Stathis Borans

Infobox character
name = Stathis Borans


caption = John Getz as Stathis Borans
first = "The Fly"
last = "The Fly II"
species = Human
gender = Male
born = 1946
occupation = Editor of "Particle" Magazine
portrayer = John Getz
creator = David Cronenberg

Stathis Borans is a fictional character in David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of "The Fly", played by John Getz. Getz also reprised the role in "The Fly II".

The character of Borans was played by Gary Lehman in Howard Shore's 2008 opera "The Fly" in its premiere at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

Fictional biography

Stathis Borans met Veronica Quaife while teaching science at college. Borans, who served as editor of "Particle" Magazine (which covered developments in science), sparked Veronica's interest in journalism. The two became lovers and lived together for two years, but eventually broke up. However, Borans and Veronica remained very close, and Veronica eventually found work as a scientific journalist at "Particle".

Hoping to find a good story, Borans sent Veronica to a meet-the-press party held by Bartok Science Industries. The next day, Veronica met Borans at his office, the walls of which were lined with both hard-earned and honorary scientific awards, and played a cassette tape she had recorded of a meeting between herself and scientist Seth Brundle, in which Brundle explained that he had developed a working teleportation system. Borans dismissed Brundle as a con man, and then Brundle arrived at his office to dissuade Veronica from writing a story on his "Telepods". Borans introduced himself to Brundle, and before he left the room to allow Veronica and Brundle to talk, he mockingly suggested that Brundle might be able to make an assistant editor who had outlived his usefulness disappear.

Some days later, Borans used his key to Veronica's apartment to enter the residence and take a shower. When Veronica arrived home and discovered this, she was outraged, and demanded that Borans return the key to her. Borans then began to make clear the fact that he wasn't over Veronica, and asked her whether she was going to pursue the Telepod story. Veronica claimed that she wasn't planning on it, but Borans already suspected that she fully intended to continue with the story, and so he surreptitiously had Brundle and his background researched.

Shortly thereafter, Borans secretly followed Veronica to Brundle's warehouse (which also served as his laboratory and living quarters) and waited overnight for her to leave. When she did, he followed her to a clothing store, where he observed her clearly shopping for a man. Borans, acting like an obsessive lunatic, confronted Veronica and proceeded to make a spectacle of himself in public. He made no secret of his jealousy over Veronica's relationship with Brundle, and Veronica angrily told him to stay out of her affairs.

However, this only fueled Borans' jealousy, and so he commissioned a mockup "Particle" Magazine cover featuring a painting of Brundle (wearing a leather jacket Borans had seen Veronica buy for him) and an artist's rendition of the Telepods. Borans' message was clear: he intended to break the story of the Telepods prematurely, and without Veronica or Brundle's consent. The mockup cover was then hand-delivered to Brundle's warehouse. Later that evening, Veronica arrived at Borans' office to confront him about it, and surprisingly he agreed to hold off on publishing the Telepod story as long as she would agree to keep him informed on the progress of the project. Despite asking for her cooperation as a professional confidante, Borans then made a crude, half-joking suggestion that they develop a sex-based relationship. Exasperated, Veronica told him "You're disgusting, as always" and left the office.

More than a month later, Veronica confided in Borans about the events of the past few weeks. She explained that Brundle had teleported himself without noticing a common housefly inside the sending pod, and had been fused with the insect at the genetic level. As a result, Brundle was now slowly transforming into a bizarre human-insect hybrid. Borans recommended that Veronica stay away from the deteriorating Brundle, but she explained that Brundle needed her support. He then asked her to videotape Brundle's condition, so he'd have a better grasp of the situation, which would allow him to formulate a course of action. However, when Borans saw the resulting videotape, in which Brundle gave a demonstration of his new eating technique (which required him to vomit corrosive enzymes on his food to pre-digest it, then suck up the resulting fluid), Borans was horrified. Veronica then revealed that she was pregnant with Brundle's child, and Borans stood by her during this crisis. Later, he drove her to Brundle's warehouse so she could tell the diseased scientist about the baby, and when she emerged from the building in tears and demanding an immediate abortion, Borans took her to see his friend, Dr. Brent Cheevers.

