| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %%Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16735371550.00814900 |
| 3 | %%Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | [[quoteright:350:[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brain_in_a_jar_3e.png]]]] |
| 6 | [[caption-width-right:350:It's the thought that counts... so you might as well preserve what makes 'em.]] |
| 7 | %% |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ->''"We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such UsefulNotes/{{solipsism}}?"'' -- '''Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat 7 [[HeKnowsTooMuch Subject termination advised]]''' |
| 10 | -->-- FlavorText for the '''Bioenhancement Center''' facility, ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' |
| 11 | |
| 12 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | The Wonders of [[HollywoodScience Science]] can keep a human brain alive in a plastic fishbowl with a few wires and doo-dads running into it. Sometimes this is benevolent, but usually it's nefarious (it may count as a DarkLordOnLifeSupport, or be the first step towards UnwillingRoboticisation). Occasionally, an underachiever MadScientist may need to keep the whole head alive, not just the brain. Sometimes the spinal cord and/or eyeballs are also there. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Sometimes it is presented as the [[GoalOrientedEvolution end result]] of [[HollywoodEvolution natural evolutionary processes]]. One day, we may find the rest of our bodies superfluous and exist simply as disembodied brains. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Also frequently falling under this trope is the PoorMansSubstitute of severed heads kept alive in jars or on surfaces that can disguise the fact that the rest of the actor is beneath the table when the head is active, which at least has the advantage of allowing the actor to ''act'' in some scenes. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Occasionally with this trope, the brain is hooked up to a virtual reality so that it thinks it's a regular person with a body, making it a sort of LotusEaterMachine. See Website/TheOtherWiki's article [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_in_a_vat "brain in a vat"]] for further discussion of this idea. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | It seems that in about one in five examples of this trope the brain will be [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler's]]. Creator/WaltDisney (or [[MrAltDisney more likely]] a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed {{Expy}} of him) is also popular. Expect them to be given mobility by being [[ManInTheMachine encased in robotic life support units]]... with {{Death Ray}}s! ''ForScience'' |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Keep [[AccidentalPun in mind]] that in real life, just pulling the brain out of a living person's head and plopping it in a tub of sterile saline would leave you with a starved, dead brain the next morning, so you'd need to hook the blood vessels up to some sort of fluid pump (Ã la the heart) to keep the brain supplied with oxygen and nutrients. But then you'd also need an air pump (Ã la the lungs) and nutrient intake device (Ã la the digestive tract) to keep ''that'' fluid pump supplied with that oxygen and nutrients. And then you'd need a regular filtration system (Ã la the urinary system) to keep the brain from dying of "blood" poisoning. But at this point it all amounts to basically a near-complete prosthetic body, so you might as well attach some limbs and call it a robot with a WetwareCPU, or a FullConversionCyborg. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Compare with PeopleJars and ManInTheMachine; pretty much the same thing, but with complete bodies instead of just a brain. Compare also SoulJar, in which the more immaterial essence of one's self is preserved. Compare HeartDrive, for a robotic (and sometimes biological) equivalent. Compare with OracularHead when the head may be preserved by other means and used for answering questions of a divinatory nature. WetwareCPU is a version used as a computer. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Compare to LosingYourHead when the whole head is preserved and capable of independent movement. Compare BrainTransplant when the brain is given a new body. This may or may not lead to AndIMustScream. May also be a result of BrainTheft. See also BrainMonster for brains that don't ''need'' to be preserved to survive. Subtrope of JarOfTheBizarre. |
| 29 | ---- |
| 30 | !!Example subpages: |
| 31 | |
| 32 | [[index]] |
| 33 | * BrainInAJar/{{Literature}} |
| 34 | * BrainInAJar/VideoGames |
| 35 | [[/index]] |
| 36 | |
| 37 | !!Other examples: |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 40 | |
| 41 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 42 | * In late 2023 and early 2024 the UK mobile phone network Voxi ran a series of adverts featuring two brains in two jars, talking about the deals the company offered. |
| 43 | [[/folder]] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 46 | * ''Manga/{{Akira}}'': This is the current state of [[spoiler:Akira, together with the rest of his nervous system... until he comes back, that is]]. |
| 47 | %%* ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'': The Deckmen are this with their facial flesh included. |
| 48 | * ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': |
| 49 | ** Aaroniero Arrurerie's true form is that he has a glass jar where his head is supposed to be, filled with a blood-like substance and contains two Hollow-mask heads. |
| 50 | ** Gremmy Thoumeaux is revealed to be a brain in a jar held in an artificial body made by his ImaginationBasedSuperpower. |
| 51 | * ''Manga/BusoRenkin'': After being paralysed from the neck down, Alexandria, [[spoiler:[[AntiVillain Victor]]'s wife]], transferred her brain life preserving jar to preserve her life long enough to develop a way to [[spoiler:make him human again]]. Over the years Alexandria also repeatedly cloned her brain so that she could link their jars together in an attempt to boost her already genius level intellect. |
| 52 | * ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': |
| 53 | ** [[spoiler:Teitoku Kakine]] has been reduced to this after Accelerator horribly dismembers him. It's also forced to create a constant stream of [[spoiler:Dark Matter]] for the use of Academy City's soldiers. [[spoiler:He eventually manages to create a new body out of Dark Matter and escape.]] |
| 54 | ** Rensa is a cyborg with forty different brains that can be inserted into her head to animate her. [[spoiler:After Touma destroys Rensa, he finds the brains and puts them into cold storage until something can be done about them.]] |
| 55 | ** In ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'', [[spoiler:Exterior]] is revealed to be a giant brain in a tube, cultivated from part of [[spoiler:Misaki]]'s cerebral cortex. It was intended to allow other people to use the ability [[spoiler:Mental Out]]. |
| 56 | * ''Manga/Cyborg009'': In the 2001 version, the true leaders of [[spoiler:Black Ghost are three brains in jars, hiding inside a shuttle. The three can somehow speak: one talks with a man's voice, another with a woman's, and the third has a child's one.]] |
| 57 | * ''Manga/DeadMountDeathPlay'': Corpse God's original human body was destroyed by a curse save for his brain, which was preserved in a jar. His [[SoulJar soul was bound to the brain]] and used to animate a skeleton, turning him in a lich. |
| 58 | * ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': |
| 59 | ** ''Anime/DragonBallZTheWorldsStrongest'', the second movie, features Dr. Wheelo, who seems to be a brain in a jar. But then turns out to be a brain in a jar in a massive mecha. With guns. And lasers. |
| 60 | ** In the main series, as an android, Dr. Gero's brain is stored in a glass dome on his head. It's usually covered by his nice hat, though. |
| 61 | %%* ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'': Celty's head, though it wasn't technically ''attached'' in the first place. |
| 62 | * ''Manga/ExArm'': In the beginning, Akira has been reduced to a brain in a titanium suitcase but can control hacked electronics, including an AnimatedArmor, like he would his own body. |
| 63 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'': The anime sequel has the BigBad steal Cid's corpse from his tomb and resurrect him as a HUGE brain. Seriously, it's several times the size of a human. |
| 64 | %%* ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners'': Part of Araya's "Spiral Paradox" relies on these. |
| 65 | * ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'': |
| 66 | ** Most full cyborg models allow for the case that holds the brain to be removed and connected to an external life support system. In one episode of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', a government official is about to be smuggled out of the country by hiding his brain in a suitcase. In another, an unconventional movie director decided to eschew his body, placing his brain case into a networked life support system and waiting for any wandering divers to come watch the movie in his brain. |
| 67 | ** Both the anime and manga versions have minor characters described as Jameson-type cyborgs (it's a brand name) which take this more literally than most. Most full-body cyborgs have a body that at least looks human but Jameson-types eschew this with a roughly cubic metal box on wheeled legs with a camera on a stick and a manipulator arm. For extra irony, in the anime, one runs a company that specializes in growing cloned organs for those who don't want cybernetic replacements if injured... and he got the money to found the company by selling all his organs in the first place (he was noted as being something of a "gung-ho company guy" considering the lengths he was willing to go to make a sale). |
| 68 | ** The central character, Major Motoko Kusanagi, is a full cyborg and thus this trope. The purple-haired bombshell is the jar. |
