city outside. By the time Smasher kills David, a ton of property damage has been inflicted within Arasaka Tower and the surrounding Corporate Center of Night City.
- Gundam:
- Mobile Suit Gundam: As part of the top-secret Project V, the Earth Federation's desperate attempt to develop their own Mobile Suits to counter the Principality of Zeon's Zaku II Mobile Suits, the prototype machines were transported to the still-under-construction space colony at Side 7 for tests, which was sparsely populated and far from the frontlines of the on-going One Year War note . This meant that when Zeon forces under the leadership of Char Aznable arrived to investigate, the resulting battle left most of the civilians and military personnel dead, leading the survivors to flee on the White Base. Many of the civilians were forced to take up positions on the White Base due to most of the military personnel either being killed in action or too wounded to carry out their duties (e.g. Sayla Mas, a medical student, pulled double duty as a nurse and as a communications officer, civilian Mirai Yashima volunteered to act as helmsman). Bright Noa, a mere Ensign, was put in acting command by mortally wounded Captain Paolo Cassius because he was the highest-ranking officer left.
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket: After the Cyclops Team's failed attempt at capturing or destroying the experimental Gundam codenamed "Alex", it was moved to the neutral Libot colony at Side 6 for further development and testing. Learning of this, Zeon dispatched the Cyclops Team to infiltrate the colony and either capture or destroy the Alex. The culmination was a two-pronged operation: Ace Pilot Misha would launch an attack with the Glass Cannon Mobile Suit Kampher while the rest of the team infiltrated the base to try to make their way to the Alex. Due to the design of the colony meaning that the base was surrounded by urban areas, Misha's destruction of defending Federal forces left hundreds of civilians dead, including numerous children note . When a damaged Zeon Zaku suddenly appeared and began approaching the base, the earlier death toll drove the Alex's pilot to hold her fire until both machines had made their way to an empty forested area. Unluckily for the Alex, the Zaku's pilot, the last survivor of the Cyclops Team, had gambled on that and previously set up traps in the forest that helped turn what would normally be a Curb-Stomp Battle into a Mutual Kill.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Similar to the events of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, it is revealed that the Earth Alliance and Orb Union's Morgenrote were secretly constructing the G-Weapons for the EA's G-Project as well as Morgenrote secretly developing the Astray Series prototypes at the colony Heliopolis, an Orb-owned neutral colony. Thus, the civilians had absolutely no idea that such a thing was going on when Rau Le Cruset ordered his team to attack the colony and capture the G-Weapons. Far few civilians were involved in boarding the Archangel when some of its crew were killed but the resulting battles saw the colony completely destroyed. It did have a bit of political fallout as Chief Representative of Orb Uzumi Nara Athha is forced to step down due to the fact that the staunchly pacifistic Orb Union was doing something like constructing weapons.
- Mazinger Z: Zigzagged in the most basic version of the origin story. Professor Juzo Kabuto is credited with the discovery of the powerful and clean energy source known as Photo-Atomic Energy which is generated from a metal he named Japanium due to it only being found at Mount Fuji. The Photo-Atomic Energy Research Center is thus set up not far from Mount Fuji, far from any population centers due to how potent it is. However, no one is aware that Juzo has secretly been conducting experiments of his own under his manor situated not far from Tokyo: the construction of a powerful Photo-Atomic Energy-powered robot he's named Mazinger Z in preparation for a coming conflict with his former friend Dr. Hell. When Dr. Hell's minions attack the manor and assassinate Juzo, he lasts long enough to inform his grandson Kouji Kabuto of Mazinger's existence note . Unfortunately, due to not having any knowledge of how to pilot Mazinger, Kouji's initial attempt at piloting it results in the machine going out of control and rampaging through Tokyo until Sayaka Yumi and her Aphrodite A arrive and she's able to explain how to shut Mazinger down.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: The original, experimental Ener-D reactor was located smack dab in the middle of Domino City. When it was purposefully overloaded it by Roman Goodwin, it exploded, creating a large ravine that separated its immediate environs from the rest of Domino City; that area was renamed Satellite and became a slum, compared to the more affluent New Domino City. To make matters worse, the ravine opened a channel to the Underworld where the Earthbound Immortals were kept prisoner.
Audio Plays
- Big Finish Doctor Who: In "Harvest", the secret program to transform willing Cybermen into humans and create new cyborg astronauts from reverse-engineered Cyber technology all takes place at St Gart's Bankside Hospital in London. It turns out that this is because the A&E department of a major hospital can supply the program with all the donors needed to keep the de-converted Cybermen alive while they consult on the reverse-engineering. In the end, however, the natural drawback arrives in force when the humanized Cyberleader decides that being human just gives him the insight he needs to stage a better invasion, then seizes control of the program with the intent of making the hospital into a Cyberfactory — with kidnapped civilians from around the city as converts.
Comic Books
- The Amazing Spider-Man (1963): In issue #406, during The Clone Saga, some lackeys of the female Dr. Octopus stage a test run of her virtual reality machine in New York, in a way to prepare to "fuse virtual reality with reality". The lackeys generate a bunch of VR dinosaurs in the middle of the city, frightening the citizens, and they soon disappear.
- Fantastic Four:
- Zig-zagged; Reed Richards is well-known for conducting various experiments at the Baxter Building, but after it was replaced by Four Freedoms Plaza, Reed Richards installed numerous failsafes in the knowledge that a good deal of his research was highly dangerous. For good measure, when he works on something he believes is especially risky, he'll at least makes use of labs in other dimensions or at least far away from population centres, just to be safe.
- Zigzagged by Doctor Doom, who often performs experiments inside his fortress of Castle Doom... which is the Latverian seat of government and though it's not part of the capital city of Doomstadt, being built on the side of the mountain, it's still just outside the city. Worse still, the castle is often filled with civilian employees and locals filling in forms or making appeals. Fortunately for these civilians, Doom normally takes tremendous pains to carry out more dangerous experiments deeper inside Castle Doom, where numerous failsafes are in place. That doesn't stop the occasional particularly powerful experiment from wrecking the castle or breaking out... and naturally does not protect the civilian populace when Doom deliberately uses them as the subjects of experiments.
- Jommeke: Professor Gobelijn is a repeat offender. Several albums start with the premise that he's been developing a gas or serum with benign properties aimed to cure a specific problem (a hair-growing potion, a feather-growing gas, a serum to regrow the severed trunk of the zoo's elephant, etc.), and not only are the experiments conducted in the village, but he also mass-produces the medication and stores it in his castle/mansion/laboratory in the center of town. Invariably the thing escapes into the air or water supply and affects the whole village, giving everyone within twenty miles trunks, feathers for hair, fruit trees for hair, massive quick-growing hair, or just makes them float into the sky. In 'Kinderen Baas' ('Kids in charge'), he even deliberately sprays the whole village with a potion that's supposed to make all kids super-smart, only to discover later that it also makes all adults as dumb as babies.
Fan Fiction
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: When surfacer wizards do dangerous research that involves evil forces, they want to do it in temples, which are usually inside cities, because their gods have strong protection and healing magic, making it the safest place to be injured, and easiest containment of any issues.
- Future Is Bright (Danny Phantom): As in canon, the Doctors Fenton regularly perform ecto-experiments (including building a portal to the Ghost Dimension) in the middle of their neighborhood in a small town. The various times their experiments have endangered the town and their children causes Batman to arrest them for public/reckless endangerment (not to mention hate crimes against nonhumans).
- Optimus on Earth: Sumdac Systems is in the middle of Detroit, and sometimes creations escape and wreak havoc. For example, the first chapter of Transform and Roll Out ends with Optimus and Amaya having defeated an army of microbot bugs. Optimus gives Sumdac a look and suggests he put a halt on all microbot-related experiments.
