Mind control in popular culture
Encyclopedia
Mind control
has proven a popular subject in fiction, featuring in books and films such as The IPCRESS File
and The Manchurian Candidate
, both stories featuring the premise that controllers could hypnotize a person into murdering on command while retaining no memory of the killing. As a narrative device, mind control serves as a convenient means of introducing changes in the behavior of characters, and is used a device for raising tension and audience uncertainty in the contexts of Cold War and terrorism.
pokes fun at conspiracy theorists' assertions of pervasive mind control. The best known example for the book is the fnord
, a word that the populace at large has been programmed since birth to not consciously notice, but to associate with a sense of fear and general unease; it is supposedly inserted into published works on current events, such as magazines and newspapers, but is absent from advertising, leading people to avoid knowledge of the world and to be obedient consumers.
Firestarter
is a Stephen King
book about a girl who has pyrokinesis, the ability to create fire with her mind. Her father can control people's minds making them see things and do things and he uses this ability to save his daughter.
, The Master
is able to control the minds of individuals with a weak will by looking into their eyes, a form of hypnosis
.
In the Anthony Burgess
novel A Clockwork Orange
, later adapted into a film by Stanley Kubrick
, the "Ludovico Technique" is a form of mind control that causes the subject, in this case the thug anti-hero Alex, to feel sickness and pain whenever he has a violent or anti-social impulse.
Mind control (telepathic hypnosis) is a prominent psionic gift in the Scanners
series of films. It is used by the Scanners to escape imprisonment in the first film, and to sometimes control others in the subsequent films.
George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
features a description of mind control, both directly by torture, and indirectly, in the form of pervasive mind control by the use of Newspeak
, a constructed language
designed to remove the possibility, Sapir-Whorf-wise of articulating or of even thinking subversive thoughts.
In B.F. Camis's novel SPA, a cult like sisterhood uses mind control and torture to mold socially elite women into sister's for the purpose of gaining power.
The Jedi mind trick is a prominent plot device in the Star Wars
saga
.
In The Matrix
, a chemical was injected into Morpheus to make him reveal access codes.
In Michael Crichton's novel Terminal Man, Terminal Man has doctors implant a simple computer into the brainstem of a man who suffers from impulsive violence. The plan is to stimulate certain nerves to ease the violent impulses. Instead, the violence becomes even more irresistible.
In the anime, movie and video game series Street Fighter 2, the main villain, known as M. Bison uses his "Psycho Power" to brainwash and corrupt street fighters across the world into joining his criminal organization known as Shadowloo, turning them into remorseless killing machines fully under his control.
In the X-Men
comic book
series, Professor Xavier, can read and control people's minds.
The House of the Scorpion
is a science fiction
book in which people have computer chips implanted in their brain, allowing them to only do what they are 'programmed' to do. These people are referred to as 'Eejits'.
In the anime series, Code Geass, the protagonist, Lelouch Lamperouge
, gets the ability, Geass, which gives him a form of mind control by allowing him to give someone an absolute order, by looking them in the eye.
In the film Control Factor, an unsuspecting "everyman" slowly realizes he is an unwitting guinea pig being used in a mind control test. If successful, the test will then expand to behavioral control of an entire population.
In the Resident Evil films, based on the video game series of the same name, the fictional Umbrella Corporation captures and brainwashes the protagonist, Alice
(portrayed by Milla Jovovich
), as part of their "Program: Alice" experiment.
In the Bionicle
storyline, a Kanohi mask called Komau allows the user the power to control minds of beings.
In John Christopher
's Tripods
trilogy, the alien Masters control all of humanity via devices called Caps which are permanently affixed to the skull. The Caps received signals broadcast by equipment in the Masters' cities.
In Empire of the Ants
, giant ants used a white gas to control the minds of humans.
, City of Heroes
, players of the Controller class can opt for the primary list of powers dubbed Mind Control, which includes the ability to affect emotions remotely, confuse, inhibit or affect physical actions, and cause psionic damage to opponents.
