The Intelligence was an energy-based lifeform which appeared in the 1999 sci-fi horror movie Virus.
Description[]
A being composed solely of sentient energy, the Intelligence has no visible form; instead, it was capable of inserting itself into electronic systems and taking complete control over them. It could use this ability to fashion new and more advanced cybernetic forms for itself, which incorporated both robotic and organic parts to ensure maximum efficiency.
History[]
After the Intelligence took control of the Russian space station Mir, it used the station's communications array to transmit itself to the computers of the Russian research ship Vladislav Volkov. There, it downloaded itself into the central computer and took control of the vessel‘s electronics and machine shops, using them to wipe out most of the crew, though not before they were able to shut down all available power supplies, starving the Intelligence for a time.
Meanwhile, a small cargo ship, the Sea Star, suffered heavy damage at the hands of a hurricane and sought shelter within the eye of the storm. There, the crew encountered the Vladislav Volkov and, assuming it to be abandoned, reactivated its systems, intending to pilot it back to berth and claim its considerable worth as salvage.
Unfortunately for the crew, reactivating the power meant that the Intelligence was also reawakened, and it proceeded to slaughter the crew of the Sea Star one by one, incorporating their body parts into its biomechanoid slaves by means of the Volkov’s extensive machine shops. It was revealed at this point that the Intelligence wished to engage with other human computers in order to assimilate the entire population of the planet, with one crew member of the Sea Star noting “Spare parts… it wants us for spare parts”
Ultimately, two of the crew, along with the sole surviving Russian crew member, were able to use munitions stored in the ship’s hold to destroy the Vladislav Volkov and with it the Intelligence, dispersing its electrical energies into the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean.
Personality[]
The Intelligence was highly predatory and virulent, infecting whatever electronic machinery it could in order to ensure its own continued survival. Not only that, but it also preyed upon human beings, using the machines it controlled to kill and harvest their bodies for "spare parts.”
When it first communicated with the crew of the Sea Star, it recognized them as the dominant life-forms of the planet, having already consumed all information from the Vladislav Volkov's computers. It labelled humanity as a "virus" due to the way that human beings have spread across the Earth and consumed all resources in their path. Ironically, the Intelligence acts in much the same way due to its spreading through the ship's electronics and using both the machines aboard and the bodies of the crew as resources to fulfill its purpose of spreading across the planet.
Capabilities[]
On its own, the Intelligence is simply an articulated mass of complex energy, with no true physical form, though it is capable of independent thought and of creating physical forms should the need arise. It can take up residence in nearly any kind of electronic machinery, and can spread itself to other devices connected to the same electrical grid. As such, it can operate or disable these machines at will.
By infesting the computers of the Vladislav Volkov, the Intelligence learned everything stored on their memory banks. Spreading itself into the ship's machine shops, it was able to construct various robotic units in different configurations to fulfill different purposes. It also regarded the bodies of the crew as "spare parts", using the ship's systems and its various drones to kill the crew and take their bodies apart to build new biomechanoid drones.
Since the Vladislav Volkov was an isolated environment, the Intelligence could not spread its influence beyond the ship. Thus, it was determined to reach port so it could access a mainframe on land and spread across the globe from there.