David Cronenberg's 1986 sci-fi/horror movie remake of The Fly is widely hailed as one of the most disturbing visual displays of the decade. The film stars Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle, an ambitious scientist who has created the world's first teleportation device. When Seth inadvertently enters the transmitter pod along with a common housefly, the device splices the genes of both species to create one large monstrous mutation. The worse his condition becomes, the more he loses his sense of humanity.
The Fly landed in theaters on August 15, 1986, grossing $60 million on a $15 million budget. The film earned an Oscar Award for Best Makeup (Chris Walas, Stephan Dupuis).
10 Cronenberg's Involvement
The Fly originated as a movie for Tim Burton to direct, but the job ultimately went to Canadian body-horror master David Cronenberg. However, Cronenberg initially turned down The Fly due to his directorial commitment to Total Recall.
During production on the latter, Cronenberg and producer Dino De Laurentiis had a falling out over the direction of Total Recall. Cronenberg left the production as a result and took on The Fly instead, opening the door for Paul Verhoven to helm Total Recall.
9 Mel Brooks Created Tagline
Comedic legend Mel Brooks was one of the main producers of The Fly, a fact he deliberately kept shrouded from the public to avoid thinking the film was a comedy. He even came up with the film's iconic tagline during a production meeting.
The tagline "Be afraid, be very afraid" was conceived by Brooks and given to Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis) as a line of dialogue in the film. Brooks invented the line when debating how the characters should react to Seth's early metamorphosis.
8 Casting Seth Brundle
When casting the central role of Seth Brundle, Cronenberg faced resistance from the studio over hiring Jeff Goldblum, who was not deemed bankable enough. Mel Gibson was offered the role but declined it to make Lethal Weapon instead.
Other big-name actors thought of for the role included Willem Dafoe, Michael Keaton, John Lithgow, James Woods, Richard Dreyfuss, and John Travolta.
7 Casting Veronica Quaife
Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum were dating at the time The Fly was made. Their real-life romance made Cronenberg hesitant to cast Davis as Veronica Quaife in the film, opening the door for several other actresses.
Among those considered for the role of Veronica included Jennifer Jason Leigh and Laura Dern. Cronenberg's first choice for the role was Linda Hamilton after seeing her in The Terminator. However, Hamilton turned down the role after reading the scene in which her character gives birth to a giant maggot during a dream sequence.
6 Cronenberg's Cameo
David Cronenberg makes a cameo appearance as a gynecologist in the film. According to Geena Davis, the cameo was her idea. But there's more to the story.
In the 1980s, director Martin Scorsese asked to meet Cronenberg after seeing a number of his early films. When the two met, Scorsese joked that Cronenberg resembled a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. Cronenberg remembered the comment and gave himself a role as a doctor in The Fly.
5 Typhoon The Baboon
One of the most memorable characters in the film is Seth's pet baboon. Named Typhoon, the baboon was extremely volatile to work with and often created a terrifying environment on the set.
As an untrained performer, Typhoon was still a wild, unpredictable animal with superhuman strength. After being frightened by flashing lights in the teleportation pod, Typhoon busted the door to escape. In addition to the animal wrangler, it was Jeff Goldblum who expressed physical dominance at 6'4'' tall, who helped tame the animal on set.
4 Makeup & VFX
For the infamous fly-transmutation at the end of the film, Jeff Goldblum often required five pounds of prosthetic makeup that took up to five hours to apply each day. The Fly's acidic vomit was comprised of a mixture of milk, eggs, and honey.
As for the visual design of the teleportation pods, Cronenberg drew inspiration from the cylindrical engine of his classic Ducati motorcycle. Prior to the final design, the pods were patterned after glass shower stalls or phone booths.
3 Stathis's Melting Hand
One of the most challenging visual effects to achieve in the film was Stathis Borans's (John Getz) melting hand at the end of the film. The shot was achieved in the same way as Toht's melting mug in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Both shots were supervised by Makeup artists Chris Walas.
The effect was created by first molding the mutilated hand and placing it beneath a sculpture of a perfectly healthy hand. The gelatin of the healthy hand began melting under the hot movie lights in conjunction with a hairdryer while the camera filmed at a low speed.
2 Deleted Scenes
The Fly has become known for two now-infamous deleted scenes, one of which was filmed and the other scripted. The one filmed involved Seth fusing his pet baboon with a housecat in the teleportation pod to create one ultra-violent mutated monster. The beast becomes so aggressive in the lab that Seth resorts to beating the creature to death with a lead pipe. The scene was deemed too dark and was cut from the final edit.
The other scene left in the script entailed Seth feeding out of a dumpster in an alley before being spotted by a bag-lady. When the bag-lady screams in horror, Seth attacks and spits vomit on her before feasting on her body.
1 Alternate Ending
Two alternate "happy" endings were filmed for The Fly but ultimately nixed. As a counterpoint to Veronica's nightmare giving birth to a maggot, both alternate endings involved Veronica giving birth to a baby with butterfly wings.
The difference between the two is that, in one, Veronica wakes up and realizes she's still pregnant. The other leaves her pregnancy ambiguous. In two other alternate versions, Stathis consoles Veronica after she has an unseen nightmare by telling her the baby is his. In the end, Cronenberg opted to conclude the film with the death of his hero.
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