| 69 | * ''Series/KamenRider'': In Creator/ShotaroIshinomori's original manga version, [[spoiler:Takeshi Hongo, the Kamen Rider himself, is mortally wounded fighting the Shocker Riders. His brain is hooked into a computer and he becomes MissionControl for Hayato Ichimonji, who takes up the Kamen Rider mantle. In the final chapter, Hongo's brain is implanted into a fully mechanical body and he helps Ichimonji defeat Shocker once and for all.]] |
| 70 | * ''Manga/KnightsOfSidonia'': The traitorous Ochiai had his cybernetically-enhanced brain taken out and placed in storage after he destroyed most of Sidonia's libraries and data stores, leaving him the sole possessor of the knowledge they possessed. A clone of him, conditioned to be loyal to Sidonia, was created to act as a medium through which they can access his knowledge. [[spoiler:Ochiai's mind eventually escapes confinement when he takes over Norio Kunato's body.]] |
| 71 | * ''Franchise/LupinIII'': In ''Anime/TheMysteryOfMamo'', at the end, it turns out the movie's [[spoiler:main villain was a gigantic version of this trope all along, and all the "clones" of him running around were all controlled with microchips in their brains that were wirelessly connected to him]]. |
| 72 | %%* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'': The founders of the Time-Space Administration Bureau turn out to have been reduced to these.%%Reduced to what? |
| 73 | * ''Anime/MazingerZ'' and ''Anime/GreatMazinger'': The [[BodyHorror Kedora]]. Creator/KenIshikawa one-shot "The Relic of Evil" revealed that [[spoiler: the Mykene controlled his {{Robeast}} by grafting the brain of a soldier taught to destroy all non-Mykene civilizations into a parasitic organism, and it fused with a robot, giving the Mykene soldier complete control.]] They would show up later in ''Anime/ShinMazinger''. |
| 74 | * ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': The Magi computers are powered by human brains. However, although an episode mentions "[[OrganicTechnology organic supercomputers]]" that bear a strong resemblance to a human brain, it's not clear whether they use actual cloned human brain tissue or are just reverse-engineered. The best that can be determined is that all three are based on the brain of Dr. Naoko Akagi (Ritsuko's mother) or rather specific aspects of her: one is based on her as a scientist, one on her as a mother, and the last on her as a woman. |
| 75 | %%* ''Anime/PsychoPass'': [[spoiler:The Sibyl System]]. |
| 76 | * ''Anime/RODTheTV'': It is (briefly) revealed that [[spoiler:the reality-warping effect that causes London to take on elements of fictional works like ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898'' and ''Literature/TheLostWorld1912'' is (at least in part) run by the preserved brains of famous authors.]] |
| 77 | [[/folder]] |
| 78 | |
| 79 | [[folder:Card Games]] |
| 80 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Gloom}}'': Lord Slogar is a brain in a jar. Presumably his condition is the result of an experiment by his MadScientist wife, Helena. |
| 81 | * ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': |
| 82 | ** A longtime RunningGag on the website is that ''Magic''[='=]s Research And Development department is run by Gleemax, a literal brain in a jar, which even has its own (not tournament-legal) [[https://scryfall.com/card/unh/121/gleemax card]]. The gag dates back to at least the February 1998 issue of the long-defunct ''Duelist'' magazine, in which Mark Rosewater explains the 'Top Ten Myths About Magic R&D' -- the myth about Gleemax is listed as #1, and it's not quite clear from context whether [=MaRo=] refers to an ''actual'' earlier myth or is just throwing in a red herring on the fly. |
| 83 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/c20/248/psychosis-crawler The Psychosis Crawler]] is a brain in a tank of fluid mounted on a SpiderTank. The abundant space in the vat and the card's flavor text imply that more than one brain might find its way into that jar. |
| 84 | --->''"If that brain can't figure out the secret of the serum, then add more brains."\ |
| 85 | --Rhmir, Hand of the Augur'' |
| 86 | ** No longer content to merely beat around the bush, ''Shadows over Innistrad'' goes for broke and includes a card directly named "[[https://scryfall.com/card/soi/252/brain-in-a-jar Brain in a Jar]]". |
| 87 | ** ''Innistrad: Midnight Hunt'' includes the [[https://scryfall.com/card/mid/58/larder-zombie Larder Zombie]], depicted in the act of trying to gnaw through a glass jar to get to the preserved brain inside. |
| 88 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}}'': The Brain in a Jar is an enemy in ''Star Munchkin''. |
| 89 | * ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' has [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Mind_Master Mind Master]]. There's also the brain in the Field Spell [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Brain_Research_Lab Brain Research Lab]], which might actually be the same one as Mind Master. |
| 90 | [[/folder]] |
| 91 | |
| 92 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 93 | * ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'': |
| 94 | ** The futuristic sports team the Harlem Heroes suffers a crash in their first adventure. One member becomes a brain in a jar as a result. |
| 95 | ** ''ComicBook/BadCompany'' features [[http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/k/kano.htm Kano]], a [[FrankensteinsMonster patched-together]] half-mad soldier who believes he carries the human part of his brain in a box. [[spoiler:It's really just some random corpse's grey matter to keep him docile; he tends to [[BerserkButton go a little (more) crazy]] when he thinks he's lost it.]] |
| 96 | ** ''ComicBook/{{Shakara}}'': The boss of an intergalactic slave auction is a giant spinal cord and brain stem in a glass. |
| 97 | * ''ComicBook/AlbertEinsteinTimeMason'': In "Brain Game", Albert time travels to New Jersey in 2214 to battle a group of Pro-Oscalists who have stolen a brain in a jar. [[spoiler:Specifically, it's ''Albert's'' brain.]] |
| 98 | * ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': |
| 99 | ** A.T.T.A.C.C, who has gone a little bit bored (and mad) from being stuck in a tin can for several years, while still having human desires. |
| 100 | ** Braintrust is an Astro City crime lord; his brain is in an oval glass jar, perched on top of a spindly robot body. |
| 101 | * ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' has Heinrich von Helsingard, the crazy scientist who isn't just a brain in a jar. [[spoiler:He is several brains in several jars, apparently having cloned himself to immortality. Every time his currently active brain dies, [[BodyBackupDrive a new one "wakes up"]].]] |
| 102 | * ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'': |
| 103 | ** The Brain, naturally. In one issue, he finally does manage to get a body -- only to die in an explosion a few minutes later, moments before kissing his right-hand man, Mallah, to whom he'd just confessed his love for. Who's a talking French gorilla. You had ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext a brain in a jar in a robot being in love with a homosexual talking French gorilla]]''. Gotta love comics! |
| 104 | ** The same title reveals Robotman to be this, although [[FullConversionCyborg his "jar" is a heavy-duty robotic body]]. A Creator/GrantMorrison-era comic also reduces the Chief to this -- [[LaserGuidedKarma rather fittingly]], as [[spoiler:the same run reveals that he was responsible for both the Brain and Robotman's becoming disembodied brains themselves]]. |
| 105 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}'', the supervillain Psychoblast has been reduced to a brain in a jar. He apparently still has his powers, as the villain Idea Man comments that he can trigger the apocalypse, but Psychoblast has to be roused from slumber by beaming images into his mind, preferably images of a HotLibrarian. |
| 106 | * President Rexall of ''ComicBook/GiveMeLiberty'' becomes one of these after his coma. He even campaigns as such... |
| 107 | * The Brain from Sirius, a recurring antagonist from ''ComicBook/EMan'' is a [[MyBrainIsBig huge brain in a container]]. |
| 108 | * ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'': |
| 109 | ** One of Hellboy's enemies is Professor Doctor Herman Von Klempt, the [[StupidJetpackHitler Nazi head-in-a-jar]]. |
| 110 | ** More literally in the spinoff one-shot "The Iron Prometheus" starring BadassNormal Lobster Johnson. In order to extract the secrets of the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Vril Energy]] Suit from Professor Gallaragas the villains literally do this to him. [[spoiler:Then the villain shoots him. He comes back later as a the GhostlyAdvisor to the guy wearing the VES suit.]] |
| 111 | * ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'': |
| 112 | ** ''ComicBook/TheInvadersMarvelComics'' and ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'' villain Brain Drain. |
| 113 | ** The Eternal Brain, a [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] hero later revamped as a member of the {{Retcon}}-riffic superhero team the First Line from the ''Marvel: The Lost Generation'' series. |
| 114 | ** Introduced in ''ComicBook/NewXMen'', Martha Johansson, a.k.a. No-Girl, is a psychic mutant who ran away from home as a teen, only to be abducted by the U-Men. Their leader, John Sublime, had her brain removed and body destroyed, keeping her mind under his control with drugs and using her as a psychic weapon until No-Girl telepathically forced him to commit suicide. Afterwards, she joins the Xavier Institute and is given a hovering glass tank to keep her brain safe and mobile. She apparently adjusts well to her lack of a body, and in a future continuity becomes the new Cerebra. |
| 115 | ** The Kree Supreme Intelligence is a combination of their world's greatest minds, all in one big jar. |
| 116 | ** Doctor Sun, a [[YellowPeril Chinese enemy]] of Dracula in ''ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula'' (we know he's Chinese because we are told); he later went on to menace ComicBook/{{Nova}} and finally the ComicBook/FantasticFour, before getting blown up while controlling [[WesternAnimation/TheFantasticFour1978 H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot]]. |
