title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: Gram-positive bacteria take up the crystal violet stain used in the test, and then appear to be purple-coloured when seen through an optical microscope. This is because the thick peptidoglycan layer in the bacterial cell wall retains the stain after it is washed away from the rest of the sample, in the decolorization stage of the test.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: Conversely, gram-negative bacteria cannot retain the violet stain after the decolorization step; alcohol used in this stage degrades the outer membrane of gram-negative cells, making the cell wall more porous and incapable of retaining the crystal violet stain. Their peptidoglycan layer is much thinner and sandwiched between an inner cell membrane and a bacterial outer membrane, causing them to take up the counterstain (safranin or fuchsine) and appear red or pink.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: Despite their thicker peptidoglycan layer, gram-positive bacteria are more receptive to certain cell wall targeting antibiotics than gram-negative bacteria, due to the absence of the outer membrane.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: Only some species have a capsule, usually consisting of polysaccharides. Also, only some species are flagellates, and when they do have flagella, have only two basal body rings to support them, whereas gram-negative have four. Both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria commonly have a surface layer called an S-layer. In gram-positive bacteria, the S-layer is attached to the peptidoglycan layer. Gram-negative bacteria's S-layer is attached directly to the outer membrane. Specific to gram-positive bacteria is the presence of teichoic acids in the cell wall. Some of these are lipoteichoic acids, which have a lipid component in the cell membrane that can assist in anchoring the peptidoglycan.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: Along with cell shape, Gram staining is a rapid method used to differentiate bacterial species. Such staining, together with growth requirement and antibiotic susceptibility testing, and other macroscopic and physiologic tests, forms the full basis for classification and subdivision of the bacteria (e.g., see figure and pre-1990 versions of "Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology").


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: Historically, the kingdom Monera was divided into four divisions based primarily on Gram staining: Bacillota (positive in staining), Gracilicutes (negative in staining), Mollicutes (neutral in staining) and Mendocutes (variable in staining). Based on 16S ribosomal RNA phylogenetic studies of the late microbiologist Carl Woese and collaborators and colleagues at the University of Illinois, the monophyly of the gram-positive bacteria was challenged, with major implications for the therapeutic and general study of these organisms. Based on molecular studies of the 16S sequences, Woese recognised twelve bacterial phyla. Two of these were gram-positive and were divided on the proportion of the guanine and cytosine content in their DNA. The high G + C phylum was made up of the Actinobacteria and the low G + C phylum contained the Firmicutes. The Actinomycetota include the "Corynebacterium", "Mycobacterium", "Nocardia" and "Streptomyces" genera. The (low G + C) Bacillota, have a 45–60% GC content, but this is lower than that of the Actinomycetota.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: Although bacteria are traditionally divided into two main groups, gram-positive and gram-negative, based on their Gram stain retention property, this classification system is ambiguous as it refers to three distinct aspects (staining result, envelope organization, taxonomic group), which do not necessarily coalesce for some bacterial species. The gram-positive and gram-negative staining response is also not a reliable characteristic as these two kinds of bacteria do not form phylogenetic coherent groups. However, although Gram staining response is an empirical criterion, its basis lies in the marked differences in the ultrastructure and chemical composition of the bacterial cell wall, marked by the absence or presence of an outer lipid membrane.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: All gram-positive bacteria are bounded by a single-unit lipid membrane, and, in general, they contain a thick layer (20–80 nm) of peptidoglycan responsible for retaining the Gram stain. A number of other bacteria—that are bounded by a single membrane, but stain gram-negative due to either lack of the peptidoglycan layer, as in the mycoplasmas, or their inability to retain the Gram stain because of their cell wall composition—also show close relationship to the Gram-positive bacteria. For the bacterial cells bounded by a single cell membrane, the term "monoderm bacteria" has been proposed.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: In contrast to gram-positive bacteria, all typical gram-negative bacteria are bounded by a cytoplasmic membrane and an outer cell membrane; they contain only a thin layer of peptidoglycan (2–3 nm) between these membranes. The presence of inner and outer cell membranes defines a new compartment in these cells: the periplasmic space or the periplasmic compartment. These bacteria have been designated as diderm bacteria. The distinction between the monoderm and diderm bacteria is supported by conserved signature indels in a number of important proteins (viz. DnaK, GroEL). Of these two structurally distinct groups of bacteria, monoderms are indicated to be ancestral. Based upon a number of observations including that the gram-positive bacteria are the major producers of antibiotics and that, in general, gram-negative bacteria are resistant to them, it has been proposed that the outer cell membrane in gram-negative bacteria (diderms) has evolved as a protective mechanism against antibiotic selection pressure. Some bacteria, such as "Deinococcus", which stain gram-positive due to the presence of a thick peptidoglycan layer and also possess an outer cell membrane are suggested as intermediates in the transition between monoderm (gram-positive) and diderm (gram-negative) bacteria. The diderm bacteria can also be further differentiated between simple diderms lacking lipopolysaccharide, the archetypical diderm bacteria where the outer cell membrane contains lipopolysaccharide, and the diderm bacteria where outer cell membrane is made up of mycolic acid.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: In general, gram-positive bacteria are monoderms and have a single lipid bilayer whereas gram-negative bacteria are diderms and have two bilayers. Some taxa lack peptidoglycan (such as the class Mollicutes, some members of the Rickettsiales, and the insect-endosymbionts of the Enterobacteriales) and are gram-variable. This, however, does not always hold true. The Deinococcota have gram-positive stains, although they are structurally similar to gram-negative bacteria with two layers. The Chloroflexota have a single layer, yet (with some exceptions) stain negative. Two related phyla to the Chloroflexi, the TM7 clade and the Ktedonobacteria, are also monoderms.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: Some Bacillota species are not gram-positive. These belong to the class Mollicutes (alternatively considered a class of the phylum Mycoplasmatota), which lack peptidoglycan (gram-indeterminate), and the class Negativicutes, which includes "Selenomonas" and stain gram-negative. Additionally, a number of bacterial taxa (viz. Negativicutes, Fusobacteriota, Synergistota, and Elusimicrobiota) that are either part of the phylum Bacillota or branch in its proximity are found to possess a diderm cell structure. However, a conserved signature indel (CSI) in the HSP60 (GroEL) protein distinguishes all traditional phyla of gram-negative bacteria (e.g., Pseudomonadota, Aquificota, Chlamydiota, Bacteroidota, Chlorobiota, "Cyanobacteria", Fibrobacterota, Verrucomicrobiota, Planctomycetota, Spirochaetota, Acidobacteriota, etc.) from these other atypical diderm bacteria, as well as other phyla of monoderm bacteria (e.g., Actinomycetota, Bacillota, Thermotogota, Chloroflexota, etc.). The presence of this CSI in all sequenced species of conventional LPS (lipopolysaccharide)-containing gram-negative bacterial phyla provides evidence that these phyla of bacteria form a monophyletic clade and that no loss of the outer membrane from any species from this group has occurred.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: In the classical sense, six gram-positive genera are typically pathogenic in humans. Two of these, "Streptococcus" and "Staphylococcus", are cocci (sphere-shaped). The remaining organisms are bacilli (rod-shaped) and can be subdivided based on their ability to form spores. The non-spore formers are "Corynebacterium" and "Listeria" (a coccobacillus), whereas "Bacillus" and "Clostridium" produce spores. The spore-forming bacteria can again be divided based on their respiration: "Bacillus" is a facultative anaerobe, while "Clostridium" is an obligate anaerobe. Also, "Rathybacter", "Leifsonia", and "Clavibacter" are three gram-positive genera that cause plant disease. Gram-positive bacteria are capable of causing serious and sometimes fatal infections in newborn infants. Novel species of clinically relevant gram-positive bacteria also include "Catabacter hongkongensis", which is an emerging pathogen belonging to Bacillota.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: Transformation is one of three processes for horizontal gene transfer, in which exogenous genetic material passes from a donor bacterium to a recipient bacterium, the other two processes being conjugation (transfer of genetic material between two bacterial cells in direct contact) and transduction (injection of donor bacterial DNA by a bacteriophage virus into a recipient host bacterium). In transformation, the genetic material passes through the intervening medium, and uptake is completely dependent on the recipient bacterium.


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: As of 2014 about 80 species of bacteria were known to be capable of transformation, about evenly divided between gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria; the number might be an overestimate since several of the reports are supported by single papers. Transformation among gram-positive bacteria has been studied in medically important species such as "Streptococcus pneumoniae", "Streptococcus mutans", "Staphylococcus aureus" and "Streptococcus sanguinis" and in gram-positive soil bacterium "Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus".


title: Gram-positive bacteria

text: The adjectives "Gram-positive" and "Gram-negative" derive from the surname of Hans Christian Gram; as eponymous adjectives, their initial letter can be either capital "G" or lower-case "g", depending on which style guide (e.g., that of the CDC), if any, governs the document being written. This is further explained at "Gram staining § Orthographic note".


title: Aconitum

text: Aconitum (), also known as aconite, monkshood, wolf's-bane, leopard's bane, mousebane, women's bane, devil's helmet, queen of poisons, or blue rocket, is a genus of over 250 species of flowering plants belonging to the family Ranunculaceae. These herbaceous perennial plants are chiefly native to the mountainous parts of the Northern Hemisphere in North America, Europe, and Asia; growing in the moisture-retentive but well-draining soils of mountain meadows.


title: Aconitum

text: Most "Aconitum" species are extremely poisonous and must be handled very carefully. Several "Aconitum" hybrids, such as the Arendsii form of "Aconitum carmichaelii", have won gardening awards—such as the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Some are used by florists.


title: Aconitum

text: The name "aconitum" comes from the Greek word , which may derive from the Greek "akon" for dart or javelin, the tips of which were poisoned with the substance, or from "akonae", because of the rocky ground on which the plant was thought to grow. The Greek name "lycoctonum", which translates literally to "wolf's bane", is thought to indicate the use of its juice to poison arrows or baits used to kill wolves. The English name monkshood refers to the cylindrical helmet, called the galea, distinguishing the flower.


