You know what really bothers me the most about the
Batman villain Mr. Freeze? Before he went all
Sub-Zero he was a doctor named
Victor Fries. (Free-z) So, why on earth would he
choose the name Mr. Freeze? One,
you're not really hiding your identity
all that well by changing the spelling
of your last name, and two, why did you go down
in title from Dr. to Mr.? At least take
credit for all that dissertation
research you did
[Film Theory Intro Music]
Hello Internet, Welcome to Film Theory!
Where, what's cooler than being cool?
Science. I also would have accepted Ice
Cold. (alright alright alright alright)
Now true loyal theorists will
remember that last year i was invited by
Bill and Melinda Gates to make a video
inspired by their annual letter. A yearly
tradition of theirs is meant to outline
and under-represented global crisis that
needs to be addressed. Their letter's job
is to broaden awareness of the problem
and call all of us to do our part making
the world a better, healthier place for
everyone. Last year it was a letter about
superpowers for good, so I talked about
Deadpool, obviously. This year's letter is
focused on providing solutions for
global health issues related to women
and children, and so I wanted to theme my
video around Batman. Seriously. Now that
might seem like an odd logical leap, but
hear me out here.
First, the people who are on the front lines
doing work in fields like scientific
research, funding, and on-the-ground
treatment are THE closest things this
world has to superheroes. Literally
going out to save lives every day. Just
like Batman. And it's worth noting that
these people aren't even billionaire
Playboys. Except, I guess for Bill Gates
himself, he-he probably qualifies. Just like
Batman, these people are making a
difference. Since 1990, the lives of a
hundred and twenty-two million children
have been saved by the efforts of these
everyday heroes, and it's not just for
children either. Since 2010, HIV
infections are down by five percent.
Back then, only 7.5 million people were
getting treated. Now it's over 17 million.
Deaths from malaria are down a whopping
twenty-nine percent in that same amount
of time. The work of these real-life
superheroes is making a difference and
our support in whatever way, from
monetarily, to donating our time, to just
spreading awareness is taking down
diseases and quite literally changing
lives and making the world a better place.
But seriously, what does any of this have
to do with Batman? Well, old Willie Gates has
challenged me to make a video on the
subject of finding treatments for some
of the world's most aggressive and
incurable diseases, got me thinking
about Mr. Freeze. Now if there's one
villain that needs to be rebooted it's
this guy,
And no I'm not just saying it because of
Arnold Schwarzenegger's endless stream
of TERRIBLE ice puns from Batman and Robin.
"Cool party."
"Alright everyone... chill."
"Always winterize your pipes."
Okay well, so maybe a little bit because
of that, but more so because Mr. Freeze is
really an antihero. He's a scientist
whose wife contracts a rare fatal
disease called MacGregor's Syndrome,
so he cryogenically freezes her to keep her
from dying and will now do absolutely
anything to find a cure.
I gotta be honest, I feel for the guy.
So today let's help him out and get to
the bottom of the MacGregor's syndrome mystery.
It isn't a real disease, but can we
find a real-world version of MacGregor's
syndrome to see if this mad scientist's
plans will work or if the chances of
saving his wife are at absolute zero.
HA! I can make cold puns too Arnie
"Very Niiiiiccceee" (ssh)
But alas, just because I can, doesn't
mean that I should. SO to start, what
does the Batman universe tell us and
show us about MacGregor's syndrome?
The first time its alluded to is in an episode
of batman the animated series from 1992,
with that epic music and incredible art style,
which explains how Victor Fries
turns evil when he attempts to research
a cure for his wife Nora's disease,
and is forcibly stopped. *crash* "NO, Nora!"
The disease itself isn't named MacGregor's syndrome until
a few years later in the film Batman and Robin.
"My vines have a crush on yo-" "No! No God please no!"
That film also gives us our first
clues as to the nature of the illness.
When Batman and Robin inspect Nora's
cryotube, you can clearly see that it has
four stages. Later on in the movie we see
that Mr Freeze has found the cure for
the first stage, and it's some sort of
weird glowing gatorade? And that's
honestly about it because we never see
Nora suffering from the disease at all.