In the MMORPG
, World of Warcraft
, players of the priest class gain the ability to mind-control other humanoid characters, gaining full control over their actions for a short period. (Due to interface limitations, priests cannot do anything else while controlling a target.)
Preacher units in Populous: The Beginning
as well as priests in Age of Empires are able to take control of an opponent's units (in fact, this is their primary function in both games). Although this is not mind control, but rather preaching to the enemy so that they willingly convert sides.
The character Yuri in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
is an extremely advanced telepath with the capability of completely controlling the actions of others. There is one flaw, however: a mind-controlled person can be seen to be showing strain against Yuri's power, culminating in sweating
, stammering and memory loss
. Later, in the game expansion Yuri's Revenge, he leads an entire faction with several mind controlling units included.
In Metal Gear Solid
, Psycho Mantis, a rogue special forces member with powerful telepathic abilities, subtly controls a small army, and on several occasions completely dominates a single person's movements and speech.
The Dark Archon, a unit in the computer game StarCraft
, has the ability to psionically
mind control other units, indefinitely taking complete control of them.
In Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
, the player's character, Nick Scryer can perform mind control.
In Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, the mysterious Project Alchera is revealed to be a form of mind-control, marketed to the masses as a form of entertainment.
In the series Destroy All Humans!
, the main character, Cryptosporidium, can use mind control to force humans to do his bidding.
In Bioshock
, the player's character is revealed to have been subconsciously mind-controlled and must obey any action stated after the command phrase, "Would you kindly?".
In Super Paper Mario
, the character Nastasia has the ability to brainwash people by looking them in the eyes, this is the way she brainwashes Luigi
as well as Bowser
's Goomba and Koopa army.
In Resident Evil 4
, the enemies are civilians mind-controlled through the use of parasites known as "Las Plagas"; in Resident Evil 5
, the main antagonist, Albert Wesker, uses a special drug to brainwash a recurring protagonist, Jill Valentine.
In Call of Duty: Black Ops
, the protagonist, Alex Mason, is brainwashed while imprisoned in the Vorkuta Gulag
.
In the critically acclaimed DC Comics
video game Batman: Arkham City, highly-trained mercenaries loyal to a rogue private military firm
, Tyger Security, have been systematically brainwashed (through a combination of psychoactive drugs and subtle manipulation) to blindly hate the protagonist and answer only to their employer, the ruthless Hugo Strange
. Following Strange's death late in the game's storyline these effects seem to have been broken, as Tyger units promptly cease following current orders and withdraw quietly from the scene.
featured mind control as a recurring plot element.
In the Korean mini-series Winter Sonata
the protagonist has his memory altered by a clinical psychiatrist at his mother's request which forms the crux of the plot as he struggles to overcome it.
In the movie Conspiracy Theory
, Mel Gibson plays Jerry Fletcher, a cab driver and a conspiracy theorist who accidentally hits a truth involving a secret government-funded mind control program, as it turns out Jerry himself is one of the subjects of the program.
In Judy Malloy
's Revelations of Secret Surveillance, a group of artists and writers struggle to understand and expose a covert system that utilizes psychodrama and brain scanning surveillance to interfere with the lives of artists, activists, and many other people.
The novel Trilby
(1894) features the character Svengali
, who hypnotizes the novel's heroine to enhance her singing performance. The character gained popularity as the stereotype of an evil hypnotist, and became the basis for feature films throughout the 20th century.
Mr. Big, one of the antagonists in the PBS Kids GO!
series WordGirl
, frequently uses mind control to entice people to buy his products.
performs more sophisticated mental tricks in his television programmes, Derren Brown: Mind Control.
The late Russian psychic, Wolf Messing, was said to be able to hand somebody a blank piece of paper and make them see money or whatever he wanted them to see.
