The Thaw (2009), Parasites, and Climate Change

For us, parasites created by climate change and toxic waste most accurately align with the possibilities for their own evolution. Recent studies of parasites take into account the impact of human-induced climate change and pollution on their evolution. According to zoologist Robert Poulin, for example, “Human activities have resulted in substantial, large-scale modifications to the natural environment, especially in the past century” (263). Many scientists note the multiple negative effects global climate change will have on parasite evolution. When Brooks and Hoberg argue that human caused climate changes “should be associated with the origins of new parasite-host associations and bursts of EID” (572), they point out that global climate change will lead to increases in both parasites and EID, leading to “the planet [as] an evolutionary and ecological minefield of EID through which millions of people wander daily” (573). Many scientists concur, noting, as does Camille Parmesan, that climate change is causing parasites, so-called “pest species” to move “poleward and upward” (650). Mark A. Lewis’s The Thaw explores these possible effects in the context of eco-horror.

The Thaw connects the horror genre with possible consequences of climate change and human exploitation of the environment in the Anthropocene Age. Like The Bay, The Thaw includes documentary-like elements to legitimize its assertions about the negative externalities associated with anthropogenic global warming. The film’s protagonist, Dr. Kruipen (Val Kilmer) maintains a video diary, for example, in which he reveals, bit by bit, an eco-terrorist plan to attack climate change cynics. A montage of images highlights the misplaced fervor of these skeptics, even in the face of flooding, hurricanes, and overpopulation. The montage slows with the question, what happens “when nature is the terrorist?” The first hint of the source for Dr. Kruipen’s plan comes early in the film, when a shot shows a woman with what looks like a tick climbing in and then back out of her forehead.

Our introduction to Dr. Kruipen comes in a flashback and further explains the source of the eco-terrorism broached in the video diary. The setting is late spring on Barley Island in the Canadian Arctic, but rocks and steppe are bare of snow, and a polar bear searches anxiously for food. Dr. Kruipen and Jane (Anne Marie DeLuise) photograph the bear while the rest of the team tranquilizes it for study. At 400 pounds, the bear is underweight and traveled far to find food because the ice has melted. More important to the film’s premise, the bear has been feasting on a parasite-ridden Woolly Mammoth carcass once buried beneath the melting ice. Dr. Kruipen’s interspersed video diary entries heighten the horror associated with an anthropogenic change in climate that exposes prehistoric mammals and revives dormant deadly parasites. In a move reminiscent of Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys (1995), Dr. Kruipen connects these parasites with what he sees as monstrous hosts, claiming that “sacrifices” must be made to change humanity’s dangerous behavior. Because these parasites have reawakened only because human activity has warmed the earth and melted the ice, Kruipen decides to unleash them on populations in the United States, infecting enough humans to “make a real difference.” Through biological eco-terrorism, Kruipen hopes to change the minds of climate change cynics, even if it means he and many others may die.