| 117 | ** ComicBook/IronMan in ''ComicBook/MarvelOneHundredthAnniversarySpecial''. Well, his Avengers incarnation, anyway - his Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy counterpart is a clone composed of nanites and Tony's brainwaves. |
| 118 | ** Tony Stark has been reduced to this at least twice in alternate timelines due to the machinations of villains. In ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaCorps'', the altered timeline has him reduced to a brain and eyeballs in a glass cylinder by Superia, his intellect used to devise her weapons, with him begging for death. During a ''ComicBook/DarkAvengers'' arc that deals with a pocket timeline controlled by A.I.M., the Tony of said timeline has long since been reduced to a brain in a flying sphere. He apparently keeps this secret from all his allies, who just assume he never takes off his armor anymore. |
| 119 | ** In ''ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative'', Think Tank is a member of Montana's state superteam, Freedom Force. To all appearances, his head is a brain in a spherical glass case perched atop an otherwise completely normal human body. He's telekinetic and wears a headband and not much else is known about him. |
| 120 | * ''ComicBook/MollyDanger'': Medula has a robotic body, with his brain in a jar full of green liquid located where his head would be. |
| 121 | * A background villain in ''ComicBook/{{Powers}}'' Vol 1 #35 and #36 is a living skull in a jar. |
| 122 | * ''ComicBook/TheSavageDragon'' features recurring villain Brainiape, who is this combined with psychic powers and being a simian... and whose occupant turns out to be [[spoiler: the mutated, preserved brain of Adolf Hitler]]. |
| 123 | * An album of ''ComicBook/{{Sillage}}'' features this being repeatedly used by an assassin on his marks. After defeating a target, he slices his head open and teleports his brain away in a previously prepared jar. This is intended as a way to both imprison and interrogate them since most of them are rather powerful and rich people. All of these persons being non-humans of various species, some with a BizarreAlienBiology like [[spoiler:an alien with an X-shaped head and four small brains]] require quite specific jars. |
| 124 | * In ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', after Dimitri is [[DePower stripped of his Enerjak powers]], he's put on heavy life support. Later, after being experimented on by [[MadScientist Doctor Finitevus]], his head is removed and placed in a floating bubble. |
| 125 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': |
| 126 | ** In the ''ComicBook/TalesOfTheJedi'' series, a Jedi Master by the name of Ooroo is a brain-like, methane-breathing alien who must stay in his fishbowl as oxygen is lethal to him. His species, the Celegians, was given a name and some background for RPG; authors never saw a great use for them. |
| 127 | ** In ''ComicBook/StarWarsTales'', before his fate was {{retcon}}ned by ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'', Darth Maul came BackFromTheDead ''[[HijackedByGanon several times]]'' before being finally reduced to a brain & spine in a [[HealingVat bacta tank]] controlling a HardLight hologram. Luke Skywalker then finishes him off once and for all by shutting down his life support. |
| 128 | * One Horde scheme in ''ComicBook/StrikeforceMorituri'' was to use [[ManInTheMachine attack robots driven by decapitated (yet screaming) human heads]] as {{Mooks}} against human forces. |
| 129 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': |
| 130 | ** During an early '90s story, Lex Luthor fakes his suicide and has his brain (along with spine and eyeballs) put in a vat from which it directs its very own transplant to a younger Luthor clone. |
| 131 | ** The late-'80s Superman villain Hfuhruhurr was an alien who removed brains from living people and placed them in machines which psychically linked them together, creating a HiveMind called "the Union" which possessed telepathic and telekinetic abilities. |
| 132 | ** ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl'' reveals that in the Kryptonian city of Kandor, its greatest minds' brains are preserved in fluid-filled vats so they can keep coming up with new ideas for the Kandor's benefit. |
| 133 | --->'''[[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]]:''' The brains of Kandor's geniuses are preserved in chemicals, so they can continue to create great ideas, after their bodies have died! The brains can actually "write" their thoughts! |
| 134 | ** ''ComicBook/TheGirlWithTheXRayMind'': As a teenager, Lex Luthor kept a big alien brain in a glass cage to study the weird waves of psychic energy that radiated from its grey matter. |
| 135 | ** In the Creator/{{Elseworlds}} ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', Lex Luthor is reduced to a brain in a jar [[spoiler:after the Ultra-Humanite hijacks his body in the 1940s]]. He gets a robot suit powered by Kryptonite, becoming this universe's version of Superman villain Metallo. In ''Generations 3'', he causes even more trouble [[spoiler:by helping Darkseid's Parademons set off a bomb that shorts out modern technology, sending humanity into a dark age until they get back on their feet in the 23rd century.]] |
| 136 | * Creator/ECComics: In "Operation Friendship", from ''Tales from the Crypt'' #41, a genius who felt that he was losing his best friend to said friend's less-intellectual new wife removed about two-thirds of the guy's brain and kept it in a jar with a speaker attachment. |
| 137 | * In ''ComicBook/WackyRaceland'', it's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:the Announcer is Pat Pending's wife, who was reduced to this state after an accident in their lab. Unfortunately, this drove her insane in the process, and she decided to destroy the world [[ForTheEvulz for fun]]]]. |
| 138 | * In the ''ComicBook/WonderWoman77'' comics, based on the [[Series/WonderWoman1975 TV series,]] Gault's disembodied brain makes a return appearance. |
| 139 | [[/folder]] |
| 140 | |
| 141 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 142 | * Several ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' cartoons played with this trope, including one where a Jan in the Pan-esque severed head begins screaming in horror at its circumstances, only to receive an [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan anti-insanity slap]] from the mad scientist who created it. "Thanks, Professor, I needed that." |
| 143 | * An ongoing story in ''ComicStrip/TomTheDancingBug'' features the life of a disembodied brain in a vat. The brain's owner keeps it on his desk as a conversation piece and uses his desktop computer to feed it simulated sense data that leads it to believe it is an ordinary human living out a humdrum existence in the real world. |
| 144 | [[/folder]] |
| 145 | |
| 146 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 147 | * ''Blog/AskBrainyTwilight'': |
| 148 | ** [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Twilight Sparkle]] turns herself into a brain in a jar for perfectly logical reasons. |
| 149 | ** Brainy Twilight once crossed over with [[Blog/AskSeriousRainbow Serious Rainbow]] to see if putting Serious's brain in a jar would override her ResurrectiveImmortality. The answer was no; it produces two Serious Rainbows, one's just a brain in a jar. She later takes the nickname Brainbow Dash and helps Derpy out in the lab. For the most part, Brainbow is happy with her life as a BrainInAJar (except when she found out she could have had C-cups). |
| 150 | %%* ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'': The true nature of [[spoiler:[[MyFutureSelfAndMe Future Calvin]]]]. |
| 151 | * ''Fanfic/{{Contraptionology}}'': While preparing to transfer her mind into her new robotic body, [[spoiler:Twilight gets a little impatient and uses a partial teleportation spell to test moving her brain out of her own body]]. On the one hand, it works. On the other, it also cuts her off from the body parts she needs to channel magic, leaving her stuck as a brain in a jar of liquid, which needs to be fed hourly by having Spike sprinkle a mix of sugar and cinnamon into the vat. |
| 152 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8143094/14/The-Power-He-Knows-Not-Is The Power He Knows Not Is]]'': Voldemort stuck the brain of a mook who failed him in a glass globe attached to an eye and a large number of flytraps. The eye acted as a surveillance system while the plants supplied enough nutrients to keep the whole thing in operation. |
| 153 | * ''Fanfic/LeftBeyond'': Heavy Mech Troopers are a version of this, although usually the whole head is kept intact because rewiring eyes and ears is difficult and expensive. |
| 154 | * ''Fanfic/MeetingOfMinds'': Rumble asks Ifrit 259 if he really thought the former keeps his brain in "a little tank or something" after failing to take control of him, as Rumble (and other [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Cybertronians]] by extension) uses a CPU to think. Ifrit admits that there ''are'' species in the universe that do that. |
| 155 | * ''Fanfic/OutOfTheCornerOfTheEye'': Ephraim Waite has been rendered as one of these, attached to a spider-like mech body, by the [[StarfishAliens Mi-Go]]. He's perfectly content with this. |
| 156 | * ''Fanfic/SonicXDarkChaos'': |
| 157 | ** [[{{Satan}} Lord Maledict]]. Despite being a PhysicalGod, he's actually little more than a skull attached to a suit of power armor filled with liquid and rotting organs, and he has to use his powers to make himself look like a hedgehog to others. |
| 158 | ** Maledict's counterpart Allysion is an Altus Emerald in a Jar, holding her ghost inside it. |
| 159 | [[/folder]] |
| 160 | |
| 161 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 162 | * ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunksMeetFrankenstein'': Dr. Frankenstein has a collection of live brains in jars which he displays in his laboratory. |