title: Aconitum

text: The dark green leaves of "Aconitum" species lack stipules. They are palmate or deeply palmately lobed with five to seven segments. Each segment again is trilobed with coarse sharp teeth. The leaves have a spiral (alternate) arrangement. The lower leaves have long petioles.


title: Aconitum

text: The tall, erect stem is crowned by racemes of large blue, purple, white, yellow, or pink zygomorphic flowers with numerous stamens. They are distinguishable by having one of the five petaloid sepals (the posterior one), called the galea, in the form of a cylindrical helmet, hence the English name monkshood. Two to 10 petals are present. The two upper petals are large and are placed under the hood of the calyx and are supported on long stalks. They have a hollow spur at their apex, containing the nectar. The other petals are small and scale-like or nonforming. The three to five carpels are partially fused at the base.


title: Aconitum

text: Unlike with many species from genera (and their hybrids) in "Ranunculaceae" (and the related "Papaveroideae" subfamily), there are no double-flowered forms.


title: Aconitum

text: A medium to dark semi-saturated blue-purple is the typical flower color for "Aconitum" species. "Aconitum" species tend to be variable enough in form and color in the wild to cause debate and confusion among experts when it comes to species classification boundaries. The overall color range of the genus is rather limited, although the palette has been extended a small amount with hybridization. In the wild, some "Aconitum" blue-purple shades can be very dark. In cultivation the shades do not reach this level of depth.


title: Aconitum

text: Aside from blue-purple—white, very pale greenish-white, creamy white, and pale greenish-yellow are also somewhat common in nature. Wine red (or red-purple) occurs in a hybrid of the climber "Aconitum hemsleyanum". There is a pale semi-saturated pink produced by cultivation as well as bicolor hybrids (e.g. white centers with blue-purple edges). Purplish shades range from very dark blue-purple to a very pale lavender that is quite greyish. The latter occurs in the "Stainless Steel" hybrid.


title: Aconitum

text: Neutral blue (rather than purplish or greenish), greenish-blue, and intense blues, available in some related "Delphinium" plants—particularly "Delphinium grandiflorum"—do not occur in this genus. "Aconitum" plants that have purplish-blue flowers are often inaccurately referred to as having blue flowers, even though the purple tone dominates. If there are species with true (neutral) blue or greenish-blue flowers they are rare and do not occur in cultivation. Also unlike the genus "Delphinium", there are no bright red nor intense pink "Aconitum" flowers, as none known are pollinated by hummingbirds. There are no orange-flowered varieties nor any that are green. "Aconitum" is typically more intense in color than "Helleborus" but less intense than "Delphinium". There are no blackish flowers in "Aconitum", unlike with "Helleborus".


title: Aconitum

text: Monkshood ("Aconitum napellus") produces light indigo-blue flowers, while Wolf's Bane ("Aconitum vulparia") produces whitish or straw-yellow flowers.


title: Aconitum

text: The lack of double-flowered forms in the horticultural trade stands in contrast with the other genera of "Ranunculaceae" used regularly in gardens. This includes one major genus that is known solely by most gardeners for a double-flowered form of one species—"Ranunculus asiaticus", known colloquially in the trade as "Ranunculus". The Ranunculus genus contains approximately 500 species. One other species of Ranunculus has seen minor use in gardens, the 'Flore Pleno' (doubled) form of "Ranunculus acris". Doubled forms of "Consolida" and "Delphinium" dominate the horticultural trade while single forms of "Anemone", "Aquilegia", "Clematis", "Helleborus", "Pulsatilla"—and the related "Papaver"—retain some popularity. No doubled forms of "Aconitum" are known.


title: Aconitum

text: "Aconitum" species have been recorded as food plant of the caterpillars of several moths. The yellow tiger moth "Arctia flavia", and the purple-shaded gem "Euchalcia variabilis" are at home on "A. vulparia". The engrailed "Ectropis crepuscularia", yellow-tail "Euproctis similis", mouse moth "Amphipyra tragopoginis", pease blossom "Periphanes delphinii", and "Mniotype bathensis", have been observed feeding on "A. napellus". The purple-lined sallow "Pyrrhia exprimens", and "Blepharita amica" were found eating from "A. septentrionale". The dot moth "Melanchra persicariae" occurs both on "A. septentrionale" and "A. intermedium". The golden plusia "Polychrysia moneta" is hosted by "A. vulparia", "A. napellus", "A. septentrionale", and "A. intermedium". Other moths associated with "Aconitum" species include the wormwood pug "Eupithecia absinthiata", satyr pug "E. satyrata", "Aterpia charpentierana", and "A. corticana". It is also the primary food source for the Old World bumblebees "Bombus consobrinus" and "Bombus gerstaeckeri".


title: Aconitum

text: Aconitum flowers are pollinated by long-tongued bumblebees. Bumblebees have the strength to open the flowers and reach the single nectary at the top of the flower on its inside. Some short-tongued bees will bore holes into the tops of the flowers to steal nectar. However, alkaloids in the nectar function as a deterrent for species unsuited to pollination. The effect is greater in certain species, such as "Aconitum napellus", than in others, such as "Aconitum lycoctonum". Unlike the species with blue-purple flowers such as "A. napellus", "A. lycoctonum"—which has off-white to pale yellow flowers, has been found to be a nectar source for butterflies. This is likely due to the nectary flowers of the latter being more easily reachable by the butterflies; however, the differing alkaloid character of the two plants may also play a significant role or be the primary influence.


title: Aconitum

text: The species typically utilized by gardeners fare well in well-drained evenly moist "humus-rich" garden soils like many in the related Helleborus and Delphinium genera, and can grow in the partial shade. Species not used in gardens tend to require more exacting conditions (e.g. "Aconitum noveboracense"). Most "Aconitum" species prefer to have their roots cool and moist, with the majority of the leaves exposed to sun, like the related "Clematis". "Aconitum" species can be propagated by divisions of the root or by seeds, with care taken to avoid leaving pieces of the root where livestock might be poisoned. All parts of these plants should be handled while wearing protective disposable gloves. "Aconitum" plants are typically much longer-lived than the closely related delphinium plants, putting less energy into floral reproduction. As a result, they are not described as being "heavy feeders" (needing a higher quantity of fertilizer versus most other flowering plants)—unlike gardeners' delphiniums. As with most in the "Ranunculaceae" and "Papaveraceae" families, they dislike root disturbance. As with most in Ranunculaceae, seeds that are not planted soon after harvesting should be stored moist-packed in vermiculite to avoid dormancy and viability issues. The German seed company Jelitto offers "Gold Nugget" seeds that are advertised as utilizing a coating that enables the seed to germinate immediately, bypassing the double dormancy defect (from a typical gardener's point of view) "Aconitum"—and many other species in Ranunculaceae genera—use as a reproductive strategy. By contrast, seeds that are not immediately planted or moist-packed are described as perhaps taking as long as two years to germinate, being prone to very erratic germination (in terms of time required per seed), and comparatively quick seed viability loss (e.g. "Adonis"). These issues are typical for many species in Ranunculaceae, such as "Pulsatilla" (pasqueflower).


title: Aconitum

text: Monkshood and other members of the genus "Aconitum" contain substantial amounts of the highly toxic aconitine and related alkaloids, especially in their roots and tubers. Aconitine is a potent neurotoxin and cardiotoxin that causes persistent depolarization of neuronal sodium channels in tetrodotoxin-sensitive tissues. The influx of sodium through these channels and the delay in their repolarization increases their excitability and may lead to diarrhea, convulsions, ventricular arrhythmia and death.


title: Aconitum

text: Marked symptoms may appear almost immediately, usually not later than one hour, and "with large doses death is almost instantaneous". Death usually occurs within two to six hours in fatal poisoning (20 to 40 mL of tincture may prove fatal). The initial signs are gastrointestinal, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. This is followed by a sensation of burning, tingling, and numbness in the mouth and face, and of burning in the abdomen. In severe poisonings, pronounced motor weakness occurs and cutaneous sensations of tingling and numbness spread to the limbs. Cardiovascular features include hypotension, sinus bradycardia, and ventricular arrhythmias. Other features may include sweating, dizziness, difficulty in breathing, headache, and confusion. The main causes of death are ventricular arrhythmias and asystole, or paralysis of the heart or respiratory center. The only "post mortem" signs are those of asphyxia.


title: Aconitum

text: Treatment of poisoning is mainly supportive. All patients require close monitoring of blood pressure and cardiac rhythm. Gastrointestinal decontamination with activated charcoal can be used if given within one hour of ingestion. The major physiological antidote is atropine, which is used to treat bradycardia. Other drugs used for ventricular arrhythmia include lidocaine, amiodarone, bretylium, flecainide, procainamide, and mexiletine. Cardiopulmonary bypass is used if symptoms are refractory to treatment with these drugs. Successful use of charcoal hemoperfusion has been claimed in patients with severe aconitine poisoning.


title: Aconitum

text: Mild toxicity (headache, nausea and palpitations) as well as severe toxicity may be experienced from skin contact. Paraesthesia, including tingling and feelings of coldness in the face and extremities, is common in reports of toxicity.


title: Aconitum

text: Aconite has long been used in Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine. Aconite was also described in Greek and Roman medicine by Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny the Elder, who most likely prescribed the Alpine species "Aconitum lycoctonum". Folk medicinal use of "Aconitum" species is still practiced in some parts of Slovenia.


title: Aconitum

text: "Aconitum chasmanthum" is listed as critically endangered, "Aconitum heterophyllum" as endangered, and "Aconitum violaceum" as vulnerable due to overcollection for Ayurvedic use.


title: Aconitum

text: The roots of "A. ferox" supply the Nepalese poison called "bikh", "bish", or "nabee". It contains large quantities of the alkaloid pseudaconitine, which is a deadly poison. The root of "A. luridum", of the Himalaya, is said to be as poisonous as that of "A. ferox" or "A. napellus".


