# What scientist would make the most compelling biopic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699 "2009-01-17T03:30:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/1 "2009-01-17T03:30:08Z")
Keeping in mind that a movie set entirely in a lab would be boring as shit, what scientist would make the most compelling biopic? **Charles Darwin’s** voyage on the _Beagle_or **Alfred Russel Wallace’s** island adventures could make a great adventure movie that even an ID nut would like. **Marie Curie** had a movie about her shortly after she died and I think it’s time for another one. Unlike the first one, I think that this should focus not on her relationship with her husband, but her daughters. Single mom, world class scientist. A chick flick, perhaps? **Linus Pauling** I picture a movie set from shortly before he won his first Nobel to shortly after he won his second. Or maybe a movie about his Vitamin C crusade. **Stephen Hawking** _My Left Foot_ for scientists **Nicholai Tesla** ,but especially his feud with Edison. The book [Empires of Light](http://www.amazon.com/Empires-Light-Edison-Westinghouse-Electrify/dp/0375758844/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232162672&sr=8-1) could serve as the source. **Albert Einstein** was simply a character. **Richard Feynman** especially his teaching career. **J. Robert Oppenheimer** has already had a play based on his trial. A movie adaptation is a gimme. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/2 "2009-01-17T03:35:08Z")
That veterinarian who infected himself with earmites and recorded every nightmarish moment in a paper. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/3 "2009-01-17T03:36:33Z")
Tesla…definitely Tesla. ---
**Author:** ![UTejas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UTejas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UTejas)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/4 "2009-01-17T03:47:30Z")
I’m going to go with a guy that pretty much nobody outside of my line of work have heard of–[Hans Hellmann](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Hellmann). Long story short: Brilliant scientist at a preposterously young age. Proves crucially important [theorem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellmann%E2%80%93Feynman_theorem). Dismissed from his university job in Nazi Germany because he’s married to a Jewish wife. Decides to flee Hitler’s Germany to some place safer… except he chooses Stalin’s Russia. Takes a university position there only to be executed during the Great Purge. He was only 34 when he died and already developed several theories that were literally decades ahead of their time. He was honestly a genius and I truly believe the current state of quantum physics/chemistry research would be quite a good deal more advanced now had he survived. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/5 "2009-01-17T03:53:28Z")
The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Dude lost part of his nose in a duel and ended up wearing a prosthetic made of gold and silver. Born ca. 1550 and died around 1600. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/6 "2009-01-17T04:01:40Z")
I would consider Benjamin Franklin a scientist and few had more interesting or important lives in as many areas. Tesla would be very interesting. He was a character and it would verge on science fiction. Might as well go for the Sci-Fi aspects of his works and play up his lightning experiments, the Wardenclyffe Tower and his death-rays and remote control torpedoes. The fights with Edison and his work with George Westinghouse. His friendship with Mark Twain only adds more color and his descent into near madness could be compelling. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/7 "2009-01-17T05:53:06Z")
> [@Ataraxy](#): > > **Richard Feynman** especially his teaching career. I haven’t seen it (well, I caught the last five minutes on tv once), but [Infinity](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116635/) is a biopic of Feynman, starring Matthew Broderick. ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/8 "2009-01-17T06:22:45Z")
[Jack Parsons.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons) Groundbreaking rocket scientist by day (whose work arguably ultimately went toward creating space travel), Occultist by night. Student of Alisteir Crowley, participant in crazy sex magick rituals, may have begun the end of the world or opened a portal to another dimension that let UFO’s through in the forties. L. Ron Hubbard makes a cameo (as someone who rips Parsons off) - Parsons magickally summons a hurricane in retribution. And the story gets weirder from there. And it ends with an explosion, 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/9 "2009-01-17T06:31:13Z")
Batman is a scientist. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/10 "2009-01-17T06:44:09Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I would consider Benjamin Franklin a scientist and few had more interesting or important lives in as many areas. > > Tesla would be very interesting. He was a character and it would verge on science fiction. Might as well go for the Sci-Fi aspects of his works and play up his lightning experiments, the Wardenclyffe Tower and his death-rays and remote control torpedoes. The fights with Edison and his work with George Westinghouse. His friendship with Mark Twain only adds more color and his descent into near madness could be compelling. They already made a book about the inner workings of Tesla’s mind they could adapt into the movie, it was called _House of Leaves_ or something I think. Seriously though, Tesla would make a great choice. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/11 "2009-01-17T12:33:44Z")
I’d love to see a movie adapting [The Double Helix](http://www.amazon.com/Double-Helix-Personal-Discovery-Structure/dp/074321630X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232195554&sr=8-1). It’s a great story, this young scientist bumming around Europe trying to scam up some grant money, chancing on a partnership with a brilliant colleague and racing the clock to beat other teams to figure out the structure of DNA. And for God’s sake, roll credits 45 years before the author tries his hand at ethnic humor in range of a microphone… ---
