Neuromuscular Blockers in Fiction
These are some appearances of neuromuscular blocking agents and/or curare in movies, TV shows, or in video games.
(Spoilers most likely ahead)
(Spoilers most likely ahead)
An obvious example is the 2007 movie "Awake," which features a patient who experiences anesthesia awareness, where he is still awake during surgery but unable to move to alert the surgeons. The good part starts at about 30 minutes in. At at 32:18 it is stated that the patient was given vecuronium ("Hey Larry, what'd you use here?" "Midazolam, fentanyl... a little vecuronium chaser.") The script says it's pancuronium, but if you watch the movie, they clearly say vecuronium.
Along the same lines as "Awake" is a short and very dark film "Anesthesia," which features a female patient also experiencing anesthesia awareness. The video is here: http://vimeo.com/10867702. It does not mention a specific NMB, but it's obvious that one has been given. Many of the scenes and concepts from Awake seem to have been borrowed from this film. Also, whatever she was given must be the fastest acting neuromuscular blocking agent ever.
In the 1978 movie "Coma," they use succinylcholine on a patient. I'm putting it here because there is actually a nice YouTube link to the clip :)
In episode 22 of season 12 of E.R., 21 Guns, someone is mistakenly given vecuronium because the person giving it didn't realize it was a paralytic. This part of the episode is split into two parts on YouTube. Part 1 where it actually gets injected is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35VaKIkD-J4&t=9m34s and it's a very short part. The main part of the scene where they actually talk about vecuronium is in the 2nd video, which is below.
In season 7 episode 13 of Bones, entitled "The Past in the Present," the victim was given d-tubocurarine and then left in the wilderness to be eaten by wolves. It's pretty awesome. You can find the episode on Netflix. DTC is mentioned at about 17:40 into the episode after the team discovers the tip of a hypodermic needle still in the victim's back. For those of you who aren't able to find or watch it, it goes:
- "There was a trace in the tip of the hypodermic of d-tubocurarine. It's a neuromuscular blocking agent, better known as curare."
In the episode of Numb3rs entitled "Trust Metric," Colby is given tubocurarine during his interrogation. At 32:23, we hear:
You can also find this episode on Netflix. I don't know how accurate the above statement is because I've never drowned before.
- "What I administered was a nonlethal dose of tubocurarine. It paralyzes the muscles and depresses respiratory capabilities, creating what I've heard described as the sensation of slowly drowning."
You can also find this episode on Netflix. I don't know how accurate the above statement is because I've never drowned before.
- A horrible and very inaccurate example is in Heroes, season 1 episode 18, "Parasite." It is clear that whoever was writing the script did no research whatsoever. But I put it in anyways because it still mentions a NMB. At approximately 22 minutes in, there is a scene where Sylar is strapped into a chair with an IV hooked up to his hand. He then makes the comment, "I can't feel my fingers," and Mohinder, who strapped him in there says, "It's the curare. It causes paralysis of the brain." Fun fact: neuromuscular blockers don't cause sensory loss, and they don't affect the brain.
In the episode of Nip/Tuck, "Sean McNamara," season 2 episode 15, at 21:38 in, the Carver stabs Sean in the neck with a syringe after he exits the shower, and he becomes paralyzed temporarily.
This scene is also on YouTube, so here you go!
- "Amazing drug, isn't it? It's a modified form of mivacurium chloride. They use it on violent psych patients. It causes a kind of 'waking coma'. Should wear off in a few minutes. It's like a plane crash though. A few minutes waiting to hit the ground, it can feel like a lifetime. Awful feeling, being totally helpless, having no control."
This scene is also on YouTube, so here you go!
In American Dad, in the episode "Bush Comes to Dinner," season 2 episode 10, at 3:48 in, Dick and Jackson shoot each other with curare darts. The full episode can be found on Netflix.
"Mr. Bullock, Dick just shot me with a curare dart."
"He started... iiiiii........"
(laughter)
"Again, the curare darts are not toys. They're for temporarily paralyzing your enemies. Or just chilling out to some Zeppelin."
At 8:40, Hayley gets shot with one too, and it's pretty funny.
"Mr. Bullock, Dick just shot me with a curare dart."
"He started... iiiiii........"
(laughter)
"Again, the curare darts are not toys. They're for temporarily paralyzing your enemies. Or just chilling out to some Zeppelin."
At 8:40, Hayley gets shot with one too, and it's pretty funny.
There is also curare in Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows. At about 1 hour and 48 minutes in, Rene gets shot with a dart, and Watson rushed over, pulls it out of the victim, who is now lying on the ground, smells or tastes it, spits it out, and says "It's curare... it's poison." Luckily, they have a few scenes of the movie on YouTube, including the scene with curare in it. Rene gets shot at about 23 seconds in.
