Seth Brundle (portrayed by Jeff Goldblum) was the main protagonist of David Cronenberg's science-fiction horror film, The Fly. He was an ingenious but socially-awkward scientist who had planned to revolutionalize transportation by inventing a working molecular teleporter. However, when he tried to test his invention on himself, a housefly had entered the Telepod with him. As a result, Brundle and the fly's genes were spliced together, and over the course of the film Brundle becomes more insect than human.
Background[]
While attending a meet-the-press party, Seth Brundle meets Veronica Quaife, a journalist for Particle Magazine. Smitten with her, he tries to impress her by talking about his work. When Veronica loses interest, Seth decides to bring her to his laboratory and show her his teleportation project.
At the lab, Seth explains that he suffered frequent motion sickness when he was a child, even mentioning that he threw up on his tricycle. His inability to handle transport aboard any vehicle was what inspired him to become a molecular physicist and investigate the idea of teleportation: transporting people and objects between different locations without physical movement. When Seth shows Veronica his Telepod machines, he uses one of her stockings as a demonstration. The demonstration is successful and Veronica is impressed by the Telpod's capabilities.
Seth and Veronica start dating after the Telepod test and Seth is overjoyed to have someone to discuss his work with. He later attempts a live test of the Telepods using a baboon as a test subject, but the Telepod computer has difficulty reading the atomic structure of living organisms and the test ends in gruesome failure as the baboon rematerialises inside out.
While having sex with Veronica, Seth falls against a stray circuit board that is lying around, scratching himself. This, along with an off-hand comment, brings about an epiphany in Seth: the Telepods weren't reproducing living flesh but trying to reinterpret it. Seth then reprograms the Telepod computer, allowing it to process more creatively, and a second test with another baboon proves to be successful.
However, as Seth and Veronica were about to celebrate this scientific triumph, Veronica became aware of the fact that her possessive and jealous ex Stathis Borans was threatening to reveal the Telepods' existence to the world prematurely. Keeping Seth unaware of this so as to avoid hurting his feelings, Veronica abruptly left to confront Borans. Incorrectly suspecting that Veronica was still seeing Borans romantically, a drunken and jealous Brundle decided to teleport himself so as to deprive Veronica of the opportunity to see a historic moment in science. However, a common housefly slipped into the sending Telepod unnoticed by the preoccupied scientist. After his successful teleportation, Brundle went to bed, and was awoken some hours later by Veronica. He told her about his rash teleportation and the reasons behind it, and the two then reconciled and made love.
However, all was not right following the experiment. Seth had unknowingly inherited the fly's genes when he was reconstituted and was beginning to exhibit insect-like traits. At first, the changes weren't visible, though they were seemingly beneficial; Seth's reflexes and physical strength had been heightened, which he chalked up to the Telepod purefying his atomic structure when he was reassembled. Other more subtle changes would emerge such as increased energy, extensive sexual stamina, and an appetite for sugary foods, but soon Veronica noticed that Seth was becoming more manic and arrogant. She also noticed a series of coarse hairs extending from the circuit board wound on his back, cutting them off.
Seth attempted to convince Veronica that she ought to go through with teleportation herself and experience the same kind of reinvigoration he was enjoying, but Veronica was frightened by the idea and refused. Angry, Seth left the lab that night and went out on the town to find someone who could "keep up" with him sexually. He met a young woman called Tawny in a bar and offered to take her home with him, which Tawny accepted after Seth beat a man in an arm-wrestling match, fracturing the man's arm.
The next morning, Seth took Tawny to his warehouse, where he teleported himself once again during a lull in their sexual escapades. Soon after, Seth, now feeling less energetic than before, tried to force Tawny to undergo teleportation. However, Veronica arrived in time to prevent this, and Tawny subsequently left the warehouse. Veronica then tried to warn Seth that something went wrong during his first teleportation, and explained that scientific testing of the coarse hairs she'd previously trimmed from his back revealed that they were not human. Seth refused to listen, however, throwing Veronica out of the warehouse and telling her never to come back.
