Prosthetics, the artificial replacement of organic limbs or organs, often play a role in fiction, particularly science fiction, as either plot points or to give a character a beyond normal appearance. Numerous works of literature, television, and films feature characters who have prosthetics attached.
Prosthetics are used, in a narrative sense, to either, provide a plot point in the characters back-story, a plot point to give to character a disability (or more often in Science fiction, an advantage), or just to distinguish the character in some way. Having a character in a story with a prostheses, can sometimes be the whole point of the story (e.g. Robocop is a full-body cyborg of police officer Alex Murphy, in essence he is a human/robot police officer, which is the basic premise for the film).
Science fiction literature, television, and films often feature characters with prosthetics.
In Homestuck , Vriska Serket loses her eye and arm in an explosion. She receives a robotic arm from Equius Zahhak to replace it.
In Evil Dead , the main character Ash Williams has a chainsaw hand and later receives a mechanical hand in Army of Darkness.
In the myriad of Peter Pan stories and franchises, Captain Hook has a hook replacing his right hand which was eaten by a crocodile.
In Flannery O'Connor's story "Good Country People", the character Joy Hopewell/Hulga's leg was blasted off in a childhood hunting accidents and she uses a wooden leg instead that becomes important to the plot.
In The Fugitive television series and subsequent film, the fugitive Dr. Richard Kimble searches for the one armed man who killed his wife. In the film version, the one armed man also received a transplant - who was played by Andreas Katsulas. As a result, this would be another role in addition to his Babylon 5 role in which he received a prosthetic device.
In the novel Moby-Dick , as well as various productions based on the novel, Captain Ahab is a man who loses one of his legs to the great sperm whale Moby Dick. After losing his leg, a replacement of sorts is fashioned. This "wooden leg", actually carved out of whalebone, lets him walk with minimal difficulty. The loss of this leg fuels Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick, which costs him his ship, crew, and his life.
Mister Ming, the main antagonist of the Bob Morane books, has a robotic prosthesis instead of his right hand, which was lost during an attempt to steal a booby trapped gemstone.
In the manga and anime Ghost in the Shell , people whose bodies have been damaged or people who can simply afford it have their normal bodies replaced with a full prosthetic replacement. The main character, Motoko Kusanagi, is fully prosthetic. The Manga/Anime Galaxy Express 999 also features an array of main characters who have sacrificed their human bodies in order to occupy prosthetic machine bodies in order to become immortal. The 2011 video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution likewise centers around a future in which prosthetics have become commonplace.
The television series The Six Million Dollar Man and its spinoff The Bionic Woman both featured main characters whose replacement parts gave them abilities above those of normal people.
In the Harry Potter novel series, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody has an artificial eye (able to see through solids) and a wooden leg to compensate for wounds he received during his career as an Auror. Wormtail, Voldemort's assistant, also receives a replacement hand.
In the first-person shooter computer game Half-Life 2 , Dr. Eli Vance uses a prosthetic leg after losing his own leg below the knee helping his colleague Dr. Isaac Kleiner over a wall while escaping Black Mesa in the original "Half-Life" game.
In Kingpin , Roy Munson has a prosthetic hook hand, after he is brutally beaten and loses his hand when it is forced into a ball return.
The character Rotwang from the film Metropolis has a black mechanical right hand after losing it for unknown reasons. Because Rotwang is an early "mad scientist" archetype, it is believed that this influenced other characters, such as Dr. Julius No (who, in the novel, had jointed metal claws; in the movie, however, he possessed actual artificial hands).
In the Akira manga and anime Tetsuo Shima, one of the main characters, loses his right arm and it is replaced by a mechanical limb. In the anime he's seen assembling the arm from pieces of junk using his supernatural powers, while in the manga the origin of the mechanical arm is unknown.
A running gag in the film Hot Shots! and its sequel is Lloyd Bridges's character, Thomas 'Tug' Bensen, featuring various prosthetics that replace parts he had lost in earlier battles. These prosthetics include ceramic eyes, asbestos skin, a magnetic skull plate, aluminum siding facial bones, and stainless steel ear canals.