Films — Animation
- Big Hero 6: Downplayed. Before the events of the film, Alister Krei established Project Silent Sparrow to experiment with teleportation on Akuma Island just off the coast of San Fransokyo. Initially, the deserted island made it ideal to keep the project secret, and when the project did go pear-shaped, it was easy to quarantine with no adverse effects on the city. However, because Krei Industries abandoned the project, there's no security to keep the island off-limits despite the short distance between it and the city, so it was easy for the vengeful Yokai to make his way from San Fransokyo to the island and recreate Project Silent Sparrow.
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: In the small town of Shallow Falls, resident Ditzy Genius Flint Lockwood creates a good number of inventions with the hope it would improve the town's livelihood but his tendency in not thinking things through and seeking the approval of others, namely his father, has led to his inventions causing havoc. Naturally, this has led Flint to be viewed as an outcast or a loony. When his latest invention, the FLDSMSDFR, that turns water into food actually works, it nonetheless drops food from the sky over the town and when the machine is overworked, it begins to turn the food supersized and sentient, threatening the whole world.
- Paprika: Played with in the anime film adaptation; the research into the DC Mini is conducted in a sleek corporate building in Tokyo, and because the tests take place entirely in dreams, there's not much security needed, to the point that Paprika carries out her secret experimental therapy in hotel rooms. However, when someone steals a DC Mini prototype and uses it to "hack" the minds of people across Tokyo, it becomes clear that it can have an effect on the real world — resulting in several people across the city being driven insane. Taken to its logical conclusion in the finale, in which the thief's careless toying with the DC Mini causes the boundary between the dreamworld and the waking world to break down, unleashing the nightmare parade on downtown Tokyo with borderline apocalyptic results.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: The action of the film kicks off when it's found that the Kingpin's been attempting to open a dimensional gateway so he can be reunited with his dead wife and son in another reality... and of course, the experiments have been taking place in New York City, cause significant property damage and citywide blackouts just from attempted activations, and have the potential to destroy the entire city if allowed to continue for too long, prompting the involvement of Spider-Man — and when that isn't enough to shut down the program permanently, Miles Morales and a whole host of Spider-Man's alternate-universe counterparts.
- Wreck-It Ralph: In the backstory of the game Hero's Duty, the Cy-Bugs were created in a science experiment Gone Horribly Wrong. The science lab they were created in was in the middle of a highly populated area, which is why the plot of the game is that a bunch of commandos need to kill the bugs.
Films — Live-Action
- 28 Days Later: The experiments which created the apocalyptically contagious and fast-acting Rage virus took place on chimps in a lab called the "Cambridge Primate Research Center", with a tie-in comic for the sequel revealing that the lab was in Cambridge University — which is itself connected to a city with a population of more than a hundred thousand people. Had the virus been developed in a much more remote region of the United Kingdom, then whilst it's doubtful it would've stopped the virus from spreading into other cities, considering how fast and relentlessly the Infected can move, it could have at least slowed the spread in the beginning and/or given the authorities more time to prepare to counter it.
- Blue Thunder: The Government Conspiracy behind the titular experimental attack helicopter are deploying it in Los Angeles for test demonstrations of its combat potential...and are deliberately stirring up unrest in the poorer sections of the city just to give the helicopter incidents to respond to.
- District 9: It turns out that the experiments on Prawns and their technology are being conducted in a lab under the MNU building in Johannesburg, presumably because District 9's location right outside the city makes it easy to bring in new subjects. It also makes it easy to capture and deliver Wikus when he first begins showing signs of transformation into a Prawn. However, the laboratory's location ultimately backfires twice: first, when Wikus breaks out of the lab just before he's due to be harvested for genetic material, the urban setting makes it very easy for him to vanish into Joburg. Then, when Wikus and Christopher Johnson need to retrieve the fluid, it doesn't take too much of a journey to get back to the lab and raid it.
- Fantastic Four (2005): After gaining their powers, the future Fantastic Four hole up in Reed Richards' home atop the Baxter Building in New York City, where Reed conducts tests on their conditions and tries to find a cure. He's eventually able to develop a machine that can recreate the space cloud anomaly that gave them their powers and potentially return them to normal, though actually using the machine causes nearly all the electronics and lights in the city to go haywire... but the real damage begins when Victor Von Doom exploits the experiments to drain Benn Grimm of power ahead of the others so as to take out the Fantastic Four's first line of defence, allowing him to begin an attempt to murder all of them, resulting in the ensuing violence spilling onto the streets.
- Ghostbusters (1984): Three bumbling scientists form a startup around using apparently-nuclear technology in a novel paranormal application, and they do it in the middle of Manhattan. The final act of the movie is kicked off when the Jerkass EPA agent (correctly) declares their technology is too dangerous, but in shutting it down, causes a literal explosion and triggers a small paranormal apocalypse that spreads across all of New York City. The pervasive No OSHA Compliance is consistently Played for Laughs, including blowing up an hotel employee’s cleaning cart, destroying a fancy ballroom, and driving like maniacs down busy streets.
Ray: (standing in an elevator) You know, it just occurred to me that we really haven't had a successful test of this equipment.Egon: I blame myself.Venkman: So do I.Ray: Well, no sense in worrying about it now.
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Zigzagged. For years, Monarch has been researching the various Titans that have been dormant for centuries in various parts of the world, setting bases and labs at their resting places. Unfortunately, some of these Titans are slumbering near populated areas which becomes a problem when Ghidorah awakens and sends out a call that awakens all the other Titans, leading to numerous deaths and untold destruction. This is Justified in that Monarch had no conceivable means of moving the Titans nor could they give an explanation to move the population of whole cities.
- Godzilla vs. Kong: Following the Titans' awakening, Apex Cybernetics CEO Walter Simmons seeks a means to combat the Titans; to this end, the company secretly conducts experiments that ultimately lead to the creation of Mechagodzilla, who Simmons hopes will supplement Godzilla. However, using Ghidorah's skull as a control signal enrages Godzilla, prompting him to demolish each location sending it... which just happen to be Apex laboratories in heavily populated areas, though Simmons isn't concerned about that as the attacks discredit Godzilla. Mechagodzilla itself is contained within a hidden bunker in Hong Kong, so when Simmons finally completes his masterpiece, Ghidorah's consciousness awakens and seizes control of Mechagodzilla, resulting in it going on a rampage through the city.
- Gremlins 2: The New Batch: One floor of the Clamp Building in New York is occupied by a research company experimenting with gene splicing, with zero security and no reinforced structures for the experiments. When the Gremlins reach the lab, they easily steal various gene serums that cause them to mutate into even more dangerous forms, including a monstrous spider-gremlin, a brain-enhanced leader, one made of pure electricity; one is not only given bat wings but even injected with a sunblock solution that allows it breach the building and escape into the city.
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Zig-zagged; in San Fransico, biotechnology company Gen-Sys is attempting to create a drug-based cure for Alzheimer's and testing it on chimpanzees. All well and good in the initial stages of the project, but once their test subject gives birth to the significantly more intelligent Caesar, the urban location becomes more problematic when Caesar rebels against poor treatment by his human handlers by spreading a more potent gaseous variant of the drug to the other chimpanzees. An uprising in San Francisco ensues, and though the rebellion is eventually contained, it turns out that the drug's effects on humans result in the creation of a deadly virus: just one infected human being at San Francisco International Airport kicks off a global pandemic.
- Spider-Man 2: Dr. Otto Octavius has developed a self-sustaining fusion reactor that can produce infinite clean energy... and he holds the demonstration in the middle of New York City, complete with funding from Harry Osborn — who doesn't understand the risks and is only interested in outdoing his father's achievements. Peter Parker, who does understand the risks, is deeply concerned, but Otto assures him that he's calculated all the variables perfectly. Unfortunately, he miscalculated: the demonstration kills Otto's wife, accidentally welds his mechanical arms to his spine, causes considerable property damage, and leaves Harry's reputation in the toilet, especially since the accident could have wiped out a good-sized chunk of NYC if Spider-Man hadn't stopped it in time. Worse still, after the arms' AI starts influencing his brain, Otto tries again on a strictly criminal basis, this time with enough tritium to potentially destroy the entire city.