Mind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
has proven a popular subject in fiction, featuring in books and films such as The IPCRESS File
The Ipcress File (film)
The Ipcress File is a 1965 British espionage film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Michael Caine, Guy Doleman, and Nigel Green. The screenplay by Bill Canaway and James Doran was based on Len Deighton's 1962 novel, The IPCRESS File. It has won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award for best...
and The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)
The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver...
, both stories featuring the premise that controllers could hypnotize a person into murdering on command while retaining no memory of the killing. As a narrative device, mind control serves as a convenient means of introducing changes in the behavior of characters, and is used a device for raising tension and audience uncertainty in the contexts of Cold War and terrorism.
Fantasy
The Illuminatus! TrilogyThe Illuminatus! Trilogy
The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magick-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both...
pokes fun at conspiracy theorists' assertions of pervasive mind control. The best known example for the book is the fnord
Fnord
Fnord is the typographic representation of disinformation or irrelevant information intending to misdirect, with the implication of a worldwide conspiracy....
, a word that the populace at large has been programmed since birth to not consciously notice, but to associate with a sense of fear and general unease; it is supposedly inserted into published works on current events, such as magazines and newspapers, but is absent from advertising, leading people to avoid knowledge of the world and to be obedient consumers.
Firestarter
Firestarter
Firestarter is a novel by Stephen King first published in 1980. It was nominated for a British Fantasy Award in 1981.The book is dedicated to the author Shirley Jackson: "In Memory of Shirley Jackson, who never needed to raise her voice."...
is a Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
book about a girl who has pyrokinesis, the ability to create fire with her mind. Her father can control people's minds making them see things and do things and he uses this ability to save his daughter.
Science fiction
In the television series Doctor WhoDoctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, The Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
is able to control the minds of individuals with a weak will by looking into their eyes, a form of hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
.
In the Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
novel A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess. The novel contains an experiment in language: the characters often use an argot called "Nadsat", derived from Russian....
, later adapted into a film by Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
, the "Ludovico Technique" is a form of mind control that causes the subject, in this case the thug anti-hero Alex, to feel sickness and pain whenever he has a violent or anti-social impulse.
Mind control (telepathic hypnosis) is a prominent psionic gift in the Scanners
Scanners
Scanners is a 1981 science-fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan...
series of films. It is used by the Scanners to escape imprisonment in the first film, and to sometimes control others in the subsequent films.
George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
features a description of mind control, both directly by torture, and indirectly, in the form of pervasive mind control by the use of Newspeak
Newspeak
Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel, it refers to the deliberately impoverished language promoted by the state. Orwell included an essay about it in the form of an appendix in which the basic principles of the language are explained...
, a constructed language
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
designed to remove the possibility, Sapir-Whorf-wise of articulating or of even thinking subversive thoughts.
In B.F. Camis's novel SPA, a cult like sisterhood uses mind control and torture to mold socially elite women into sister's for the purpose of gaining power.
The Jedi mind trick is a prominent plot device in the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
saga
Saga
Sagas, are stories in Old Norse about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, etc.Saga may also refer to:Business*Saga DAB radio, a British radio station*Saga Airlines, a Turkish airline*Saga Falabella, a department store chain in Peru...
.
In The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
, a chemical was injected into Morpheus to make him reveal access codes.
In Michael Crichton's novel Terminal Man, Terminal Man has doctors implant a simple computer into the brainstem of a man who suffers from impulsive violence. The plan is to stimulate certain nerves to ease the violent impulses. Instead, the violence becomes even more irresistible.
In the anime, movie and video game series Street Fighter 2, the main villain, known as M. Bison uses his "Psycho Power" to brainwash and corrupt street fighters across the world into joining his criminal organization known as Shadowloo, turning them into remorseless killing machines fully under his control.
In the X-Men
X-Men
The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series, Professor Xavier, can read and control people's minds.