In the novel The Horse Whisperer (and the film of the same name), Grace MacLean loses part of her right leg when she is involved in a horseback riding accident and struck by a truck. She gets a prosthetic leg, and learns how to walk on it and ride again.
The character Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games loses his left leg at the end of the novel, after surviving a bad wound and blood poisoning. However, when he is attacked by one of the Mutts, the wound is bad enough that it later causes the leg to be amputated by the capitol. He is given a replacement prosthetic leg.
In the manga and anime Black Butler , some of the members of the Noah's Ark Circus have prosthetic limbs. These people are Joker (Right hand), Beast (Left leg) and Dagger (Right leg). However, it is revealed that these limbs are in fact made from human bone. Also, Joker's prosthetic hand is shaped to look skeletal.
In the manga and anime Fullmetal Alchemist , the main protagonist Edward Elric loses his left leg in a failed attempt to resurrect his mother Trisha Elric through the use of human transmutation, a forbidden practice in alchemy, while his brother Alphonse Elric lost his whole body in the process. He then successfully used human transmutation once again to bind the soul of his brother to a suit of armor, losing his right arm in the process. Later he replaced the missing limbs with prosthetic limbs known as automail, which are robotic appendages that are connected to the very nerves in the human body, granting the user the ability to use them just as they would with their actual limbs.
In the How to Train Your Dragon film series, the main character, Hiccup, walks using a prosthetic foot after losing his real one during a battle at the end of the first film; his dragon has a prosthetic replacement for one side of its tailplane which it lost early or was missing from hatching. (The first film explains that the dragon's tail fin was lost when Hiccup attempted to capture and kill the dragon.)
In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain the video game main character Punished "Venom" Snake is outfitted with a prosthetic Bionic Arm after a helicopter crash. Later in the game upgrades for the arm can be developed giving it the ability to fly like a missile as a "Rocket Punch", stun enemies with an electrical shock, or grab an enemy from far away with electromagnetic probes.
In A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, Jaime Lannister gets captured and maimed by the Brave Companions, a swellsword company, and loses his right hand, his sword hand. Being the best sword fighter in the Seven Kingdoms the loss of his hand means he loses more than just his hand. He has to re-invent himself. Back in Kings Landing with his family, he gets a prosthetic hand made of pure gold.
In the TV show ER , Dr. Romano's arm is amputated in Season 9 and in Season 10 he receives a robotic arm.
In the web series RWBY , Yang Xiao Long is enraged at the sight of Adam Taurus stabbing her partner Blake Belladonna in the torso, so she attempts to punch him. Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful as he had sliced off her right arm, which tore through her Aura and caused her to pass out. In Volume 4, her father then gets her a new prosthetic arm which was provided by General Ironwood. Near the end of the Volume, she spray paints her mechanical arm black and yellow.
In the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier after falling from a train in the prior Captain America film, a flashback shows James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes being picked up by Hydra and his injured left arm is amputated and replaced with some kind of mechanical prosthetic. The prosthetic appears to be fairly advanced at the time, and maintains its advanced form throughout the film, even in the present. It appears to be extremely powerful, able to withstand Black Widow's electric taser darts with little effect, and makes him almost capable of outmatching Captain America. It's seen again in Civil War, and is replaced with a new arm that is implied heavily to be vibranium in Infinity War. Ulysses Klaue, a supervillain, has his arm chopped off by Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron and his replacement arm is made of vibranium.
In the young adult realistic fiction novel The Running Dream, the protagonist Jessica is a runner who loses a leg in a bus accident on her way home from a race. With the help of her community, Jessica's family saves enough money to buy her a prosthetic leg designed for running.
Stanisław Lem's 1955 science fiction comedy radio play Are you there, Mr. Jones? (and the 1969 BBC TV play Roly Poly based on it) humorously deals with a legal issue, a kind of the paradox of the heap: if a person gradually adds prostheses until the body is completely replaced, whether the person remains a human (with legal obligations of the such) or he becomes a machine (which cannot be sued, but can become someone's property).
In the TV series Adventure Time , Finn Mertens' right arm is amputated twice. Once in its 6th season and the second time in its 8th season.
