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The Fly
Movie

The Fly

1986 • Unknown

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

When Seth Brundle makes a huge scientific and technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.

Overall Series Review

The film follows brilliant but socially awkward scientist Seth Brundle after his creation of a pair of teleporter pods. Driven by hubris, he uses the device on himself, unaware that a housefly has entered the chamber with him. The narrative charts his slow, agonizing physical and mental transformation into a hybrid creature. The movie is a tragic and visceral body-horror story focusing on the intense, doomed relationship between Brundle and journalist Veronica Quaife as they cope with the devastating consequences of his scientific recklessness.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The core conflict and the protagonist's tragic downfall are the direct result of a scientific accident and personal hubris. Character merit and consequences are determined by individual actions and fate, not by race or immutable characteristics. Race and identity are entirely irrelevant to the plot dynamics, which center on universal themes of love, decay, and transformation.

Oikophobia1/10

The horror is intensely personal, confined mostly to the protagonist's isolated laboratory and living space. The story is a contained scientific and existential tragedy that offers no critique of Western civilization, institutions, or ancestry. No outside cultures or systems are held up as morally superior to the setting.

Feminism3/10

The female lead is a competent, career-driven journalist who demonstrates independence and strength, though she is not presented as flawless or a 'Mary Sue.' The male lead is physically and emotionally destroyed by the accident, not by social commentary on male toxicity. The narrative includes a significant and tragic choice regarding a potential mutated pregnancy, focusing on a context-specific, anti-natal decision.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative centers exclusively on the tragic dynamic of a traditional male-female relationship. There is no presence of, or political commentary on, alternative sexualities or gender ideology. The traditional male-female pairing and the immediate family structure are the clear normative focus of the story.

Anti-Theism2/10

The movie operates within a secular framework of scientific ambition and biological horror. While it delves into philosophical and existential questions about the body and the soul, it offers no direct hostility toward traditional religion, especially Christianity. Morality is clearly objective in that the transformation is a horrific consequence to be avoided.