- Victor Frankenstein: As this story involves the infamous Mad Scientist himself, this isn't surprising. Nonetheless, in this story, Victor Frankenstein is a young, ambitious and prideful medical student who is obsessed with the theory that he can bring the dead back to life, refusing to accept any hinderance to his experiments. By the time the former hunchback Igor Strausman becomes his assistant, Victor has been making various tests on reanimating a dead chimpanzee in the basement of his London flat, which is what used to be a factory. When Victor believes he is ready for a true demonstration, he sets up a presentation at his medical school. Suffice it to say, the experiment in truly bringing his dead chimpanzee to life goes haywire as the feral animal goes berserk and starts attacking anyone near. The trope becomes more subverted when Victor is offered a secluded castle near the coast by the wealthy Finnegan with the aim of bringing an actual Artificial Human to life which is all nice and well despite the experiment still going off the rails.
- X-Men: The Last Stand: Zigzagged with Worthington Labs setting up a laboratory facility on Alcatraz Island within San Francisco. Here they run tests on the mutant Leech, who possesses the ability to negate the powers of other mutants. Through Leech's genetic code, the Worthington scientists managed to create a serum that can return a mutant back to a normal human, supposedly permanently. Insulted at the concept they can be "cured" like a disease, Magneto and his Brotherhood soon organize an army after its revealed that the cure had been weaponized, leading them to launch an attack at Worthington Labs. While Alcatraz Island is largely isolated, making access to the island difficult, its rendered moot when Magneto uses his mastery over magnetism to move the entirety of the Golden Gate Bridge to transport himself and his army to the island, endangering countless civilians trapped on the bridge and in the nearby city.
Literature
- In the Backstory of Against a Dark Background, Lady Sharrow's mercenary team retrieved a Lazy Gun, a reality-warping weapon that resists any attempt to tamper with it by blowing up. Sharrow had assumed they'd take it to one of their secret research labs in the desert; instead the university studies it right there and the resulting explosion destroys half the city. Sharrow has a lot of guilt—and resentment from others—over this.
- Ciaphas Cain: Cain discovers a bunch of tech-priests doing extremely dangerous experiments on captured Tyranids and genestealers in the middle of a populated forge world. Not only is there a large amount of biomass for the Tyranids to consume should they break out, but their very presence calls down a Tyranid hive-fleet. Of course, it all makes perfect sense to tech-priests, who are bad at considering both human opinions and wider strategic implications. From their perspective, a forge world has everything they could possibly need for their comfort and experiments. Any problems are secondary.
- Dinoverse: The first time the MIND Machine activates and sends several peoples' minds back in time, it's an accident, as the kid who built it had thought he was making a hoax that "showed the dreams" of people, not a time machine at all. When he and the others get back, he takes a chunk off of it and tells his teacher Mr. London to destroy it. Mr. London instead sets it up in the school basement, tries to replace these missing pieces, and activates it...during the school day.
- Discworld: The city of Ankh-Morpork is host to the Alchemists' Guild, the members of which are famously prone to accidentally blowing themselves up over the course of their experiments. As such, their city guildhall explodes several times a month and exists in a constant state of repairs, so the city is well aware of the potential for collateral damage: the only consistent neighbor of the guildhall is the Gamblers' Guild, for obvious reasons.
- Perdido Street Station: The main conflict of the novel is caused by the corrupt government of New Crobuzon studying slake-moths, massive lepidoptera that consume the minds of sentient beings and excrete a hallucinogenic substance made from their victims' dreams. Rather than keeping the slake-moths in an isolated location, they're imprisoned in the heart of the city-state New Crobuzon, with their excretions being given to Mr Motley for distribution as a Fantastic Drug; disaster strikes when one of their caterpillars is smuggled out to Isaac for his studies into flight, and when the caterpillar matures into a slake-moth, it escapes and sets its siblings free, resulting in a city-wide Introduced Species Calamity that both the government and Isaac are forced to take incredible risks to end.
- The Wheel of Time: In the Age of Legends, the Sharom was a research institute suspended a thousand feet above a major city for pure Rule of Cool. When an ill-conceived experiment there made contact with the God of Evil in its prison outside Creation, the entire building exploded, raining an inferno of black fire over the city.
Live-Action TV
- The Big Bang Theory: Typically the group of four genius-level friends conduct various experiments within their workplace of California Institute of Technology but oftentimes, they decide to make a few experiments within the apartment building where Leonard and Sheldon live. Normally, said experiments aren't that dangerous but in "The Starcase Implementation", during the time when Leonard first moved in as Sheldon's roommate, Leonard wanted to create some rocket fuel for Howard's model rocket. Sheldon states that the formulation was wrong but Leonard didn't believe him until the fuel began to have a reaction. On the verge of exploding, Sheldon, in an act of quick thinking, takes the fuel container and places it in the elevator. The fuel explodes as expected rendering the elevator to be inoperable for years.
- Doctor Who:
- Justified in "The Empty Child". In the wake of another German bombing raid, the eponymous Undead Child was brought to the Albion Hospital on the Thames Embankment, though only because it was the hospital closest to the bomb site. The doctors honestly didn't know what they had, hence why they tried studying him in the first place, and by the time they realized he was carrying a plague that converted its victims into other gas-masked zombies, it was already too late: every doctor or nurse that had been in contact with him was infected and spreading it to other patients and staff members in the building. Before long, the hospital was so overwhelmed with plague victims that there was nobody left to stop the Child from leaving, which he did, continuing the spread of the plague across London...
- In "The Lazarus Experiment", Richard Lazarus demonstrates a machine that can reverse the aging process at a lab right in the middle of London, and it very nearly blows up in the faces of the guests, forcing the Doctor to step in and prevent an explosion. However, the demonstration successfully regresses the ancient Lazarus to his thirties... at the cost of periodically transforming him into a prehistoric scorpion-monster that feeds on life-force, and Lazarus has few qualms about feeding his appetite when the hunger hits. Worse still, the carnage eventually spills out of the building, eventually resulting in a showdown with the Doctor at St Paul's cathedral...
- Kamen Rider Amazons: Twice.
- The premise of the show is that 4000 experimental man-eating Amazons escaped from Nozama Pharmacy before the start of the show and have been eating people, necessitating mercenaries to exterminate them before their existence becomes public. It's eventually revealed that the very CEO of Nozama unleashed them on purpose to turn the city into an evolutionary ecosystem he could gawk at and be proud of.
- "Operation Tlaloc" is an attempt by the Pharmacy's higher-ups (notably Haruka's mother) to mass-sterilize the remaining Amazons with a controlled rainstorm throughout the Tokyo area carrying anti-Amazon mutagens. This would, of course, include innocent Amazons that haven't lost their sanity to their Horror Hunger yet. Haruka ultimately fails to prevent the genocide; Boomerang Bigot Jin fighting in the tainted rain in an attempted Mutual Kill of him and the Amazons. Two-thirds of the renegade Amazons are wiped out and Haruka loses all respect for his mother as a result.
