I never was a horror movie genre fan nor a fan of Cronenberg. In fact, I normally eschew horror and especially Cronenberg since it’s simply not my taste. I do have a fair amount of respect for his work, despite it being, bluntly stated, commonly “gross.” So when I spotted The Fly on HBO Now a few weeks ago, I decided to check it out as it was one of those films that had an iconic 80’s feeling from my memory. Oh boy….
I recall various TV spots in the 80s for The Fly. It was around the time when Aliens came out in ’86. If you look at the film quality, both movies share some similarities. I remember my mom saying that the movie was gross and it ended up in various Fangora magazines, making it an instant off-list item in my movie experience. I did see a few shots from the movie, which probably kept me away for so many years, particularly the scene where Seth Brundle vomits the nasty green slime.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. What fascinated me about the movie? I think it was just sheer boredom. I was pretty sick and tired of watching re-runs. I realized that I never saw this movie before and decided to check it out. I did read some summaries to prepare myself for any possible distasteful scenes.
I suppose the first thing that took me by surprise was that Jeff Goldblum was the star. I have very vague and cloudy memories of the main actor, but do recall a semi-naked, almost Tarzan-like person emerging from the Telepod. I always associate Jeff Goldblum as this quirky, nerdy scientist type (which he usually plays such as in Jurassic Park or Independence Day). I never really knew the plot of The Fly up until this point outside of an obscure notion that some guy was turned into an abomination.
Another thing that shocked me was that Geena Davis played the girlfriend Veronica. I knew the name but not so much her movies. Of course, when I looked her up everything fell into place. The only movie I’ve seen her in outside of The Fly was Beetlejuice. But it’s been so long since I’ve seen that movie that I barely remembered her face.
Regardless, the casting of Goldblum and Davis was perfect. Goldblum really nails his performance here and I have doubts that anyone else could’ve done as convincing of a job, especially during a few dubious moments. I suppose their IRL relationship during that period helped enhance their performance but I found my belief suspended during the entire movie.
Going into the plot, we start off with Seth Brundle and Veronica at a science meet up where Veronica, as a reporter, is attempting to get a story for her magazine called Particle. Seth is a lone systems management person who is working on an experimental device. What’s interesting here is that at this point in time the idea of computer programmers, scientists or nerds generally speaking were typecast by Hollywood as oddball, isolated types who rarely socialized. Even now, that image still holds true to a degree but it’s slowly being shattered. In Brundle’s case, the fact that he’s programming his computer with some fairly sophisticated AI/neural learning techniques is pretty unrealistic, especially considering how primitive that type of programming was back in the day. So you have to suspend your belief here when it comes to the sheer amount of labor that Brundle, even acting as a systems management person, could deal with.
Regardless, Seth manages to convince Veronica to accompany him back to his laboratory. En route, Seth demonstrates car sickness, which is really general motion sickness. He admits that in his youth he “threw up on his tricycle,” which is ironic in a variety of ways. One thing you have to pay close attention to is how well crafted the dialog in the script is. Every word is very meaningful and there’s a lot of foreshadowing planted early on. I have to say that the writing is very tight with little wasted space.
At the lab, Seth demonstrates the telepods to Veronica (whom others call Roni) and even shows both paranoia and insidious behavior by telling her that “she cannot leave there alive” because she’s witnessed the top secret project. The point is emphasized further with a few dark piano notes to make the telepods seem very ominous despite not truly unveiling their full nature.
After teleporting one of her stockings from one pod to the next, Seth begins to brag about his accomplishments in much fuller detail. Impressed by Seth’s invention, Veronica begins recording their conversation to Seth’s dismay. She leaves to see her boss on this breaking story.
Her boss, Stathis, is an utter douchebag, very alpha-male-ish without the term having really been used at that time. He has zero faith in her story and considers Seth a fraud. “The nightclub act” as Stathis labels Seth, ends up finding her at the magazine’s office and takes her for lunch using the magic word “cheeseburger.”
At a burger joint, Seth unveils his story about why he’s paranoid yet needing to talk about his accomplishments. This is very standard nerd behavior as many nerds have huge egos and want to enjoy some sort of fame through their work. Here, Seth convinces Veronica to use him for a book in documenting his work. He does admit that the telepods have issues where it can only handle inanimate objects but refuses to further discuss the issue during lunch.
Veronica returns to her apartment only to find Stathis rudely using her shower. She treats him with extreme disdain and we learn that part of this is derived from their prior relationship. Still, Stathis has feelings towards her and shows some jealousy in beginning to research Seth, admitting that Seth is a genius. However, Veronica wants to keep her connection with Seth a secret by attempting to throw Stathis off their tracks in doing a different story.