| 163 | * ''WesternAnimation/EgoTrip'': Mandark is turned into a brain in a jar following his defeat by four Dexters from different ages... [[SpannerInTheWorks and Dee Dee's intervention]]. |
| 164 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Igor}}'': Brain, although he has wheels and a robot hand so he can move around. |
| 165 | -->"Legend has it when the smartest man in the world died, they put his brain in a jar. [[WellThisIsNotThatTrope This is not that brain]]." |
| 166 | %%* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': The Yolkians, although they're technically egg yolks in glass egg-shaped capsules.%%So how are they examples? |
| 167 | %%* ''WesternAnimation/RockAndRule'': Mok's supercomputer looks like one of these, although not quite as easy on the eyes.%%Looks like what? |
| 168 | [[/folder]] |
| 169 | |
| 170 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 171 | %%* ''Film/TheAtomicBrain'' |
| 172 | * ''Film/BloodDiner'': The uncle of the two murderous cannibals masquerading as vegetarian chefs is reduced to one of these (complete with eyeballs). He still orders them around to put together a body for some evil goddess out of all the girls they've killed. We said this was a weird film. |
| 173 | * ''Film/TheBrainThatWouldntDie'' (Actually a head in a pan, but close enough) |
| 174 | * Uncle Irvin in ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren''. [[spoiler: A DeadpanSnarker BrainInAJar. With migraines.]] |
| 175 | * In the 1960 Mexican science fiction comedy ''Film/ConquistadorDeLaLuna (Conqueror of the Moon)'', the "Great Brain of Mars" (don't ask) is literally a giant brain in a jar, with an abstract art depiction of a Martian underneath him, and a voice box and an eye on a stalk to communicate. |
| 176 | %%* ''Film/CrankHighVoltage'': [[spoiler:Ricky Verona]]. |
| 177 | * ''Film/DonovansBrain'', an adaptation of the novel, in which an evil millionaire's life is saved via removing his brain from his crippled body and preserving it in a tank of an electrified saline solution; however, Donovan's evil will allows him to begin remotely controlling the doctor who saved him. In this version, the brain is ultimately destroyed in a house fire. |
| 178 | * ''Film/FiendWithoutAFace'': The titular "fiends" are initially invisible monsters that, when revealed, are actually slimy crawling human brains that brains strangle victims with their spinal cords. While not in jars during the events of the film, one of the "fiend" puppets was displayed in a jar at a movie theater during the film's premiere. |
| 179 | * In ''Film/FrankensteinIsland'', a human brain in a glass dome is essential part of Sheila and Van Helsing's aparatus. It provides the psychic link to Dr. Frankenstein on the other side of the veil, and allows him to provide the psychic energy that keeps Van Helsing alive and powers the army of guard zombies. |
| 180 | * Another head in a pan (with exposed brain yet!) in ''Film/TheFrozenDead''. |
| 181 | %%* ''Film/InvadersFromMars'' |
| 182 | %%* ''Film/TheManWithTwoBrains'': Creator/SteveMartin is a neurosurgeon who encounters and communicates with a lady's brain.%%Outside of her body, or...? |
| 183 | * ''Film/MarsAttacks!'': A large, human-like brain in a container is seen on the mothership. |
| 184 | * ''Film/PosessedByTheNight'': The villain of this erotic thriller is a pickled, one-eyed brain creature that mind controls Shannon Tweed into becoming a psychotic pervert. |
| 185 | * ''Film/RoboCop2'' shows Cain's brain literally in a jar, about to be transferred into a robot. With his [[EyeScream eyes still attached]], allowing him to see his [[BodyHorror face]] that's been cut off of his head. It's implied that seeing this is what really drives him insane. |
| 186 | %%* ''Film/RunRonnieRun'': One of the characters ends up this way. |
| 187 | * ''Film/{{Sharkenstein}}'': The brain and heart of FrankensteinsMonster are both kept in jars full of liquid, with wires plugged into them[[spoiler:, until [[MadScientist Klaus]] has Coop, Madge, and Skip help him transplant them into Sharkenstein's body]]. |
| 188 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': According to supplemental material, General Grievious is actually a brain (and eyes, plus a few other parts) inside a fully robotic body, which he had to be transferred into after most of his body was ruined in a nearly-fatal shuttle crash. |
| 189 | * ''Film/TammyAndTheTRex'': One of the characters ends up as a brain in a pan. |
| 190 | * ''Film/TankGirl'': According to one of the animated sequences, Tank Girl's tank is controlled by one of these. |
| 191 | * ''Film/TheySavedHitlersBrain'': It's right there in the title: Nazis have preserved Hitler's brain in a jar, and are waiting for the right time to resurrect him and, along with him, the Third Reich. |
| 192 | * ''Film/TheWhispererInDarkness'' (2011), in which the alien Mi-Go plant living human brains in cylinders to transport them to other planets, which the human body apparently cannot withstand. The film ends with TheReveal that [[spoiler:this happened to Albert Wilmarth himself, and the entire story he's been relating is a holographic projection coming from a brain in a can]]. |
| 193 | %%* ''Film/TheXFilesIWantToBelieve'' |
| 194 | * ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'': |
| 195 | ** Igor is sent to retrieve the brilliant Hans Delbruck's brain from the Brain Depository, where brains in preservative-filled jars are lined neatly on the shelves. Igor drops the jar containing the scientist's brain, and instead takes a different jar marked "ABNORMAL -- DO NOT USE". After the monster reveals its true nature, Dr. Frankenstein asks Igor whose brain he put in the body. "Abby someone." "Abby who?" "Abby Normal." |
| 196 | ** In the German-dubbed version, this becomes "I took the brain of a cleric, an abbot (''Abt'')." -- "What abbot?" -- "''Abt Normal''." By the way, as he mentions on the DVD, Mel Brooks had Frederick Frankenstein send Igor to fetch Hans Delbruck's brain because that would rhyme with "Mel Brooks' brain". So it is not a reference to the German politician and historian Hans Delbrück (1848-1929), father of the Nobel Prize-winning German-American biophysicist Max Delbrück (1906-1981). |
| 197 | [[/folder]] |
| 198 | |
| 199 | [[folder:Gamebooks]] |
| 200 | * One bad ending in the ''Literature/StarChallenge'' books has this happening to you. [[spoiler:Your brain is inserted in an armor by an alien who says that he collects heroes' brains, as they're far easier to maintain.]] |
| 201 | [[/folder]] |
| 202 | |
| 203 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 204 | * ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': The dying Anton Ivanov -- an EvilLuddite who dislikes modern technology for being more software than hardware -- demands that he not be saved by [[BrainUploading uploading his brain into an LMD body]], saying he would rather die. AIDA complies with his dying wish [[ExactWords to the letter]]. She [[spoiler:doesn't touch his ''brain'' -- she cuts off his ''head'' and puts it in a jar where he can control the LMD body remotely]]. He's a bit pissed upon waking up, but he seemingly gets over it, as by the end of the season [[spoiler:[[MesACrowd he has made dozens of LMDs of himself]] and his head is controlling them all simultaneously]]. |
| 205 | * ''Series/AlienWorlds2020'': The Terran aliens have developed past the point of needing physical bodies, instead existing as large networks of neural tissue within life-support tanks. |
| 206 | * ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' [=AIs=] can't use their FasterThanLightTravel, relying on organics to get them to their destination within a century. To get around this, several automated systems are using WetwareCPU systems such as this. |
| 207 | * ''[[Music/DougAnthonyAllStars DAAS Kapital]]'': The brain of Saint Peter shows up "Felicity", and is promptly corrupted by the All Stars. |
| 208 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 209 | ** The Daleks in general. A Dalek is a cyborg that consists of an extremely reduced cephalopod-like mutant brain (which is actually the remains of their human-like ancestors, the Kaleds) fused to a metallic shell that acts as its body, life support, and combat/travel machine. |
| 210 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E5TheKeysOfMarinus "The Keys of Marinus"]] features a race of brains in jars that are enslaving humans by giving them hallucinations of a nicer world than they're really in. Barbara [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments smashes their jars with a stick]]. |
| 211 | ** Arcturus in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E2TheCurseOfPeladon "The Curse of Peladon"]] is a squeaky-voiced brain in a complicated life support system, and a [[EvilCripple surprisingly effective murderer]] considering his condition. |
| 212 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius "The Brain of Morbius"]] features the titular brain as a miserable, paranoid, suicidal organ who feels that his current existence is AFateWorseThanDeath and continually [[{{Wangst}} explains this]] [[LargeHam loudly]] to the surgeon who put him in this state. It's supposed to be a temporary measure before Morbius can be placed in a body, but he's been stuck in there for years due to a lack of a suitable [[OrganTheft head donor]]. Until the Doctor arrives... |
| 213 | ** Lady Cassandra, from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld "The End of the World"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth "New Earth"]], is a skin trampoline with two eyes and a mouth controlled by her jarred brain. In "New Earth" she transfers herself to living bodies, but this destroys her original brain so she can't go back. |
| 214 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E5RiseOfTheCybermen "Rise of the Cybermen"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E6TheAgeOfSteel "The Age of Steel"]]: The parallel universe Cybermen are brains transplanted into a mechanical suit of armour. The suit [[EmptyShell represses the brain's emotions]], since the brains otherwise tend to [[GoMadFromTheRevelation react poorly to being in their jar.]] |