- One Chicago: Played with in the three-part crossover beginning with "Infection Prt. 1". The main characters become embroiled in a crisis with the apparent outbreak of a new strain of Flesh-Eating Bacteria that is spreading fast in Chicago city, spreading fear and paranoia. Firefighters of House 51 find a clue after combating a fire in a Chicago university that does various research on all sorts of viruses and bacteria, some of which are much more dangerous than others, all for the sake of creating antibiotics and cures. At first, the facility had a secure bunker beneath the university building but a doctor at Chicago Med still wondered incredulously on why something so dangerous was being cultured so near Chicago. As the doctors scrambled to develop a treatment for the bacteria, the detectives of the Intelligence Unit discover that a doctor at the University is the source of the outbreak, having deliberately caused it after the company, BRT Health Industries, cut his funding, believing that such an outbreak was an unlikely scenario and opted to fund other more profitable projects like a new ADHD medication. Seeking revenge and wanting to prove them wrong, the doctor released the Flesh-Eating Bacteria to show everyone how "the world was going to end" before personally targeting the company's executives. Fortunately, the doctors create a promising treatment and the detectives corner the doctor before he can do anymore damage.
- Stargate SG-1: In "Meridian", the Kelownan government is experimenting on the highly volatile naquadria in order to create weapons for use in their Space Cold War with the other two superpowers on the planet... and it seems to be conducting these experiments in a research facility within the same city that SG-1 were allowed to visit. With this lack of safety precautions, it's not long before the first attempt to build a naquadria bomb results in an accident that almost destroys the entire city — and possibly the entire nation, given naquadria's notorious instability. Fortunately, Daniel Jackson is able to remove the core before it can overload and explode... at the cost of absorbing a fatal dose of radiation.
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: In "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", La'an and an Alternate Timeline Kirk are thrown back in time to 21st-century Toronto. They discover that there's an experimental cold fusion reactor at a research institute in the middle of the city, and that it's about to explode and destroy the city as it did in Kirk's timeline, badly altering Earth's future and preventing the creation of the Federation.
Video Games
- Abiotic Factor: The main laboratory complex averts this, being placed safely in the Australian outback, but GATE isn't always so careful.
- Their first successful perforation experiment was conducted in Flathill, a mid-sized Midwestern American town that had to be evacuated when the Composers came through.
- GATE also has a laboratory in New York, though the problem there is not with their experiments, but the Order coming in guns blazing.
- Batman: Arkham Series:
- Batman: Arkham Asylum: Zigzagged but within Arkham Asylum, Dr. Penelope Young has been secretly working on a chemical compound, codenamed TITAN, as a method for weaker patients to survive more strenuous treatments, mixing Poison Ivy's plants and the same Venom chemical used by Bane. Doctor Young only discovered the truth about her work when she learned that her financial backer, Jack White, is really The Joker who aims to use TITAN to create Bane-like monsters he would use to destroy Gotham. Though TITAN was made and tested on a secluded island where the Asylum is located, the site is nonetheless dangerously close enough to Gotham itself that if Joker succeeded in using TITAN as he envisioned, then the city would have been in serious danger. It gets worse as Doctor Young's TITAN formula can lead a patient to develop a deadly blood disease which leads to a whole new problem in the sequel.
- Batman: Arkham Origins: In the Cold, Cold Heart DLC, the Gotham-based corporation GothCorp seems like a Good Corp. with Ferris Boyle earning a “humanitarian of the year award” but in truth, Ferris is a Corrupt Corporate Executive that made a deal with the brilliant scientist Victor Fries. In exchange for developing a cure for his wife’s terminal illness, Victor would lead GothCorp's secret weapons program, centering on making cryogenic weaponry specifically. All within Gotham city. Unfortunately, Ferris had no intention of holding up his end of the bargain, leading to a lab accident involving cryogenic chemicals that would turn Victor into the subzero super criminal Mr. Freeze. Seeking revenge on Ferris and desperate to save his wife, Freeze makes a bargain with the crime lord The Penguin, arming his gang with cryogenic weapons in exchange for aiding him in kidnapping Ferris. With their new ice weapons, Penguin’s goons would use them to conduct a series of crime sprees throughout Gotham, causing havoc in the process.
- Batman: Arkham Knight:
- Zigzagged with Stagg Enterprises; company founder and CEO Simon Stagg conducts numerous pharmaceutical experiments aboard a fleet of airships rather than a lab in Gotham itself... but he keeps the fleet moored in the sky over Gotham anyway because Stagg is currently collaborating with Scarecrow in his efforts to refine his Fear Gas and develop the Cloudburst as a delivery system. As such, after Scarecrow effectively takes over Gotham, Stagg tries too late to flee, for the Arkham Knight's militia spread throughout the conquered city and raid his airship labs.
- In the side mission "Creature of the Night", it's found that Kirk and Francine Langstrom were creating experimental deafness cures in Gotham. Kirk developed a serum using vampire bat DNA and, wanting to cure his own chronic deafness, tested the serum on himself — only to transform himself into Man-Bat, resulting in the death of his wife over the course of the ensuing breakout, after which he's encountered freely terrorizing the already devastated Gotham.
- Zigzagged within the side mission "Beneath the Surface". Warden Ranken is in charge of Iron Heights Penitentiary but conducts experiments on the prisoners, being funded by Quorum. His main project is analyzing Killer Croc's mutation in the hopes of replicating his heightened healing factor but the trauma of his experiments (i.e. torture) only worsened Killer Croc's mutation, leading him to become larger, stronger and worse, craving revenge. As Iron Heights is housed within an airship, it normally wouldn't be near a populated area but as Ranken had traveled to Gotham to capture Killer Croc, the prison ship would be just off the coast of the city when it crashes into Gotham Bay after Killer Croc breaks free and wreaks the airship's engines. As such, it would be easy for the inmates to escape and reach the city. Fortunately, the inmates and Killer Croc aren't interested in escaping just yet as they want revenge on the Warden for all the torment he inflicted on them.
- BioShock:
- BioShock 1: Because efforts to expand Rapture were comparatively rare and leaving eventually became illegal, cutting-edge genetic research took place entirely within the city limits, sometimes even in residential areas like Dr Suchong's "clinic" in Apollo Square or public areas like the Medical Pavilion. For good measure, Andrew Ryan's notable distaste for any kind of regulation including safety made accidents and breakouts practically inevitable, only adding to the carnage within Rapture over time.
- BioShock 2: Sinclair Solutions attempted to avert this trope with Persephone, a hidden Penal Colony built on the underside of a precipice above an abyssopelagic trench. On top of renting its inmates to Fontaine Futuristics as test subjects, staff and "privileged" inmates like Sofia Lamb could conduct their own research in total secrecy... but despite the security and comparative isolation, the prison was still technically within Rapture's boundaries, since the entrance was hidden just outside the Fontaine Futuristics building. As such, when Sofia triggered a riot and took over the prison, the Spliced-up inmates were close enough to Rapture to launch raids into the city itself — first to kill Subject Delta and capture Eleanor, then to take over the entire city in Sofia's name once the civil war was over.
- BioShock Infinite:
- Lutece Labs is not only situated within Columbia, but it's built in the upmarket district of Emporia, within walking distance of some of the city's most exclusive shops, restaurants, and residences. As such, ghostly Tears and visions of other dimensions were widely reported as a result of Rosalind and Robert Lutece's experiments prior to the start of the game. Fortunately, the accident that eventually killed the Luteces spread no further than the now-derelict lab because it was engineered by Father Comstock to silence them.
- Father Comstock attempted to avert this by situating Elizabeth's prison on Monument Island, which floats on the very outskirts of Columbia. As such, the scientists were able to continue researching her without risking damage to the city or potential escape attempts — thanks in part to the Siphon built at the base of the Tower. Even once Elizabeth's powers grew so much that the staff had to evacuate the facility, Monument Island's defences kept her contained... so, instead, it fell victim to a different version of this trope: the fact that it was still nominally part of the city allowed Booker Dewitt to break in and rescue Elizabeth, then escape back into Columbia proper.