title: Aconitum

text: Several species of "Aconitum" have been used as arrow poisons. The Minaro in Ladakh use "A. napellus" on their arrows to hunt ibex, while the Ainu in Japan used a species of "Aconitum" to hunt bear as did the Matagi hunters of the same region before their adoption of firearms. The Chinese also used "Aconitum" poisons both for hunting and for warfare. "Aconitum" poisons were used by the Aleuts of Alaska's Aleutian Islands for hunting whales. Usually, one man in a kayak armed with a poison-tipped lance would hunt the whale, paralyzing


title: Aconitum

text: it with the poison and causing it to drown. "Aconitum" tipped arrows are also described in the Rig Veda.


title: Aconitum

text: It has, albeit rarely, been hypothesized that Socrates was executed via an extract from an "Aconitum" species, such as "Aconitum napellus", rather than via hemlock, "Conium maculatum". "Aconitum" was commonly used by the ancient Greeks as an arrow poison but can be used for other forms of poisoning. It has been hypothesized that Alexander the Great and Ptolemy XIV Philopator were murdered via aconite.


title: Aconitum

text: In 1524, in the first recorded human trial of poison since the ancient Greeks, Pope Clement VII is said to have intentionally poisoned prisoners with aconite laced marzipan to test the effects of an antidote. The treated prisoner survived, while the untreated prisoner suffered a painful death.


title: Aconitum

text: In April 2021, the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, promoted aconite root as a treatment for COVID-19. Subsequently, at least four people were admitted to hospital suffering from poisoning. Facebook had previously removed the President's posts advocating use of the substance, saying "We've removed this post as we do not allow anyone, including elected officials, to share misinformation that could lead to imminent physical harm or spread false claims about how to cure or prevent COVID-19".


title: Aconitum

text: Genetic analysis suggests that "Aconitum" as it was delineated before the 21st century is nested within "Delphinium" "sensu lato", that also includes "Aconitella", "Consolida", "Delphinium staphisagria", "D. requini", and "D. pictum". Further genetic analysis has shown that the only species of the subgenus ""Aconitum (Gymnaconitum)", ""A. gymnandrum", is sister to the group that consists of "Delphinium (Delphinium)", "Delphinium (Delphinastrum)", and ""Consolida" plus ""Aconitella". To make "Aconitum" monophyletic, ""A. gymnandrum" has now been reassigned to a new genus, "Gymnaconitum". To make "Delphinium" monophyletic, the new genus "Staphisagria" was erected containing "S. staphisagria", "S. requini", and "S. pictum".


title: Aconitum

text: Aconite has been understood as a poison from ancient times, and is frequently represented as such in fiction. In Greek mythology, the goddess Hecate is said to have invented aconite, which Athena used to transform Arachne into a spider. Also, Medea attempted to poison Theseus with a cup of wine poisoned with wolf's bane. The kyōgen (traditional Japanese comedy) play , which is well-known and frequently taught in Japan, is centered on dried aconite root used for traditional Chinese medicine. Taken from Shasekishu, a 13th-century anthology collected by Mujū, the story describes servants who decide that the dried aconite root is really sugar, and suffer unpleasant though nonlethal symptoms after eating it. Shakespeare, in "Henry IV Part II" Act 4 Scene 4, refers to aconite, alongside rash gunpowder, working as strongly as the "venom of suggestion" to break up close relationships. In BBC drama "Shakespeare and Hatherway", series 2, episode 9, a tennis player is poisoned through the skin of his palm by aconite smeared on the handle of his racquet.


title: Aconitum

text: As a well-known poison from ancient times, aconite is well-suited for historical fiction. It is the poison used by a murderer in the third of the Cadfael Chronicles, "Monk's Hood" by Ellis Peters, published in 1980 and set in 1138 in Shrewsbury. In "I, Claudius", Livia, wife of Augustus, was portrayed discussing the merits, antidotes, and use of aconite with a poisoner. It also makes a showing in alternate history novels and historical fantasy, such as S. M. Stirling's, "On the Oceans of Eternity", where a renegade warlord is poisoned with aconite-laced food by his own chief of internal security, and in the television show "Merlin", the lead character, Merlin, attempts to poison Arthur with aconite while under a spell. In the 2003 Korean television series "Dae Jang Geum", set in the 15th and 16th centuries, Choi put wolf's bane in the previous queen's food.


title: Aconitum

text: Aconite also lends itself to use as a fictional poison in modern settings. An overdose of aconite was the method by which Rudolph Bloom, father of Leopold Bloom in James Joyce's "Ulysses", committed suicide.


title: Aconitum

text: In his mythological poem "Metamorphoses", Ovid tells how the herb comes from the slavering mouth of Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades. As the veterinary historian John Blaisdell has noted, symptoms of aconite poisoning in humans bear some passing similarity to those of rabies: frothy saliva, impaired vision, vertigo, and finally a coma. Thus, some ancient Greeks possibly would have believed that this poison, mythically born of Cerberus's lips, was literally the same as that to be found inside the mouth of a rabid dog.


title: Aconitum

text: In John Keats's poem "Ode to Melancholy", wolf's bane is mentioned in the first verse as the source of "poisonous wine", possibly referring to Medea.


title: Aconitum

text: In the 1931 classic horror film "Dracula" starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula and Helen Chandler as Mina Seward, reference is made to wolf's bane ("aconitum"). Towards the end of the film, "Van Helsing holds up a sprig of wolf's bane". Van Helsing educates the nurse protecting Mina from Count Dracula to place sprigs of wolf's bane around Mina's neck for protection. Furthermore, he instructs that wolf's bane is a plant that grows in central Europe. There, the natives use it to protect themselves against vampires. As long as the wolf's bane is present in Mina's bedroom, she will be safe from Count Dracula. During the night, Count Dracula desires to visit Mina. He appears outside her window in the form of a flying bat. He causes the nurse to become drowsy, and when she awakes from his spell, she removes the sprigs of wolf's bane, placing it in a hallway chest of drawers. With the removal of the wolf's bane from Mina's room, Count Dracula mysteriously appears and transports Mina to the dungeon of the castle.


title: Aconitum

text: In the 1941 film "The Wolf Man" starring Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Rains, the following poem is recited several times "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolf-bane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."


title: Aconitum

text: In the 1943 French novel "Our Lady of the Flowers", the boy Culafroy eats "Napel aconite", so that the "Renaissance would take possession of the child through the mouth."


title: Aconitum

text: In the TV-show "Game of Thrones", one of Tywin Lannister's commanders is assassinated by a dart, identified by Tywin as Wolf's Bane, due to its scent.


title: Aconitum

text: In the early 1980s, famed Spanish horror film star Paul Naschy named his production company "Aconito Films", an in-joke relating to the large number of werewolf movies he produced.


title: Aconitum

text: Wolf's bane is used as an analogy for the power of divine communion in "Liber 65" 1:13–16, one of Aleister Crowley's "Holy Books of Thelema". Wolf's bane is mentioned in one verse of Lady Gwen Thompson's 1974 poem "Rede of the Wiccae", a long version of the Wiccan Rede: "Widdershins go when Moon doth wane, And the werewolves howl by the dread wolfsbane."


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the United States. The largest Marlboro cigarette manufacturing plant is located in Richmond, Virginia.


title: Marlboro

text: In 1846, British tobacconist Phillip Morris opened a shop on Bond Street, London, UK, selling tobacco and rolled cigarettes. After his death from cancer in 1873, his brother Leopold and widow Margaret continued the business, growing it and opening a factory on Great Marlborough Street, London, from which the name was taken.


title: Marlboro

text: Philip Morris opened a New York subsidiary in 1902 to sell many of its cigarette brands. The mark ""Marlboro"" was registered in the United States in 1908 although no cigarette was marketed under this name until 1923. In 1924, the brand was launched. They were first marketed as "America's luxury cigarette" and were mainly sold in hotels and resorts.


title: Marlboro

text: Around the 1930s, it was starting to be advertised as a women's cigarette, based on the slogan "Mild As May". Advertising for the cigarette was primarily based on how ladylike the filter cigarette was, in an attempt to appeal to the mass market. To this end, the filter had a printed red band around it to hide lipstick stains, calling it "Beauty Tips to Keep the Paper from Your Lips".


title: Marlboro

text: However, as early as 1885, a brand called "Marlborough" was already being marketed as a "ladies' favorite" by Philip Morris & Co.


title: Marlboro

text: Shortly before World War II, the brand's sales stagnated at less than 1% of tobacco sales in the US and was briefly withdrawn from the market. After the war, Camel, Lucky Strike and Chesterfield were the only common cigarettes.


title: Marlboro

text: After scientists published a major study linking smoking to lung cancer in the 1950s, Philip Morris repositioned Marlboro as a men's cigarette in order to fit a market niche of men who were concerned about lung cancer. At the time, filtered cigarettes were considered safer than unfiltered cigarettes, but had been until that time only marketed to women. Men at the time indicated that while they would consider switching to a filtered cigarette, they were concerned about being seen smoking a cigarette marketed to women.


title: Marlboro

text: Part of Marlboro's rise in market share was its ability to produce "milder, more aromatic, sweeter, and less harsh" cigarettes by adding ammonia to the tobacco. Further usage of diammonium phosphate allowed Marlboro to free base the nicotine in tobacco, allowing for more efficient delivery. Marlboro kept this process secret for many years, as freebasing is the same process used to produce crack cocaine from normal cocaine. Some experts have called the product that Marlboro sold "crack tobacco."


title: Marlboro

text: In the late 1960s, Marlboro "Longhorn 100's" were introduced. Although color-coded with gold, they were full flavor cigarettes, not lights. In 1972, Marlboro became the best-selling brand of tobacco in the world.


title: Marlboro

text: In order to comply with a 2006 court ruling in "United States v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al.", Philip Morris (and all other cigarette companies) are now prevented from using words such as "Lights", "Ultra-Lights", "Medium", "Mild", or any similar designation that may yield an impression of being safer than regular full flavored cigarettes. Thus Marlboro and other cigarette companies use only color-coding instead; for example, Marlboro Lights are now called Marlboro Gold Pack.


title: Marlboro

text: Philip Morris responded to the popularity of Pall Mall, the number three brand, by pushing Marlboro Special Blends, a lower-priced cigarette.


