What 'Bubbley' Things did you learn?

[Bob]

I need to wait a bit and watch it again. Before it was available I read about the real person that it is based on and his sad life. So I had that running through my mind while watching.

What sad life?   He just got out of the bubble, got with the girl of his dreams and rode horses with no problems at all.




* yes, I know the happy ended was probably not the real story *

[Compound]

* yes, I know the happy ended was probably not the real story *

No, it wasn't. Like Torso, I looked up the real versions after watching the film. The elder patient (who was probably the one that inspired the movie) died from a complication from the nearly continual blood transfusions that he went through in an attempt to strengthen his immune system and the younger kid (whose entire life is rather tragic) died after a badly advised bone marrow transplant that was supposed to save him. His final request was to drink a Coke, which he never got to do in the bubble, but his illness was so severe that the docs didn't think it was a good idea  and vetoed it. They died at 18 and 13, respectively.

These were kids who frankly were living rather bleak lives and the idea that "It's really all in your head. If you just left the enclosure, you'd be fine!" is rather reprehensible to me. The riffing is fine, but the movie beneath it just makes me madder and madder every time I watch it.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Lack of an immune system is "all in your head"?

*speechless*

[Compound]

Lack of an immune system is "all in your head"?

*speechless*

Let me spoiler this...


To be fair to the film, when Travolta asks his doctor what would happen if he just left the bubble, the doctor (played by Ralph Bellamy) gives him roughly the same look as if Travolta had asked "I'm thinking about cutting my head off. Do you think it would hurt?" and explains that yeah, he might live, but it's pretty likely that he'd die. John does it anyway, ending in the "riding away on the horse with the girl" scene Bob described. Oh, everything's fine! Look he's happy now that he's out of the bubble! Love wins out over disease! Yay! Of course, they don't show Travolta dying three weeks later while his grieving parents and girlfriend watch from outside his hermetically sealed hospital room. ARGGHHHHH!!

While it doesn't state that it wasn't real directly, the movie sure as hell implies that the disease was no big deal with the happy ending. (And 20 years later, the not good at all comedy "Bubble Boy" actually did use the "all in your head" explanation in their movie, although in their case it was due to Munchausen by proxy.)

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Lack of an immune system is "all in your head"?

*speechless*

Let me spoiler this...


To be fair to the film, when Travolta asks his doctor what would happen if he just left the bubble, the doctor (played by Ralph Bellamy) gives him roughly the same look as if Travolta had asked "I'm thinking about cutting my head off. Do you think it would hurt?" and explains that yeah, he might live, but it's pretty likely that he'd die. John does it anyway, ending in the "riding away on the horse with the girl" scene Bob described. Oh, everything's fine! Look he's happy now that he's out of the bubble! Love wins out over disease! Yay! Of course, they don't show Travolta dying three weeks later while his grieving parents and girlfriend watch from outside his hermetically sealed hospital room. ARGGHHHHH!!

While it doesn't state that it wasn't real directly, the movie sure as hell implies that the disease was no big deal with the happy ending. (And 20 years later, the not good at all comedy "Bubble Boy" actually did use the "all in your head" explanation in their movie, although in their case it was due to Munchausen by proxy.)

There was more of a "let the audience decide how it ends" thing at that time.

If you want to you can believe that he could survive outside and did so to old age....or you could figure he had some happiness being like a normal kid for awhile before he died.

[CJones]

Anne Ramsey is so awesome, she can haul Todd and his mobile bubble back into the house and upstairs, by herself.

[NightmareBros]

Anne Ramsey is so awesome, she can haul Todd and his mobile bubble back into the house and upstairs, by herself.

It's probably because she went and EAT A CINDERBLOCK!
Because Cinderblocks count as part of your five a day.

I have learned that a box can be a bubble, even though one is a cuboid and the other is a sphere.
Clearly three-dimensional geometrey was not their strongest point.
But then again, Boy in a Plastic Box Fortress may not have sold well as a title. Or would have been complained about due to mis-labeling.

[Darth Geek]

Anne Ramsey is so awesome, she can haul Todd and his mobile bubble back into the house and upstairs, by herself.

It's probably because she went and EAT A CINDERBLOCK!
Because Cinderblocks count as part of your five a day.

I have learned that a box can be a bubble, even though one is a cuboid and the other is a sphere.
Clearly three-dimensional geometrey was not their strongest point.
But then again, Boy in a Plastic Box Fortress may not have sold well as a title. Or would have been complained about due to mis-labeling.

Must have been the same people that designed the "box" in Batman Forever.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

I learned that you don't really have to seal the incubator of a baby with no immune system....germs will stay out on their own

(notice that when they're taking the newborn down the hall and then corner in to the Immunology Center, the case opens slightly)

[doggans]

I learned that in the 70s, closed circuit TVs were installed in high school classrooms by Frank Oz lookalikes.

[RedZoneTuba]

Lack of an immune system is "all in your head"?

*speechless*

John Travolta was found, with normal immune system, 3000 miles away....There was no Bublle Boy....