Back at the lab, Seth continues his research, this time on a baboon. The experiment does not go well at all and we learn in gory detail what exactly Seth alluded to in dealing with inanimate objects, where the baboon is turned inside out.
Veronica shows up again and begins the interview process. Seth reacts poorly and shows his frustration. But talking through the situation eases them together. Veronica finds Seth attractive and they have sex. Afterwards, Seth is pricked by an odd machinery piece that is inserted into his back. There’s so much foreshadowing in this scene that you really have to note the dialog here and what happens to Seth with the piece of metal attached to his back.
That leads to an odd conversation where Veronica wants to heal him through kissing his wound because the flesh drives her crazy. That statement inspires Seth into trying a new experiment by taking a piece of steak, splitting it into two pieces and teleporting one of them (on a plate, which is a bit weird considering it’s still flesh and not fused into the plate). He requests Veronica to try cooked versions of the two slices and she finds the telported steak to taste synthetic (whatever that’s supposed to mean). In turn, Seth mentions that the computer’s problem is that it lacks the “craziness” to be able to properly interpret organic material in transferring living things, which leads him to start on that process.
The following day, Veronica goes out shopping and we see Stathis’s car pursuing her. She ends up at a clothing shop where Stathis stalks her inside and demonstrates his own paranoia and jealousy. She declares that she doesn’t belong to him anymore and storms off after making her purchase.
At the lab, Seth successfully is able to teleport the other baboon. He calls for a celebration with Veronica. However, a letter comes in from Stathis. That triggers Veronica to confront Stathis about invading her private life while Seth, drunk and alone again interprets her abrupt disappearance to still dating Stathis. That leads him to an odd conversation with the remaining baboon and convincing himself of going through the telepod himself.
Here, I want to point out that without Goldblum, I wouldn’t have bought the scene at all. The character of Seth, while impulsive, in reality had almost zero motivation to undertake the teleportation himself. As a scientist, Seth was far too rational to make such a hasty decision at this juncture. And why perform the experiment on himself alone? That whole scene made little sense for me. And again the only way it was pulled off was due to Goldblum’s amazing performance.
With the apparent success of transporting himself, Seth is discovered by Veronica asleep, but safe apparently. Seth admits to putting himself in danger out of jealousy and Veronica reveals her past life with Stathis.
The next scenes show Seth seemingly growing stronger as if reborn from the act of teleportation. He’s able to perform acrobatics normally reserved for Olympic gymnastic athletes as well as greater stamina in bed with Veronica. Both have a scene at a coffee shop where we see Seth consuming coffee with mounds of sugar. He goes into a monologue about being reborn with infinite energy. At the same time, he grows impatient after ordering a cannoli.
After a presumably long sex session with Seth, Veronica finds herself worn out (which is unusual as typically it’s the male who gets drained). However, she uncovers on the old wound on his back bristling hairs. She attempts to cut them off, finding them coarse. At the same time, Seth eats ice cream from the refrigerator. In a single-minded move, Seth then tries to force Veronica to go through the telepod herself. However, she fears them which causes Seth to erupt abruptly.
Taking off while munching on a chocolate bar, Seth wanders the town in search of someone who might join him by entering one of the telepods. He ends up at a random bar and spies a saucy wench eyeballing two men arm wrestling. Seth interjects himself and breaks the wrist of one guy then escorting the woman, Tawny, back to his lab (of course not before a few more drinks). The shot just before they head into the evening shows a very oddly determined Seth with his face becoming more noticeably blemished.
The return via taxi to his lab and Seth carries Tawny up via the stairs very rapidly. He performs his teleportation trick which impresses the ditzy blonde and commences sex with her. In the morning, he tries to get her to enter the telepod but she refuses. Veronica saves her and she leaves. However, Veronica accuses Seth of changing, revealing that she took the hairs she cut from his back to a lab and uncovering that the scientists interpreted the material as insect hair.
That triggers Seth’s anger and he accuses her of jealousy. He kicks her out but ends up inspecting himself in the bathroom. At this point, he realizes that there’s quite a bit of truth to what Veronica was saying as he now sees for himself the discoloration of his face and the odd, prickly hairs sticking out randomly. He unsuccessfully tries to use a shaver to remove the hairs but ends up biting into his skin. He hurls the razor into the tub and begins biting his nail, accidentally tearing one off. He squirts puss onto mirror and goes to clean his finger up then finds that his whole hand is dripping with goo. In turn, he removes another nail before recognizing something indeed went horribly disastrous.
