Mad Science Quiz of Doom

Estimated Completion Time
4 min
Mad Science Quiz of Doom
Image: Rebecca Handler/Getty Images

About This Quiz

Mad science is quite a field! To succeed, you'll need sharp wits, a strong stomach and maybe a mutant assistant or two. So let's stroll through the mad science hall of shame and see just how well you know these deranged masters and their blasphemous experiments.
In the beginning, Victor Frankenstein created man. Following death threats from the resulting monster, he also agreed to create woman. What happened to this do-it-yourself lady creature?
She jumped to her death upon glimpsing the monster.
He abandoned the project unfinished.
Frankenstein kept her as his own bride.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Frankenstein never finished his she-monster out of fear that his corpse-stitched creations would get it on and beget a new race of unnatural superhumans.

David Cronenberg's 1986 "The Fly" remake is loaded with gene-splicing gore, crippling degeneration and deep social commentary. Unsurprisingly, the teleportation accidents in the original 1958 film are a lot simpler. Just how are Dr. Andre Delambre's body parts mixed around with those of a common housefly?
swapped head
swapped head and arm
swapped head, arm and leg
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Delambre emerges from the telepod with a fly's head and arm -- yet he still managed to retain his human mind. At least for a while.

H.G. Wells’ Dr. Moreau stands as one of the nastier mad scientists of the 19th century. Not only did he want to play god and create intelligent life, he aimed to do it by performing experimental surgeries on live animals. As of this writing, five separate films have brought this monsterpiece to cinematic life. Which of the following actors did not play Dr. Moreau?
Bela Lugosi
Burt Lancaster
Marlon Brando
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Bela Lugosi did star in 1932's "The Island of Lost Souls," but not as the doctor. That role went to Charles Laughton.

Advertisement

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is a gaudy celebration of mad science, horror and cross-dressing. In the film, Dr. Frank-N-Furter succeeds in creating life, but he also demonstrates a device that turns people into nude statues. What is this wondrous invention called?
The Sonic Oscillator
The Medusa Transducer
The Sonic Transducer
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Medusa Transducer could turn human beings into nude statues, and then back into humans again. Sadly, this device remains a mystery as the only known prototype left the Earth at the end of the film.

When mad scientists reach a certain age, their minds turn to cloning themselves so that younger versions of themselves can carry on their legacy. Take Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth of "Futurama" fame for example. What name did he give the cloned offspring of his own back growth scrapings?
Yancy
Igner
Cubert
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Cubert J. Farnsworth indeed carries on his father's exact genetic legacy, though Igner is in fact Hubert's non-clone offspring.

Dr. Alex Zorka terrorized audiences in the 1939 serial "The Phantom Creeps" with a host of fiendish mad science gadgets. They included a lumbering robot, an invisibility belt, exploding spiders and some sort of magical asteroid -- and he STILL failed to take over the world. Who played this incompetent madman?
Bela Lugosi
Boris Karloff
Lon Chaney Jr.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Bela all the way, baby.

Advertisement

And then there's Rotwang, the mad scientist villain of Fritz Lang's 1927 German Expressionist masterpiece "Metropolis." Old Rotwang had a masterpiece of his own in the form of the beautiful she-robot -- and he also rocked a robotic prosthetic. What was it?
mechanical eye
mechanical hand
mechanical leg
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Rotwang was quite the mad science trendsetter with his gloved robotic hand -- a flourish later employed by Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.

Speaking of Dr. Strangelove, what neurological disorder does the ex-Nazi rocket scientist in a wheelchair have in the film?
alien hand syndrome
phantom limb syndrome
body integrity identity disorder
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Played for comedic effect by actor Peter Sellers, Strangelove suffers from alien hand syndrome.

In Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," our love-struck mad scientist requires a certain pilfered element to power up his freeze ray. What is it?
unobtainium
oxypheromalkahyde
wonderflonium
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

It was in fact wonderflonium.