| 215 | ** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords "Last of the Time Lords"]], the Master conquers the Earth with the help of the Toclafane, an alien race of cyborgs encased in a small, spherical shell. The true identity of the Toclafane is a major plot point (and point of horror): [[spoiler:they're the last remnants of humanity from hundreds of trillions of years into the future, who turned themselves into a race of hive-minded, child-like sociopaths in order to survive the heat death of the universe. Why would they slaughter their own ancestors? '''Because it's FUN!''']] |
| 216 | ** In [[Recap/DoctorWho2016CSTheReturnOfDoctorMysterio "The Return of Doctor Mysterio"]], the alien invasion takes the form of brains in jars seeking human hosts. |
| 217 | %%* Cameo in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' Volume 2 |
| 218 | * ''Series/{{Lexx}}''. Subverted in that the brains of the former His Divine Shadows somehow ''don't need jars'' in order to survive. |
| 219 | * ''Series/Mouse2021'': Ba-reum investigates Seo-joon's laboratory and finds human brains still preserved in jars. |
| 220 | * "Mr. Newman" of the short-lived series ''Series/NowAndAgain'' spent some time as a brain in a jar after getting hit by a train but before getting his new SuperSoldier body. |
| 221 | * In ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', Brain Guy had his brain in a dish... that his body was carrying. He claimed that his species had evolved beyond the need for a body, despite the obvious helplessness of the exposed organ without a body to carry it around. Several skit gags involved separating his brain from its body or adulterating the brain dish with Mountain Dew or similar to get a funny reaction. |
| 222 | %%* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'': "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S2E15TheBrainOfColonelBarham The Brain of Colonel Barham]]". |
| 223 | * ''Series/RedDwarf'': |
| 224 | ** This is the ultimate fate of Lister in "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVIOutOfTime Out of Time]]", where the future versions of the main cast visit via a Time Drive that the present versions had only recently found by that point. However this is initially kept a secret from present-day Lister, and present-day Kryten, the {{secret keeper}}, is on the point of tears when he finds out, leading Lister to believe that he had been killed instead. |
| 225 | ** Lister also mentioned in "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIBalanceOfPower Balance of Power]]" that his uncle's brain was in a jar and that it was really sad, as he wasn't dead yet. |
| 226 | %%* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E16TheGamestersOfTriskelion The Gamesters of Triskelion]]", "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E1SpocksBrain Spock's Brain]]" |
| 227 | * In the ''[[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Wizard of Oz]]'' pastiche ''Series/TinMan'', the brain in a jar turned out to be [[spoiler:part of the brain of the Scarecrow counterpart]], used to construct and power a DoomsdayDevice. |
| 228 | * ''Series/TripForBiscuits'' has a variant somewhat similar to Lady Cassandra from ''Doctor Who'' above. Violet's brain resides in a fish tank and is connected to her body by very long cables. How it got there [[TheUnreveal is never explained]], but it gave her the ability to [[VoiceChangeling mimic other people's voices]]. Just make sure to stay off the cables. |
| 229 | * Series/VRTroopers has one of these as a monster of the week in an early episode. Notably, [[DecompositeCharacter he was the same character as regular villain Colonel Icebot (who is absent from this episode otherwise) in the source footage]]. |
| 230 | %%* Series/{{Warehouse 13}}: One of the Artifacts in the Dark Vault |
| 231 | %%* ''Series/WayOut'' and ''Series/TalesOfTheUnexpected'': "William and Mary" |
| 232 | * ''Series/{{Wonder Woman|1975}}'': In the episode "Gault's Brain", the titular Gault's Brain was a brain-in-a-jar villain with floating eyeballs and telekinesis. |
| 233 | [[/folder]] |
| 234 | |
| 235 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 236 | * Country music singer James Bonamy had a song called "Brain in a Jar". |
| 237 | * One of the tabloid headlines mentioned in "Midnight Star" by Music/WeirdAlYankovic is "They're keeping [[StupidJetpackHitler Hitler's brain]] alive inside a jar". |
| 238 | * "Lost in the New Real" by Arjen Lucassen ends with this, from the first track to near the end it appears the main character has been brought back to life through mad science, only for the Brain in a Jar reveal during the final track. |
| 239 | * In the song "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" by Music/TheMountainGoats, the narrator fears that beings from beyond the stars are coming to put our brains in mason jars (a reference to Lovecraft's Mi-Go). |
| 240 | * "Lucky Day Overture" by Music/TomWaits from ''Music/TheBlackRider'' describes several freak show artists with deformities. Tom plays a circus promoter promising "human oddities" among them [[BrainInAJar Hitler's brain]]. |
| 241 | * The song [[http://thefump.com/fump.php?id=1970 "Think Tank"]] by Consortium of Genius is about several of these. |
| 242 | [[/folder]] |
| 243 | |
| 244 | [[folder:Pinballs]] |
| 245 | * Appropriately enough, the EdutainmentGame ''Pinball/TheBrain'' has a replica of a human brain inside the cabinet. |
| 246 | * Creator/{{Bally}}'s ''Pinball/{{Xenon}}'' depict robots on the playfield with transparent skulls, with their organic-looking brains clearly visible inside. |
| 247 | [[/folder]] |
| 248 | |
| 249 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 250 | * ''Radio/BleakExpectations:'' In season 4, Harry Biscuit winds up with his brain in a jam jar, after previously getting his brain transferred into a dinosaur's body (ItMakesSenseInContext), before the dinosaur body was badly injured escaping a cheese mine. He's okay with it at first, but after a few days gets bored of being stuck in a jar. Fortunately, he's able to get a new body in the form of an injured soldier. |
| 251 | * The BigBad of the BBC series ''Radio/{{Earthsearch}}'' are AN.G.E.L. (Ancillary Guardians of Environment and Life) One and Two, the organic {{Master Computer}}s of the ''Challenger'', who look like this trope in appearance (at least in the novelisations -- in the radio series they're described as two racks of integrated wetware). Unfortunately, such organic computers have a [[AIIsACrapshoot tendency towards megalomania]]. |
| 252 | * ''Radio/ThePriceOfFear'' adapts the Roald Dahl story "William and Mary" mentioned in the Literature section, this time with Vincent Price as a witness to, and narrator of, the events. Technically a brain (and an eye) in a ''basin''. |
| 253 | [[/folder]] |
| 254 | |
| 255 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 256 | * ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'': This is the usual fate of anybody who gets on the wrong side of Mi-Go. That's not to say that they did it to you because you pissed them off; that just gets them to kill you. No, they slice out your brain and put it in a jar if they ''[[BlueAndOrangeMorality like]]'' you. The resulting brain cylinder can survive in Yuggoth's hostile atmosphere and be plugged into external devices allowing it to "see", "hear", and speak, but being sapient fungus monsters with a radically different physiology from humans, Mi-Go don't have the best grasp of human senses. |
| 257 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 258 | ** Mind flayers, aka the illithid race, are led by the Elder Brains, gigantic Brains in Jars with psionic powers. These are created from the brains of a few illithids, the first to die in a colony, and others are added to the pool later as members die, as a sort of immortality. They can also do this to mortal brains with particularily interesting thoughts (that aren't eaten). This whole trope is basically their [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. |
| 259 | ** Various undead supplements have provided more normal-sized brains in jars, like [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120721041725/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041015b&page=2 here]] for example. |
| 260 | ** ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' has a brain in a jar, salvaged alive from an accident victim by Dr. Frankenstein {{Expy}}, which is a mind-controlling criminal mastermind in Dementlieu. |
| 261 | ** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': The mind flayers of Oryndoll store many brains of those they think knew too much, alive and available for telepathic probing as a "library". Presumably, their own divine Elder Brain could absorb all this, but then it would be pestered with unimportant questions. |
| 262 | ** ''Magazine/{{Dungeon}}'' magazine #44 adventure "Raiders of the Chanth": The Chanth is a giant brain that is the magical combination of the brains of a man, a dwarf, an elf, a halfling, and a thri-kreen. It exists inside a sphere of glass under the effect of a ''Glassteel'' spell. It is extremely dangerous due to its extensive psionic powers. |
| 263 | * ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'': Transhuman introduces the Brain Box enhancement, an organic human [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin brain in a box]] that contains a small life-support system, and which is usually mounted in a robot body. It's favored by characters who like the durability of a synthmorph, but are paranoid about brainhacking or want to use PsychicPowers. |
| 264 | * ''TabletopGame/GammaWorld'': Borgs, Permanent Cybernetic Installations and Think Tanks in 1st Edition. Borgs in 2nd Edition. |
| 265 | * ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'': |
| 266 | ** The game has a disadvantage called "No Physical Body" which turns you into this. You're immobile, and anybody who interacts with you is likely to recoil in horror. So it kinda sucks, except that it gives you a ton of character points that you can spend on magic/psionic powers or other mental abilities. |
| 267 | ** One of the vignettes in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Magic Items 3'' is about a brain trying to hire Humphrey Bogart to find his body. |