- Also, it's interesting that Watson is able to recognize it as curare only after tasting it. There are two issues I have with this. 1: Why in the world would he be able to recognize curare by taste? This would mean that not only has he eaten it before, but he's sampled it enough times to immediately be able to immediately recognize the taste and differentiate it from other poisons. 2: What if the poison wasn't curare? Sure, curare is pretty safe to eat, but many other poisons aren't. He didn't know what poison it was before he just put it in his mouth. I'm pretty sure most people would agree that putting an unknown poison in your mouth is a bad idea. Regardless, it's an awesome scene.
In the video game Virtue's Last Reward for 3DS and PS Vita, the characters all have bracelets that will inject them with tubocurarine if they break one of the rules of the nonary game. It is such an awesome game, and even without dTC, the storyline is amazing. You should play it; I'm not going to spoil anything else. Here is a link to where tubocurarine is first mentioned (starts at about 4:53 in).
Episodes 3 and 16 of season 1 of Arrow feature the villain Deadshot, who laces his bullets with curare.
- At the beginning of episode 3, entitled "Lone Gunmen", Oliver gets shot with one of these bullets and realizes he's been poisoned, so he eats a sort of universal fast-acting antidote, which saves him from death (In real life, there is no such thing). It is also said that the curare comes from Strychnos toxifera. Clearly, Deadshot knows his curare, because toxiferine's is the deadliest kind. In total, curare is mentioned 4 times in the episode, at 6:55, 13:37, 16:15, and 31:35.
- In episode 16, Dead to Rights, at about 29 minutes in, Malcolm gets grazed with one of Deadshot's bullets. Malcolm's son, Tommy, is panicking, and Oliver appears and tells him that the bullets had curare on them, and that in 3 minutes, he'd be paralyzed and in 4 minutes he'd suffocate (which is pretty accurate). Then, the accuracy ends when Oliver says the only way to treat him is by giving him a blood transfusion. In real life, artificial respiration and acetylcholinesterase inhibitors would work much better. But overall, the show has a pretty nice portrayal of the poison. You can watch the show on Netflix.
In the movie Our Man Flint, at about 23 minutes in, Flint shoots a needle with curare on it at a fly and pins it to a wall, killing it. Other than the obvious question of how the heck can you possibly hit such a small and fast-moving target from all the way across the room (I can't even get them with a fly swatter half the time), the scene portrays very well how curare is very quick and silent when it kills. When Flint shoots the fly, he hardly makes a sound. In real life, one animal among a group could be killed so swiftly and silently that the others right next to it wouldn't even notice. The entire movie is on YouTube here:
In the movie Hudson Hawk, at about 72:45 in, Almond Joy shoots Hawk and Tommy with curare darts. Later, Anna and Almond Joy herself get shot as well. However, this scene takes a bit of artistic license. For one thing, all of the victims get shot and are then completely paralyzed within the same second. Also, they are still able to move everything above their neck, which wouldn't happen in real life, but it was probably intentional so that they'd still be able to have dialogue. Their arms are also frozen into the position they were in when they got shot instead of just dropping to their sides. Even though some parts of it are inaccurate, the scene is still pretty funny. For example:
The movie isn't on Netflix, but you can buy it on YouTube for $7.99. It is very difficult to find it for free without the host website forcing you to download some weird video player that's probably actually a virus.
- "Boys, we got some good news and some bad news"
- "The good news is that you'll be completely unparalyzed in two minutes"
- "The bad news is that gives you only five seconds to defuse the bombs."
- "Bombs?"
The movie isn't on Netflix, but you can buy it on YouTube for $7.99. It is very difficult to find it for free without the host website forcing you to download some weird video player that's probably actually a virus.
In season 5, episode 12 of Criminal Minds entitled "The Uncanny Valley," the villain Samantha Malcolm keeps her victims paralyzed but fully conscious with atracurium and doxacurium so that she can keep them as "dolls". It's pretty messed up and only gets even more disturbing the longer you think it. I am someone who loves neuromuscular blockers and has an obsessive interest in them, and it still terrified me.
In episode 39 of The Count of Monte Cristo, a person is killed in a swordfighting duel when his opponent is found to have put curare on the tip of the sword. At 18:45 in they go to Alexander von Humboldt's house, yes the same von Humboldt who, in real life, explored South America, wrote about, and witnessed the preparation of curare. They actually got a guy to play him, which is awesome. It's a very nice scene where he teaches the other people about it, and it's free to watch on YouTube.
