Warning: contains SPOILERS for carry-on luggage!
Novichok is the deadly nerve agent weapon that plays an important role in Continueof story, and here's what it is and its real-life connections explained. Netflix's New Christmas Thriller Continue has finally been released, with Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman's crime film full of twists and turns. For viewers who enjoy films like Die Hard, Continue is a perfect new Christmas classic, featuring many of the genre's staples. However, Continue There is one big difference, this being the use of the Novichok nerve agent in the Netflix film.
In ContinueTaron Egerton's Ethan Kopek is a TSA agent who is contacted by the mysterious criminal Jason Bateman, known only as the Traveler. The Traveler tells Ethan he must let a specific bag through TSA securityand if he doesn't, his family will die. Although Ethan initially doesn't know what's in the bag, he eventually discovers that it is a deadly nerve agent known as Novichok. The Traveler plans to release Novichok on the plane, with Ethan realizing that if he doesn't do something, hundreds of people will die as a result of the terrorist attack.
What is Novichok
It's a real Russian nerve agent
Novichok is not made for Continuewith the nerve agent actually being a real thing. Novichok is a family of nerve agents that, although they have several branches, tend to act in similar ways. The nerve agent began to be researched in the Soviet Union around 1971, and continued to be researched in Russia until about 1993. The use of Novichok in assassinations and other civilian deaths can be traced back to 1995, with the deadly nerve agent as recently as as 2020.
When developing Novichok, the scientists behind it had several goals. The first of them was make Novichok undetectable by NATO equipmentallowing it to be used without being captured by countries hostile to the Soviet Union. It was also designed to damage NATO equipment, giving the Soviet Union another advantage. Furthermore, Novichok should also be safer to handle despite its deadly nature. Interestingly, Novichok can be developed as a liquid or a solid, something that could play a role Continuethe story.
How Lethal Novichok Really Is
It was used in several murders and assassination attempts
Novichok is incredibly deadly, making it one of the most dangerous nerve agents in existence. The Russian scientists who worked on the nerve agent explain this by saying that some forms of Novichok are five to eight times more potent than VXanother deadly compound, while also being said to be ten times more potent than Soman. Novichok causes all skeletal muscles to contract involuntarily, eventually leading to cardiac and respiratory arrest, causing death from heart failure or fluid filling the lungs.
Novichok has been used in several high-profile murders and assassination attempts, which happened as recently as 2020. Russian banker Ivan Kivelidi died three days after being poisoned in 1995, and his assistant Zara Ismailova died a month later. A May 2018 attack in the United Kingdom, which was intended to kill Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal, led to the hospitalization of three people and the recommendation of five hundred citizens to decontaminate themselves. In June 2018, Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess were found unconscious after being exposed, with Sturgess dying in July.
During the investigation following the UK poisonings, another Novichok attack was found, with Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev believing he was poisoned in 2015. In August 2020, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny fell ill during a flight , it being discovered that Navalny drank a cup of poisoned tea before the flight. Although Navalny came out of coma in SeptemberThis and other attacks show the dangers and relevance of using Novichok.
Is Carry-On's Use of Novichok Realistic?
It's mostly accurate to the real-life nerve agent
ContinueNovichok's explanation of the history of Novichok and how it works is realistic, with Jason Bateman's Traveler explaining how it breaks down the body and leads to cardiac and respiratory arrest. A Novichok victim in Continue dies of a heart attack almost immediately after being exposed to it, this death being considered random heart failure. This is due to the difficulty of detecting Novichok, another thing that is similar to the real-life nerve agent.
Novichok probably wouldn't kill people as quickly as it does in Continueexcept in extremely high doses like the one the Traveler is exposed to at the end of the film. The link between Novichok and Russia is also accurate, with the real-life story behind the nerve agent making the villains' plans in Continue more realistic.