Advertisement

But speaking of oxypheromalkahyde, perhaps you remember a cult TV show called "Spaced”? Simon Pegg's character Tim writes a comic book in which the evil Dr. Mandrake tests the fictional substance on an orphan, turning him into a giant mutant what?
bear
shark
bearshark
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Tim's comic is titled "The Bear," and indeed that's the mutant, mad science creature in question.

On Nickelodeon's "Invader Zim," Professor Membrane devotes himself to super science while occasionally parenting his children Dib and Gaz. Who is Membrane's sworn enemy?
The Almighty Tallest
Ms. Bitters
Santa Claus
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Membrane received infinite socks instead of uranium-238 for Christmas one year, fueling a deep desire to destroy Santa.

Mad scientists love their pets! On the TV show "Fringe," what manner of four-legged friend does Walter Bishop keep in the lab?
skunk
cow
panther
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Walter's cow Gene generally hangs out in the lab, occasionally watching episodes of "SpongeBob SquarePants."

Advertisement

On FX's "American Horror Story: Asylum," the sadistic Dr. Arthur Arden conducts a host of vile experiments on his patients -- and was played by which actor?
James Cromwell
Zachary Quinto
Joseph Fiennes
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Oscar-nominated James Cromwell played the sadistic ex-Nazi scientist. His son, John Cromwell, played a younger version of the character in flashbacks.

In the Christopher Nolan film "The Prestige," two rival illusionists wage war against each other -- and one of them enlists the aid of Nikola Tesla. What feat does Tesla's invention accomplish in the film?
matter duplication
time travel
teleportation
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

While the invention appears to make people or objects vanish, it actually clones them via some form of matter duplication.

Let's think about the letter E. Which of these three scientists invented the proton pack?
Dr. Eldon Tyrell
Dr. Egon Spengler
Dr. Emmett Brown
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ghostbuster Egon Spengler invented the proton pack. Tyrell and Brown are responsible for human replicants and time-traveling Deloreans, respectively.

Advertisement

Now let's think about the letter F. Which of the following men experimented on humans by forcing them to watch really bad movies in outer space?
Dr. Gordon Freeman
Dr. Jacob Freudstein
Dr. Clayton Forrester
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Yes, neither a video game character nor an Italian horror film character, Forrester tormented humans and robots alike with cheesy movies on "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Randy Quaid played Frankenstein's monster in a 1992 TV movie, but he also got some lab work in as the twisted Elijah C. Skuggs in the 1993 comedy "Freaked!" Skuggs creates all manner of mutant monstrosities, including a bearded lady played by which long-whiskered actor?
Willie Nelson
Mr. T
Brian Blessed
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Other Skuggs creations included a man with a sock puppet for a head and Ortiz the Dog Boy, played by an uncredited Keanu Reeves.

Let's talk Spider-Man. The heroic web slinger has earned the ire of numerous mad scientists. Which of the following eventually turned into a giant lizard?
Otto Gunther Octavius
Curt Connors
Alistair Smythe
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

After experimenting on himself in an attempt to regenerate a missing arm, Curt Connors transformed into a rampaging lizard -- but at least he kept the lab coat on.

Advertisement

Mad scientist Herbert West made a name for himself in film and comics as a reanimator of the dead. Which horror author created him?
Edgar Allan Poe
H.P. Lovecraft
Clive Barker
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Played by actor Jeffrey Combs in several movies, the corpse-meddling scientists originates in Lovecraft's 1922 tale "Herbert West—Reanimator."

The 1978 film "The Boys From Brazil" revolves around a plot to clone Adolf Hitler and a fictionalized version of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious real-life Nazi concentration camp physician. Who played him in the film?
Charlton Heston
Laurence Olivier
Gregory Peck
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

While Heston did go on to play Mengele in the 2003 film "Rua Alguem 5555: My Father," Peck did the honors in "The Boys From Brazil," and Olivier played the aging Nazi hunter in search of him.

You Got:
/20
Rebecca Handler/Getty Images