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The Science and the Fiction of The Rocky Horror Picture Show 

By Elizabeth Fusco

Science fiction has enamored audiences for centuries. This genre sees an uptick in popularity during the Halloween season due to the thrill of exploring the horrifying unknown. My favorite science fiction movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, is almost exclusively viewed during October for this reason. I have always wondered how much of this movie is based in reality as opposed to pure fantasy, so let’s delve into what is based in science, and what is based in fiction, in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

“FRANKENSTEIN” by Wikemedia Commons [CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en] Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FRANKENSTEIN.jpg

For those unfamiliar, the film centers around the work of Dr. Frank-n-Furter, a mad scientist. Our protagonists find themselves in Frank’s castle on the night of a most remarkable scientific breakthrough – the creation of human life. In a scene that references Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Frank creates his own Frankenstein’s monster. What many may not know is that Shelley was inspired by Giovanni Aldini, a scientist who toured around Europe demonstrating that when you run an electrical current through a deceased body, the muscles convulse, making it appear as though the individual is returning from the dead. Like Victor von Frankenstein and Giovanni Aldini, Frank uses lightning to bring his creation, Rocky, to life.

Reanimating dead tissue has always been a source of scientific curiosity. After the film adaptation of Frankenstein in the early 1900s, one doctor named Robert E. Cornish determined it was his life mission to resurrect the dead. While unsuccessful with human subjects, Cornish eventually resurrected two terriers, although the length and quality of their lives after resurrection were extremely poor.

Later on in the film it is revealed to us that Frank transplanted half of the brain of a delivery boy to develop Rocky. While brain transplants are largely associated with science fiction, scientists have made considerable progress proving it could one day become a reality. Dr. Nenad Sestan’s lab at Yale has been working to reanimate brains hours after death. They have made progress in this area by perfusing brains with whole blood to reactivate the dying cells, though they are still quite far from implementing this technique in humans. 

Fast-forward to later in the film, Frank uses a Medusa lever to turn the individuals he is looking at into marble statues, which is inspired by the Greek mythos of Medusa. Fortunately, we do not (yet) have the technology to freeze people and turn them into stone on the spot, but it is possible for parts of our bodies to harden. This is called soft tissue calcification, and usually occurs due to the deposition of calcium in the soft tissues. This process can occur for a multitude of reasons ranging from tissue damage to hormone imbalance. Additionally, there is a disease called fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive, in which muscle tissue and connective tissue are gradually replaced by bone, resulting in a loss of mobility. It’s almost as if those who suffer from this disorder are being Medusa-fied in slow motion. 

“Laser czerwony świecony na lustro” by Wikemedia Commons [CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en] Available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Laser_czerwony_%C5%9Bwiecony_na_lustro.jpg

Finally, in the film’s penultimate scene, a fight occurs using laser guns, resulting in the deaths of several main characters. The use of laser guns instead of bullet guns is a classic science fiction trope. To put it simply, a laser is a device that emits an amplified beam of light, and this light has been amplified so much that it is now able to cause damage to what it touches.  While we typically think of lasers as harbingers of destruction, we also use them for many daily tasks. When you scan a barcode at the grocery store, you are using laser technology. You may be surprised to learn that lasers are also used in surgical procedures, such as the very common LASIK eye surgery. Additionally, if you have a DVD player in your home, then you also own a laser, because the technology is used to scan DVDs and transmit their information to our television screens.

Armies are now starting to implement laser-based weapons because they have some advantages over traditional guns and missiles. However, these lasers require extreme amounts of energy to hit targets at distant locations, so it will be a while still before we see handheld laser guns implemented like we see at the end of Rocky Horror.

“lip-biter” by arievergreen [CC BY NC-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/arimoore/367381719

While The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a work based in fiction, there are many science fiction tropes depicted in the film that have been explored and are continuing to be explored by scientists. This October, I’m excited to conduct my annual rewatch of this movie armed with even more knowledge of how some of the science in the film mirrors our reality. As science advances, perhaps one day the discoveries we make may lead us to realize that common concepts found in science fiction are actually closer to reality than we once believed. 

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