For anyone who's a huge fan of curare, The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake is the movie for you. Rather than just being a random poison mentioned once or twice, as with most movies or TV shows, in this movie, curare is a vital plot point present the entire time, and it's talked about many times from the beginning. The movie involves a 200 year curse in which, in each generation, a member of the Drake family is doomed to be killed (with curare) and is later made into a shrunken head. Four people get poisoned with it in the movie, and three of those people die. The one who survives is able to do so because apparently now, you can go however long it takes to drive out to a science lab, analyze the blood in a wound to identify the poison, get the (fictional) antidote, and drive all the way back, without breathing, and still live if you're given the antidote fast enough (this doesn't work in real life).
But overall, the movie is awesome, and curare kicks butt.
The full movie can be found here.
But overall, the movie is awesome, and curare kicks butt.
The full movie can be found here.
Another old-school movie featuring curare is Dr. Blood's coffin, where Dr. Blood poisons random homeless people with curare so that he can operate on them, remove their hearts, and transplant them into dead people to bring them back to life. I enjoyed the movie, although the characters were hilariously clueless when trying to figure out who was behind all of it:
(in Dr. Blood's room):
Nurse: What on earth is this?
Dr. Blood: It's a... container for an... arrow poison... used by natives of South America...
Nurse: Curare?
Dr. Blood: That's right.
(later, when everyone meets up to discuss the murder)
Dr. Blood: How did the analysis go, did you discover what it was?
Professor: Strychnos toxifera
Dr. Blood: Curare... ...How extraordinary! Linda (the nurse) and I were just talking about curare the other day. A classmate of mine gave me one of the original containers.
And they don't immediately suspect him. I mean, his last name is even Blood, come on, how much more suspicious can you get? They do figure out it was him by the end, but still. The full movie can be found on YouTube.
(in Dr. Blood's room):
Nurse: What on earth is this?
Dr. Blood: It's a... container for an... arrow poison... used by natives of South America...
Nurse: Curare?
Dr. Blood: That's right.
(later, when everyone meets up to discuss the murder)
Dr. Blood: How did the analysis go, did you discover what it was?
Professor: Strychnos toxifera
Dr. Blood: Curare... ...How extraordinary! Linda (the nurse) and I were just talking about curare the other day. A classmate of mine gave me one of the original containers.
And they don't immediately suspect him. I mean, his last name is even Blood, come on, how much more suspicious can you get? They do figure out it was him by the end, but still. The full movie can be found on YouTube.
(Warning: Graphic content)
Who would have thought some cheesy 80's gore movie would actually be one to get curare right!
In Cannibal Holocaust 2: The Catherine Mills Story, Catherine and her parents are riding in a boat down the Amazon. No danger there, right? Wrong! A few minutes into the boat ride, her parents are both killed after being hit with curare darts. Catherine gets hit too, but she survives. Then at the end of the movie, she kills her aunt and uncle using curare.
The good part starts at 11 minutes in:
"Why didn't you try to escape since you were only wounded in the arm?"
"I couldn't. I was paralyzed by the curare the Indians use on their arrows. The poison doesn't always kill right away... I couldn't lift a finger and could hardly breathe."
The only inaccuracy is that later, she appears to get the poison sucked out and comes back to life, which wouldn't happen in real life. But if you just ignore that part, it's actually a pretty good depiction of curare.
The full movie is here, but if you decide to watch the whole thing, it contains lots of blood and gore and nudity. So beware!
Who would have thought some cheesy 80's gore movie would actually be one to get curare right!
In Cannibal Holocaust 2: The Catherine Mills Story, Catherine and her parents are riding in a boat down the Amazon. No danger there, right? Wrong! A few minutes into the boat ride, her parents are both killed after being hit with curare darts. Catherine gets hit too, but she survives. Then at the end of the movie, she kills her aunt and uncle using curare.
The good part starts at 11 minutes in:
"Why didn't you try to escape since you were only wounded in the arm?"
"I couldn't. I was paralyzed by the curare the Indians use on their arrows. The poison doesn't always kill right away... I couldn't lift a finger and could hardly breathe."
The only inaccuracy is that later, she appears to get the poison sucked out and comes back to life, which wouldn't happen in real life. But if you just ignore that part, it's actually a pretty good depiction of curare.
The full movie is here, but if you decide to watch the whole thing, it contains lots of blood and gore and nudity. So beware!
For some other nice lists of things featuring NMBs or paralysis in general, check out these awesome TV tropes links:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BitsOfMeKeepPassingOut
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheParalyzer
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PoisonedWeapons
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AndIMustScream
Also, I don't know if this is actually curare, but I felt that it should still be added.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BitsOfMeKeepPassingOut
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheParalyzer
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PoisonedWeapons
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AndIMustScream
Also, I don't know if this is actually curare, but I felt that it should still be added.