He goes back to his machine and learns that he wasn’t the sole occupant during the first teleportation and that a fly was with him. Worse yet he learns that the fly wasn’t simply “absorbed” by him but “fused” at the molecular/genetic level.
A few weeks later Seth implores Veronica to visit him. Now, Seth has gone from a hale, nearly impervious figure to a hunched, decaying entity. He walks on crutches while his hands are still covered by rubber gloves. And his face has become mottled into a decaying grayish color. He tells Veronica what happened to him and even speculates (quite accurately) about his demise. He describes his infection as a disease, even cancer possibly. His condition is so grave that when he goes to eat, he vomits over a donut, grossing Veronica out (and virtually anyone who saw that scene for the first time). Then he grows nervous and accidentally picks at his fragile ear which falls off. Finally, he unveils the reason in asking her over as he’s scared and badly wants someone to help him.
Veronica returns to Stathis without her own answers and Stathis agrees with Seth’s statement about not seeing Seth ever again for her own safety. However, Veronica is full of compassion and still loves Seth for what he was. So Stathis persuades her to show him what Seth has become.
In turn, Veronica returns to Seth’s lab and finds him crawling about on the ceiling. He demonstrates an odd growth spurting from his stomach but has no knowledge of what it could be. However, he does hypothesize that his “disease” is not contagious but has the purpose of transforming him into something else. He conjectures a fly of sorts. Throughout this scene, we see that he’s degenerated even more, but his actions are slowly becoming more fly-like such as his twitching and rapid eye movements. At the same time, Veronica is utterly helpless but she does what little she can for Seth, in this case recording him consuming food for Stathis.
Stathis is horrified by the fly-like method that Seth now is forced to eat by. At the same time, Veronica admits to being pregnant with Seth’s child. In turn, she’s shown having the child at a hospital but the child ends up being a maggot. Of course, that whole scene is nothing more than a nightmare but it plants the urgency into what she has to do next.
At the lab, Seth now is unclothed and bloated his skin deformities. Desperate, he creates a new project with the computer in attempting to dilute the amount of the fly’s genetic composition in his body in the hope of becoming human again. However, his voice no longer is recognized by the computer while his front teeth fall out after chewing on a pencil. He goes to his medicine cabinet where we see the remnants of his body parts that he retains as a gruesome museum dedicated to himself.
Veronica shows up to discuss the abortion but she has problems finding the words while being sickened at the continually degrading appearance of her former lover. Seth meanwhile gives her a very odd yet profound speech on insects and politics. In the end, he discloses that he is now fully an insect and that she must leave before he can cause harm to her.
Veronica rushes out and pleads with Stathis to abort the child within her immediately. Above them Seth spies the conversation. Both Veronica and Stathis end up at a doctor so she can have the abortion. However, Seth crashes through and abducts her. He pleads for her to have the baby because it might be the only way for him to have a chance at being human again. But Veronica is too frightened at what the prospect of such a child might be.
Stathis hunts them down to the lab, this time bringing a shotgun. He finds Seth’s computer and reads Seth’s ultimate plan of merging himself with another human to hopefully revert his condition. At that point, Seth assaults him and melts away his left hand and right foot with his vomit drop enzyme and is about to eviscerate his face as well. Yet Veronica rescues her former boyfriend and begs Seth to not proceed.
Seth grabs Veronica and unveils his solution of merging himself with Veronica and the baby. He calls it the “ultimate family” with them being “more human than him being alone.” Then Veronica realizes that the Seth she knew is completely gone and protests as he tries to force her into a telepod. Then by accident she tears off his jaw which triggers the last transformation with Seth becoming the Bundlefly creature.
After manifesting into a hideous bipedal form, Seth hurls Veronica into a telepod and slowly goes to his own. Weakened from his injuries, Stathis recovers the shotgun and blows up the link to Veronica’s telepod. A desperate Seth too tries to break free from his own telepod and unhitches the lock. As he slowly leaves the telepod, the thing activates zapping him away.
Veronica is freed and goes to check on Stathis as the computer makes a final act of merging Seth with parts of the destroyed telepod. He emerges from the telepod with pieces of the telepod attached to his body. He slithers across the floor, mortally injured and breathing heavily. Even without vocals, Seth is able to communicate with Veronica by taking the end of the barrel of the shotgun and aiming it at his head. Mercifully, she ends the creature’s life.