| 268 | * ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'': First edition, using the META-4 universe, has the Atomic Brain who was a former Manhattan Project researcher whose brain survived the explosion of an experiment. A combination of resentment at Oppenheimer taking credit for the atomic bomb and frustration over a lack of limbs led to the Atomic Brain becoming a supervillain. However, Atomic Brain's... brain... floats above his robotic body. |
| 269 | %%** The game has one as a sample villain. |
| 270 | %%** Second edition has it as a potential villain archetype. |
| 271 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': |
| 272 | ** The adventure module ''Wake of the Watchers'' features a "brain archive" containing several of these. |
| 273 | ** Part of the ''Reign of Winter'' Adventure Path takes place on Earth circa 1918, where the party will encounter Mk. V tanks driven by implanted human brains. |
| 274 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'': Full-conversion {{Cyborg}}s are basically brains and a few vital organs wired into a robotic body. |
| 275 | * ''TabletopGame/ShadowOfTheDemonLord'': The psionics focussed Brain In A Jar Master Path allows player characters to become one by level 7. |
| 276 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' |
| 277 | ** Supplement ''Threats 2'', section "Halberstam's Babies". The evil scientist Dr. Halberstam continues his experiments by extracting the brains of children and storing them in containers, then connecting them to the Matrix and training them to be super deckers. |
| 278 | ** Supplement ''Aztlan'': |
| 279 | *** Thomas Roxborough, a major shareholder in Aztechnology and Universal Omnitech, is currently a mass of undifferentiated protoplasm (including his brain). Sort of a "cancer in a jar". He was diagnosed with an advanced autoimmune disease and given a prognosis of 1 year to live; Universal Omnitech offered him a radical treatment that effectively reduced him to a pile of sludge loosely gathered around his gray matter. He spends most of his time living on the Matrix and is willing to pursue any solution, up to and including [[TheDarkArts cybermancy]], to regain a functioning body. |
| 280 | *** Aztechnology is rumored to be working on biocomputers - computers based on human brains floating in a vat of electrolytes. |
| 281 | %%** This is how full cyborg conversion works. |
| 282 | * ''TabletopGame/StarFrontiers'' module [=SF1=] ''Volturnus, Planet of Mystery''. The slavebots in the Sathar Artifact are controlled by a Sathar's brain which is in a large fluid-filled flask. The flask is connected to a radio with wires. |
| 283 | [[/folder]] |
| 284 | |
| 285 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 286 | * ''WebAnimation/LoboWebseries'': One of the prisoners at Oblivion is a brain with spikes in a jar labeled "criminal mind". |
| 287 | [[/folder]] |
| 288 | |
| 289 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 290 | * The super-villain Dr. Haynus from ''Webcomic/GreystoneInn'' and its sequel comic ''Webcomic/EvilInc'' is a disembodied brain in a jar. As he is on top of a living puppy with a mind of his own, Haynus unfortunately feels the humiliation of not having control over its actions: Anyone can get rid of Haynus by simply using a ball or cookies. |
| 291 | * ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Anevka Sturmvoraus is basically one of these, although her container is much larger than a typical jar, and is attached via cables to a robot "clank" through which she can interact with the world. And it is eventually revealed [[spoiler: that the brain died long ago and the robot is unknowingly operating itself via the deceased's imprinted personality.]] Later, the "whole head in a jar" variant [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110202 is]] [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110204 done]] [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110207 to]] a particularly high-ranking {{Mook}} so that he can be kept safely alive and in custody while being pumped for information, and references have been made to doing the same to other characters (or inability to do so, owing to the [[BoomHeadshot lack of a head]]). In general, it seems to be a well-known, if maybe not exactly common, practice. |
| 292 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Dave comes across the alchemy combination that makes Dave's Brain In A Jar during his experiments with ItemCrafting. It's too expensive for him to make because the organ is virtually inimitable, but he uses the code in alchemy to make the [[Webcomic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff SBAHJifier]] camera. |
| 293 | * UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler is a brain in a jar in the Franchise/{{LEGO}} photocomic ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic''. According to the creator, this was done both as a reference to ''Film/TheySavedHitlersBrain'' and to get around the fact that LEGO doesn't make Hitler figures. At one point he builds a supercomputer out of a bunch of cloned Hitler jar-brains wired together. |
| 294 | * The entire Baro race from ''Webcomic/{{Marooned}}'' is brains in jars, [[BrainUploading uploaded]] into the Mother Brain upon death. |
| 295 | * In ''Webcomic/MinionComics'', Hitler's head is seen [[http://www.meetmyminion.com/?p=862 in a jar attached to a giant rampaging gorilla]]. |
| 296 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'', the BadFuture version of [[spoiler:Helen Narbon]] is one of these and resentful as heck about it. In the finale, as the events that caused this ''almost'' come to pass, we learn the reasons for both brain-in-a-jarness and bitterness. |
| 297 | * In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0652.html this]] ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' strip, Xykon references Brain in a Jar transformations as a method to avoid death. [[EmergencyTransformation Though he makes it clear that he wouldn't become one unless he had to.]] |
| 298 | * ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': |
| 299 | ** Just about ''all'' of the original Toughs (except Schlock) end up as heads in jars after the 2001 Schlocktoberfest storyline. This gives the frequently disembodied [[RedShirt Der Trihs]] a [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-10-31 sense of deja vu]]. |
| 300 | ** Anyone injured badly enough would end up with their head in a jar and with a few punchlines at their expense (usually by Ennesby, embittered over not having a body in the first place) was a running theme, especially earlier in the comic's run. Full-body regeneration has also been used since as a plot device, as once you get started there's really no need to regenerate a body EXACTLY like your old one. If your vanity or your job demands require a physical upgrade, well, here's your chance! More muscle (Nick), more height (Elf), less fat (Thurl and [[spoiler: Xinchub]]), you can have a whole new you from the shoulders down. Why don't people do it all the time, then? It's expensive. |
| 301 | * Nick Zerhakker in the spin-off ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'' is one of these as well, installed in a [[http://www.enemyforces.net/helicopters/v22_osprey.htm V-22 Osprey]]. [[spoiler: As of "The Iron Man" Nick has lost the helicopter but gained a clone of his human body,]] though he'd come to see his helicopter chassis as his "real body" by then. |
| 302 | * ''Webcomic/{{Serix}}'': Mentioned as the state a large portion of humanity are in. It seems to be voluntary, since they can still use the Mindnet and can transfer their consciousness into robotic or organic bodies whenever they want to interact with the real world. |
| 303 | * A Brain in a Jar alien makes an appearance in [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=990606 this]] ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' strip, with the added twist that the creature's brain is divided into a right and left side, each in separate jars. |
| 304 | * ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}'': They show up in the spacetrawler construction facility, [[spoiler:as the telekinetic abilities of Eebs are necessary for [[FasterThanLightTravel greased light speed travel]], so each spacetrawler contains a tortured disembodied Eeb brain.]] |
| 305 | * ''Webcomic/{{Supertron}}'': Supertron ([[spoiler:actually named Simon]])'s [[spoiler:father is basically a brain in a jar, which also houses his eyes, intestines, and other organs.]] |
| 306 | [[/folder]] |
| 307 | |
| 308 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 309 | * ''WebOriginal/BosunsJournal'': The thinking buildings are artificially created human neural networks used as the [=AIs=] of large buildings. At the center of each building is its brain, suspended in a clear jar of sterile fluid and connected to sensory inputs and organ systems scattered around the building by a network of nerve fibers and fluid vessels. |
| 310 | * The late Usenet personality [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gharlane_of_Eddore_(Pen-name) Gharlane of Eddore]] always depicted himself as being a brain in a jar. |
| 311 | * According to [[http://marshallbrain.com/discard1.htm Marshall Brain]], we'll likely all choose to be this way in a few decades. |
| 312 | * The Batteries in ''WebVideo/TheMercuryMen'' (beings who are in control of the Mercury Men) are brains in jars. |
| 313 | * [[http://www.scamorama.com/mallory-head2.html Thomas Mallory]], a disembodied head that remains alive in the basement of the Miskatonic University after a failed body transplant, and communicates via e-mail with the son of a wealthy farmer and politician from West Africa, but becomes aware of a conspiracy to sabotage his life support. Actually, the entire thing is just an internet-goer messing with a {{Four One Nine Scam}}mer. |
| 314 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'' |