Despite the lateness of the hour and Borans and Veronica's reluctance to fully explain the situation, Dr. Cheevers agreed to perform the abortion. However, Brundle had followed the pair to Cheevers' clinic, and burst into the building to abduct Veronica and convince her to carry the child to term. Borans went to Brundle's warehouse, armed with a shotgun, to rescue Veronica. As Borans entered Brundle's lab and examined the Telepods, Brundle lept through the open skylight and attacked him. Easily overpowered by the crazed mutant, Borans was unable to defend himself as Brundle vomited corrosive fluid onto his left hand and right ankle, dissolving them. Before Brundle could kill Borans, Veronica begged him to stop, and he complied. In a state of semi-conscious shock, Borans became aware of Brundle's desperate plan to use the Telepods to merge himself with Veronica and their unborn child. The now-fully-transformed "Brundlefly" trapped Veronica inside Telepod 1, and stepped into Telepod 2. Borans used his shotgun as a makeshift crutch in order to prop himself up, and then fired at the cables connecting Telepod 1 to the teleportation system's main computer. As Borans freed Veronica from Telepod 1, Brundlefly smashed out of Telepod 2 just as the fusion sequence occurred, and was fused with chunks of metal and other components from the Telepod. As the Brundlefly-Telepod fusion creature crawled out of Telepod 3, Veronica used Borans' shotgun to end her former lover's misery. [The Fly, Brooksfilms/20th Century Fox]

Some months later, Borans, now equipped with an artificial hand and foot in addition to using a cane, was an observer at the main Bartok Industries complex as Veronica gave birth, but was escorted away when he angrily demanded that the doctors put more effort into saving Veronica's life.

Five years later, Borans was living in an expensive home in a remote location, where he was visited by Martin Brundle, the rapidly-mutating son of Seth and Veronica, and Martin's lover, Beth Logan. Martin and Beth were seeking information about Seth Brundle's aborted "cure" for his condition. Borans, who had become a reclusive drunk as a result of Veronica's death, the loss of his hand and foot and losing his job as a science magazine editor; he was less than hospitable, and bitterly recounted the details of Brundlefly's pathetic end. He did, however, agree with the late Seth in that a cure might involve the Telepods, a notion which Martin was already considering. As the two departed, Borans then loaned them his Jeep, since he'd correctly guessed that they were on the run from Bartok and would need a new car. [The Fly II, Brooksfilms/20th Century Fox]

Notes

* Stathis Borans was named for Lou Stathis, an editor at "Heavy Metal" magazine who often praised David Cronenberg's films. [ "The Fly Papers", Tim Lucas, Cinefex Magazine, 1986]
* "The Fly" had an unused epilogue, which was shot four different ways (all of which can be seen on the 2005 Collector's Edition DVD release of the film). In the version of the scene as originally scripted (and previewed for a Los Angeles test audience), Veronica is seen in bed with Stathis Borans (having married him) some time after Seth Brundle's death. She awakens from another nightmare in which she gives birth to Brundle's child, and Stathis reassures her that she is safe, and that the baby she is now carrying (having presumably aborted Brundle's) is his. Veronica then falls back asleep, and she then dreams of a beautiful human baby with butterfly wings hatching from a cocoon and flying off towards a distant light source. ["Fear of the Flesh: The Making of The Fly", "The Fly" Collector's Edition DVD, 20th Century Fox, 2005] The other filmed versions of the epilogue featured:
#Veronica in bed with Stathis (much the same as the version that was previewed), but without her being pregnant. Instead, Stathis reassures her that "there's no baby". She then falls back asleep and has the butterfly-baby dream.
#Veronica waking up alone and in her own bed, then falling back asleep and having the butterfly baby dream. In this version, she is clearly still pregnant with Brundle's baby.
#Veronica waking up alone and in her own bed, then having the butterfly-baby dream. In this version, she's not visibly pregnant (thus leaving the ending ambiguous).The epilogue did not fare well with the preview audience, and ended up being cut from the film because no one wanted to see Ronnie end up with Stathis, the stop-motion animation of the "butterfly-baby" was not entirely convincing, and because both the audience and the filmmakers felt that the story should end with Brundle's mercy-killing at Veronica's hands.

* John Getz shaved his beard off after the first film, and so wore a false one in "The Fly II".
* The script for "The Fly II" explained that Borans lived in such a fancy home because he'd taken hush money from Bartok (and had been told that Brundle's baby died in childbirth along with Veronica), but this was never mentioned on-screen.
* In an early treatment for "The Fly II", the Telepods were shown to be malfunctioning, and, during a scene in the completed film, Bartok's scientists attempt to use one of the laboratory animals, a Golden Retriever, as a test subject. However, after being teleported, the dog ends up gruesomely mutated. In the early story treatment, it was revealed that the Telepods were not working because Stathis Borans had taken the computer's information storage discs (which contained the Telepods' programming) before Bartok took possession of the pods. However, this detail was dropped from the final film, and it is left unclear as to why the Telepods suddenly aren't working at the beginning of the sequel.

References