The Best Fictional Scientists From TV and Movies
- 01.19.12
- 6:30 AM
- With so many great fictional scientists on TV and in the movies, it's hard to pick the best. But we did it anyway.
There is a great argument to be made for Star Trek's Spock, as a real-life scientist eloquently does in an op-ed today for our From the Fields series. But he got us thinking about all the other smart, scary, sexy, silly and sinister scientists we love to watch, so we've compiled a list (in no particular order) of our favorites.
As always, we trust you'll let us know where we went wrong and whose absence offended you most.
Above:
C. A. Rotwang, Metropolis
The original big-screen mad scientist, Rotwang was the diabolical genius in Fritz Lang's classic 1927 science fiction film Metropolis. Working in an underground lab festooned with Tesla coils, Rotwang creates a C3PO-like fembot in the image of his dead wife. The android goes on to pose as the leader of the city's oppressed working class, and incites a riot that plunges the future-city of Metropolis into darkness and chaos.
During a rooftop struggle with the film's protagonist, Rotwang (spoiler warning) falls to his doom in the third act. But elements of his style -- wild shock of hair, insane scheming, black-gloved prosthetic hand -- live on in every pop culture mad scientist from Doc Brown to Dr. Strangelove.
--Kevin Poulsen
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