The House of the Scorpion
The House of the Scorpion
The House of the Scorpion is a science fiction novel by Nancy Farmer. It is about a young boy named Matteo Alacrán who is being raised by a drug lord of the same name, usually referred to by his assumed title "El Patrón" throughout the text. It is a story about the struggle to survive as a free...
is a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
book in which people have computer chips implanted in their brain, allowing them to only do what they are 'programmed' to do. These people are referred to as 'Eejits'.
In the anime series, Code Geass, the protagonist, Lelouch Lamperouge
Lelouch Lamperouge
is the protagonist and antihero of the Sunrise anime series Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. Lamperouge is his assumed surname, while his real name is , son of the 98th Britannian Emperor. His seiyū is Jun Fukuyama, and his child self is voiced by Sayaka Ohara...
, gets the ability, Geass, which gives him a form of mind control by allowing him to give someone an absolute order, by looking them in the eye.
In the film Control Factor, an unsuspecting "everyman" slowly realizes he is an unwitting guinea pig being used in a mind control test. If successful, the test will then expand to behavioral control of an entire population.
In the Resident Evil films, based on the video game series of the same name, the fictional Umbrella Corporation captures and brainwashes the protagonist, Alice
Alice (Resident Evil)
Alice is a fictional character and the primary heroine of the Resident Evil film series, which is loosely based on the video game series of the same name. Though she is not a character in the game series, she does eventually interact with a number of characters from the games, including Jill...
(portrayed by Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich December 17, 1975)is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".Milla Jovovich began...
), as part of their "Program: Alice" experiment.
In the Bionicle
Bionicle
Bionicle is a line of toys by the LEGO Group marketed primarily for 5- to 16-year-olds. The line was launched on December 30, 2000 in Europe and June/July 2001 in Canada and the United States. "Bionicle" is a portmanteau constructed from the words "biological" and "chronicle"...
storyline, a Kanohi mask called Komau allows the user the power to control minds of beings.
In John Christopher
Samuel Youd
Samuel Youd is a British author, best known for his science fiction writings under the pseudonym John Christopher, including the novel The Death of Grass and the young adult oriented novel series The Tripods...
's Tripods
The Tripods
The Tripods is a series of young adult novels written by John Christopher, beginning in 1967. The first two were the basis of a science fiction TV-series, produced in the United Kingdom in the 1980s....
trilogy, the alien Masters control all of humanity via devices called Caps which are permanently affixed to the skull. The Caps received signals broadcast by equipment in the Masters' cities.
In Empire of the Ants
Empire of the Ants
"Empire of the Ants" is a 1905 short story by H. G. Wells, which inspired a film of the same title in 1977. The story involves an explorer who is dispatched to South America to investigate reports of intelligent ants destroying a colony. It was published in 1905 in The Strand...
, giant ants used a white gas to control the minds of humans.
Video games
In the MMORPGMMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
, City of Heroes
City of Heroes
City of Heroes is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the superhero comic book genre, developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCsoft. The game was launched in North America on April 27, 2004 and in Europe on February 4, 2005 with English, German and French language...
, players of the Controller class can opt for the primary list of powers dubbed Mind Control, which includes the ability to affect emotions remotely, confuse, inhibit or affect physical actions, and cause psionic damage to opponents.
In the MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
, World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
, players of the priest class gain the ability to mind-control other humanoid characters, gaining full control over their actions for a short period. (Due to interface limitations, priests cannot do anything else while controlling a target.)
Preacher units in Populous: The Beginning
Populous: The Beginning
Populous: The Beginning is a strategy and god-style video game. It is the third entry in the Populous video game series, developed by Bullfrog Productions in 1998. The PC version of the game was released November 30, 1998 and a PlayStation version was later developed and released on April 2, 1999...
as well as priests in Age of Empires are able to take control of an opponent's units (in fact, this is their primary function in both games). Although this is not mind control, but rather preaching to the enemy so that they willingly convert sides.