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2: Played With as it is done intentionally. Centuries following Dracula's fall, the Acolytes, Satan's human offspring, began preparations for their master's return. In doing so, they planted themselves within positions of power and influence. One such Acolyte, Raisa Volkova, became the lead researcher for a pharmaceutical company, the Bioquimek Corporation, which its headquarters are placed within the fictional Castlevania City. In addition to conducting various experiments involving cloning and genetic augmentation, Raisa developed a gas that when released can turn humans into demonic monsters that would serve in Satan's army, as part of the Acolytes' plan to plunge the world into chaos. After Dracula returns and investigates the Bioquimek Corporation, the gas had been completed and was ready to be released into the atmosphere but Raisa releases it early after sensing Dracula's presence, turning her scientists into monsters. Later on, the gas spreads over the city and likely beyond, spreading chaos with the Riot Police barely keeping things contained, just as the Acolytes had planned.
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: The headquarters for the FutureTech Corporation is located in the heart of Amsterdam, and contains a number of highly-volatile technologies including Zelinsky's time machine, and what is heavily implied to be a nuclear bomb in a world where nuclear weapons don't exist. Its technological (and temporal) significance makes the facility a vital target for the Japanese Empire, setting the scene for their final level. By the time the dust settles, not much of Amsterdam will be left.
- Control (2019): The Oldest House is a mysterious skyscraper home to the FBC, who extensively research the supernatural and test the capabilities of Eldritch Abominations on our reality. While they have many safeguards in place, this doesn't detract from the fact the Oldest House is smack dab in the middle of New York City. Thus, a complete meltdown or hostile takeover from the otherworldly presences within risks the destruction of the city, or more, should it spiral out of control.
- Cyberpunk 2077: Within the metropolis of Night City, various MegaCorps have headquarters to conduct their various experiments and test their latest cybernetic products. Since the setting is based in a Crapsack World, corporations like Arasaka and Militech often get away with little consequences whenever their products or experiments get out of hand or end up being claimed by gangs due to the extent of their influence over the city's political and economic landscape.
- Dead Space 2: The experiments in creating new Markers and harnessing their power all take place on Titan Station, essentially a massive spaceborne metropolis with a significant civilian presence. Once a Marker was successfully constructed during the backstory, quite a few civilians across the station began exhibiting the usual Marker-induced insanity, including the students at Titan Elementary... and when Necromorphs finally begin to appear in the main game, it's not long before they spread into the residential areas and begin slaughtering innocent people that can then be converted into more Necromorphs. Worst of all, by the time the Necromorph horde reaches the government sector, they've gathered enough numbers to trigger a Convergence event...
- Final Fantasy VII Remake: Within the metropolis of Midgar, the Shinra Electric Power Company conducts numerous experiments with Mako energy and with the alien entity, Jenova, in their efforts to expand their power and dominate the world. Such work is typically being led by Professor Hojo. Since the company basically has complete control over the city, Shinra is able to get away with it rather easily but they are smart enough to make such labs within more discrete locations, such as within the bowels of their corporate headquarters or beneath the Sector 7 Slums. In the case of the latter, the lab had been abandoned and as a result the monsters that been experimented on within the lab tend to get loose and cause a number of troubles to the Slum residents. Either way, as the company's leadership are of the Corrupt Corporate Executive type, they don't care.
- Final Fantasy XIV: Before the events of the main game, the Garlean Empire sought a means that would allow them to conquer Eorzea with ease. Using an ancient relic belonging to the Allagan Empire, as well as realizing that the red moon of Dalamud is in fact an Allagan construct brimming with energy, the empire sought to harness the red moon's power. They would dub this endeavor as Project Meteor, led by Midas nan Garlond. Setting up a lunar transmitter at a testing facility within the capital city of the conquered province of Bozja, the Empire used the relic to draw energy from the red moon. However, they underestimated just how much energy was stored within the moon. As nearly five thousand years' worth of pent-up energy was directed at the transmission tower, the beam was so intense that not only the tower, but the entire surrounding city of Bozja, was vaporized in an instant, killing Midas and all of the city's inhabitants. Despite the empire's efforts to coverup the catastrophe, the destruction of a major commercial center was too big to hide, and news of the city's destruction soon spread across the world and became known as the Bozja Incident, though the details behind the Incident remained unknown to those outside the imperial command for years.
- [PROTOTYPE]:
- The Gentek building in Manhattan contains a laboratory on the upper floors where Elizabeth Greene, whose body is host to the mutation-inducing "Redlight" virus, is kept as a test subject for gene manipulation experiments. When Alex Mercer breaks into the building seeking information, he inadvertently allows Greene to escape her containment cell and set the virus loose on the city, worsening the situation even further.
- The game later reveals that this wasn't even the first instance of this trope in the timeline: Gentek scientist Alex Mercer created an even more impressive strain of the virus on the same urban site, only to get paranoid about getting bumped off by Blackwatch and flee with a vial of the new "Blacklight" virus as insurance. When Blackwatch agents cornered him at Penn Station, Mercer broke the vial before being gunned down — unleashing Blacklight on Manhattan and unwittingly allowing his body to be reborn as a host for the virus. On the upside, Manhattan's nature as an island allows Blackwatch to easily quarantine the entire area, but given how quickly the virus is developing, it's only postponing the nuclear option.
- Resident Evil:
- Resident Evil 1: Played with in the first game. The Spencer Estate, where the Umbrella Corporation was conducting its research into the T-Virus, was located outside of Raccoon City. However, not far enough, as once the researchers are exposed and turned into zombies, reports of roving bands of killers attacking people on the edges of town are what get the S.T.A.R.S. team sent in to investigate in the first place.
- Resident Evil 2: The Umbrella Corporation is established to have long ago built various research stations around Raccoon City, as well as in its sewers, with an actual access point being concealed under the police station, where the corrupt Chief Irons can slip in and out unnoticed by his own police department.
- The Secret World:
- A visit to Orochi Tower in Tokyo reveals that it's not just an administrative center, but a massive set of laboratories for the Orochi Group's eight subsidiaries, almost all of which seem to be experimenting on something unimaginably dangerous: vampires, werewolves, giant locusts, corrupted fungus, Agarthan Custodians, cyborgs made from captive Bees, a supercomputer made of Third Age tech, the Guardian of Agartha, a Fantastic Nuke, the Filth... and in most cases, it's already gotten out of control, killed the research team, and is in danger of breaking out and making things even worse for the heavily quarantined city.
- Issue #12 reveals that Orochi also maintains a hidden laboratory/factory complex directly under the Tower, and on top of being the source of all the prototype robots that the Black Signal is using to terrorize the city, its central lab currently houses one of the most dangerous things in the entire setting: a Gaia Engine — a prison for a sleeping Dreamer and a potential source of the Filth. On the upside, it could save Tokyo if used in conjunction with Emma Smith's powers... but unfortunately, the Black Signal's found out about it, sending players on a race to stop him before he reaches it.
- Spider-Man (Insomniac):
- Spider-Man (PS4):
- In New York, Oscorp has been secretly working on a potential cure for numerous genetic diseases and birth defects called "GR-27", but the end result was so fatally imperfect that the scientists fear that it could become a global pandemic — to the point that the lab technicians called it "Devil's Breath". Indeed, Spider-man remarks that anything this dangerous should not be studied in the heart of New York City, but despite the clear and present danger, Norman Osborn refuses to cease work on the project, as it is his only hope of curing his son, Harry, of the same genetic disease that killed Harry's mother. Ultimately, everybody's fears become reality when Doctor Octopus steals Devil's Breath and unleashes it on the city as a bioweapon, resulting in massive casualties, widespread chaos, and a hurricane of trouble for Oscorp.
