1. A short story by George Langelaan.2. A 1950s Vincent Price horror movie, which is based on the above story. Has since become a Cult Classic.A scientist invents a teleportation device. Unfortunately, when he tests it, a fly is in the chamber with him. The two switch heads and a hand, much to the chagrin of the scientist's wife. Now the family must find the fly that has his head and hand so he can properly switch them back before it's too late...3. David Cronenberg's re-interpretation of that film in 1986. The premise is similar, but advances in special effects and direction by David Cronenberg make things even stranger. This time, mild-mannered but brilliant quantum physicist Seth Brundle (played by Jeff Goldblum) is on the cusp of perfecting his matter transporter after meeting reporter Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis), the love of his life. The happiness is too good to last, as he was accidentally fused with a common housefly on a molecular-genetic level in a seemingly successful transportation experiment. Rather than creating an immediate monster, Veronica now must cope with the pain of watching her lover literally fall apart on a physical and emotional level, and the awful uncertainty of whether the child inside her was conceived before or after the fateful transportation...Be sure to have antidepressants next to your box of tissues before you press play on your DVD player: you'll needboth when the credits roll. And probably a barfbag for before, but that doesn't matter.Both films have sequels, such as they are. Oh, and Howard Shore turned it into an opera.
The 1950s version of The Fly provides examples of the following tropes:
Evil Hand - The fly's appendage that replaces the scientist's hand becomes increasingly rebellious as his intellect frays.
LEGO Genetics - The scientist comes out with a fly head and hand seamlessly attached on his body.
Science Is Bad - Original only. Cronenberg intentionally avoided this in his version.
The Speechless - In the original, the scientist is silenced as soon as he teleports, but subverted in the remake as Cronenberg wanted Seth to express his emotions over his transformation up until he completely loses his humanity (and his jaw).
In the original short story (bet you didn't know there was an original short story!), when the scientist, at his wife's urging, goes through the machine a second time in a futile attempt to unscramble things, bits of the cat get mixed in too (though a fly head with a cat nose and ears would've probably seemed more ludicrous than horrible).
The 1986 version of The Fly provides examples of the following tropes:
Alcohol Induced Idiocy: Brundle's decision to test the teleporter using himself comes after he's had more than few drinks.
And I Must Scream - Bartok's karmic end in the second film has him reduced to a hideously deformed mutant crawling around in a pit, pitifully squirming around and barely able to even feed himself.
Art Major Biology - Brundle's mishap results from the computer's confusion at the presence of an extra genetic pattern, and its attempt to rectify the situation by fusing them. This conveniently ignores all the genetic material belonging to the bacteria and other microorganisms that make up a sizeable proportion of the human body. I'm giving Cronenberg the benefit of the doubt as to whether or not he knew this, but in any case attempting to work it into the plot wouldn't have improved the film.
On a further note to Jurassic Park, Brundle himself building the machine using the science of others applies to Malcolm's speech of "You read what others had done, and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could"
It's sugested that the teleporter turns these bacteria into nutrients or some such, as the first thing Seth asks the computer is if he absorbed the fly.
Actually, there may be a bit of Fridge Brilliance at work here. We are shown at several points that the teleportation computer is very literal and very stupid. Anything that is not explicitly programmed into it confuses it, and its attempts to resolve such confusion lead to the assorted nasty horrors that come out of it. We know that Seth never considered the outcome of a scenario exactly like what happened to him, but he did have to know to tell the computer what to do with the various microscopic lifeforms that exist all over the place. It was probably programmed to outright disregard anything living below a certain size. Unfortunately for Seth, that didn't include houseflies.
That still would have resulted in an unpleasant, slow, albeit not quite as dramatic death. The human body needs those microrganisms to survive. That, and human cells are equally small, so disregarding those would have resulted in vaguely organic pulp coming from the other end.
Beast and Beauty: Sort of. Seth Fly and Veronica, althought she feels more like compassion, than love, for him.
Biological Mashup - In addition to the obvious, there's also the monkey-cat in a deleted scene. Averted in the sequel, as Martinfly is far less mashed up than his father.
Blessed with Suck - Even though the transformation makes Seth a diseased mutant, he gains several abilities, such as wallcrawling, corrosive vomit, and superhuman strength.
Bloodier and Gorier - Flies eat by vomiting acid. David "headexplodey" Cronenberg is behind a giant fly movie. Do the math, genius.
Body Horror - The chestburster scene from the Alien saga is like Bambi compared to the pain and horror that Seth has to endure through his slow and humiliating metamorphosis.
The dog in the second film, though averted with Martin's transformation, as it took place in a caccoon. Bartok wasn't so lucky...
Everything's Better with Monkeys - For all this film's darkness and horror, it does have a scene of Jeff Goldblum hugging a baboon.
And the baboon has a constant erection in the film. Just listen to the film commentary.
Eye Scream: In The Fly II, Martin pulls out his right eye to reveal an insect eye behind it.
Fan Disservice - The rough and animalistic sex scenes after Seth combines with the fly.
