You may have heard this from many film reviewers that The Fly is one of the perfect examples of remakes DONE RIGHT. And this is not an exaggeration this film is one of the few RARE well-made remake films seriously. Filmmakers these days may actually LEARN something the next time they want to make a shitty remake.
We start off at a public gathering where we see Seth Brundle (played by Jeff Goldblum) being interview by Veronica Quaife (played by Geena Davis). He tries to convince Veronica that he's working on something that can change the world. Veronica is skeptical at first so Seth asked her to come by his lab and she agrees. At Seth's lab it's revealed that his work are two experimental "Telepods" which he demonstrates can teleport objects from one pod to the next. Veronica is deeply impressed by this and wants to write a story but Seth refuses to let her as she leaves his lab. The following morning Seth shows up at a editor's office where Veronica's editor and former lover Stathis Borans (played by John Getz) was not all convince with her story and leaves the two alone. We cut to a burger place where Seth still pleads Veronica not to write a story because of flaw in his telepods which is they can only teleport inanimate objects. While living organic objects...well....uh not very pleasant results as we're about to see. Back at Seth's lab he tests the pods on a baboon and....uh....how can I describe it without making you puking your spine out? Anyway the point is the test didn't work so Seth tries to figure out how to make the telepods safe for organic matter. Later after the two have sex...yep they actually have sex I got no way to segway to it so I just putting it out there to get to the point. Anyway after the sex Seth has an epiphany on what's causing the telepods to be ineffective to organic objects. Which is put simply the computer that runs the telepods can't seem to reproduce organic matter upon re-materializing. As she's leaving Seth's lab it turns out she has been followed by Stathis the whole time she's been with Seth...a creepo. The next day Seth test on another baboon only this time the baboon makes it through safely. As they celebrate this improvement, Veronica notices a package from Stathis and leaves confronting Stathis. Seth takes it the wrong way as he goes into bench drinking mode while talking to the baboon. Only Jeff Goldblum can make it so serious and funny at the same time it's flipping brilliant. Still angry and obviously drunk decides test the telepods on himself but not before he doesn't notice a fly going in the telepod with him. BUM BUM BAAAA! Seth appears from the second telepod completely intact...OR IS HE? Veronica returns to Seth's lab and after another one night stand Seth begins to notice some small changes to him. Such as apparently have the athletic skills of flipping Daredevil. Other noticeable changes Seth filling his coffee with hefty teaspoons of sugar and being rather hyper lately and apparently having a sex drive of a freight train. Because once that train starts going it's gonna be a LONG LONG time for it to come to a complete stop. Veronica notices some strange hairs on his back and tries to cut them off. Seth spontaneously goes hyper again persuading Veronica to go through the telepod so that she becomes "improved" but she refuses to. This gets Seth pissed off leaves and....ugh I'm sorry this is really distracting seeing Jeff Goldblum in his underwear it's just....ewwww.
We cut to Seth arriving at a bar and immediately flirts on a woman who's planning on sleeping with one of the two men in a arm wrestling match. Seth decides to join in and challenge one of the men determined to win the woman. Now in the scene that follows lets just say that if you ever in a arm wrestling match with Clark Kent or Peter Parker it's best to just kindly decline from this match. Because there might be a chance that you'll lose the upper hand; both figuratively and most likely literally. So anyway Seth brings the woman back to his place and shows her the telepods and OH MY GOD JEFF GOLDBLUM'S ASS! Anyway he tries to get the woman to go through the telepods but refuses again Seth get upset and forces her to. Luckily Veronica shows up and stops him; she then informs him that she had the hairs on his back analyzed concluding that they're non-human possibly insect-like. Seth nearly hulks out and sends out of his place. Later after one of many gross out scenes, Seth consults with his computer realizing that during his first trip through the pods there was a second element with him which was the fly. Resulting the fusion of Seth and the fly at a molecular-genetic level. Later in the span of four weeks in film time, Veronica gets a call from Seth asking to come over. She arrives at his place to see that...ugh well let’s just say I don't think plastic surgery is not going be much help. She goes to Stathis for help but he's too keen on helping Seth but he might if she shows him Seth. Veronica returns to Seth's place only to see him doing his best Spider-Man maneuver. No seriously we see him crawling all over the walls and ceiling like flipping Spider-Man. Completely off his rocker, Seth believes that this event has a purpose has a reason of what happened to him. He precedes film his gross out activities on camera as Veronica watches, this of course gives her the proof to show to Stathis. Later at Veronica's place after Stathis sees the video, she returns home informing him that she's pregnant with Seth's child....BUM BUM BAAAA! Soon after they're at a hospital to abort the possible mutant baby, during the procedure things go tits up and.... Well if want to know what happens watch the film.
Anyway it turns out the abortion scene was all a nightmare. Meanwhile, Seth or Brundlefly as he calls himself now consults his computer to find a solution of decreasing the fly's genetics from himself. What the computer has come is "The fusion by gene-splicing of Brundlefly with one or more pure human subjects". Veronica arrives at Brundlefly's place and tries to tell him that she's pregnant but couldn't and leaves but he finds out as he hears Veronica and Stathis outside his place. At a hospital they try to set up an abortion at late hours and were able to persuade a doctor to perform the procedure. But before they start the procedure Brundlefly breaks in and carries Veronica away. Back at Brundlefly's place Stathis sneaks in and waits for him to show up as he's armed with a shotgun. Unfortunately he gets jump from behind by Brundlefly and is immediately for Brundlefly to vomit digestive liquid on to Stathis's hand and foot. Here it's revealed that Brundlefly wants to use the telepods to genetically merge himself and Veronica into one being. And from here on out in this last scene we see Brundlefly transforming into a fly creature and trust me it's that amazingly gruesome. Brundlefly drags her into one pod and enters the second pod however, Stathis grabs the shotgun and manage to shoot one of the cables connected to Veronica's pod renders it unable to work. Brundlefly tries to get out of the pod before the fusion sequence starts it's too as he is teleported to a third telepod ended up being merge with some parts of the second pod that came along with him. With some of his humanity left, Brundlefly gives out a gesture to Veronica to shoot him in the head. Hesitate at first Veronica does so killing Brundlefly dead and the film ends.
My Final Verdict: This film is like a well-made stage play, it has more depth and meaning than the original Fly from 1958. Granted the original has it merits for a film from the late 50s but doesn't quite have the equal level of ones self-psychological obliteration as the remake has. Jeff Goldblum's performance just shines like a supernova and I don't think you'll see something like from Goldblum ever again. Well except for Jurassic Park he was really awesome in that film. The performance between Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis are just near perfect and the thing is this isn't the first time they share the same scenes together. The first time was back in 1985 with the film Transylvania 6-5000 and then the third time 1988 with Earth Girls are Easy. The Fly had a follow up sequel The Fly II in 1989 but unfortunately David Cronenberg was not involved in directing it.
We're about almost at the end and the very gruesome are yet to come. Stay tuned next time as we look into Videodrome.
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