Does The Fly hold up?

Let’s find out: 

So we start off Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) interacting with Veronica “Ronnie” Quaife (Geena Davis). Seth is backed by Bartok Science Industries (no relation to the animated bat in Anastasia). Seth then shows Ronnie his telepods. We discover that the telepods can transport inanimate things; but, that the telepods turn living things inside out.

Seth and Ronnie begin a relationship and, through trial and error, the telepods are able to transport living things. However, Stathis Borans (John Getz) is a wrinkle in the Seth-Ronnie relationship, and…

Remember that kid in eighth grade that liked to crack dirty jokes? That kid grew up and became Stathis Borans. 

Sidebar 1/Salad Bar 1: Picture a version of Beauty and the Beast where Gaston becomes more noble as the movie goes on and Prince Adam becomes more Beast-like as the movie goes on and you have this movie.

Sidebar 2/Salad Bar 2: I think that you would have great difficulty adapting the Stathis Borans character to modern times.

Anyway, Seth becomes intoxicated and he accidentally teleports with a fly. Seth becomes stronger, he develops an intense craving for er… ice cream and he starts sprouting weird hairs, and…

One of the things that The Fly is about is the life cycle. This is Seth’s teenager stage.

Seth tries to get Veronica to teleport; but, she is reluctant. We then get the infamous arm wrestling scene, and…

Does anyone who is not in an elementary school cafeteria arm wrestle?

Anyway, Seth has er… ice cream with Tawny (Joy Boushel). Seth tries to get Tawny to teleport; but, Veronica stops this. Seth gets angry until he finds out about the fly. Seth starts falling apart. He nicknames himself Brundlefly, and…

Back to the life cycle thing, Seth would now be at the elderly stage. This is also a metaphor for dementia/Parkinson’s disease/AIDS.

We then find out that Veronica is preggers, and…

When… when did this turn into a soap opera?

We think that Veronica gave birth to a maggot. It turns out to be a dream, and…

The practical effects on this sequence still hold up. Plus, this nightmare sequence happens at a believable point in the movie. Plus, I think a lot of women have fears about something going wrong during childbirth/their kids turning out bad/babies keeping them in unhealthy relationships and this scene is representative of that.

Anyway, Veronica enlists Stathis to help her get an abortion. Seth discovers this. He abducts Veronica, and…

I love this homage to King Kong kidnapping Ann Darrow/The Creature from the Black Lagoon kidnapping Kay.

Stathis tracks them down. Seth starts to go after Stathis; but, Veronica stops him. We then find out that Seth wants to fuse himself, Veronica and the baby; but, Stathis stops this. Seth winds up fusing with his telepod (hate it when that happens). He begs Veronica to put him out of his misery and she complies.

A metaphor for dementia/the life cycle/Parkinson’s disease/AIDS. A tribute to monster movies. The Fly is still a good movie.

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