- In the three-part The City That Never Sleeps DLC, months after the main game, Oscorp has another project being developed in New York called Project Olympus. Working in collaboration with Sable International in return for occupying New York City during the Devil's Breath incident, Project Olympus was designed to create enhanced weaponry and soldiers, which Silver Sable would use to help end the civil war in her homeland of Symkaria. Though less dangerous than Devil's Breath, the project's location just made it easier for other factions to learn of its existence — most prominently Hammerhead and his Maggia crew — and steal from the project. Using the fruits of the project, Hammerhead turns his Maggia crew from a resurgent crime family to a supervillain-level threat that outguns the police, plunges the city into a gang war, complicates Spider-Man's efforts, and forces Silver Sable herself to return to New York City to reclaim Project Olympus.
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Oscorp isn't the only corporation at work on ludicrously dangerous R&D in the middle of urban New York; Roxxon Energy attempts to unveil a new clean energy source called Nuform, beginning in Harlem... but the "clean" energy causes lethal bone marrow decay to anyone within the Nuform generator's vicinity. Additionally, stray electricity can lead the Nuform to become extremely explosive. Lead scientist Rick Mason begged for the project to be cancelled or delayed so he could work out the bugs, but Roxxon R&D head Simon Krieger opted to plunge onwards rather than miss out on profits and glory in meeting the deadline — to the point of murdering Rick — subsequently leading Miles Morales to get involved to nullify Nuform before it poisons or destroys Harlem.
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2: Despite being set a few years after the first game, Norman Osborn and Oscorp still haven't learned their lesson about conducting dangerous experiments within New York City. This time, Norman's desperation to find a worthy replacement for GR-27 leads him to use an alien symbiote as a cure for Harry's terminal illness, and though it appears to work at first, the symbiote ultimately takes over its host and transforms him into the supervillain Venom — and the symbiote is now out to assimilate the planet into a new home for its kind... beginning with NYC. Worse still, an Oscorp supply train carrying a piece of the symbiote is later raided by a fanatic cult and falls into the homicidal hands of Cletus Kasady.
- Spider-Man (PS4):
- Spider-Man: The Movie: A late-night visit to Oscorp's NYC headquarters reveals that, in this continuity, the company is up to even more dangerous experiments than existed in film canon: there's actually a chemical weapons division in the building, which one Oscorp scientist fears could result in an accidental release on the entire city, forcing Spider-Man to team up with him in order to neutralize the weapons before they breach containment.
- StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm: In the Ultralisk Evolution Mission, the evolution master of the Zerg Swarm, Abathur, discovered a Terran Dominion compound on the capital world of Korhal during Kerrigan's invasion. Within the compound, Dominion scientists sought to create a gas that would pacify the Zerg but inadvertently created a toxin strain instead that had no effect on Zerg. Abathur believed that the gas would be useful in creating a new Ultralisk variant strain, leading him and Kerrigan to assume control over the Ultralisks captured within the compound. Successfully using the toxin, Abathur creates the Noxious Ultralisk, who then began to rampage through the facility, before breaking out into the wider city to aid their Queen's invasion, using their new toxic abilities to spread damage.
- Transformers Aligned Universe:
- Transformers: War for Cybertron: Though averted in the game, in which the dangerous and unstable Dark Energon is kept on Trypticon Station high above Cybertron itself, the novelization features Megatron taking over the station, claiming this resource for himself, then experimenting on it in his own capital city of Kaon in order to make sure nobody else can get their hands on it. Initially, nothing seems wrong and so he has all the Decepticons infuse themselves with it... only to find that Dark Energon is highly addictive, with users needing more and more of it just to keep sane. Worse, Optimus Prime successfully shutting down the core and ending any further Energon production means that the Decepticons' stock of Dark Energon cannot be replenished, and the fact that the Dark Energon is stockpiled in Kaon itself means that it's easy for other Decepticons to gain access in a desperate attempt to feed their addiction.
- Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark: Megatron wants the titular Dark Spark to be brought to the city of Kaon despite the potential for disaster. Shockwave even notes that, since they've no idea just what the Dark Spark can do, an attempt to fly it into the city is not advisable because for all they know, if the one carrying the Dark Spark is shot down the crash could cause the thing to detonate and take out the entire city.
- Transformers: Fall of Cybertron: Discussed in the case of the defeated Trypticon, the final boss of the previous game. The Autobots recovered his comatose body from under their capital city Iacon (where he fell after his defeat) and partially disassembled him to extract the large amounts of Energon still inside him. Perceptor is concerned about carrying out the operation within Iacon itself since if Trypticon ever got loose he'd be able to rampage through the city almost unopposed. However, he also recognizes that Optimus has crossed the Godzilla Threshold and is willing to both go to those lengths and take the risk because the situation is just that dire.
Web Originals
- A Tumblr user quipped
that most Mad Scientists are actually mad engineers, and imagined a mad actual scientist following a more classical experimental framework:
"I'm going to test the effects of deadly neurotoxin on the island of Manhattan. The control group will be Long Island, which I will not release deadly neurotoxin upon."
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: In the city of Retroville, preteen genius, Jimmy Neutron, conducts numerous experiments in his lab hidden in the backyard shed...and as a result of Jimmy's overconfidence and recklessness, it's very common for a miscalculation to lead to a catastrophe to hit Retroville. Though Jimmy and his friends are able to stop the mistake from causing further damage, the boy genius unfortunately never seems to learn his lesson, and the havoc Jimmy causes with his experiments and inventions has not helped his popularity in Retroville.
- Amphibia: Played straight and deconstructed:
- Lampshaded in the episode "Fixing Frobo". The IT Gals (a lesbian couple who run a vlog about building robots) warn Polly against testing the newly rebuilt Frobo in her garage (or near any heavily populated location). They recommend finding a large warehouse or someplace away from the city. Polly ignores them, and naturally disaster ensues.
- Played straight with the Mad Scientist Dr. Frinks. She runs a children's science center in Los Angeles as a forefront for her research with quantum physics. Despite knowing that many of her experiments could be dangerous (something her assistant Terry points out), Frinks is perfectly fine testing her inventions despite the damage they may cause (even though she's in a building that's filled with young children every day).
- Arcane:
- In the first episode of Season 1, Jayce Talis has been secretly researching a way to create magic to improve everyone's lives... but unfortunately, it's all been conducted in his penthouse in an urban neighborhood of Piltover. When Vi, Powder, Mylo, and Claggor break into Jayce's home, Powder accidentally causes the magic gemstones to explode, nearly killing both groups, leading to significant destruction to the building, and exposing Jayce's experiments — resulting in him being dragged before the Council to explain himself in the following episode and then being expelled from the Academy. Season 2 even shows an Alternate Timeline where Vi is killed by the explosion.
- Following the Time Skip and Jayce vindicating his work with the development of Hextech, its largely subverted, as Jayce now possess a personal lab within the Academy's main building. Though much more secure and secluded from the city outside, its security leaves much to be desired as there was only a handful of Enforcers who guarded the entrance. All it took for the unhinged criminal Jinx to walk in and steal a Hextech gemstone was a few tricks and explosives to deal with the guards.
- Ben 10: During the course of Ben's young life with the Omnitrix, he and his friends encounter new villains that often emerge due to an experiment, oftentimes involving alien technology and sometimes located in a city. For instance, Ben's first encounter with Dr. Animo involved the disgraced scientist developing his Transmodulator device that allows him to mutate animal DNA, creating monsters that would cause havoc in the city Ben visits during his summer vacation.
- Big Hero 6: The Series:
- Following the events of the film, the group that makes up Big Hero 6 continues their tenure as heroes, leading them to encounter their fair share of supervillains that often emerge due to the result of an experiment within city limits. Notably, the corporation Sycorax under Di Amara (a clone of company founder Liv Amara) began developing mutagenic experiments in her efforts to cure Liv at any cost.