title: Marlboro

text: In 2013, Philip Morris International introduced ""Marlboro 2.0"". The pack design was changed; the dark red was replaced with a lighter red, the "Marlboro" and Philip Morris logo became ribbed and transparent, and around 2017 a special ""Smart SEAL"" was introduced to keep the stored cigarettes fresh for a longer period of time. The Marlboro 2.0 packs are mainly available in Europe and some parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, but not in the United States, Canada and Australia (due to plain packaging) and New Zealand.


title: Marlboro

text: In 2015, Philip Morris announced they would introduce a "Firm Filter" to their Marlboro Red, Gold, Silver Blue, Ice Blast and White Menthol variants. Philip Morris managing director for the United Kingdom and Ireland, Martin Inkster, said that the Firm Filter technique was added to "offer quality you can feel and it is a cleaner way to stub out your cigarette".


title: Marlboro

text: In the 1920s, advertising for the cigarette was primarily based on how ladylike the filter cigarette was, in an attempt to appeal to the mass market. To this end, the filter had a printed red band around it to hide lipstick stains, calling it "Beauty Tips to Keep the Paper from Your Lips".


title: Marlboro

text: The red and white package was designed by designer Frank Gianninoto. The repositioning of Marlboro as a men's cigarette was handled by Chicago advertiser Leo Burnett. The proposed campaign was to present a lineup of manly figures: sea captains, weightlifters, war correspondents, construction workers, etc. The cowboy was to have been the first in this series. While Philip Morris was concerned about the campaign, they eventually gave the green light.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro's market share rose from less than one percent to the fourth best-selling brand. This convinced Philip Morris to drop the lineup of manly figures and stick with the cowboy, later known as the Marlboro Man. From 1963, the television advertisements used Elmer Bernstein's theme from "The Magnificent Seven".


title: Marlboro

text: Philip Morris also made various sports-related billboards, stickers and other memorabilia throughout the years, mainly promoting the Marlboro brand via its McLaren and Ferrari teams partnerships in places like Russia and Monaco.


title: Marlboro

text: Through licensees, Philip Morris sells various merchandising products, such as lighters, ashtrays, sunglasses and other accessories, which are sometimes given away to the target group as part of marketing promotions. In 1983, the campaign "Marlboro Adventure Team Adventure Camp" was launched, for which the participants had to apply, there was a collection of clothing and accessories.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro is well known for its association with motor racing. This started in the season with the sponsorship of Formula One team BRM. The first win for a Marlboro-sponsored F1 car was achieved at the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix by Jean-Pierre Beltoise driving for BRM. In and , the cigarette giant backed Frank Williams Racing Cars team, whose cars were registered as "Iso-Marlboro".


title: Marlboro

text: In the 1974 season, Marlboro became famously associated with the McLaren team, which brought it its first Constructors' Championship and its drivers title for Emerson Fittipaldi in the first season of the partnership between McLaren and Marlboro. The team won another drivers title in for James Hunt. Following that, the partnership went through a dry patch until Ron Dennis's Project Four Organization took over the team in . Marlboro-sponsored McLaren dominated F1 for much of the 1980s and early 1990s, with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna between them winning the Drivers' Championship all but one year from to . After the departure of Ayrton Senna at the end of the season, Marlboro McLaren never won a race again. Marlboro ended their sponsorship of the team in , which ended the famous red and white McLaren livery. McLaren was sponsored by West from the start of the season onwards. McLaren and Marlboro had the longest sponsorship deal between a team and its title sponsor in F1 history which lasted for 23 consecutive seasons (–).


title: Marlboro

text: Over the years, McLaren had to alter the Marlboro livery to comply with regional anti-tobacco sponsorship laws which were in place in countries like France, the United Kingdom and later Germany. The Marlboro logo was replaced by a chevron in , with a barcode in and and from to or with ""McLaren"" in and from to and to . At the 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix, Keke Rosberg's car was painted yellow and white rather than red and white, to advertise Marlboro Lights.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro also sponsored Scuderia Ferrari's drivers since (the brand appeared only on helmets and suits) but only in became a minor sponsor on Ferrari's Formula One cars. Until then, Enzo Ferrari allowed only technical suppliers brands to appear on his team cars. In , Marlboro became the main sponsor, and in became the title sponsor as the team was officially renamed as ""Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro"". Marlboro remained Ferrari's title sponsor until the 2011 European Grand Prix and the main sponsor until the end of the season.


title: Marlboro

text: Over the years, Ferrari, just like McLaren, had to alter the Marlboro livery in various ways to comply with regional anti-tobacco sponsoring laws which were in place in countries like France, the United Kingdom and later Germany. The Marlboro logo was removed completely or replaced with a white space from to (The Ferrari cars had white spaces over Marlboro occasionally in and ), changed to a ""bar code"" from to 1999 and in and , or the text was removed while keeping the chevron with the driver's name () and in the team member clothing, the Marlboro logo became a white square with a red stripe above with the driver's written name from the 1980s until . The team used a special livery for the 2001 Italian Grand Prix in remembrance of the September 11 attacks in the United States; both cars ran without any sponsorship livery and sported matte black nose-cones. In the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix the cars sported black nosecones as a sign of mourning for Pope John Paul II.


title: Marlboro

text: In September 2005, Ferrari signed an extension of their sponsorship arrangement with Marlboro until 2011. This agreement came at a time when tobacco sponsorship had become wholly banned in the European Union and other major F1 teams ended their relationships with tobacco companies. In reporting the deal, "F1 Racing" magazine judged it to be a "black day" for the sport, putting non-tobacco funded teams at a disadvantage and discouraging other brands from entering a sport still associated with tobacco. The magazine estimated that in the period between 2005 and 2011, Ferrari received $1 billion from the agreement. Depending on the venue of races and the particular national laws, the Marlboro branding became largely subliminal in most countries.


title: Marlboro

text: In mid-2006, special "racing editions" of Marlboro Red were sold in the UK, with a Ferrari-inspired design, although the Ferrari name and badge were not used. In April 2008, Marlboro displayed explicit on-car branding on Ferrari for the last time, then permanently replaced with a variety of barcodes in place of it. Since then, there were calls from leading health officials, the European Commissioner for Health and influential doctors for a review of the subliminal advertising contract Marlboro has with Advertising Guerrilla and Ferrari, due to the implications of influencing the purchase of cigarettes with possible subliminal advertising, as no tobacco products can be promoted in sporting events in Europe. The Ferrari team claimed the barcode was part of the car design, not an advertising message.


title: Marlboro

text: The controversial barcode design was removed by Ferrari for the start of the Spanish Grand Prix in the 2010 season, but the barcode remained on drivers' team gear. In January 2011, the Scuderia Ferrari presented a new logo for its racing team. This logo is considered by a specialised F1-website as a subliminal advertisement for Marlboro, evocating the top-left corner design of a Marlboro cigarettes pack.


title: Marlboro

text: In June 2011, Ferrari extended its collaboration with Marlboro through to the end of 2015, despite cigarette advertising being banned in the sport. The deal has been subsequently renewed for three more years, through 2018. In February 2018, Philip Morris renewed their partnership deal with Ferrari until the end of 2021. While the logo, which has been in place since 2011, has been removed on this year's car. Before 2018 Japanese Grand Prix, Ferrari launches their revised SF71H livery featuring PMI's Mission Winnow brand.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro had provided financial support to many racing drivers, the most illustrious of whom are Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Mika Häkkinen. From 1970 until the mid-1990s, the logos of the cigarettes could be present on the combinations of the drivers if they were not present on the cars. Marlboro has also sponsored many grand prix races up until 2005.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro also sponsored a multitude of other, smaller teams in Formula One. It was the main sponsor of Alfa Romeo F1 Team between and , although unable to match up to its pre-war and 1950s heyday, the team only achieving one pole position, one fastest lap and four podium finishes. In the Italian clothing brand Benetton took over Alfa Romeo's livery sponsorship, which they held until the withdrawal of Alfa Romeo from Formula One at the end of . The Marlboro logo was replaced with a barcode at certain races, due to tobacco or alcohol sponsorship bans in place.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the BMS Scuderia Italia team from until , when Chesterfield became their main sponsor. The livery was very similar to the Ferrari and Alfa Romeo ones. The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets. In some races where explicit tobacco sponsoring was forbidden, the Marlboro logo was removed.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Arrows F1 (by the time known as ""Footwork"") team in . While Ruffles, a potato chips brand sponsored the car, Marlboro sponsored the drivers helmets.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the EuroBrun team in . The ER188, driven by Oscar Larrauri, Stefano Modena and Gregor Foitek, featured the Marlboro logo on the helmets of the drivers, as well as the Marlboro logo and name on the side of the cars.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Fittipaldi Automotive team in . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the helmets of the drivers.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Forti F1 team in and . The logo was displayed on the top side of the car, as well as on the helmets of the drivers.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Merzario team from until the team's collapse in . The Marlboro logo were displayed on the front, side and on the drivers helmets.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Minardi team in . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets. In some races where explicit tobacco sponsoring was forbidden, the Marlboro logo was replaced with a barcode.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Onyx Grand Prix team in and . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets. In some races where explicit tobacco sponsoring was forbidden, the Marlboro logo was replaced with a barcode, but the Chevron logo was retained.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored Team Rebaque in . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets. In some races where explicit tobacco sponsoring was forbidden, the Marlboro logo was removed.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Rial Racing team in and . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets. In some races where explicit tobacco sponsoring was forbidden, the Marlboro logo was replaced with a barcode.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Spirit Racing team in and . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets.


title: Marlboro

text: From 2005 to 2007, GP2 Series team ART Grand Prix was sponsored by Marlboro. The Marlboro logos were prominently shown on the car in the 2005 and 2006 seasons, but in 2007 the team only sponsored the brand on the rear wing. In countries where the sponsoring of tobacco was forbidden, the Marlboro logos were replaced with a barcode.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro entered the Grand Prix motorcycle racing in the seventies as personal sponsor of riders like Giacomo Agostini, Angel Nieto and Jarno Saarinen. In 1976, Marlboro backed Agostini's team, who raced MV Agusta bikes with little factory support.