In the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure manga and anime, the series' second titular character, Joseph Joestar, loses his left arm below the elbow in his final fight at the end of Part 2, at age 18. He is shown with a prosthetic hand at the end of Part 2 and throughout Part 3, though he is typically shown wearing gloves in Part 3 and it is never shown uncovered in Part 4.
In the video game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus , Fergus Reid, if he was spared in the previous game, has his right arm severed during a struggle between Irene Engel and his daughter, Sigrun. He was given a prosthetic arm, which repeatedly malfunctions.
In the video game Sally Face, the character Sal Fisher wears a prosthetic face, due to his own being heavily scarred.
Geordi La Forge is a fictional character who appeared in all seven seasons of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and its four feature films as well as the third season of Star Trek: Picard. Portrayed by LeVar Burton, he served as helmsman of the USS Enterprise-D in the first season of The Next Generation, then occupied the role of the chief engineer for the rest of the series and in the films before appearing as a commodore in Picard. La Forge has been blind since his birth and uses technological devices that allow him to see – a VISOR in the series and the first film, replaced by ocular prosthetic implants in the last three films and in Picard.
Darth Vader is a character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. He is the primary antagonist of the original film trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is a protagonist of the prequel trilogy. Born into slavery, he eventually becomes a powerful Jedi. He is lured to the dark side of the Force by Chancellor Palpatine, and transforms from Anakin into the Sith Lord Darth Vader. After being severely wounded in a lightsaber battle, he becomes a cyborg. He is the husband of Padmé Amidala, the father of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, and the grandfather of Ben Solo.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is a character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. In the original film trilogy, he is a Jedi Master who trains Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Force. In the prequel trilogy, he mentors Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker. Obi-Wan is portrayed by Alec Guinness in the original trilogy and by Ewan McGregor in the prequel films. McGregor also plays the character in the television series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Guinness's performance in Star Wars (1977) earned him the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In medicine, a prosthesis, or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through physical trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth. Prostheses are intended to restore the normal functions of the missing body part. Amputee rehabilitation is primarily coordinated by a physiatrist as part of an inter-disciplinary team consisting of physiatrists, prosthetists, nurses, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. Prostheses can be created by hand or with computer-aided design (CAD), a software interface that helps creators design and analyze the creation with computer-generated 2-D and 3-D graphics as well as analysis and optimization tools.
The Skywalker family is a fictional legendary human family in the Star Wars franchise. Within the series' fictional universe, the Skywalkers are presented as a bloodline with strong inherent capabilities related to the Force and sometimes lightsaber skills. Luke Skywalker, his twin sister Princess Leia Organa, and their father Darth Vader are central characters in the original Star Wars film trilogy. Darth Vader, in his previous identity as Anakin Skywalker, is a lead character in the prequel film trilogy and so is his wife and the twins' mother Padmé Amidala; while his mother Shmi is a minor character in the first and second films respectively. Leia and Han Solo's son, Ben Solo, renamed himself Kylo Ren and is the main antagonist in the sequel film trilogy, while they and Luke serve as supporting characters. Shmi, Padmé, and Han are the only members who are not Force-sensitive. The Skywalker bloodline, alongside the Palpatine bloodline, are the two bloodlines that are the strongest with the Force.
"I Borg" is the 23rd episode of the fifth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the 123rd overall. It was originally aired on May 10, 1992, in broadcast syndication. The episode was written by René Echevarria, with help from executive producer Jeri Taylor. It was directed by Robert Lederman, the film editor for The Next Generation, one of two directing credits he received during the course of the season.
Major Motoko Kusanagi, or just "Major", is the main protagonist in Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell manga and anime series. She is a synthetic "full-body prosthesis" augmented-cybernetic human employed as the field commander of Public Security Section 9, a fictional anti-cybercrime law-enforcement division of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission. A strong-willed, physically powerful, and highly intelligent cyberhero, she is well known for her skills in deduction, hacking and military tactics.
Batou is a main male character in Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell series. He is the second-best melee fighter in Section 9, and is the second in command under Major Motoko Kusanagi. He is a battle-hardened cyborg special operative with a long distinguished military career and a no-nonsense attitude. Though he looks imposing, he is known for his warm heart, sense of humor, and love for animals.
