ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
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This movie re-imagines the concept of invisibility as a sort of "phase shift" in the matter affected by the industrial accident which made portions of the science lab — and Chevy Chase — become invisible.

Therefore the question below is pretty obvious.

~ A Question for the Members: Could a device small enough to be worn by a person be created which allowed that person to switch invisibility on and off?

~ My Theory: Obviously the answer is yes. I wonder how many movies and TV series can we name which seem to use this same concept.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

In the 1967 Eurospy adventure/fantasy Matchless, Patrick O'Neal plays a secret agent who possesses a ring that can make him invisible for a few minutes. (Of course, he has to strip naked to be properly invisible.) Upon returning to visibility, he must wait at least 10 hours before using the ring again or . . . Or what? I don't remember. Maybe he'll explode, or melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.

[Bud Brewster]

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I wasn't aware of that movie, Scot. Thanks!

It's an interesting premise. A hi-tech ring that renders the wearer invisible is a great idea!

However, I question the decision to have the ring only affect his body, not his clothes as well.

The Invisible Man (1933) was about a chemical formula that affected the body of the man who injected it.

But a ring that causes invisibility is obviously not caused by a biological change, so it should effect the wearer, clothes and all!

The Invisible Man TV series (2002) addresses this issue quite well.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Gemini Man ran for 12 episodes on NBC in 1976.

Intersect (Internal Security Techniques) agent Sam Casey is caught in an underwater explosion while attempting to retrieve a Soviet satellite which renders Sam invisible.
A DNA Stabilizer wrist watch device allows Sam to be visible, when he shuts it off he can become invisible but only for fifteen minutes. Any longer will result in his death.

Ben Murphy (Alias Smith & Jones) played the lead role. He has said that the series didn't last because it was rubbish.

[scotpens]

[Bud Brewster]

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Exactamundo, Scot!

It occurred to me a few years ago that, as you said, you can't have working eyeballs if you're invisible! Every part of the eye would no longer function — for several different reasons.

~ The iris would not be able to adjust the light level by opening and closing. Light would flood in!

~ The lens would be useless because it would no longer refract the incoming light and focus it on the retina.

~ The rods and cones in the retina wouldn't react to the light rays passing straight through them, and thus the optic nerve would not carry signals to the brain.

~ But even if all that somehow DID work . . . the transparent eyeball would allow light to hit the retina from every angle, searing the invisible man's brain with a blinding brightness!
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Returning to the subject of "Thinking Outside the Plot", when you consider the idea often proposed in movies about invisibility — the notion that "invisible armies" could conquer the world — there's a fatal flaw in that idea.

If all the soldiers are invisible . . . they won't be able see each other!

Imagine an invading force of invisible soldiers charging the enemy forces across a battlefield — and suddenly colliding with each other in comedic fashion, falling down, tripping over their fallen comrades, turning the whole thing into a giant slapstick performance, while the enemy soldiers strafes the area with machine guns and slaughter the so-called "invincible army" of invisible soldiers!

The solution to this would be to make your invisible soldiers capable of clearly seeing all their comrades, even though the enemy soldiers could not!

Without this ability, the whole idea of invisible armies is ridiculous!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Captain Starlight]

Quite true, sir. But since creating invisible armies is impossible, doing the next best thing would work almost as well. Just blind all the enemy soldiers and you'd accomplish almost the same effect.