- Special mention goes to Lenore Shimamoto, a famous artist from the 19th century who secretly was also a scientist. Lenore sought to create limitless energy for the world with the creation of the Energy Amplifier but it instead created a star that devastated San Fransokyo and would be remembered as the "Great Catastrophe", requiring a massive rebuilding effort to undo. Though Lenore survived the disaster, she remained riddled with guilt and hid her work in the hopes that no one would repeat her mistakes. Unfortunately, in the 21st century, the brilliant scientist-turned-supervillain Obake seeks Lenore's plans for the Energy Amplifier to deliberately recreate the Great Catastrophe so he could rebuild San Fransokyo in his own image.
- Danny Phantom: All the experiments Danny's parents perform in their study of ghosts and development of weapons to fight ghosts, including their portal to the Ghost dimension are split between a lab in the basement of their house and the mobile laboratory mounted on the roof of it.
- DC Animated Universe:
- Batman: The Animated Series: The Caped Crusader often encounters a few new members to his rogue's gallery that were the result of a misguided experiment conducted within Gotham City limits.
- In "On Leather Wings", Dr. Kirk Langstrom develops a serum that turns himself into the human-bat hybrid Man-Bat; becoming addicted to the formula, Langstrom begins to terrorize Gotham in his efforts to gather ingredients to create the formula — framing Batman in the process.
- "Feat of Clay" features Daggett Industries developing Renuyu, an addictive cosmetic drug that can make the user's flesh as malleable as clay — enough to realistically duplicate another human's face. Roland Daggett initially finds success by hiring disfigured actor Matt Hagen, supplying him with Renuyu, and then using him to frame the company's rivals. However, when Hagen grows dependent on the drug just to work as an actor, the fact that the Daggett Industries lab where Renuyu was created is within Gotham makes it very easy for him to break in and steal more. At the same time, it makes it just as easy for Daggett to expect Hagen and set a trap...which, unfortunately for Daggett, ends up turning Hagen into the supervillain Clayface.
- In "Heart of Steel", the roboticist Dr. Rossum creates a supercomputer named H.A.R.D.A.C. that creates robotic duplicates of people. In his misguided belief in creating a "perfect world", H.A.R.D.A.C. goes beyond Rossum's control and attempts to replace key individuals in Gotham with its own nearly-perfect robot replicas which are devoid of emotion.
- Superman: The Animated Series:
- Zigzagged; most of the incidents that create a new villain for Superman to deal with occur due to experiments taking place within Metropolis, typically conducted by LexCorp. However, a few other cases, such as STAR Labs, are located on the outskirts of the city, though it remains close enough that the new problem reaches the city anyway.
- In "Ghost in the Machine", Lex Luthor and his company develop a new defense system called the Sky Sentry that Luthor intends to show off to the Metropolis press and representatives of the military. To showcase its effectiveness in disabling armed missiles, Luthor has a jet launch actual missiles to his company building where the demonstration is taking place. However, due to the hidden interference of Brainiac, the Sky Sentry malfunctions, rendering it useless and threatening everyone present. Thanks to Superman's intervention, the missiles are diverted into Metropolis Bay, saving all present but Luthor is humiliated, leading him to conduct a personal investigation into how the malfunction happened — and encounter Brainiac.
- Static Shock: Alva Industries has been creating a mutagenic gas called Quantum Vapor within Dakota City... which unfortunately finds itself the battlefield for a major gang war. In the chaos of the fighting, the gas is accidentally released from containment, leading to what has been dubbed "The Big Bang" as the gas spreads over the city. This incident led not just the gang members but also numerous ordinary citizens to turn into metahumans with various powers, including the titular hero.
- Justice League Unlimited: The secret government organization CADMUS has been conducting various experiments and developing weapons to be used against the Justice League... and their hidden labs all too often end up being found in cities; as such, when their projects go off the rails, the city usually ends up under threat as well.
- Batman Beyond:
- Even decades after Bruce Wayne has hung up the cape, highly dangerous research is being conducted within Gotham, most commonly by Derek Powers. One of the most prominent of the experiments features the creation of a new form of nerve gas that Derek Powers would be exposed to. Though an experimental treatment saved his life, it turns him into the radioactive supervillain Blight — resulting in another threat to the city being left at large in Gotham.
- In "Heroes", research on a new energy reactor ultimately led to the creation of a trio of superheroes that would be advertised as the Terrific Trio: Magma, Freon, and the 2-D Man. Unfortunately, their condition not only becomes permanent but also slowly causes them to develop mental instability...and they discover that the accident that created them was done deliberately by a colleague who was jealous of Magma. Seeking revenge, the Trio attempt to recreate the scenario that created them — but in doing so would turn Gotham into a hot zone, forcing Batman to stop the trio before the reactor overloads.
- Batman: The Animated Series: The Caped Crusader often encounters a few new members to his rogue's gallery that were the result of a misguided experiment conducted within Gotham City limits.
- Dexter's Laboratory: Both Dexter and Mandark conduct experiments and create various inventions in hidden labs concealed in their families' homes — both of which are within a suburban neighborhood. When their various inventions go haywire — due to Dee Dee wreaking havoc, the genius in question being too reckless for his own good, or both — the resulting chaos not only ruins their labs, but it's not uncommon for it to spill out into the neighborhood or even the city that the suburbs are connected to.
- Dragons: Rescue Riders: Though Magnus Finke is a Gadgeteer Genius in an era of Vikings and his inventions could indeed be of help to the people of Huttsgalor, his massive ego, over-eagerness to prove himself and desire to earn a fortune often lead his creations to go out of control, causing trouble for the villagers. This, in turn, leads the Rescue Riders to swoop in and handle the problem, much to Magnus' frustration.
- DuckTales (2017):
- Scrooge's Money Bin is located just outside of Duckberg. So, occasionally, Gyro Gearloose's experiments will cause destruction to terrorize Duckberg (or at least the Bin itself, such as what happened with Lil' Bulb). The third season reveals that this is part of Gyro's Dark and Troubled Past: he and his mentor, Dr. Akita, built 2-BO in Tokyo. Gyro thought the robot was meant to be a benevolent experiment, but Dr. Akita later overrode his programming to turn him into a weapon to attack Tokyo.
- Doctors Waddlemeyer and Bulba built the Ramrod in the middle of St. Canard (a heavily populated city), despite the former knowing there was a possibility of the machine causing destruction and mayhem. Naturally, when Bulba throws him into his own machine and continues to operate it, the machine begins causing mayhem across the city.
- Johnny Test: In a similar vein to Dexter's Laboratory, the titular character has two genius older sisters, the twins Susan and Mary Test, who possess their own fully functioning lab within their family's home. In addition to creating new inventions and conducting usually dangerous experiments, the twins often use their little brother as their willing guinea pig to test both. Since the twins' lab is within their home, Johnny often has easy access to the lab and whenever the twin's experiments go wrong (often as a result of Johnny's reckless thrill-seeking), their hometown of Porkbelly often receives the brunt of the damage.
- Marvel's Spider-Man: It wouldn't be Spider-Man if this Trope wasn't involved. Various experiments and inventions have been conducted within New York City but for the most part, its not being done at a corporation but at schools for gifted geniuses, namely Horizon High and Osborn Academy, the latter of which is backed by Oscorp. Though these experiments inadvertently led to Peter Parker gaining his powers and other web-slingers, they also led to the creation of new supervillains that Spidey and his allies would contend with. Typically, these experiments are being led by a scientist who is overeager, reckless, arrogant or completely vengeful.
- Max Steel (2013): Trans-Human Industries or THI, has secretly been working on various dangerous experiments within the bowels of their corporate headquarters in Copper Canyon, from genetic experimentation to working with alien technology, all for the sake of profits. Notably, the Mad Scientist, Dr. Tytus Octavius Xander, created a serum that had the potential to remove all toxic contaminants known to man but it instead turns people to zombie-like monsters. Since the company was ran by the Jason Naught and Miles Dredd this isn't surprising. After both Naught and Dredd were forced to go into hiding, Max's mother, Molly MacGrath, takes over as CEO she begins to clean up the company and make it more responsible, which involved firing Dr. Xander for his unethical methods, but even after months of work, she is still finding dirty secrets and dangerous experiments within the company.