| 315 | ** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/log-of-anomalous-items Log of Anomalous Items]]. One entry is a human brain floating in a vat of nutrient solution. The vat can move around and has a speech synthesizer and a camera. The brain claims itself to be Zargox Quaglofan, a 23rd-century secret agent on a time travel mission to prevent the creation of the Insectoid Empire in 1976. |
| 316 | ** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-748 SCP-748 ("Industrial Dissolution")]]. The SCP-748 facility is controlled by the brain of its creator, which is stored in a vat. Nearby are 200 lobotomized human brains contained in glass cylinders filled with a green liquid. They act as auxiliary memory for the controlling brain. |
| 317 | ** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1637 SCP-1637 ("The Army of the Future")]]. SCP-1637-3B is a warbot that is controlled by an "adult human brain suspended in a translucent green oxygenated protein/glucose soup." |
| 318 | ** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2099 SCP-2099 ("Brain in a Jar")]]. SCP-2099 is the brain of Jeremy Valdez, which floats in a glass jar filled with water, green food coloring, artificial flavoring, sugars, and electrolytes. The Foundation is unsure if that's what's actually keeping Jeremy alive, or if that's what he thought would be aesthetically pleasing. It uses devices (such as a robot and mechanical hands) to manipulate objects. |
| 319 | * According to Pat R's [[http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=ff03 series of articles]] on the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series, when an intern suggested the Job System during the development of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'', Hironobu Sakaguchi (the creator of the series) responded by pausing blankly, heaping rewards on him, then chloroforming him and putting his brain in a jar so that Squaresoft would never be without his genius. The article goes on to describe some of the brain's other accomplishments, before its tragic downfall at the hands of the designer of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII''. |
| 320 | * As seen in this ironic Teach the Controversy [[http://controversy.wearscience.com/design/walt/ T-shirt]] featuring a chipper Walt Disney. |
| 321 | * Creator/TeamFourStar revisits the ''World's Strongest'' movie from ''Dragon Ball Z'', where it doesn't hurt that having a minimum of visible animation, movement and dialogue, the movie's villain has a ''serious'' different character as a [[AdaptationalHeroism confused old scientist]] who spends most of the production watching Dr. Kochin go about committing horrible, StupidEvil plans to give him a new body. (He cites the fact that he's "a brain in a jar" to say that ''he's'' not the one controlling someone in a fight; Goku just takes this as direct confirmation of villainy -- "So you ''admit it!''") |
| 322 | * In ''Literature/{{Twig}}'', it's eventually revealed that Jamie's [[spoiler:PhotographicMemory is actually the result of being an interface for a huge collection of these.]] |
| 323 | * ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': |
| 324 | ** Not surprisingly, [[MadScientist Devisors]] have done this several times, to themselves or others. |
| 325 | ** While not a Devisor himself, the student Psike, a [[PsychicPowers PDP]] and one of the senior [[OverlordJr Bad Seeds]] in the 2006 stories, was 'rescued' by other students in this manner after an accident destroyed his body. He claims to prefer this, being contemptuous of ordinary 'meat bags', but does decide he needs a human body he can control remotely in order to take care of things his mind control, telekinesis, and sterling personality can't. |
| 326 | * ''WebVideo/DynamoDream'': The Floorhead is literally a head in a jar. He has a setup that allows him to speak using his eyes and an IPA phoneme chart. |
| 327 | [[/folder]] |
| 328 | |
| 329 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 330 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'': Tactical Commander Owen Negata, a BETA research scientist and tactician, was killed in the Supertrooper Riot (though we don't learn this until later). What was left of him can fit into a little jar attached to a 1.5 meter by one meter repulsorlift platform. Zozo is rather shocked by it. |
| 331 | -->'''Zozo:''' ''That's'' Commander Negata?!\ |
| 332 | ''Waldo:''' His brain unit. His body died years ago. |
| 333 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS6E29DarkPurple Dark Purple]]", what appears to be a giant brain is kept in a tank in the pure Super Porp processing room. |
| 334 | * The Brain has appeared in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', voiced by Creator/DeeBradleyBaker, and ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', voiced by Creator/CoreyBurton (spouting GratuitousFrench in both incarnations). |
| 335 | -->'''Kid Flash:''' It's the Brain!\ |
| 336 | '''Artemis:''' Duh, I can ''see'' it's a brain.\ |
| 337 | '''Kid Flash:''' Not ''a'' brain; [[SpellMyNameWithAThe The Brain!]]\ |
| 338 | '''The Brain:''' In the flesh... so to speak. |
| 339 | * ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'': While the Star Command employs the Little Green Men seen in ''Franchise/ToyStory'', Zurg's minions are brains in jars (who frequently mention this situation when the boss complains). |
| 340 | * ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'': The BigBad Mother Brain, as the name implies, is a giant brain in a jar, with a face. |
| 341 | * ''WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGobots'': The [=GoBots=] are brains in cyborg bodies. |
| 342 | * ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula'': The Egg, essentially the bird version of the trope, is a supervillain that hates everyone alive as he was never able to hatch. Yes, is a literal egg connected to a machine. |
| 343 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', when Launchpad [[ItMakesSenseInContext was going to marry an alien princess he had met as a kid]], said princess's TreacherousAdviser planned to place a computerized brain in Lanchpad's body so that he could control the galaxy through her. Upon hearing of his plans, Darkwing attempted to stop him, only for the alien to test the computer BrainTransplant on him, resulting in Darkwing being reduced to this. Fortunately, being just a brain doesn't keep Darkwing from stopping the villain. |
| 344 | * ''Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse'': Mr. Freeze is eventually reduced to this after his condition worsens in "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE3ColdComfort Cold Comfort]]". He was able to slow it down with the aid of some kidnapped scientists, but by that point, he had already lost everything from the neck down. To make things worse, his condition has also made him TheAgeless. By the time of the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "[[Recap/BatmanBeyondS1E7Meltdown Meltdown]]", he's still alive... as a disembodied head stuck in a glorified meat locker. He's later given a healthy body, but snaps and returns to his villainous ways before dying in one final rampage. |
| 345 | * ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'': "Eek's International Adventures" is a [[SpyFiction spy film]] parody and features a villain named The Brain, made of a brain, eyes, teeth and an ear in different jars. |
| 346 | * ''WesternAnimation/EvilConCarne'': Hector Con Carne's Brain remained alive, preserved in a jar, after his body died. A variation occurs in that his ''stomach'' also is in a jar... and developed its own sentience. And both are occupying the body of a Russian circus bear named Boskov who can still act on his own despite his brain being replaced with Hector's. One episode has him switch out Boskov for a more combat-capable robotic body, but he changes his mind after Boskov saves his life. |
| 347 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In "[[Recap/TheFairlyOddParentsS5E31FutureLost Future Lost]]", the evil brain that aspired to take over has a strange weakness -- put juice pills in its tank, and it gets a BrainFreeze. They also dump some ice into it, making a giant slushie. Also, every Yugopotamian has their brain clearly visible in a glass dome on their heads. |
| 348 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': |
| 349 | ** The show has the heads of various 18th-21st-century personalities preserved in jars, including UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, who eventually becomes president again through ExactWords (no''body'' can be President more than twice). Used more for comedy and satire than creepiness. This process is eventually explained as being a form of limited time travel; by incorporating some kind of powdered opal into the fluid that the heads are kept in, they create a tiny bubble in which the heads are perpetually in the time period during which they were alive. Presumably, a certain amount of cloning is involved for certain heads as well. This {{Hand Wave}}s exactly ''how'', say, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington's head could have been "preserved" in the first place. |
| 350 | ** Also, the main antagonists of several episodes are flying brains outside of their jars. |
| 351 | ** "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E11HowHermesRequisitionedHisGrooveBack How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back]]": A robotic version -- Bender's personality and intelligence are downloaded into a floppy disk. |
| 352 | ** Inverted with Earth President Nixon's vice president, Spiro T. Agnew, who is [[LosingYourHead a headless body]]. |
| 353 | * ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse'': Modulok tries to do this to Man-at-Arms in "Happy Birthday Roboto", though he's actually using the second head that came with his toy in the episode instead of a jar. |
| 354 | %%* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': There are two on display at the Mystery Shack. |
| 355 | * ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'': One episode has Jimmy and Beezy accidentally knocking the brain out of their favorite soccer player's head. By the end of the episode, Beezy still hasn't given it back, keeping it in a jar among his memorabilia. |
