Hey,

so i was recently reminded of a scene in the new(er) batman movie: the dark knight. In this scene the joker has shown up in a room with the mobsters and gangsters of Gotham city and as he's making a case to have them join him in killing batman he stands either a pen or a pencil (i believe it was a pen) on the table and slams the guys head into it. The pen then is lodged into his head and seemingly into his brain. He is killed.

I am wondering what the possibility of this is? It's a capturing scene undoubtedly. but is it scientific?

thanks guys...

p.s great job with everything else. !

On a personal note, I LOVED Heath Ledger's "Joker" in "The Dark Knight"! Nothing at all like Jack Nicholson's Joker in the first movie. THIS Joker is believable! THIS Joker is someone I'd be worried about meeting in a dark alley! THIS Joker gave me the creeps, and that's hard to do! Heath played him to the hilt!! Mr. Ledger may be dead, but his Joker will live on in my nightmares!

Jack Nicholson's Joker, by contrast, is cartoonish, a caricature, fake to the core, but fun, nonetheless. However, I would not be worried about meeting that Joker on a dark street; he's simply not realistic. Mr. Nicholson, I believe, certainly has the capacity to play a horrifyingly realistic Joker, but he worked with what he was given and did the best he could. Kudos, Jack!

So, on to the question: Would it be possible to jam a pen or pencil up the nose and into the brain, killing the victim? Hmmm... Let's Google cranial anatomy and see what pops up.

OK, having done that, what I get is that the pencil would most likely be driven into the frontal and prefrontal corteces. Depending on the exact path of the pencil, damage would be done to areas that control sight, some cognition, personality and memory. It probably would not be immediately fatal, but the injury would, no doubt, be severe.

On a related note, there is a recorded case of a railroad worker in the late 19th century who was tamping dynamite into a blasting hole when the charge went off prematurely, driving the tamping rod (a metal rod several feet long and about an inch in diameter or so) up through his head and out the other side, going through a part of his brain that controlled personality, among other things. He lived several years after this, but was unable to control his temper. There were other effects, but this is the most noteworthy. The tamping rod went through the same region the pencil would be driven into, but was not fatal.

Thus, the answer to your question is that the pencil probably wouldn't kill, but would cause serious damage requiring immediate hospitalization.

I thought when he got slammed the pencil went through his eye, I could be wrong but I am pretty sure im not and if it did go through his eye he would have been killed easily from it.

Actually, in the scene in question, the pen was jammed up the guy's nose and into his brain. Even had it gone through his eye, it may not have proven fatal, for that depends on the exact path it took through the brain and how much damage it did on the way in. The railroad worker I mentioned had the tamping rod blown upwards, through his eye and completely through his skull (and brain), yet he survived. And a tamping rod is a good deal larger than a pen or pencil. This goes to prove the point that jamming a pen into one's brain, while serious and with major repercussions, need not necdessarily be 100% fatal. It IS survivable, depending on the exact circumstances, but the victim will be more or less disabled from that point on.