title: Marlboro

text: Since 1983, the cigarette brand sponsored the Yamaha 500 cc works team, which was managed by Agostini until 1989 and then by Kenny Roberts until 1996. During that period, the Japanese bikes won six World Championships and, as a result of their sponsorship, Marlboro decals on race replica bikes became one of the most popular decal kits that were available.


title: Marlboro

text: In the 1990s, Marlboro's livery also appeared on other bikes, especially the Hondas entered by Team Pileri (from 1992 to 1995), Pons Racing (in 1993) and Erv Kanemoto's team (in 1997 and 1998) who achieved the 1997 250 cc World Championship with Max Biaggi.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Ducati Corse MotoGP team from 2003. Casey Stoner took his first MotoGP title in 2007. As of the 2009 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season they were only allowed to brand the bikes at one round, in Qatar at the Losail International Circuit, using the barcode in other races. The controversial barcode design was then removed by Ducati for the start of the French motorcycle Grand Prix in the 2010 season. In January 2011 the Ducati Team presented a new logo which was regarded as a subliminal advertisement for Marlboro, evocating the top-left corner design of a Marlboro cigarettes pack, similar to the one used by Ferrari.


title: Marlboro

text: In January 2018, it was speculated that Ducati would carry sponsorship by Philip Morris' heat-not-burn brand iQOS instead, bypassing currently in-place laws that prohibit specific advertising of tobacco products.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsorship in IndyCar dates back to 1986 when the livery appeared on the Emerson Fittipaldi's car entered by Patrick Racing. In 1990 Penske Racing hired Fittipaldi and started a 20 years-long association with Marlboro and its distinctive red and white livery. However, in the 2007 season Marlboro logos were hidden and subsequently replaced with Team Penske branding but the team retained the color scheme as Philip Morris USA was still Penske's main sponsor (similar case to Scuderia Ferrari and Ducati MotoGP Team that had Marlboro sponsorship but both Ferrari and Ducati teams forced to hide the Marlboro logos due to anti-tobacco advertising law).


title: Marlboro

text: Since their start in Formula One, Marlboro has also sponsored numerous teams and races, from Joest Racing in Group C in 1983 to Toyota at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999 (despite a tobacco ban in France).


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro has a long history in rallying sponsorship, including the factory World Rally Championship teams of Lancia (between 1972 and 1974), Mitsubishi (from to ) and Peugeot (from to ). The cigarette brand appeared on helmets and suits of some of the best rally drivers, being personal sponsor of Markku Alén, Timo Salonen, Juha Kankkunen, Miki Biasion and others. Between 1987 and 1992, Marlboro backed Carlos Sainz, appearing on his cars (Ford Sierra in 1987–88 and then Toyota Celica since 1989). In 1993 the cigarette brand started an association with Belgian rally driver Freddy Loix, who was racing for Opel in the Belgian rally championship. Between 1996 and 1998 Loix raced with Toyota Team Belgium in the WRC, carrying the Marlboro livery on his car. In 1999 he moved to Mitsubishi Ralliart works team, with the iconic livery remaining on successive Lancer Evolutions until the marque's temporary WRC withdrawal at the end of 2002.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro also sponsored the cars of Emirati rally driver Mohammed bin Sulayem and has sponsored a number of rallies including the Safari Rally (between 1982 and 1990), the Rally Argentina, the Rally of Lebanon, the Jordan Rally, and the UAE Desert Challenge.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Italo-American IMSA SportsCar Le Mans GT team Risi Competizione since 2004 but Risi Competizione opting to invisible the Marlboro logo due to the team respecting Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement regulations and also ban of cigarette advertising in sports.


title: Marlboro

text: Marlboro sponsored the Thomas and Uber Cup from 1984 to 1990, as well as the Sudirman Cup from 1991 to 1995 and 2001 to 2013.


title: Marlboro

text: Philip Morris International organized Marlboro products into three divisions—"Flavor line", which are original red full flavor cigarettes, "Gold line" are former lights, and "Fresh line" comprises flavored cigarettes.


title: Marlboro

text: In the United Kingdom, the company sells Marlboro Red, Gold, Touch and Silver King Size. In May 2020, all brands of menthol cigarettes, including Marlboro Menthol and Marlboro Ice Blast Capsule cigarettes were banned in the European Union.


title: Marlboro

text: In the Philippines, Marlboro has 5 cigarette variants, Marlboro Classic (also known as "Marlboro Red"), Marlboro Gold (first known and well-known as "Marlboro Lights"), Marlboro Black Menthol (simply "Marlboro Black"), Marlboro Purple Fusion (or Purple Mix) and Marlboro Ice Blast (known as "Marlboro Blue", a companion brand of "Fortune Mint Splash" in the Philippines).


title: Marlboro

text: Philip Morris sold the Canadian rights to the "Marlboro" name to Imperial Tobacco Canada in 1932. After the brand's successful American relaunch in the 1950s – which later became well known to Canadians through exposure to the brand's international sponsorships and advertising – Philip Morris tried several legal manoeuvres in attempting to reacquire the Canadian rights, to no avail. Imperial Tobacco continues to sell a line of cigarettes under the Marlboro name in Canada, albeit with very different packaging from that of the Philip Morris product. Philip Morris retains the rights to the "rooftop" trade dress and other elements of Marlboro's branding which were developed after the 1932 sale and has historically used that trade dress in Canada in combination with the names "Matador" or occasionally "Maverick" for a line of Virginia blend cigarettes.


title: Marlboro

text: In 2006, Philip Morris International's Canadian affiliate Rothmans, Benson & Hedges introduced a new product with the "rooftop" trade dress, and marked as being the "World Famous Imported Blend", but not bearing any actual brand name. This led to a legal challenge from Imperial, contending that the new packaging created customer confusion by merely "suggesting" the Marlboro brand, thereby infringing on Imperial's Canadian trademark rights. Canada's Federal Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Imperial in June 2012. The judgment noted that Canadian regulations which (in most cases) prohibit the public display of tobacco products at retail locations – i.e., customers must ask for a brand by name – exacerbated the situation, as there were now two products that customers might be referring to when asking for "Marlboro". Though PMI is expected to appeal, shortly after the ruling it began using the brand name "Rooftop" on packaging for the previously unbranded cigarettes.


title: Marlboro

text: Morley is a fictional brand of cigarettes whose packaging resembles Marlboro's original packaging. The fictional brand has appeared in various television shows, films, and video games that otherwise have no apparent connection to each other. The name "Morley" is a play on "Marleys", a nickname for Marlboro cigarettes. Morleys appear at least as far back as 1960, in Alfred Hitchcock's film "Psycho". There is also a Morley Lights version, in a gold and white package (similar to Marlboro Lights), marked "Lights".


title: Marlboro

text: The Morley packaging is sold to production companies by The Earl Hays Press, a century-old Hollywood prop packaging service.


title: Marlboro

text: The reason non-brand name products like Morley cigarettes are used in film and on television goes back to the early days of television in America. Then cigarette companies often sponsored entire TV shows and advertised through product placement, but if no cigarette companies agreed to pay, producers instead used a non-brand product — no free advertising. This concept was later expanded to most TV shows, films, video games and other media.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Duel is a 1971 American action-thriller television film directed by Steven Spielberg. It centers on a business commuter, played by Dennis Weaver, driving his car through California to meet a client. However, he finds himself chased and terrorized by the mostly-unseen driver of a semi-truck. The screenplay by Richard Matheson adapts his own short story of the same name.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Produced by Universal Television, "Duel o"riginally aired as a part of the "ABC Movie of the Week" series on November 13, 1971. It later received an international theatrical release in an extended version featuring scenes shot after the film's original broadcast. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with Spielberg's direction being singled out for praise. It has since been recognized as an influential cult classic, and one of the greatest made-for-television films ever made.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: David Mann, a middle-aged salesman driving on a business trip, encounters a dilapidated tanker truck driving slowly in the Mojave Desert. Mann passes the truck but the truck speeds up, roars past him, then resumes driving slowly. When Mann overtakes and passes it again, the truck blasts its horn. Mann pulls into a gas station and the truck parks next to him. Mann phones his wife, who is upset with him after an argument the previous night. The station attendant tells Mann he needs a new radiator hose but Mann says he will get it done later and declines the repair.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Back on the road, the truck catches up, passes then blocks Mann's path each time he attempts to pass. After antagonizing Mann for a while, the driver waves him past, causing Mann to nearly hit an oncoming vehicle. Mann finally passes the truck using an unpaved turnout next to the highway then glances at his rear window and waves as the speed of the truck decreases. The truck then tailgates Mann's car at increasingly high speed. Mann swerves his car off the road, loses control, and slams his car sideways into a fence across from a diner as the truck continues down the road.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Mann enters the restaurant to compose himself. Upon returning from the restroom, he sees the truck parked outside. He studies the patrons and confronts one (wearing the same type of boots as the truck driver) he believes to be the truck driver. The confused and offended patron beats Mann and leaves in a different truck. The pursuing truck leaves moments later, indicating that its driver never entered the diner.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Mann later stops to help a stranded school bus, but his front bumper gets caught underneath the bus's rear bumper. The truck appears at the end of a tunnel, causing Mann to panic. He and the bus driver then free his car and Mann drives from the scene as the truck helps push the school bus onto the road. Down the road, Mann stops at a railroad crossing waiting for a freight train to pass through. The truck appears from behind and pushes Mann's car towards the oncoming Southern Pacific freight train. The train passes, and Mann crosses the tracks and pulls over. The truck continues down the road and Mann slowly follows.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: In an attempt to create more distance between himself and the truck, Mann drives at a very leisurely pace, as other motorists pass him. Once again, he encounters the truck, which has pulled off to the side of the road ahead, intentionally waiting for Mann. He pulls out in front of him and starts antagonizing him again.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Mann stops at a gas station/roadside animal attraction, consisting prominently of rattlesnakes, to call the police and replace his radiator hose but when he steps into the telephone booth, the truck drives into it; Mann jumps clear just in time, jumps into his car and speeds away. Around a corner, he pulls off the road, hiding behind an embankment as the truck drives past.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: After a long wait, Mann heads off again but the truck is waiting for him again down the road. Mann attempts to speed past but it moves across the road, blocking him. Mann seeks help from an elderly couple in a car but they flee when the truck backs up towards them at high speed. The truck stops before hitting Mann's car and Mann, determined to fight back, speeds past the truck, which begins pursuing. Mann swerves towards what he believes is a police car, only to see it is a pest-control vehicle. The truck chases him up a mountain range, which slows it down. However, the faulty radiator hose of Mann's car breaks causing the strained engine to overheat and begin failing. Losing speed, he barely reaches the summit but then coasts downhill in neutral as the truck follows. Mann spins out and slams sideways into a cliff wall. He manages to restart his car, barely escaping being crushed by the truck, then to drive up a dirt road with the truck following him. He turns to face the truck in front of a canyon, locks the accelerator using his briefcase, then steers the car into the oncoming truck, jumping free at the last moment. The truck hits the car, which bursts into flames, obscuring the driver's view. The truck plunges over the cliff along with the car and crashes into the canyon. Above the wreckage, Mann rejoices his victory and then sits down exhausted at the cliff's edge and throws stones into the canyon as the sun sets.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: The script is adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story, originally published in "Playboy" magazine. Matheson got the inspiration for the story when he was tailgated by a trucker while on his way home from a golfing match with friend Jerry Sohl on November 22, 1963, the same day as the John F. Kennedy assassination. After a series of unsuccessful attempts to pitch the idea as an episode for various television series, he decided to write it as a short story instead. In preparation for writing the story, he drove from his home to Ventura and recorded everything he saw on a tape recorder.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: The original short story was given to Spielberg by his secretary, who told him that it was being made into a "Movie of the Week" for ABC and suggested he apply to be the director. "Duel" was Spielberg's second feature-length directing effort, after his 1971 "The Name of the Game" NBC television series episode "L.A. 2017".