The character Yuri in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is a 2.5D real-time strategy computer game by Westwood Studios, which was released for Microsoft Windows on October 23, 2000 as the follow-up to Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Set in the early 1970s, Red Alert 2 supposedly picks up at the conclusion of the Allied...
is an extremely advanced telepath with the capability of completely controlling the actions of others. There is one flaw, however: a mind-controlled person can be seen to be showing strain against Yuri's power, culminating in sweating
Sweating
Perspiration is the production of a fluid consisting primarily of water as well as various dissolved solids , that is excreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals...
, stammering and memory loss
Memory loss
Memory loss can be partial or total and it is normal when it comes with aging. Sudden memory loss is usually a result of brain trauma and it may be permanent or temporary. When it is caused by medical conditions such as Alzheimers, the memory loss is gradual and tends to be permanent.Brain trauma...
. Later, in the game expansion Yuri's Revenge, he leads an entire faction with several mind controlling units included.
In Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid
is a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
, Psycho Mantis, a rogue special forces member with powerful telepathic abilities, subtly controls a small army, and on several occasions completely dominates a single person's movements and speech.
The Dark Archon, a unit in the computer game StarCraft
StarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
, has the ability to psionically
Psionics
Psionics refers to the practice, study, or psychic ability of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the outside world through the psyche.-History and terminology:...
mind control other units, indefinitely taking complete control of them.
In Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy is a video game developed by Midway Games for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows PC platforms. It was also being developed for the Nintendo GameCube titled ESPionage but later cancelled. The game was released in North America on June 14, 2004; the...
, the player's character, Nick Scryer can perform mind control.
In Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, the mysterious Project Alchera is revealed to be a form of mind-control, marketed to the masses as a form of entertainment.
In the series Destroy All Humans!
Destroy All Humans!
Destroy All Humans! is a video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by THQ. It was released for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 on June 21, 2005. The game is set in the late 1950s in the U.S. and parodies the lifestyles, pop culture, and politics of this time period...
, the main character, Cryptosporidium, can use mind control to force humans to do his bidding.
In Bioshock
Bioshock
BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston and designed by Ken Levine. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on August 21, 2007 in North America, and three days later in Europe and Australia. It became available on Steam on August 21, 2007...
, the player's character is revealed to have been subconsciously mind-controlled and must obey any action stated after the command phrase, "Would you kindly?".
In Super Paper Mario
Super Paper Mario
is a platform style console role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. Originally developed for the Nintendo GameCube, it was released for the Wii in 2007. The style of gameplay is a combination of the previous Paper Mario titles and Super Mario Bros. titles...
, the character Nastasia has the ability to brainwash people by looking them in the eyes, this is the way she brainwashes Luigi
Luigi
is a fictional character, featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by prominent game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the slightly younger fraternal twin brother of Nintendo's mascot Mario, and appears in many games throughout the Mario series,...
as well as Bowser
Bowser
Bowser may refer to:*Bowser , the main villain in the Mario series of video games**Bowser, Jr., Bowser's son*Bowser , a generic name for a tanker of various kinds...
's Goomba and Koopa army.
In Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4, known in Japan as , is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and published by multiple publishers, including Capcom, Ubisoft, Nintendo Australia, Red Ant Enterprises and THQ Asia Pacific...
, the enemies are civilians mind-controlled through the use of parasites known as "Las Plagas"; in Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as , is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe...
, the main antagonist, Albert Wesker, uses a special drug to brainwash a recurring protagonist, Jill Valentine.
In Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch, published by Activision and released worldwide on November 9, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii consoles, with a separate version for Nintendo DS developed by n-Space. Announced on April 30, 2010,...
, the protagonist, Alex Mason, is brainwashed while imprisoned in the Vorkuta Gulag
Vorkuta Gulag
The Vorkuta Gulag was a Soviet era prison camp located in the Pechora River Basin, in the Komi Republic, part of the Siberian region of Russia, located 1,200 miles from Moscow and 100 miles above the Arctic Circle...
.