- Miraculous Ladybug:
- In the opening of "Rocketear", the team has to round up a bunch of Tyrannosaurus clones because a young Mad Scientist apparently thought that it would be a great idea to clone dinosaurs in the middle of a major city.
- In "Multiplication", Tomoe Tsurugi allows herself to be Akumatized in the middle of Paris in order to test out the new superpower-delivery system that she and Monarch designed. While supervillain rampages are nothing new in Paris, one would think that a more science-oriented person like Tomoe would prefer to test the system somewhere more remote first.
- Motorcity: Though KaneCo. created the supposed futuristic utopia of Detroit Deluxe, they did so by creating it over the actual city of Detroit, turning it into a dilapidated refuge renamed Motorcity. Further, given how the company and thereby Detroit Deluxe is led by Corrupt Corporate Executive, Abraham Kane, who is obsessed with expanding his control over the Detroit metropolitan area. This includes conquering or destroying Motorcity with whatever his company creates. Typically, Kane creates various weapons, robots or other dangerous experiments within the confines of his Tower HQ, hidden from the public but that doesn't change the level of danger they have on the urban setting.
- Phineas and Ferb: Doctor Doofenshmirtz almost always builds his inators at the top of his apartment building in the middle of Danville, with the weapons often firing randomly into the city and causing either misfortunes or strange situations for the citizens. Luckily, Doof's weapons are usually either harmless in the grand scheme of things or backfire on him (with him having been caught in explosions so often that neither he nor anyone else is concerned about it anymore).
- The Real Ghostbusters: The Ghostbusters are frequently conducting research into materials that can contain, house, and possibly even eliminate ghosts — all of it still in New York. Much of it is very dangerous, and explosions are not outside the norm. For example, in "Citizen Ghost", when a reporter comes to interview Peter, Janine denies her entry until she does a countdown, during which a loud surge of energy is heard building up in the background, until at the end of the count there's a blast, and Janine tells the reporter that it's now safe to go upstairs. Peter is chiding Ray at the time, telling him that he likely took out half of Beyone with the blast, and asking if he'd like to try for the Bronx. In another episode, an elderly couple is walking past the Firehouse, and state that they preferred it when the dynamite factory was there, as the neighborhood felt safer than when the Ghostbusters were there.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: This happens a few times:
- When Doctor Connors tests out his limb-regrowing serum, he does so in his home in New York City (although his first dose was done at the university where he worked). So, when he turns into the Lizard, he rampages through the city and nearly kills a lot of people. Justified, however, in that Connors didn't know the serum would turn him into a lizard, and likely never would have tested it near a populated area if he'd known it had that kind of power.
- Osborn sees nothing wrong with creating things like powerful reactor cores in the middle of New York. True, the only one harmed by it was Otto Octavius (and only because the Goblin was trying to kill him), but what if the core had melted down?
- Tombstone all but insists on having his personal supervillains created in the city, as he wants them to distract Spider-Man while Tombstone's people pull off crimes. Creating them in the city means they spread destruction and chaos much faster.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Palpatine has the Zillo Beast brought to Coruscant for study, which inevitably ends with it getting loose and causes its death, mass property destruction, and the deaths of hundreds of millions of civilians, and almost gets Palpatine himself killed.
- Tangled: The Series: In the first episode he's introduced in, Varian is shown to be trying to invent the first boiler, intending to surprise his village with hot running water. However, he decided to go ahead and build his experimental boiler without testing it... and he built it right under the most populated part of the village. Unlike most examples, though, he learns from this, and in the future (especially after his Character Development), he's shown testing his inventions and showing far more caution before he actually brings a potential device near people.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): The series shows a shocking number of scientists/inventors who decide to build and test their creations in the middle of one of Earth's biggest cities. While possibly justified with TCRI (who are aliens disguised as humans and using TCRI labs to hide in plain sight) and Baxter Stockman (who specifically built his Mousers in New York to use them and the subway/sewer systems to rob places), other scientists have no excuse.
- Transformers: Animated: Professor Sumdac built his company in the middle of Detroit, and never seems to have a problem with testing his various robots in or near the city. While this seems okay on paper (as Sumdac is a Technical Pacifist who balks at the idea of creating/selling weapons), many of his inventions are still capable of causing a lot of damage if they malfunction, are stolen, or are tampered with (all of which happen at least twice in the first season).
- Ultimate Spider-Man (2012): As per usual, though more pronounced in the first two seasons, Oscorp conducts numerous experiments within New York City limits under Norman Osborn's instructions to unlock the secret of Spider-Man's abilities. Such experiments, mostly involving animal DNA, would lead to the creation of numerous supervillains such as Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Rhino, The Lizard, and the Venom Symbiote. In the last two seasons, the evil organization HYDRA would also follow suit in this style of experiments in New York, though they at least had the decency to do so in more secluded areas of the city.
- Xiaolin Showdown: Surprisingly downplayed in the form of Jack Spicer, a self-described "evil boy genius", who possesses a large workshop and lab in the basement of his family's home which appears to dwell within a wealthy neighborhood. Within, Jack Spicer creates numerous robots and weapons in his plans for world conquest and the acquisition of the mystical Shen Gong Wu. However, to Jack's credit, almost none of his inventions cause havoc to his place on their own. It's typically when the Xiaolin monks arrive to thwart Jack's latest scheme that the damage occurs.
Real Life
- In September 1950, the U.S. Navy conducted Operation Sea-Spray, an experiment testing the vulnerability of American cities to bioweapon attack. This was performed by spraying two strains of bacteria over San Francisco, without warning any of its residents or authorities, monitoring to ensure the entire city received sufficient exposure. The bacteria was not considered to pose any threat to human life, but there was a spike in pneumonia cases shortly afterwards (which is not necessarily causative, but...). This was not the only biological warfare experiment conducted on U.S. cities, but it is the most notorious.
- The COVID-19 lab leak theory holds that the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, very close to where the first reports of the virus was reported. It is unlikely that we will ever be able to give a definitive answer as to the virus' origins, however intelligence agencies including the CIA have said that a lab leak is on the balance of probabilities the more likely theory. Whether or not COVID leaked from the lab, it is undisputed that the WIV was experimenting on coronaviruses inside a major city despite having only biosafety level 3 (and level 2 in parts of the building).
- Other viruses including the 2000 SARS coronavirus have also leaked from labs in the past.
- Other viruses including the 2000 SARS coronavirus have also leaked from labs
- The first self-sustaining human-made nuclear chain reaction took place on the grounds of the University of Chicago campus, located in the middle of the city. Once they got proof of concept, the Manhattan Project took place in the middle of the desert to continue further experiments, but still, if they'd miscalculated how quick or explosive the reaction would be...
- During the early years of the Cold War Cool Plane company Lockheed had Project Suntan to develop a hydrogen powered spyplane. In his memoir,Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, Lockheed engineer Ben Rich says he went by the Code Name of "Ben Dover" while scouting for the equipment to build a huge hydrogen tank farm. Lockheed's "Skunk Works" plant that would have produced and fueled the planes was in downtown Burbank. One company that made tanks to hold liquid hydrogen was shocked that a customer was approaching them to transport a highly flammable liquid in the heart of a city. The company salesman was aghast when told it would be a tank farm for thousands of gallons of liquid hydrogen. Rich quotes him as saying, "My god Mr. Dover, you're going to blow up Burbank!". Ultimately, Project Suntan proved too expensive and too dangerous, which led to the development of the A-12 and SR-71.
- The Civilian BSL-4/P4 laboratory Jean Merieux Inserm is located in the center of Lyon, France. Its scientists manage some of the most dangerous viruses known to humankind, like ebola and smallpox. No outbreaks arose from there...yet.