One of the most exciting aspects of science is technical advancement. Thus, movies often show huge innovations in tools and technology. As intriguing as these are, though, they're not always enough.
Some stories seek to improve the user instead of the tool. They change the biology of their characters. They usually do this to eliminate weaknesses and enhance any strengths. It's all part of the quest to reach the pinnacle of human potential. Unfortunately, it rarely works out, with test subjects coming out damaged. Of course, a few setbacks have never stopped cinematic scientists from playing God.
7 Anton - Gattaca
This film presents a world where parents preemptively fine-tune their kids through eugenics. One such child is Anton, the brother of the protagonist, Vincent, who was born naturally and expected to suffer from several disorders. Thus, his parents engineer Anton to have none of these biological drawbacks. He not only avoids the feared diseases, but he carves out a career in law enforcement. However, he's not better in every respect.
Vincent outclasses him in key areas. Anton can't beat his brother in a swimming contest, indicating lower physical potential. In fact, Vincent's hard work is so convincing in that respect that he fools his superiors into thinking he was bred for perfection like anyone else. In the end, the efficacy of these genetic alterations is up for debate.
6 Khan - Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan
Speaking of eugenics, Star Trek has its own take on the concept. A remnant of 20th-century genetic engineering, Khan Noonien Singh was bred as the ultimate warlord. He has tremendous strength, a brilliant intellect, and lethal cunning. These let him absorb a wealth of information in a short period and perform all sorts of superhuman feats. He's practically unstoppable in combat, meaning he can easily satiate his need for conquest in the final frontier.
It also means he can take anything thrown at him. His enhanced biology aids in rapid regeneration. That, combined with his intelligence, allows him to survive fifteen years on an inhospitable wasteland planet. All these factors and more make Khan arguably the greatest villain in the Star Trek franchise. Needless to say, you wouldn't want to meet this warlord on the battlefield.
5 Max Zorin - A View To A Kill
Not many crooks can compete with James Bond, but Max Zorin is different from the usual madman. The villain of A View to a Kill was bred by the Nazis in their pursuit of human perfection. The few survivors of those experiments were a cut above the average person in intelligence. Unfortunately, they were also psychopathic: all the smarts without that pesky moral compass.
This gives Zorin a gift for grandiose schemes which would make any Bond villain blush. He develops a revolutionary microchip and plans to trigger an earthquake to destroy Silicon Valley, thereby monopolizing the market. He's also sharp enough to see through 007's cover and outsmart him on numerous occasions. However, the advantages end there.
Zorin doesn't seem to have the superior strength one would expect from a superhuman. The only physical prowess he demonstrates is in his horse-riding skills. He's fairly normal in a fistfight, which is how Bond bests him in the end.
4 Most Marvel Heroes
Superhero origins take many forms. That said, a shocking number of Marvel characters can trace their powers to scientific tampering, often through their own efforts. Steve Rogers, for instance, undergoes a super-soldier procedure to turn him into Captain America. Attempts to replicate the procedure yields freaks like the Hulk and Green Goblin. It's not all the fault of the hero, though.
Some Marvel stars happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. For example, Peter Parker famously sustains a radioactive spider bite, gaining "great power" as Spider-Man. Jessica Jones suffers a car crash, after which she gains super strength through radioactive chemicals or covert experimentation (depending on the version). Whether directly or not, it seems most Marvel crime fighters are bred in labs.
3 Caesar - The Planet Of The Apes Series
The apes' dominion over Earth starts here. Rise of the Planet of the Apes sees scientists working to counteract the effects of Alzheimer's, and they test the formula on a female chimp. Though she dies, her offspring displays exponential mental growth. Little Caesar soon becomes smarter than the humans who mistreat him. This leads to an uprising where he gifts his ape brethren with the formula, granting them the same capacity for learning and coordination.
Even by this standard, though, Caesar remains the sharpest tool in the shed. He's the only one to form complete sentences in the sequels, and he seems more adept at innovation and contemplation. This is likely due to his longer developmental period. The formula was with him from the womb, so it has more time to work its magic, doubtlessly encouraged by the humans who rear him.
2 Marcus Wright - Terminator Salvation
For all its issues, the fourth Terminator film boasts several intriguing ideas. One is Skynet's stepping stone for the iconic T-800. To pave the way to the infamous infiltrator, the machines imbue a human with a mechanical skeleton.
That human is Marcus Wright, a death row inmate who thinks he's a normal guy. Much to his horror, though, he soon proves far beyond that. He survives multi-story falls and other physical traumas which would kill ordinary people, and he does so with minimal pain. He also has infinitely more strength, so much so that he goes toe-to-toe with a T-800. The cybernetic integration was obviously more successful than Skynet hoped. The humans try a similar merge with Grace in Dark Fate, but it doesn't work out nearly as well. She constantly needs drugs to recharge. Marcus has no such limitation.
1 Maisie - The Jurassic Park Series
The Jurassic Park movies do plenty of genetic tampering with dinosaurs, but Maisie is their first attempt with a human. She's cloned from Charlotte Lockwood, a pioneering scientist at Ingen. Sadly, the doctor suffered from a genetic disease, but she was able to eliminate those harmful cells in her clone/daughter.
Her efforts resulted in Maisie. Everything about her is normal, but she's immune to her mother's disease. As such, she won't meet an early death. That is unless a dinosaur gobbles her up. That's a genuine possibility in Jurassic World, after all.