The Movie Version
The Fugitive is primarily about Dr. Richard Kimble running from the law and performing death-defying stunts using the public works of the Midwest. He also finds time in there to search for whoever murdered his wife, but let's be honest, we're all in it for the close calls with trains, light rails, drainage systems, monorails, bridges, and more trains!
When Dr. Kimble does finally catch up to his wife's one-armed killer, he realizes that this mystery is bigger than he could have imagined. The one-armed man is just a pawn, and the real killer is inside all of us ... because the real killer is the pharmaceutical industry.
Kimble had figured out early in the movie that RDU-90, a new drug, had the very unfortunate side effect of giving people hepatitis. The manufacturer, Devlin MacGregor Pharmaceutical Company, didn't want Kimble to ruin their chances at FDA approval. So they employed the one-armed man to kill Kimble's wife and frame him for the murder, thereby taking him out of the picture in the most error-prone and convoluted way possible. The again, if they were good problem solvers, they might not have made a drug that gave people hepatitis in the first place.
The Real Version
Now, you're probably thinking to yourself, "'Would a huge pharmaceutical company really kill thousands of people just to turn a profit?' sure is a naive question." And you're right. Of course they would.
In 1999, on the cusp of the Willennium, Merck & Co. released a pain medication called Vioxx. Vioxx was supposed to be a new miracle drug that would be as strong a pain reliever as aspirin without potentially damaging the stomach, as aspirin (rarely) does. To me, that sounds like the same effectiveness as taking nothing and cussing quietly to yourself, but the pill people were very excited.
Unfortunately, Merck's wild aspirin-strength painkiller party was about to be busted up by the narcs known as "doing science." In 2001, Merck learned from an internal study that Vioxx made users three times as likely to have a goddamn heart attack. Meaning that taking Vioxx because it wasn't as bad for your stomach was a bit like spraying yourself down with bear pheromones to ward off elk attacks.
Highwaystarz-Photography/iStock
"I took that Vioxx, and my chest got really tight." "Don't worry, we have more Vioxx."
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