Allergies are so common that they have made it to the big screen repeatedly, but not always rigorously. In some cases allergic reactions are unrealistic and often treated incorrectly . We bring you an analysis of five movies where allergic reactions appear, but beware, because it contains spoilers . Have you seen them all?
Hitch
This movie starring Will Smith has one of the most remembered scenes for a severe allergic reaction . During a cooking class, our protagonist tries an appetizer and twenty seconds later his throat starts to itch. It is quickly mentioned that she is suffering from a food allergic reaction, and her face begins to swell with severe angioedema .
Since it is a comedy, the scene takes place in a humorous tone and is solved by taking a lot of Benadryl, an antihistamine. Due to the degree of the allergic reaction, it would be recommended to go to a hospital , not only to quickly control the symptoms but also to confirm if it is an allergy .
In case of a severe food allergy with risk of anaphylaxis, it would be necessary to prescribe an EpiPen®: epinephrine autoinjector. Although the allergic reaction is quite realistic, symptom management is very poor .
Horrible Bosses ( How to kill your boss , in Spanish)
Here we find another food allergy reaction and in this case they give us much more information about the disease and the character who suffers from it, Dave Harken, played by Kevin Spacey. The protagonists reference his allergy to peanuts to devise a plan to kill him and one of the protagonists is found in a car eating an energy bar containing peanuts .
When Dave picks up the wrapper from the floor that the protagonist has dropped, his skin comes into contact with peanut remains and he goes into anaphylactic shock . A study of peanut-allergic children showed that contact through the skin or inhalation of peanut dust was not sufficient to cause anaphylaxis , although reddening of the skin could be observed in some cases.
In this film, Dave manages to survive anaphylactic shock because the protagonist uses the EpiPen® that he carries (several times, which is completely unnecessary since it contains only one dose). Although the management of the allergic reaction in this case is more accurate than Hitch ‘s example, it would have taken Dave to ingest that energy bar to have the reaction .
Ocean’s Twelve
This second part of the famous Ocean’s Eleven presents us with an allergic rhinitis to flowers . This time we see Julia Roberts playing Tess Ocean, who feels the need to impersonate herself due to her position as a celebrity . Arriving at the hotel, they greet her with a bouquet of white flowers and she begins to sneeze non-stop until the flowers are moved away . Although they don’t mention what flower it is, it appears to be a bouquet of roses.
Allergy to roses has been reported in some regions of Turkey, but it is a very rare occupational allergy , associated with work in rose cultivation . If we imagine Tess as a former Turkish florist, the symptoms she presents and how they stop when the bouquet is moved away would fit perfectly with allergic rhinitis. Mild symptoms such as sneezing or itching could also have been prevented with an antihistamine before arriving at the hotel, and not raised any suspicion.
My girl ( My girl , in Spanish)
In this 1991 film we have Thomas J played by Macaulay Culkin, who tells us at the beginning that he is “allergic to everything”. Together with her best friend Vada (Anna Chlumsky), she spends the summer enjoying the good weather and outdoor activities. On one of their excursions, they come across a hive of bees and flee in terror when they realize that the bees begin to chase them.
When Thomas J returns to that area, the poor thing is not so lucky. In the next scene we get the bad news that he has died due to bee stings . Although the allergic reaction is not visible, if we assume that he was allergic to bee venom, getting a lot of stings would add up to a lot of allergen very quickly. This could cause an anaphylaxis reaction.
Anaphylaxis could be controlled with an EpiPen®, as seen in the Horrible Bosses movie, but at no point in the movie do we see Thomas J carrying one. In this case, the reaction would be well represented and is the most realistic of all, despite the fact that today anaphylaxis is only fatal in less than 2% of cases and depends on many risk factors.
Tangled ( Tangled , in Spanish)
Finally, this Disney movie that tells us the story of Rapunzel and an allergy also appears. Although it goes very unnoticed, in the scene where our thief Flynn Rider hangs down inside a castle to steal a crown, we see a guard sneezing . Flynn, out of shot, asks: “ Is there a fever?” which in Spanish translates as “Allergy to pollen?” .
On this occasion we find two curiosities. First, the translation is not literal, since hay fever should be translated as hay fever . This term, now out of use because it is incorrect, refers to allergic rhinitis and was used around 1900 . Considering that the film is not set in the present day, it would be appropriate to use the obsolete term. In Spanish, it refers to the current but generic term of pollen allergy.
The second point to clarify is that, although the symptoms (sneezing) correspond to allergic rhinitis, the guard is inside the castle , so it is quite unlikely that the allergen (pollen) is present .
Referencias:
Borish et al. 2014. Death From Anaphylaxis Is a Reassuringly Unusual Outcome. J Allergy CIin Immunol. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2013.12.834Rurner et al. 2017. Fatal Anaphylaxis: Mortality Rate and Risk Factors. J Allergy CIin Immunol Pract. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2017.06.031Simonte et al. 2003. Relevance of casual contact with peanut butter in children with peanut allergy. J Allergy CIin Immunol. doi: 10.1067/mai.2003.1486.Demir et al. 2002. Allergy symptoms and IgE immune response to rose: an occupational and an environmental disease. Allergy. doi: 10.1034/j.1398-9995.2002.23277.x