Just writing this review up makes me realize what a fucked up movie this is. It really sickened me the first time I saw it. Not simply because of the gore factor but the psychology of being transformed into a new creature that wasn’t recognizable. I’ve read reviews and interpretations of Seth’s transformation and condition as a metaphor for AIDS. Cronenberg himself thought Seth’s condition was more about disease, dying and the aging process itself. I suppose because this was at the midpoint of the 80s, one could clearly see the underlying fear of the disease around that time.
If you think about the cycle of life with regards to Seth’s condition and situation, you realize just how short life is. One moment, Seth seems like he’s on top of the world with a successful invention, beautiful girlfriend, strength, endurance and the resolution to much of his past problems. The next second all of that is quickly snuffed away like ridicule for his attempt at defying nature.
There is a definite connection between this movie with Kakfa’s The Metamorphosis, but I also see Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein here too. Not just about the mad scientist but about man attempting to conquer an aspect of nature only to be hurled back down and reminded of ones mortality.
But there’s a lot of themes going on in here too that are very 80s specific. For instance, you can see the destruction of the nuclear family here. Seth’s low human desire to have “the ultimate family” comes out at the end. He’s the typical industrial worker type who has been cut off from society and lives as an outcast. He’s even considered “cheap” by his corporate overlords and lives at his work. Part of that is caused through the necessity of his work where he’s coding day and night. Back then since computers weren’t as prevalent, many people feared them. Here, you could say that there’s some technophobia as science and computing are placed in a negative light here.
Another interesting part of 80s politics is about the body. Because this is Cronenberg we hear a lot of keywords centering around the body or flesh. Seth’s diatribe about the plasma pool and society’s fear of the flesh shows the transition of body politics around that period. Cronenberg was very much a pioneer in showcasing gore as not just gratuitous. The body horror exhibited in this movie was more at the psychological level. For instance, the scene where Seth removes his fingernails really isn’t awful because of the pus that spews out. Instead, it’s awful because of how vulnerable he seems and his debilitation over time.
Another point to look at is the abortion scene. Abortion has always been controversial but the way Cronenberg portrays abortion here highlights the possibility of one’s greater fears. The question arises where mercy can come above faith in extreme cases. Here, we see justification in both the baby’s outcome as well as Seth’s horribly contorted form at the end.
Other things that come to mind is just how well connected everything is. I felt that the movie did such a well thought out job of planting all the foreshadowing. For instance, the part where we see the metallic object jammed in Seth’s back hints at his fusion with the telepod at a greater scale at the end of the movie. It never really hit me until I wrote that part out. Obviously, we see the parts where the hairs begin to grow from that injury but it becomes a literal space once we see his fate at the end.
Another really cool thing they did is make him addicted to sugar. It’s not by accident that he starts taking in huge quantities of sugary foods. Like the chocolate bars, the ice cream, the latte, the donuts and junk food during the filming scene. The small hints give a lot more depth to his transformation beyond just the physical appearance.
Next, let’s talk about Geena Davis’ performance. Obviously, Goldblum raised the bar with this movie. But we cannot forget Davis’ sympathetic position. She’s not just a damsel in distress either. Early on we see her as a very strong type where she’s actively defying her boss and keeping Seth on his toes. However, she adds a great deal of soul to Seth’s character whereas alone he probably is very systematic. Towards the end, she’s not helpless because “she’s a weak female”, she’s helpless because Seth’s condition has no solution outside of a mercy killing. Yet she has the strength to end his suffering, something many people cannot do for their loved ones.
Overall, I found the movie horribly depressing. There’s a tragic heroic quality to it and you really feel for both Veronica and Seth. Some people feel that Seth in truth isn’t a sympathetic character, especially if you compare his outcome to the character in Kafka’s Metamorphosis because Seth gradually embraces his transformation. However, I argue that his fusion with the fly slowly erodes his humanity and more importantly his sanity, which is why at one point he desires it. Still, you can see himself fighting with the fly’s instincts which is why he desires to be human again.
I’m glad I was able to discover this movie since it’s something that has made me think a lot lately. For myself, I can see my life in parallel to Seth; that is, the coder working lone nights at home, alone with his tyrannical overlords and rules/regulations without getting any credit. Yet desiring to become famous. Then one’s life slowly degenerating and losing touch with society to the point where you feel like you’ve merged yourself with your work. But instead of embracing what you have, your life is just a horror story, a parody of what you set out to accomplish, leaving you the only desire of a mercy killing so the pain finally dissolves into nothing.
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