**Author:** ![Peanut\_Gallery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@Peanut\_Gallery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanut_Gallery)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/12 "2009-01-17T14:30:39Z")
> [@Freejooky](#): > > And it ends with an explosion, 😃 I think we have a winner. I love Feynman. Looking forward to watching Infinity. Thanks. I’ll vote for either Ben Franklin or Leonardo, though I guess they’ve been done many times already. ETA: Checking wiki … It seems Leonardo hasn’t really been properly attempted. That could be fun. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/13 "2009-01-17T15:01:34Z")
Great ideas (I especially like Tesla and Leonardo). The only one I have to add is Archimedes. I was reading about him recently and about the [terrifying anti-siege engines](http://www.crystalinks.com/archimedes.html) he built to defend Syracuse. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/14 "2009-01-17T15:03:18Z")
They made a movie of _The Double Helix_ back in 1987: > **["Horizon" The Race for the Double Helix (TV Episode 1987) ⭐ 7.4 | Documentary](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093815/)** > > 1h 37m There are three weird mathematicians that would make interesting subjects for movies - Paul Erdos, Grigori Perelman, and Alexander Grothendieck. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/15 "2009-01-17T15:10:31Z")
For a slightly different angle [E. J. Corey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._J._Corey). Specifically, the dynamics in his group at Harvard would be interesting. That guy was known as a slave driver even at U of Illinois. He should be played by Hugh Laurie. I think group dynamics would make a great film for any researcher. You could seriously do a soap opera on it. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/16 "2009-01-17T15:13:50Z")
Andrei Sakharov was the USSR’s best designer of atomic bombs, and his fifty megaton bomb is the largest bomb ever exploded. His fusion reactor designs are still being followed. Then he switched gears and became a political activist. He was instrumental in the Partial Test Ban Treaty and wrote about human rights and intellectual freedom. He was kicked out of military research, but he got the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 and eventually led the political party that opposed the Soviet Union. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/17 "2009-01-17T15:29:51Z")
[Lise Meitner.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lise_Meitner) > [@](#): > > Lise Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, an achievement for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize. Meitner is often mentioned as one of the most glaring examples of scientific achievement overlooked by the Nobel committee.[2][3][4] A 1997 Physics Today study concluded that Meitner’s omission was “a rare instance in which personal negative opinions apparently led to the exclusion of a deserving scientist” from the Nobel.[5]… > > After the Anschluss, her situation became desperate. In July 1938, Meitner, with help from the Dutch physicists Coster and Fokker, escaped to Holland. She was forced to travel under cover to the Dutch border, where Coster persuaded German immigration officers that she had permission to travel to the Netherlands. She reached safety, though without her possessions. Meitner later said that she left Germany forever with 10 marks in her purse…Meitner was lucky to escape, as Kurt Hess, a chemist who was an avid Nazi, had informed the authorities that she was about to flee. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/18 "2009-01-17T16:43:15Z")
[Roy Chapman Andrews](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Chapman_Andrews) discovered dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert, back when that was “here be dragons” territory. One of the inspirations for Indiana Jones. [Sylvanus Griswold Morley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvanus_Morley) was an archeologist who worked on the first big excavation at Chichen Itza. Also worked as a spy for U.S. Naval Intelligence during World War One. ---
**Author:** ![Chimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@Chimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimpy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/19 "2009-01-17T16:52:13Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > For a slightly different angle [E. J. Corey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._J._Corey). Specifically, the dynamics in his group at Harvard would be interesting. That guy was known as a slave driver even at U of Illinois. He should be played by Hugh Laurie. > > I think group dynamics would make a great film for any researcher. You could seriously do a soap opera on it. As a counterpoint, [R. B. Woodward](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns_Woodward), for his epic teaching and group dynamics. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/20 "2009-01-17T17:55:20Z")
I’d like to see movies made about all of these people, especially Tesla. Maybe the pro-science bent of the incoming administration will make scientists cool again, and we’ll get a bunch. > [@Ataraxy](#): > > **Marie Curie** had a movie about her shortly after she died and I think it’s time for another one. Unlike the first one, I think that this should focus not on her relationship with her husband, but her daughters. Single mom, world class scientist. A chick flick, perhaps? Why’d you have to go and add those last few words? Can’t a movie be made about a fascinating and important scientist, who happens to be female, without it being a “chick flick” (which to me is a ghettoized kiss of death)? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699.md?page=2)