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Much of the movie was filmed in and around the communities of Canyon Country, Agua Dulce, and Acton, California. In particular, sequences were filmed on the Sierra Highway, Agua Dulce Canyon Road, Soledad Canyon Road, and Angeles Forest Highway. Many of the landmarks from "Duel" still exist today, including the tunnel, the railroad crossing, and Chuck's Café, where Mann stops for a break. The building is still on Sierra Highway and has housed a French restaurant called "Le Chêne" since 1980. The "Snakerama" gas station (now the Peppertree market) seen in the film also appears in Spielberg's comedy film "1941" (1979) as a tribute to "Duel", with actress Lucille Benson again appearing as the proprietor. The cliffs where the truck crashes at the end are Mystery Mesa, off Vasquez Canyon Road.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Production of the television film was overseen by ABC's director of movies of the week Lillian Gallo. The original made-for-television version was 74 minutes long with filming completed in 13 days (three longer than the scheduled 10 days), leaving 10 days for editing prior to broadcast as the "ABC Movie of the Week".


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Spielberg lobbied to have Dennis Weaver in the starring role because he admired Weaver's work in Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil". Weaver repeats one of his lines from "Touch of Evil", telling the truck driver in the café that he has "another think coming." This phrase is commonly misstated as "another thing coming", as Weaver's character did in "Touch of Evil".


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: In the Archive of American Television website, Spielberg is quoted in an interview given by Weaver as saying: "You know, I watch that movie at least twice a year to remember what I did".


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Matheson's script made explicit that the unnamed truck driver, the film's villain, is unseen aside from the shots of his arms and boots that were needed to convey the plot. In the DVD documentary, Spielberg observes that fear of the unknown is perhaps the greatest fear of all and that "Duel" plays heavily to that fear. The truck driver remains anonymous and unseen throughout the film, except for three separate shots. The stunt driver can very briefly be seen in the truck's cab, where his arm waves Weaver’s character into oncoming traffic and observes the driver's snakeskin boots. His motives are never revealed. Spielberg says that the effect of not seeing the driver makes the real villain of the film the truck itself, rather than the driver.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: The car driven by Mann is a red Plymouth Valiant, although three cars were used in the actual production of the movie.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: The original release of "Duel" featured a 1970 model with a 318 V-8 engine and "Plymouth" spelled out in block letters across the hood (which was covered with aluminum foil to mask the "Plymouth" name from view), as well as trunk lid treatment characteristic of the 1970 model; a 1971 model with a 225 Slant Six was also used.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Spielberg did not care what kind of car was used in the film, but insisted the final chosen model be red to enable the vehicle to stand out from the general landscape in the wide shots of the desert highway.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Spielberg had what he called an "audition" for the truck, wherein he viewed a series of trucks to choose the one for the film. He selected the older 1955 Peterbilt 281 over the current flat-nosed "cab-over" style of trucks because the long hood of the Peterbilt, its split windshield, and its round headlights gave it more of a "face", adding to its menacing personality. Additionally, Spielberg said that the multiple license plates on the front bumper of the Peterbilt subtly suggested that the truck driver is a serial killer, having "run down other drivers in other states". For each shot, several people were tasked to make it uglier; each successively adding oil, grease, fake dead insects and other blemishes.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: The truck had originally started out life as a single axle that had a tag along axle added to it, a 260HP 1673 CAT turbocharged engine with a 13-speed transmission, making it capable of hauling loads over 30 tons and top speeds reaching 75–80 mph. During the original filming, the crew had only one truck, so the shots of the truck falling off the cliff had to be completed in one take. For the film's theatrical release, two additional trucks were purchased in order to film the additional scenes that were not in the original made-for-television version (the scene where David telephones his wife and when David walks out of the laundromat also showing an interior of the truck in gas attendant scene, the school bus scene and the railroad crossing scene).


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Stock footage of both vehicles was later used in an episode of the television series "The Incredible Hulk", titled "Never Give a Trucker an Even Break". Spielberg was not happy about this, but the usage was legal, as the show was produced by Universal and the "Duel" contract said nothing about reusing the footage in other Universal productions.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Throughout the film, there is very little dialogue given to Weaver's character, David Mann, and none whatsoever to the antagonistic truck driver. Instead, as stated in his post-film documentary, Spielberg wanted to let the vehicles and setting "speak" for themselves. "Duel", being filmed on a tight schedule and based on a short story, needed to fit within the 75minutes of time allotted for its television debut, and as such Spielberg focused on the film's visuals and menacing audio. One break from the silences and heavy roar of the vehicles occurs after the initial chase scene, when Mann crashes into a fence post just outside of Chuck's; when Mann goes inside to use the restroom to collect himself and recover from the crash, the audience is introduced to his inner thoughts. This diegetic use of sound was explained by Spielberg as Mann wanting to "physicalize" and "emote" his feelings, giving the audience an intimate relationship with Dennis Weaver's character. The use of sound, or lack thereof, was a tactic used by Spielberg to "keep the audience in suspense" throughout the entirety of the film, a trait that he said he was inspired to use from Alfred Hitchcock. According to Spielberg, "sound has to fit like a glove...it makes everything scarier", which was applied towards the end of the film when Mann is asleep at the wheel but he is awakened at the sound of what appeared to be the truck, but was revealed to actually be a passing train, giving the audience the anxiety that this was going to be a major turning point. Along with the natural sounds kept in the film, Steven Spielberg also incorporated a minimal score, composed by Billy Goldenberg.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: The film's original score was composed by Billy Goldenberg, who had previously written the music for Spielberg's segment of the "Night Gallery" pilot and his "Columbo" episode "Murder by the Book," and co-scored Spielberg's "The Name of the Game" episode "L.A. 2017" with Robert Prince. Spielberg and "Duel" producer George Eckstein told him that because of the short production schedule, he would have to write the music during filming, and Goldenberg visited the production on location at Soledad Canyon to help get an idea of what would be required. Spielberg then had Goldenberg ride in the tanker truck being driven by stunt driver Carey Loftin on several occasions; the experience terrified the composer, although he did eventually get used to it. Goldenberg then composed the score in about a week, for strings, harp, keyboards and heavy use of percussion instruments, with Moog synthesiser effects but eschewing brass and woodwinds. He then worked with the music editors to "pick from all the pieces (they) had and cut it together (with the sound effects and dialogue)." Much of his score was ultimately not used in the finished film. In 2015 Intrada Records released a limited edition album featuring the complete score, plus four radio source music tracks composed by Goldenberg.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: "Duel" was initially shown on American television as an "ABC Movie of the Week" installment. It was the 18th highest-rated TV movie of the year with a Nielsen rating of 20.9 and an audience share of 33%.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Following "Duel"s successful TV airing, Universal released the film overseas in 1972. It was released to cinemas in European countries and Australia; it had a limited cinema release to some venues in the United States, and it was widely praised in the UK. The film's success enabled Spielberg to establish himself as a film director.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: The TV movie was not long enough for theatrical release, so Universal had Spielberg spend two days filming several new scenes, turning "Duel" into a 90-minute film. The new scenes were set at the railroad crossing and the school bus, as well as the scene of Mann talking to his wife on the telephone. A longer opening sequence was added with the car backing out of a garage and driving through the city. Expletives were also added, to make the film sound less like a television production.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Duel was released to VHS by Universal twice; first in 1982 under their MCA Videocassette Inc label and again in 1990, by which time the label's name had been changed to MCA Universal.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: "Duel" was released on Blu-ray disc on October 14, 2014, as part of the eight-film box set "Steven Spielberg Director's Collection". It was also released as a separate Blu-ray on May 5, 2015.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: "Duel" received many positive reviews and is considered by some to be one of the greatest TV movies ever made. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, "Duel" currently has a score of 89% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8 out of 10, with the site's consensus stating that ""Duel" makes brilliant use of its simple premise, serving up rock-solid genre thrills while heralding the arrival of a generational talent behind the lens". Television critic Matt Zoller Seitz in his 2014 book co-written with Alan Sepinwall titled "" named "Duel" as the greatest American TV-movie of all time, stating that "Almost fifty years after its initial broadcast, this stripped-down, subtly mythic action thriller retains a good deal of its power".