| 356 | * ''WesternAnimation/KoalaMan'': In "[[Recap/KoalaManS1E04TheGreatOne The Great One]]", Liam hears a voice calling out to him through his psychic powers. Following it, he finds that it's coming from the James Showbag, the creator of showbags and the forbidden showbag, who's brain is in a jar. James explains that the forbidden showbag he created was too powerful, and the people of Dapto punished him by putting his brain in a jar, to wallow in brine and his own filth for all time, so as to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem serve as a warning to others]] who would dare to create another dangerous showbag. |
| 357 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfSpeedRacer'': In "B.O.S.S.", the titular computer is revealed to be [[spoiler:the disembodied brain of the inventor Pavel Masterson]]. |
| 358 | * ''WesternAnimation/PlasticMan'': Spoofed with villain The Clam, is a literal clam that commands an evil organization and needs help for everything. |
| 359 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'': "[[Recap/TheRealGhostbustersS3E9TheCopycat The Copycat]]" reveals that Egon (an eccentric scientist) keeps a brain (unspecified if from a human or an animal) in a jar in his lab. |
| 360 | * ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': Rocko buys a vacuum cleaner. When he tries to shut it off, a brain under a glass or plastic dome with wires attached to it comes up out of the control panel, and won't allow him to shut it off. |
| 361 | * ''WesternAnimation/Sealab2021'': In "[[Recap/Sealab2021S2E13ReturnToOblivion Return to Oblivion]]", a brain in a jar named J.J. is the head of the company that produces ''Sealab''. He has two other brains in jars to be his [[YesMan yes brains]]. |
| 362 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Mr. Burns ends up as a head in a jar in the DistantEpilogue of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E4Rosebud Rosebud]]", attached to a robot body (but still fond of his teddy bear.) |
| 363 | * ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': The Brain from the ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' comics appears as the BigBad in the last season. Beast Boy makes a pun on the Brain's defeat: |
| 364 | -->'''Beast Boy:''' Hey, check it out! ''[flash-freezes the Brain]'' BrainFreeze!\ |
| 365 | ''[[[LamePunReaction everyone present groans]]]'' |
| 366 | * ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'': After starting out as a human, Baxter Stockman's SerialProstheses eventually leaves his brain as his only organic part. The Shredder, of all villains, quips that "You should have quit while you were a head." Also, in the ''Fast Forward'' episode "The Journal", the turtles read about future events in their lives, including Donatello being reduced to a brain in a jar... with a mask on. [[spoiler:The journal is then revealed to be a hoax.]] |
| 367 | * ''WesternAnimation/ThundarrTheBarbarian'': In "Mindok the Mind Menace", the titular character was a scientist who was mortally wounded in the apocalypse in 1994, but kept his brain alive through a combination of life-support technology and magic. |
| 368 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'': In the "Morphic Trilogy", it's revealed that Jonas Venture Sr. was ejected into space during the Gargantua-1 disaster, and the other members of Team Venture put him into a life-prolonging machine he built but were only able to preserve his head after they [[LiterallyShatteredLives dropped his frozen body]]. They thought it didn't work until he revealed himself to be alive by trying to communicate through the [=VenTech=] Tower's systems. |
| 369 | * ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces2017'': The Creator in "Wackyland" is the isolated brain of the TV executive who greenlit the original cartoon. |
| 370 | * ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': |
| 371 | ** The Brain is a founding member of [[BigBadEnsemble the Light]], although he ultimately falls OutOfFocus and is no longer with them as of the show's third season after being apprehended by the heroes. |
| 372 | ** Come the fourth season, this trope is revealed to be [[spoiler:how the Kaizer-Thrall, a sapient device loaned to Lor-Zod and his crew by Darkseid, [[PoweredByAForsakenChild was constructed]]. Miss Martian established a link to him and revealed him to be a pre-teen [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Danny Chase]], a trafficked metahuman whose brain was extracted by Desaad and integrated with Apokoliptian technology.]] |
| 373 | [[/folder]] |
| 374 | |
| 375 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 376 | * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animat Animats]] or Cultured Neuronal Networks are almost a RealLife version of this trope, "almost" because they aren't complete brains (and are usually animal neurons rather than human). |
| 377 | * Averted by Mary Roach, author of ''Stiff'', a nonfiction book about cadavers. Investigating the possible fates which await deceased human bodies, Roach considered donating her own to Harvard's medical school, in hopes of ''becoming'' a brain in a jar. To her disappointment, she learned that human brains preserved there for medical and scientific research are kept in plastic food containers, which hardly seemed worth it. |
| 378 | * Dr. Albert Einstein requested in his will that his brain be removed for study and the rest of his body cremated. The brain is currently spread across multiple jars and a few dozen microscope slides. |
| 379 | * According to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain Boltzmann brain]] hypothesis, if one considers the probability of our current situation as self-aware entities embedded in an organized environment, versus the probability of stand-alone self-aware entities existing in a featureless thermodynamic "soup", then the latter should be vastly more probable than the former if both scenarios are to be created out of random fluctuations[[note]]This is the most basic formulation, as this would go up and include an entire world for such brain, not just life support systems (sorta), up to entire galaxies formed such way[[/note]]. As that is something very [[MindScrew Mind Screwy]], and even more when one considers the possibility of other universes existing, solutions to that paradox include the possibility of the fabric of the Universe being metastable and degrading after a [[TimeAbyss really very long time]], so no Boltzmann brains appearing out of nowhere-- same for other universes should they exist. |
| 380 | * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._White Dr. Robert White's]] experiments with dogs, rats, and monkeys. |
| 381 | * Number six on Website/{{Cracked}}'s [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20140_the-8-creepiest-places-earth-part-4.html The 8 Creepiest Places on Earth (Part 4)]], an abandoned underground Soviet facility beneath Moscow filled with brains in jars, which has virtually no information about it nor any indication as to why it was abandoned in the first place. |
| 382 | ** The website ''English Russia'', who took the pictures used in the article, notes that it was a place to study brains and the nervous system. It was shuttered due to [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell Russia's abysmal economic situation after the collapse of the Soviet Union.]] The only thing rather ominous about it is that the scientists went to some rather extreme lengths to keep everyone out of there, so much so that no one successfully broke in for upwards of fifteen years. They could have just been trying to assure that their research was found by the right people, though. |
| 383 | * A ''functioning'' brain in a jar would be surprisingly difficult to accomplish in real life, at least without major personality changes -- to the point of possibly no longer having a recognizably human outlook -- since any number of hormonal and even metabolic functions performed in other parts of the body contribute significantly to brain function. |
| 384 | * According to a government official who appeared on ''Series/MythBusters'' when the boys were testing the "second gunman on the grassy knoll" myth, the National Archives have John F. Kennedy's brain in a jar as evidence from the assassination investigation. Or should we say "had", because according to the same official, the brain ''has gone missing'' (apparently the family later buried it with JFK's body). |
| 385 | * Diogo Alves, a [[UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} Portuguese]] SerialKiller, is known for both being the last executed person in Portugal, and for his head being taken for study by a professor of medicine. [[http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/diogo-alves-head-lisbon That head is currently on exhibit at the Anatomical Theater of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.]] |
| 386 | * The head of Luigi Lucheni - the assassin of Empress Elisabeth of Austria - sat in the morgue of Geneva (where the crime took place and where Lucheni was imprisoned) from his [[DrivenToSuicide death by hanging]] in 1910 to 1986, upon which it was taken to the Museum of Pathology and Anatomy in Vienna, with the condition that it was not to be displayed. It's perfectly preserved in formaldehyde. His head was preserved because, allegedly, experts of the time wanted to study the criminal mind. The modern-day Geneva Morgue, however, was more than happy to be rid of it. He was finally buried in 2000 at the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna, after a long bureaucratic process. |
| 387 | * A rather horrifying example exists in the case of Staten Island teenager Jesse Shipley, who was killed in a fatal car crash in 2005. Sometime after his death, some of his classmates attended a school field trip to a morgue, where they encountered a brain preserved in a jar labeled with his name. What's worse is that it had been removed without the knowledge or permission of his parents, who later pressed charges. Shipley's body was later disinterred and reburied with the brain. |
| 388 | [[/folder]] |
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