Apart from being one of the most beautifully put-together horror movies of the 20th century, (and a remake at that!) Cronenberg’s The Fly might also be the one that induces the most nausea.
I mean, come on. Those of us with that serious gag reflex upon seeing others vomit have to pop a roll of TUMS before a viewing.
Blowing chunks of sugary Hostess donuts aside, the official theatrical release wasn’t even the worst of it. For those unaware, there was a scene so vile, so grotesque and disturbing that during an initial screening in Toronto, it made audience members queasy and a tad upset to say the very least.
In the cut scene, Brundle (Sir Jeff of Goldblum) seeks to reverse his ever-transforming state by teleporting a baboon and a cat from the two telepods into a third while keeping their molecules separate. Instead, it fuses them into a very disturbing “mistake” that he ultimately clubs to death to put Monkey-Cat out of its misery.
According to Producer Stuart Cornfield, the theater guests were disgusted to the point of projectile vomit. The movie has some pretty nasty scenes that could definitely make someone gag a little (as stated), but I suppose this really was just a bit much for some. Apparently, the general public didn’t take to kindly to Brundle experimenting on helpless animals and then bludgeoning them to death.
And it was never seen again until a special two-disc DVD edition was released from 20th Century Fox came about.
My personal take:
The scene had it been kept in, would make some folks take away any pity they may had for Seth, turning him from a helpless victim to an animal-murdering dickbag. However, I can see what they were ultimately aiming for. What I personally see through my own eyes, was an act of complete desperation. Brundle was halfway through his transformation and scrambling to find a cure as time was running short. You could see the defeat in his mangled face after the terribly gone wrong experiment on the roof, and ummm, ripping off an insect leg that had spawned from his stomach with his mouth. The whole scene is slightly painful to watch, but at least for me, not in a bad sense. There are a LOT of scenes from this film that will make you squirm. In my opinion, the scene with the dog in The Fly 2 was way worse than this.
But hey, you be the judge of that!
Nightmare Nostalgia 
never teleport when drunk brundle, life lesson for ya!
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I (eventually) adored that part of Telepod #2 door’s molecularly intertwined w BrundleFly, attempting to exit, during the last, albeit mostly-successful, teleportation.
“Computers are dumb. They only know what you tell them…” Seth Brundle, ‘The Fly’ (1986)
Maybe not until Pulp Fiction’s ‘And Marcellus Wallace don’t like to be fcked by A n y b o d y except Mrs. Wallace…’ would there be another, more biting, foreshadowing-dialogue delivery?
My nine year old brain clearly didn’t comprehend the practical effect, upon initial intake, à la VHS rental; 6 months later, it’s HBO debut (e.g. home video ingest/unended viewings) eventually yielded the correlation in (pod) design(s), but only that alone, so I was even more befuddled to how it got there?
It wouldn’t be for a couple more years, I think it was only referred to in passing during a Fangoria interview with (FX/director) Chris Walas, did I finally learn it’s, full-fledged, significance.
Still, I was such a fan, I’d feign sophisticate, pretending I could elaborate the merits of BrundleFly’s ‘Insect Politics’ invocation, when really my superior dilettante’ism couldn’t appreciate one of the most unadulterated syllogisms (consisting of illustrate or animated propositions)
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So if the Gene Splicing Program experiment worked, the next step would be to…?
Would this of eventually lead to to reverse engineer’portationing BrundleFly? How?
Telepod A: BrundleFly
Telepod B: House Fly
Telepod 3: [ Seth Brundle ]
I doubt he’s ever tracking down FlyBrundle (even if somehow still alive).
I don’t quite think this Gene Splicing Program experiment is
“…to reverse his ever-transforming state by teleporting a baboon and a cat from the two telepods into a third while keeping their molecules separate.”
It might be safe to assume this would only be the first of many more tests and experiments, had it been successful; Or that BrundleFly was only trying to author code specific to re-assembling (or un-mixing) isolated cellular organisms, just to verify his creation were even capable of doing that?
I think it’s more probable the scientist was still trying to perfect his invention, so at the very least it might still be remembered for it’s scientific contribution towards advancing society?
Or maybe Cronenberg was just showing the audience how much Brundle’s intellect is deteriorating or becoming more willfully reckless?
Or it’s even more likely this was just BrundleFly’s early experiments (and a bit of foreshadowing) before committing the Gene Splicing Program to BF, Gena Davis and ‘the baby’?
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God blesss
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