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: Interpretations of "Duel" often focus on the symbolism of Mann and the truck. Some critics follow Spielberg's own interpretation of the story as an indictment against the mechanization of life, both by literal machines and by social regimentation. The theme of gender performativity in Mann's quest to prove his manhood is another interpretation several observers have noted.


title: Duel (1971 film)

text: The producers of the "Duel" documentary film The Devil on Wheels (documentary) have brought numerous participants in the 1971 "Duel" filming in front of the camera. Including Universal Television president, Spielberg mentor and financier of "Duel" Sid Sheinberg, "Duel" first assistant director James Fargo and Spielberg's first manager Mike Medavoy. As well as Billy Goldenberg, who was responsible for the music score, and Carol Kaye, the legendary bass guitarist who recorded parts of the music score. Filmmaker Kenneth Johnson, creator and producer of the television series The Incredible Hulk, reiterates his position on a dispute he had with "Duel" producer George Eckstein about reused scenes from "Duel" for the 1978 "Hulk" episode "Never Give A Trucker An Even Break". Another focus of the documentary film is dedicated to the fan cult surrounding "Duel". This is where the current owner and the two previous owners of the original Peterbilt truck used in the filming get their say. Furthermore, a fan is accompanied who visited all the shooting locations again and carefully recreated numerous camera settings from "Duel" on site. Part of these scenes is a visit to the owner of the surviving "Chucks Cafe" near Santa Clarita in the US State California. Finally, film critics and renowned book authors such as Spielberg biographer Joseph McBride and Steven Anwalt, author of the book "Steven Spielberg and Duel: The Making of a Film Career" philosophize about Spielberg's intentions and interpret possible theories about the meaning of "Duel". The documentary film is scheduled to be released in 2023.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: Batman: Arkham Origins is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by WB Games Montréal and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman, it is the follow-up to the 2011 video game "" and is the third main installment in the "" series. Written by Corey May, Ryan Galletta, and Dooma Wendschuh, the game's main storyline is set eight years before 2009's "" and follows a younger, less-refined Batman. When a bounty is placed on him by crime lord Black Mask, drawing eight of the world's greatest assassins to Gotham City on Christmas Eve, Batman must bring Black Mask to justice, while also being hunted by the police and having to face other villains, such as the Joker and Anarky, who take advantage of the chaos to launch their nefarious schemes.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: The game is played from a third-person perspective, focusing on Batman's combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets for combat and exploration. Batman can freely move around the open world of Gotham City, interacting with characters and undertaking missions. Aside from the main story, Batman can help the police deal with crimes and confront other supervillains terrorizing the city. "Arkham Origins" introduces the ability for Batman to virtually recreate crimes, allowing him to investigate the scene and identify the culprit. The game is also the first in the series with a multiplayer mode, in which players partake in a gang war between the Joker and Bane.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: The development of "Arkham Origins" began in 2011. WB Games Montréal took over development duties from the series creator Rocksteady Studios, which was preoccupied with "" and thus would not have been able to release a new game for a considerable time. The team chose to make the game a prequel to explore certain aspects of the Batman character, such as his vulnerability and lack of experience, that previous games could not; the story was inspired by the comics "" and "", and was developed with input from writer Geoff Johns. Development of the multiplayer mode was handled by the British studio Splash Damage, separately from the main game.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: "Arkham Origins" was released worldwide on October 25, 2013 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and Microsoft Windows. In contrast to the critical acclaim of its predecessors, "Arkham Origins" received mixed reviews; it was praised for its voice acting, boss battles, storyline, visuals and score, but was criticized for its technical issues and a general lack of innovation in gameplay mechanics, while the multiplayer aspect was considered an unnecessary addition to the series. A companion game, "", was released alongside "Arkham Origins" for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita, and a spin-off for iOS and Android platforms was released in October 2013. An animated sequel, "", was released in 2014, and a successor video game, "", was released in June 2015.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: "Arkham Origins" is an open world action-adventure game incorporating stealth game tactics. Batman can use his cape to glide around Gotham City and the grapnel gun's retracting rope to attach to hard-to-reach ledges and extend his flight. Some gadgets from previous "Arkham" games are present at the start of "Arkham Origins", while others become available during play. Returning gadgets include the Cryptographic Sequencer, used to hack security consoles; the Batclaw, used for hooking onto surfaces; the Batarang, a throwing weapon; the Remote Batarang, its remote-controlled counterpart; Explosive Gel, used to destroy weak surfaces and knock down enemies; Smoke Pellets, used for stealthy exits and entrances; the Disruptor, which can remotely disable guns and explosive mines, and the Grapnel Accelerator, an earlier version of the Grapnel Boost. New equipment in Batman's arsenal include the Remote Claw; this allows Batman to target two objects and pull them together, allowing him to throw enemies into each other or hit them with objects (tethering two walled points creates a tightrope for Batman to cross); Shock Gloves, which allow Batman to block electric attacks, disable some enemies and stun shielded ones, and short-circuit objects, and the Concussion Detonator, capable of stunning large enemy groups.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: The game introduces a fast travel system, allowing Batman to remotely summon his plane (the Batwing) to transport him to other areas of the game world quicker than gliding or grappling could. Enemy tower installations prevent Batman from summoning the craft in some areas and must be disabled to make the Batwing (not player-controlled) available. Some towers may be disabled only when the player has the necessary equipment.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: Players can traverse enemy-controlled areas by stealth or combat. Using an enhanced version of the series' Freeflow combat system, combat introduces a tracking system assessing the players' efficiency and highlighting battle achievements (such as avoiding damage and using gadgets). Chaining attacks to maintain momentum, performance is rewarded with experience points. These points can be used in a branching upgrade system to enhance Batman's abilities and gadgets, allowing players to upgrade several paths or specialize in one. Enemy attacks are prompted with a warning icon, indicating that the attack can be countered. Enemies are armed with weapons such as knives, lead pipes, and shields. The game introduces new enemy types: the Martial-Artist (capable of blocking, evading, and countering Batman's attacks), the Armored Enforcer (invulnerable until he is dazed and de-armored) and Venom-infused henchmen (who possess superhuman strength, allowing them to grapple Batman and launch attacks which cannot be countered). Some enemies are armed with guns, which can damage Batman, and a player can use stealth predatory tactics to tilt the odds in their favor. Many areas feature stone gargoyles or high outcrops, helping Batman remain concealed while setting traps and knocking out enemies.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: "Arkham Origins" offers side missions, including Crime in Progress (where Batman can assist the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) by rescuing police officers from a gang or keeping an informant from being thrown to his death). Most Wanted allows Batman to pursue villains outside of the main story (such as Anarky, who plants bombs around the city). The Dark Knight system offers tasks of escalating difficulty which improve stealth and combat. Batman's radio scanner also allows him to locate side missions; completed missions are rewarded with experience points and upgrades to Batman's equipment. The game features collectible objects and puzzles similar to the Riddler challenges of previous games (orchestrated by Enigma before assuming his Riddler identity). Collectible objects appear, similar to those in previous games. A "1 vs. 100" mode in the game's challenge maps challenges the player to survive in combat against 100 increasingly difficult enemies.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: The game emphasizes Batman's detective skills; for example, he can scan a crime scene with Detective Vision (displayed in first-person perspective) to highlight points of interest; holograms act out theoretical scenarios of the crime. The crimes can be reviewed via Batman's link to the Batcomputer in the Batcave; this allows a player to view virtual recreations of the scene from different angles (with the ability to move back and forth through the crime's timeline), view it in slow motion or pause while looking for clues to solve the crime. Small (and large) crime scenes are distributed throughout Gotham City. Reviewing the downing of a helicopter, Batman is presented with false and accurate clues; investigation of the scene can reveal that the helicopter was shot, allowing Batman to trace the bullet's trajectory to a murdered police officer and another crime scene. When a crime is solved, the player is shown a Batman-narrated rundown of the crime. The Batcave is also a hub where Batman can change costumes, upgrade his equipment and access challenge maps to practice combat (these maps were accessed separately in previous games). After completing the story mode a New Game Plus mode is unlocked, enabling a player to replay the game with all their acquired gadgets, experience, and abilities; enemies are tougher, and the icon warning players of attack is disabled. Completing New Game Plus unlocks I Am the Night mode, where the game ends if Batman dies.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: On compatible systems, the Microsoft Windows version uses Nvidia's PhysX software engine to produce more realistic, dynamic interactions with the game world. With PhysX enabled, some areas contain additional snow or fog (which reacts to Batman moving through it); with PhysX disabled, the effects are lessened or absent.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: "Arkham Origins" introduces a multiplayer component to the series. Invisible Predator Online revolves around a gang war in Blackgate Prison between supervillains Joker and Bane. Three Joker gang members fight three Bane gang members and in turn the team of Batman and Robin. Gangs win by killing all the opposing team's reinforcements, while Batman and Robin win by acquiring intimidation points (from eliminating gang members). A gang member can become a boss (Joker or Bane), gaining more powerful abilities. Gang members can access guns and explosives; Batman and Robin can access gadgets and abilities from the main game, including Detective Vision. Gang members have a limited Enhanced Vision, which requires recharging. Hunter, Hunted sets three Joker thugs and three Bane thugs against Batman in a last-team-standing match in which each character has one life.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: "Arkham Origins" features a large ensemble cast of characters from the history of "Batman" comics. The main character is Batman (Roger Craig Smith), a superhero trained to the peak of human physical perfection and an expert in martial arts who is aided by his butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Martin Jarvis). "Arkham Origins" brings Batman into conflict with sadistic, brutal crime lord Black Mask (Brian Bloom). The most powerful man in the city and ruler of Gotham's criminal underworld, Black Mask has vast wealth and resources, has eliminated his opposition and is consolidating his power. His ebony mask conceals his identity, allowing him to operate publicly as Roman Sionis (head of Janus Cosmetics). Black Mask has a bounty on Batman, which attracts eight accomplished assassins: the physically imposing Bane (JB Blanc); expert marksman Deadshot; veteran mercenary Deathstroke (Mark Rolston); poisonous contortionist Copperhead (Rosa Salazar); the pyromaniac Firefly (Crispin Freeman); the highly charged Electrocutioner (Steven Blum); deformed criminal Killer Croc (Khary Payton), and master martial artist Shiva (Kelly Hu).