She's frozen and lifeless throughout the
movie - much like George Clooney's
performance! HEY-O! Shots fired. *improv airhorn noises*
that's my... makeshift airhorn. Instead
some of our best clues come not from the
movies or animated series but from
season 2 of Gotham, in which we see
Victor Fries... (Frie-ss)
Yeah, for some reason they changed his
name so now it's pronounced like
"french fries". MUCH better for hiding your
identity there Vick- actively working on
the cure for a very sick but also very
alive Nora. In these episodes we see her
cough up blood, have difficulty breathing,
and generally seem to be pretty darn frail.
Still, not a whole lot to go off of, BUT when
most others would walk away that's when
I get really intense. In the
direct-to-video movie "Batman and Mr.
Freeze Sub-Zero", Freeze learns that
Barbara Gordon has the exact same rare
blood type as Nora. So, to save his wife
he tries to kidnap Barbara so he can
perform a fatal organ transplant and
digging even deeper across the DC
Universe we find that Nora isn't the
only one suffering from the disease.
In the CW series the Flash, Francine West
reveals that she also has MacGregor's
syndrome, AND that it's common among
ex-drug addicts. That's a HUGE clue, but i'm
still not done. THE biggest hint of all
comes from Arrow, where William Tockman
AKA "the Clock King" is determined to have
MacGregor's syndrome which is described in
the episode as: "MacGregor's Syndrome. It's a genetic
defect that creates fluid build up in the
lungs, which leads to oxygen deprivation and
multi-system organ failure."
So to recap, its genetic, attacks the
lungs, has four stages, is treated with
glowing goo, can hit other organs, can
potentially be solved with a,
transplant, and is more common among drug
addicts. That's a lot of information so
maybe through the process of elimination
we'll be able to get to the bottom of
Nora's disease dilemma and SPOILER ALERT!!
It's not Lupus.
Don't worry Dr. house, I checked.
So let's start with the obvious solution: lung cancer.
In Batman and Robin the main conflict of the movie is
that Nora is in an advanced stage of
MacGregor's syndrome,
whereas later on in the movie we learn
that everyone's favorite Butler, Alfred-
except you Mr. Beauregard, you're the best-
has just been diagnosed with stage one.
Now, as many people know, cancer
progresses in four stages: from the first,
where the cancer is small and contained
only the location of the tumor, to stage four:
in which the cancer has spread to many
tissues in the body making it much more
likely to be fatal. Combine this fact
with the blood that Nora coughs up and
it's not too hard to make a strong case
for lung cancer. But THAT is where the
similarities stop. Riddle me this Theorists:
Why would the cure be a liquid that glowwww...
Wait... that's just a reference to the
radiation used during chemotherapy. Huh.
Then, what about the organ
transplant from sub-zero? I guess that
would just be her getting a new lung to
replace the one that's too damaged from the
cancer... *mumbles* Darn, this is looking a lot more open
and shut that I expected... Uhhh, what about
that obscure moment from the Flash?!
cancer isn't more likely to be in
ex-drug addicts, sooo... Wrong.
Actually, since lung cancer IS more
likely in drug addicts. Former drug
addicts are statistically more likely to
be addicted to cigarettes. Between eighty
and ninety five percent of alcoholics
are found to smoke cigarettes, and a
study found that those undergoing
treatment for heroin addiction smoke
cigarettes a staggering ninety-seven
percent of the time. And yeah, even Alfred
too! Early portrayals of the character
showed him smoking a pipe! So him being in
stage one actually makes a lot of sense.
You know come to think of it, that stuff
from Arrow fits too! Genetics, multi-organ
failure, lungs filled with liquid. All of
it comes with advanced stages of lung
cancer. You know come to think of it we
can also rule out other deadly lung
diseases like pertussis and tuberculosis
because they're highly contagious. When
Batman and Robin learn that Alfred has
MacGregor's syndrome, they don't exactly put
him into quarantine or start wearing
surgical masks. They're still in full
contact with him the whole time just as
Victor's in contact with Nora throughout
the Gotham episodes. Speaking of those
Gotham episodes, by the way, when Victor
comes home to find Nora coughing up
blood, he keeps asking about a medication
called Formitoral, later freezing a
drugstore to harvest the entire supply
of the drug. Now, Formitorol doesn't
exist, but there is a suspiciously
similar sounding drug on the market
called Formoteral. Formoteral is a
long-acting bronchodilator that clears
a person's airway and makes it easier
for them to breathe, so uh... Huh, I guess it's
lung cancer? I expected to be a bit
tougher than that. I mean I guess you
could say that lung cancer isn't rare
but there are plenty of weird unique
strains of cancer out there so... damn.