It wasn't long before Seth began to experience more blatant physical changes; his skin was becoming rough and mottled and his fingernails began sliding right off. He began to realise that Veronica was right about there being a problem with the Telepod system and he examined the computer analysis of his first teleportation. The computer revealed that Seth wasn't alone in the Telepod and that a fly had entered just before he closed the door. Seth came to the grim conclusion that the fly's DNA had merged with his own and that he was becoming more and more insectoid.
After a month of self-imposed isolation, Seth worked up the courage to call Veronica again. When she saw him this time, Seth had deteriorated even further: his hair was falling out, his skin had become rough and covered in sores, his fingers were fusing together and his ears had rotted off with his teeth following in short order. He had also developed certain fly-like abilities such as being able to stick to walls and producing and spitting up corrosive enzymes to liquefy food before he consumed it. He also constantly craved sugar as evidenced by the various half-eaten chocolate bars and donuts scattered about his lab. Knowing that he was becoming more like a fly, Seth had coined the term "Brundlefly" for his new form. Though disgusted by his metamorphosis, he remained curious and fascinated by it, asking Veronica to record him for the sake of science and posterity.
As his diseased transformation progressed, Seth installed a fusion program in the Telepod computer, and the computer suggested to him that the most logical way to make himself more human was to fuse genetically with one or more pure human beings. Veronica then came to visit him once again, but he explained to her that he was losing his human compassion and told her to leave him forever before he could hurt her. While on the roof of the warehouse to watch her depart—with her confidant, Borans—Brundle overheard Veronica say that she was pregnant with Brundle's child, and wanted an abortion. He then proceeded to smash into the clinic Veronica and Borans had gone to, and abducted her before she could abort the foetus. On a nearby rooftop, Seth begged Veronica to carry the child to term, since it could very well have been conceived before his fateful teleportation and thus might have been "all that's left of the real me." Veronica replied that she was too afraid to have the baby, and a distraught Brundle took her back to his warehouse.
Borans had followed Brundle and Veronica back to the lab and assembled a shotgun in case he needed to kill Brundle. When he entered the warehouse, Brundle smashed through the skylight and attacked Borans, using his acid vomit to melt Boran's hand. After dropping the shotgun, Borans tried to retrieve it using his foot, but Seth grabbed his leg and vomited over the shin, then pulled Boran's foot off at the ankle. Veronica then stepped in and begged Seth to spare Borans. Seth told her that she and he would enter the Telepods together, using Seth's original prototype as a receiving pod, which would fuse them together into a single body, making them the "ultimate family". When he grabbed her to force her into the pod, Veronica resisted and struck Seth across the jaw. To Veronica's horror, Seth's jaw came right off when she hit him, followed by Seth completely shedding the outer layer of his flesh and revealing his complete mutant form.
The Brundlefly forced Veronica into one of the Telepods and he entered the other. The wounded Borans struggled to get up and grab his shotgun, then fired a shot at the cable connecting Veronica's pod to the computer system. This caused the pod door to open and Veronica was able to get out. The Brundlefly saw this and tried to break his way out of his Telepod, damaging the door. However, the computer finished its countdown just as the Brundlefly broke down the door. The creature and the damaged machine parts were teleported, and when they reconstituted, the Brundlefly ended up with a large metal fragment fused through his torso. With tremendous agony, the mutant crawled towards Veronica. Borans, still barely conscious, gave his shotgun to Veronica and aimed for her. Even though Seth was no longer human and in tremendous pain, she still could not bring herself to kill him. The Brundlefly raised its foreleg, moving the shotgun in Veronica's hand so the barrel rested against its head, wanting her to put it out of its misery. After a final moment of hesitation, Veronica pulled the trigger and blasted the Brundlefly's head to pieces.
 This article relates to characters featured in and pertaining to the Fly film franchise. This template will categorize articles that include it into the Fly characters category. |