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: Batman is considered an outlaw by the Gotham City police, and is pursued by Captain James Gordon (Michael Gough), Detective Harvey Bullock (Robert Costanzo) and corrupt GCPD officials Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and SWAT team leader Branden. Other characters include the psychopathic Joker (Troy Baker); black-market weapons dealer Penguin (Nolan North); the mind-controlling Mad Hatter (Peter MacNicol); anti-government, anti-corporate anarchist Anarky (Matthew Mercer); rogue hacker Enigma (Wally Wingert); Alberto Falcone; Gordon's teenage daughter Barbara, and Blackgate warden Martin Joseph (Khary Payton). The story takes place before Batman's partnership with Robin (Josh Keaton)—although Robin is a playable character outside the main story—and before Barbara becomes Batman's ally, Oracle. Dr. Harleen Quinzel (Tara Strong), Vicki Vale, Amanda Waller (C. C. H. Pounder), Quincy Sharp (Tom Kane), and Calendar Man make cameo appearances in the game. Mr. Freeze (Maurice LaMarche) appears in the downloadable content, "Cold, Cold Heart".


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: The events in "Arkham Origins" take place about eight years before "", in midwinter Gotham City. Batman, an experienced crime-fighter in the second year of his career, is not yet the veteran superhero of "Arkham Asylum" and "Arkham City". He is a mysterious force; even the police do not know whether he is a vigilante, a myth or a supernatural being. Batman has fought ordinary criminals and gangsters and is accustomed to being stronger and faster than his opponents. However, on a snowy Christmas Eve he is confronted with more dangerous foes: eight professional assassins hoping to collect a $50-million bounty placed on Batman's head by Black Mask. Villains (including the Joker) take advantage of the assassins' arrival to launch their schemes, and Black Mask's henchmen instigate a rise in crime and gang activity in the city.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: The Gotham City Police Department is aware of "the Batman", and does not condone his approach to crime-fighting. Led by Commissioner Loeb, the GCPD is thoroughly corrupt; Branden and his SWAT team are hunting for Batman to claim the bounty for themselves. The incorruptible Captain James Gordon is one of the most unpopular members of the force. Batman's relationship with Alfred is strained; the butler, an overbearing parental figure, reminds him of his parents' deaths and Alfred sees Batman as a spoiled child squandering his inheritance on a vigilante crusade.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: Old Gotham, the section of Gotham City which will become the Arkham City prison, is not yet walled off and has slums, low buildings, a shopping mall, and docks (where Penguin's ship, the "Final Offer", is moored). On the "Final Offer", Penguin has added a casino, a fighting pit, and a sales floor with weapons and ammunition. Across the bridge from Old Gotham is New Gotham, a modern metropolitan area filled with towering skyscrapers.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: On Christmas Eve, Batman intervenes in a jailbreak at Blackgate Penitentiary led by Black Mask, who executes Police Commissioner Loeb and escapes. Left to battle the hired assassin Killer Croc, Batman prevails but learns that Croc is the first of eight of the world's deadliest assassins in Gotham City vying to claim a $50 million bounty placed on Batman's head by Black Mask. Hoping to learn Black Mask's location, Batman tracks the Penguin to his ship. There, he defeats the assassin Deathstroke and Electrocutioner and learns from the Penguin that Black Mask was purportedly murdered at an apartment complex. Batman investigates the murder scene, learning that the victim was not Black Mask and that the murder may have involved a criminal known as "the Joker".


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: Needing more information to solve the case, Batman breaks into the GCPD to access its national criminal database. While escaping, he encounters Captain James Gordon, who is distrusting of Batman, and the corrupt SWAT team, who hope to collect the bounty money for themselves. Following advice from Gordon's daughter Barbara, Batman enters the sewers beneath the GCPD for permanent access to the database and finds Black Mask's crew planting explosives. Using the database, Batman deduces that Black Mask was kidnapped by the Joker, presumably to access the Gotham Merchants Bank. At the bank, Black Mask removes his disguise for Batman and reveals himself as the Joker; having assumed Black Mask's identity several days prior, the Joker seized his criminal empire and imposed the bounty on Batman. Batman chases the Joker to the Sionis Steel Mill, where he frees Black Mask and defeats the poisonous assassin Copperhead.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: Tracking the Joker to the Gotham Royal Hotel, Batman discovers that the villain and his men have filled the hotel with explosives, murdered the staff, and taken the guests hostage. The Joker berates the assassins for their failure to kill Batman, throwing Electrocutioner out a window to his death: Batman recovers his electric gloves. The assassins leave, except for Bane, who thinks Batman is coming for the Joker. After traversing the building, Batman finds the Joker on the roof but is forced to battle Bane. Thinking Batman is outmatched, Alfred alerts the police so they will intervene. As Bane escapes by helicopter, he fires a rocket at the Joker, who is thrown from the hotel by the concussive force. Batman saves the Joker, leaving him with the police. Puzzled by the events, the Joker is imprisoned in Blackgate under the care of Dr. Harleen Quinzel; he tells Quinzel that he and Batman were destined to meet.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: In the Batcave, Alfred argues and begs Batman to abandon his crusade, fearing he will die, but Batman refuses. Batman learns that Bane has deduced his true identity as Bruce Wayne. Firefly attacks the Pioneers Bridge, forcing Batman and Gordon to work together to incapacitate the assassin and his bombs. Meanwhile, Bane breaks into the Batcave and nearly kills Alfred. Batman finds the cave in ruins and Alfred dying, but he can revive him with Electrocutioner's gloves. Elsewhere, the Joker has taken over Blackgate after inciting a riot.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: Realizing he needs allies, Batman works with Gordon and the police to retake the prison. Sitting at the electric chair, the Joker offers Batman a choice: kill Bane, or allow Bane's heartbeat to charge the chair and kill the Joker. Batman uses the electric gloves to stop Bane's heart. Satisfied, the Joker leaves, intending to detonate bombs placed around the city. Batman revives Bane, who injects himself with a steroid that transforms him into a hulking beast. He loses the ensuing battle to Batman and suffers amnesia as a side effect of the steroid, thus preserving Batman's secret identity. With Gordon's help, Batman locates the Joker in the prison chapel. Dismayed that Bane is still alive, the Joker tries to goad Batman into killing him but Batman subdues him instead. Gordon chooses not to pursue Batman, believing he can help the city.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: In a radio interview during the credits, Quincy Sharp says he will lobby to reopen Arkham Asylum to house the city's worst criminals; after the credits, an imprisoned Deathstroke is approached by Amanda Waller to join her Suicide Squad.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: By July 2012, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) was planning Rocksteady Studios's next Batman game as a prequel based on the Silver Age of Comic Books, featuring Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash. The game would explore Batman's first confrontation with the Joker, with a release date no earlier than 2014. In August 2012, Paul Dini said he would not be involved in writing a sequel to "Arkham City". He did not write any of that game's downloadable content (including the story-based "" DLC) and said that Warner Bros. and Rocksteady suggested he accept other work if offered. Dini added that he had taken on other projects, preventing his involvement until 2013. In February 2013, it was reported that a new game in the "Batman Arkham" franchise would be released by a developer other than Rocksteady.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: The development of "Batman: Arkham Origins" began in late 2011 by Canadian development studio WB Games Montréal (WB Montréal), and the game was announced on April 9, 2013. WB Montréal was chosen to develop the game given the amount of time Rocksteady, developer of the first two "Arkham" games, needed to create "Arkham Origins"s successor, "", which would have resulted in "a long time without an "Arkham" game." WB Montréal had worked on the Wii U adaptation of "Batman: Arkham City", familiarizing itself with the modified Unreal Engine 3 development engine used by Rocksteady. WB Montréal decided not to heavily modify the established combat system (believing it already worked well) but introduced new enemy types with opportunities for new tactics and combat moves to defeat opponents. The plot was partly inspired by the comic-book series "" and the graphic novel "", detailing the first year of Batman's career, with "Arkham Origins" described as a "Year Two" story. Parts of the plot (such as Batman's relationships with the Joker, Gordon, and the game's Christmas setting) was partly inspired by "", "" and "", respectively. The story is written by Dooma Wendschuh, Ryan Galletta and Corey May, with input from DC Comics and comic-book writer Geoff Johns. Eric Holmes acted as "Arkham Origins" creative director. Explaining the decision to develop a prequel, Holmes said while the Batman of "Arkham Asylum" and "Arkham City" was comparable to his comic counterpart—a fully formed, experienced character—" Arkham Origins" could explore other aspects of the character (such as his lack of experience and greater vulnerability). The game was considered 80 percent complete by January 2013, and WB Montréal used the remaining development time to tweak the final product.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: By April 2013 the developers had decided not to use veteran Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy in the role, preferring a younger voice for Batman's early career. In May, Roger Craig Smith was announced as the voice of Batman and Troy Baker as the Joker. Conroy said at the 2013 Dallas Comic Con that he had been working on "the next Arkham", inspiring speculation that he would reprise his role as Batman in "Arkham Origins"; however, in June it was confirmed that Conroy would not be in the game. In July, it was announced that "Arkham Origins" would be the first game in the "Arkham" series to feature multiplayer gameplay. The multiplayer game was produced by independent British developer Splash Damage under creative director Alastair Cornish, separately from WB Montréal's work on the main game. The Wii U version of the game is single-player, with Warner Bros. saying that the team was focused on platforms with the largest multiplayer audience.


title: Batman: Arkham Origins

text: Holmes described the Christmas setting as a juxtaposition between the joyful time of the year and the grim world of Gotham City, including decorative Santas near Gothic gargoyles and Christmas lights in dark alleys. The city is dislodged from time and space, contrasting 1930s (and older) buildings with Batman's futuristic technology. The New Gotham area was designed for vertical movement, allowing the placement of enemies above and below Batman to create areas dense with activity. The game features high contrast between darks and lights, with exaggerated shadows and few balancing colors. The city was divided into residential, industrial, and commercial neighborhoods, which were decorated accordingly: the industrial setting is bleak, the commercial area has corporate decorations and the residential neighborhoods have lights in their windows.