United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases - Popular Culture References

Popular Culture References

• Richard Preston's bestselling non-fiction book The Hot Zone (1994) loosely inspired the feature films Outbreak (1995) and Carriers (1998).
  • The opening sequence of Outbreak misrepresents BSL-4 suites at USAMRIID. Dustin Hoffman's character Col. Sam Daniels is a USAMRIID virologist who spearheads research into the movie's fictitious Ebola-like virus, called "Motaba". In the film, USAMRIID produces a vaccine serum, E-1101, but because they want to use the virus as a weapon, they fail to reveal the existence of the serum before the virus mutates.
• USAMRIID was prominently featured in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novel Executive Orders (1996).
• USAMRIID was referenced in the science fiction television series First Wave (1998–2001).
• USAMRIID was the employer of the hero of the short-lived television series, Strange World (1999).
• In Robert Ludlum's "Covert-One" book series (2000–2010), Lt. Col. Jon Smith uses a job at USAMRIID as a cover for his assignments.
• The protagonist of Orson Scott Card's book Invasive Procedures (2007) is a virologist at USAMRIID.
• Fictional USAMRIID facilities and characters were featured in a portion of the fictional medical video game Trauma Team.