Fate Worse than Death - Red Shirt security guard Mackenzie has his face and eyes melted by acid and survives by ripping off the affected portions before it can completely eat through his head. However, given he can't see or speak, he would've been better off dying.
Seth Brundle himself. He'd have been better off if he'd been turned inside out like the baboon.
Fetus Terrible: The baby three foot long, blood and amniotic fluid covered maggot.
Martin seems to be this initially, until he turns out to be a (seemingly) normal baby. He becomes a straight example, though, as an adult later.
Focus Group Ending: The focus groups hated all of the possible endings, which included Veronica ending up with Stathis and the "Butterfly Baby". Instead, the film closed on a weeping Veronica, which was really the proper ending to the film.
Hollywood Nerd- At the beginning of the movie, Mr. Brundle is quite muscular for a scientist who doesn't get out much. Not that any of the female viewers are complaining, or anything.
I Cannot Self-Terminate - Seeing the pathetic creature that was once Seth Brundle crawl out of the Telepod, fused with pieces of machinery and in horrifying agony is probably sadder than watching the end of Old Yeller. This can obviously end only one way, and, in one final display of humanity, Brundlefly silently begs a shotgun-armed Veronica to end it's life, and after some painful hesitation, she does. A much less enjoyable exploding head scene than the one in Scanners.
Idiot Ball - Which ever way you slice it, going after a deranged half human hybrid that vomits acid and has double the strength of a normal man by yourself is a pretty stupid move. All he needed to do was phone 911 and tell them that a deranged ex-boyfriend abducted his girlfriend from the abortion clinic in a blind rage - the gaping hole in the surgery wall should be fairly adaquate proof.
In Name Only - There's a scientist who gets turned into a fly monster in a teleportation experiment. Other than that, it really has nothing to do with the Vincent Price film and even less to do with Langelaan's story. It is also better than both of them put together.
Jerkass - Stathis Borans, Veronica's ex-boyfriend and boss appears to be one at first, but is actually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
Karmic Death - Anton Bartok, the Big Bad of the sequel, who let Martin undergo his transformation and finish the teleporter for his own greedy ends, is ultimately fused with Martin's insect genes through the teleporter, turning him to a hideously deformed mutant.
LEGO Genetics - Averted, as the change in DNA affects him slowly as his cells replicate, and his final form isn't anything resembling a properly functioning body.
Love Triangle - The base emotional plot of Veronica choosing either Seth or Stathis as her lover, intensified when she feels the need to comfort the diseased Seth and finding Stathis' emotional side emerging from the conflict. That's probably why they made it an opera.
Metamorphosis - Essentially how Seth goes through his transformation. In the sequel his son spins a cocoon around himself when he inevitably mutates, sparing the viewers from seeing the gorier parts of his transformation.
Nerds Are Sexy - For the first half-hour of this movie, Jeff Goldblum is your boyfriend.
Non-Malicious Monster: Seth Fly doesn't attack and/or kill if he's not threated or if he really has to.
Though this wasn't true in the original screenplay, which had him vomiting on a homeless woman and preparing to eat her before he realized what he was doing.
Noodle Incident: Seth discovers he can't eat solid food "the hard and painful way." We're never told exactly what happened.
Painful Transformation - A rare, slow and gradual example. Two, if you count the sequel.
Seth's metamorphosis into Brundlefly is a extended, humiliating process where he degenerates from a healthy and muscular man into a diseased Biological Mashup, rotting his flesh to the point that his extremities fall off (including his teeth, his fingernails, his fingers, his penis...) and he is ultimately reduced to a mindless beast.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge - Martinfly goes on an epic one through Bartok Industries in the second movie.
Schrödinger's Butterfly - Far into his physical transformation Seth starts to think that he had always been an insect, and only imagined that he was a human being. Only in his mind though.
Seth: I'm saying I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man, and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake.
Split Personality Takeover - Seth's mind also gradually changed into that of a brutal insect. Near the final stages of his transformation, Seth goes so far as to warn Veronica that it is starting to affect his mind, and he fears he will hurt her if she stays: there are no insect politicians.
So much so that Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert actually said he was snubbed an Oscar nomination for Best Actor because of the Academy's refusal to consider horror when working out candidates. It truly is one of Goldblum's most riveting performances.
Tortured Abomination: The monster (Seth Brundle post - Tele Frag) is confronted by a shotgun - wielding Veronica Quaife, and grabs the business end of the shotgun and places it against its head.Tear Jerker moment, indeed.
Vomit Discretion Shot - Very much averted, especially in the final scenes. Although we never get to see the externally digested food getting reabsorbed. Instead we get to see Stathis looking horrified.
An unfilmed scene had Seth eating a baglady, starting by melting her face.
What Could Have Been - Musician Brian Ferry originally composed a song called Help Me at Mel Brooks and Stuart Cornfield's commission and was originally going to be played in the movie's closing credits. However, David Cronenberg, despite liking the song, felt that it was inappropriate to the film itself and after screening to Brooks and Cornfield, they all agreed that the song didn't mesh with the film, resulting with the song being played only in the film's bar scene and not being included in the movie's soundtrack album making the song extremely rare.
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