I thought we would pull some really obscure rare
lung thing... had this whole episode planned
eliminating things one at a time
building to the big final twist but, uh.
Huh, not...
really used to this. My 7 paragraph
structure is just THROWN out the
window. I don't know I guess I could just
end the episode now?
But hey, THAT'S
NO! Wait. What's interesting about Mr.
Freeze's situation isn't the disease
itself, it's the cure. You see this woman?
Nora Fries? Tube girl?
yeah, her. Mr. Freeze FROZE her to stall for
time until he discovered a cure, except
here's the thing. This girl right here in
the tube? SHE'S ALREADY CURED!
That person that you're seeing suspended in
this tube, right now, in that present
moment, she is cancer-free. MacGregor's.
Syndrome. Free. No joke! Mr. Freeze has
cured her. And here's how: it's a
treatment called cryosurgery, and it
literally means curing cancer by
freezing the cancer cells directly.
Specialized surgeons use super targeted
cold rays in a cryoprobe. Just think Mr.
Freeze's cold ray, just micro-sized and
freeze the cancer cells to death.
I mean think about it, cancer is just a
bunch of out-of-control cells and
freezing them does basically the same
thing that it does to that bunch of lettuce
that accidentally got frozen in your
fridge. When it thaws, it's limp and dead,
because all the cells have broken down.
The same thing happened to the cells in
your body after they've been frozen with
liquid nitrogen. So, Mr. Freeze, in deep
chilling Nora, has actually killed all the
cancer cells in her body!
She's officially cured.
HUZZAH!! Exceeept, there's a catch. Of course.
Doctors performing cryosurgery target
the cells they're looking to kill with these
icy cold blasts by using very tiny cryo
probes. Mr. Freeze
just incased Nora in ice... like her whole
body. According to those episodes of
Gotham, Mr. Waffle Fries is using liquid
helium to freeze his wife, and liquid
helium is like, THE COLDEST OF COLD
substances that humanity can create.
At a temperature of minus 452 degrees
Fahrenheit. For comparison, the liquid
nitrogen doctors use a balmy negative 320
degrees Fahrenheit, a full hundred and
thirty degrees hotter! If you can
consider hotter and colder when you're
talking about negative hundreds of degrees so
yeah, he not only killed all the cancer
cells, he also killed all "Nora" cells
in the process, and if you think
curing cancer is hard, curing 'I-just-
made-my-wife-into-a-human-Fudgsicle' is
WAY harder. When asked about it,
biology professor Michael Hendricks at
McGill University stated that the
technology required to bring someone
back from a completely frozen state, quote:
"Does not yet exist even in principle".
It's also something we've covered here on Game Theory.
Ya can't just freeze people and bring
them back to life.
So the worst part here, is that Mr.
Freeze HAD THE CURE, or at least a
pretty solid treatment, THE ENTIRE TIME! If
he had been a bit more precise with that
freezing gun of his, he could of helped treat
Nora's lung cancer himself. But his hasty
solution has actually doomed his wife to
death. Man,
irony is COLD.
BUT HEY, THATS JUST A THEORY. A FILM THEORY. AAANNNNDDD
before I wrap things up
one final big thank you to
Bill and Melinda Gates for not only
asking me to once again join their
campaign for spreading awareness of
global health issues, but for the good
work that they're doing in the world
through things like their annual letter.
It'd be easy to sit on your throne of 84
billion dollars and just, I don't know, do
whatever things super rich people do.
Live in a gold-plated house or fly in
your gold-plated plane or whatever else
you might want to gold plate since that's
what I assume rich people do all the
time. But actually going out and doing
something positive for the world is just
AWESOME.
So before you leave this video to watch
whatever let's play is on next or fail
clip compilation that may be waiting in
your playlist, do THE WORLD a favor by
clicking the link in the description to
read the Gates' annual letter. If nothing
else, it'll get you to think about the
challenges people in less fortunate
parts of the world have to live through.
So, educate yourself and be a force for
good by clicking that link. Because, if i
can get really real here for a second,
true success in life isn't defined by
how much you earn, but rather by how you
leave the world a slightly better place
than when you first enter it.
Thanks guys, and I'll see you all, next week.