Edward Elric is a fictional character and the titular protagonist of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga series created by Hiromu Arakawa. Edward, titled the Fullmetal Alchemist, is the youngest State Alchemist in the history of the fictional country of Amestris. His left leg was divinely severed in a failed attempt to resurrect his dead mother, and then his right arm was taken in exchange for his brother's soul. His missing limbs have been replaced with sophisticated prosthetics called automail. He and his younger brother, Alphonse, who lost his entire body and is spiritually bound to a suit of armor, scour the world in search of the Philosopher's Stone in the hopes of restoring their bodies. Edward has appeared in other media from the series, including video games, original video animations (OVAs) and light novels.
The Return is a novel by William Shatner that was co-written with Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Judith Reeves-Stevens. It is set in the Star Trek universe but, as part of the "Shatnerverse," does not follow the timeline established by other Star Trek novels. The book's sequel is Avenger.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is a novelization of the film of the same name, written by Matthew Stover and published on April 2, 2005, by Del Rey Books.
Battle Angel, known in Japan as Gunnm, is a 1993 original video animation (OVA) based on the Battle Angel Alita manga series by Yukito Kishiro. It is directed by Hiroshi Fukutomi, and jointly produced by KSS Inc., Movic, Animate and Madhouse. The OVA comprises two episodes, Rusty Angel and Tears Sign, corresponding respectively to volumes 1 and 2 of the manga with some differences, serving as a compressed preview for the manga.
The Sith are the main antagonists of many works in the fictional universe of the Star Wars franchise. They are the antithesis and ancient enemies of the Jedi. The Sith Order is depicted as an ancient cult of warriors who draw strength from the dark side of the Force and use it to seize power by any means necessary, including terrorism and mass murder; their ultimate goals are to destroy the Jedi and rule the galaxy. The various antagonistic factions in the franchise, namely the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the First Galactic Empire, the Imperial Remnant, and the First Order, all originated with the Sith. Sith, known individually as Sith Lords, are, by nature, ruthless. At any point a single individual assumes absolute authority amongst their kind and is granted the honorific Dark Lord of the Sith. Sith culture is based on perpetual treachery and betrayal. The fate of Sith Lords is, typically, to be murdered and replaced by their own apprentices. Sith teach their apprentices to revere the dark side of the Force, to give full reign to aggressive emotions such as rage and hatred, and to believe that others are expendable in the pursuit of power, it makes the Lords' demise inevitable.
Black God is a Japanese-Korean manga series written by Dall-Young Lim and illustrated by Park Sung-woo. Square Enix published the manga in Japan's bi-monthly seinen magazine Young Gangan. The story is initially set in modern-day Tokyo, then changes to the island of Okinawa in the middle of the story. The word "Black" in the title refers to the character Kuro (黒), as it means black in Japanese. "God" in the title refers to the fact that Kuro is a superhuman, or "Tera Guardian". In France and other French-speaking countries and territories, the manga goes under the name Kurokami: Black God.
The Borg are an alien group that appear as recurring antagonists in the Star Trek fictional universe. The Borg are cybernetic organisms (cyborgs) linked in a hive mind called "The Collective." The Borg co-opt the technology and knowledge of other alien species to the Collective through the process of "assimilation": forcibly transforming individual beings into "drones" by injecting nanoprobes into their bodies and surgically augmenting them with cybernetic components. The Borg's ultimate goal is "achieving perfection."
The space-opera blockbuster, Star Wars franchise has borrowed many real-life scientific and technological concepts in its settings. In turn, Star Wars has depicted, inspired, and influenced several futuristic technologies, some of which are in existence and others under development. In the introduction of the Return of the Jedi novelization, George Lucas wrote: "Star Wars is also very much concerned with the tension between humanity and technology, an issue which, for me, dates back even to my first films. In Jedi, the theme remains the same, as the simplest of natural forces brought down the seemingly invincible weapons of the evil Empire."
Chee Weng Fai Jason, also known as Jason Chee, is a Singaporean para table tennis player who had won gold medals at multiple editions of the ASEAN Para Games.