In the critically acclaimed DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
video game Batman: Arkham City, highly-trained mercenaries loyal to a rogue private military firm
Private military company
A private military company or provides military and security services. These combatants are commonly known as mercenaries, though modern-day PMCs refer to their staff as security contractors, private military contractors or private security contractors, and refer to themselves as private military...
, Tyger Security, have been systematically brainwashed (through a combination of psychoactive drugs and subtle manipulation) to blindly hate the protagonist and answer only to their employer, the ruthless Hugo Strange
Hugo Strange
Professor Hugo Strange is a fictional comic book supervillain appearing in books published by DC Comics, as an adversary of Batman. He first appeared in Detective Comics #36 , and is one of Batman's first recurring villains, preceding the Joker and Catwoman by several months...
. Following Strange's death late in the game's storyline these effects seem to have been broken, as Tyger units promptly cease following current orders and withdraw quietly from the scene.
Other fiction
The TV series The PrisonerThe Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
featured mind control as a recurring plot element.
In the Korean mini-series Winter Sonata
Winter Sonata
Winter Sonata is a South Korean television drama series broadcast by KBS in 2002. It is the second part of the Endless Love installment directed by Yoon Seok-Ho...
the protagonist has his memory altered by a clinical psychiatrist at his mother's request which forms the crux of the plot as he struggles to overcome it.
In the movie Conspiracy Theory
Conspiracy Theory (film)
Conspiracy Theory is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Richard Donner.The original screenplay by Brian Helgeland centers on an eccentric taxi driver who believes many world events are triggered by government conspiracies, and the U.S...
, Mel Gibson plays Jerry Fletcher, a cab driver and a conspiracy theorist who accidentally hits a truth involving a secret government-funded mind control program, as it turns out Jerry himself is one of the subjects of the program.
In Judy Malloy
Judy Malloy
Judy Malloy is a poet whose works embrace the intersection of hypernarrative, magic realism, and information art. Beginning with Uncle Roger in 1986, Malloy has composed works in both new media literature and hypertext fiction...
's Revelations of Secret Surveillance, a group of artists and writers struggle to understand and expose a covert system that utilizes psychodrama and brain scanning surveillance to interfere with the lives of artists, activists, and many other people.
The novel Trilby
Trilby
A trilby hat is a type of fedora. The trilby is viewed as the rich man's favored hat; it is commonly called the "brown trilby" in England and is much seen at the horse races. It is described as a "crumpled" fedora...
(1894) features the character Svengali
Svengali
Svengali is a fictional character of George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby. Svengali "would either fawn or bully and could be grossly impertinent. He had a kind of cynical humour that was more offensive than amusing and always laughed at the wrong thing, at the wrong time, in the wrong place...
, who hypnotizes the novel's heroine to enhance her singing performance. The character gained popularity as the stereotype of an evil hypnotist, and became the basis for feature films throughout the 20th century.
Mr. Big, one of the antagonists in the PBS Kids GO!
PBS Kids GO!
PBS Kids GO! is an educational television brand used by PBS for programs intended for older children, rather than the original PBS Kids. It is primarily broadcast on PBS stations during the afternoons...
series WordGirl
WordGirl
WordGirl is an American children’s animated television series for children aged 6-12, produced by the Soup2Nuts animation unit of Scholastic Entertainment for PBS Kids...
, frequently uses mind control to entice people to buy his products.
Entertainment
Hypnotism has often been used by stage performers to induce volunteers do strange things, such as clucking like a chicken, for the entertainment of audiences. The British psychological illusionist Derren BrownDerren Brown
Derren Victor Brown is a British illusionist, mentalist, painter, writer and sceptic. He is known for his appearances in television specials, stage productions and British television series such as Trick of the Mind and Trick or Treat...
performs more sophisticated mental tricks in his television programmes, Derren Brown: Mind Control.
The late Russian psychic, Wolf Messing, was said to be able to hand somebody a blank piece of paper and make them see money or whatever he wanted them to see.