Fight of the Immune Cells - Osmosis Jones
By: Hanaa Gatta
The movie Osmosis Jones centers on Frank,
a messy zookeeper and father to a young girl, Shane. The movie begins with
Frank eating a germ-ridden egg and falling sick. The movie takes us inside the
human body for a tour of the uncharted neighborhoods of the body like the Lower
East Backside or useful organs such as the Puke Button. These places are
depicted in colorful and vivid animation, and then we switch to live-action for
the outside of the body in question, i.e: Frank. He follows the Ten-Second
Rule, which teaches us that if food is dropped and stays on the ground for less
than 10 seconds, it's still safe to eat. In the case of the hard-boiled egg in
question, he might also have reflected that before the egg dropped, he had to
pry it from the mouth of a monkey. The egg is crawling with germs, sending the
inside of his body into emergency mode, and thus putting Franks's life in
danger. At the cellular level, we enter the world inside his body, ie: the City
of Frank, that is taken care of by a white blood cell officer, Osmosis Jones
(“Ozzy”). In reality, White blood cells are mainly immunity cells. They are
always at war and flows through the bloodstream to fight viruses, bacteria, and
foreign invaders that threaten health. Thus in the movie, Ozzy’s job is to
prevent the deadly virus Thrax from killing Frank.
Many children indeed enjoy the movie Osmosis Jones, which reflects on the box office sales value of the Warner Bros movie. Being a children’s movie, we know that the movie does not make an accurate depiction of how the human body works in reality, so what is it that the movie could have done differently while also making the intricate biology understandable for children?
When one's body is in distress and a particular area is under attack, white blood cells rush in to help destroy the harmful substance and prevent illness. Likewise, this virus is then attacked by the white blood cell in the immune system, i.e Osmosis, alongside his sidekick, Drix, who is a cold pill, to save Frank from the deadly pathogen, Thrax. In reality, a human body has many more barriers at the exterior that prevents germs from entering the body, e.g: skin, phlegm, tears, and saliva. Here the virus penetrates the human body by the mouth, which is an accurate depiction of how a virus can enter the body.
Additionally, the movie could have improved its explanations as to how a white blood cell defeats and how a virus functions. The film had only one heroic character: the white blood cell or Osmosis that was responsible for most bodily functions, such as cleaning the mouth, receive antibiotics in the GIT track, fix with acne. However, in reality, humans have 5 types of white blood cells, e.g: Monocytes, Lymphocytes, Neutrophils, Basophils that deal with specific functions such as create antibodies, digest bacteria, or produce cells to alarm the body when a virus invades. Osmosis would be categorized as a natural killer of white blood cells because such cells are the first line of defense when infection strikes. Like in the movie, the many systems of our body are constantly communicating. WBCs like Ozzie is stationed all over the body and work with the lymphatic system and other defensive entities to fight infection and disease. Since there are different types of cells in different parts of the body to tackle invaders; therefore, the movie could have benefited from including more characters or more types of blood cell that can handle a specific task, i.e: kill the infection, instead of being responsible to handle every bodily function.
Additionally, the human body also uses the special defenses of the B and T cells that target the pathogens of infected cells. B and T cells are unique because they use past behaviors and interactions to learn about particular foreign threats and attack them when they reappear. This also is not shown in the movie in any form, alongside this the ending is also inaccurate as to how the human body defeats a virus because it is highly unlikely for a virus to fall from an eyelash as shown in the movie. In reality, the human body is a complex organism, many functions are at play however in the movie scientific concepts are oversimplified for entertainment. Having a single cell manage the entire body does make us get a basic understanding of how the immune system works, but the film could be improved by including more characters, or multiple types of white blood cells, that work together as a team to keep Frank healthy.
In conclusion, the movie Osmosis Jones is indeed entertaining, though there is enough room for improvement; therefore moving forward it would be good if film such as Osmosis Jones has better and realistic scientific aspects of how the human body operates. Lastly, Osmosis Jones is an incredible movie to teach different concepts regarding immunity, such as eight graders for an introduction to immunity, or to twelfth graders for revisions and thus would be interesting pedagogy to incorporate in our current academia structure.
References:
- https://awwmemes.com/t/osmosis-jones
- https://www.memedroid.com/memes/tag/osmosis+jones
- https://www.cancercenter.com/community/blog/2017/05/whats-the-difference-b-cells-and-t-cells
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