MovieChat Forums > Flickan som lekte med elden (2010) Discussion > Niedermann and the taser

Niedermann and the taser

posted 13 years ago by ttrek-1
13 replies | jump to latest

I'm curious. Niedermann apparently can't feel pain and all that. But wouldn't he still be affected by the taser?

I mean, his muscles would still be spasming and he would have no real control over them... he just wouldn't feel the pain of it.

Are they suggesting that if you can't feel pain you are somehow immune from electrocution?

I mean, his body is still being injured... he just lacks the bodies natural alarm mechanism to tell you so, namely pain. The more extensive the injury, the more pain impulses your body send to the brain to inform it. Painkillers stop that signal reaching the brain so you don't feel it.

But if I was being tasered and I couldn't feel pain, I'd still be writhing on the floor... it just wouldn't be writhing in pain. It would be writhing because I cannot control my muscles whilst the taser is attached.

Flynn 24

[–] Suntory_Times 13 years ago

I just assumed as they didn't say leprocy (can't recall the exact condition they said) that there was more to it then he didn't just feel pain. Hence why he also isn't knocked out after he was punched several time in the face.

For relaxing times, make it Suntory time...

[–] ttrek-1 13 years ago

Regardless, you could break his arm and he could go on and not pass out from the pain of it.

But he'd still have a broken arm.

Not being able to feel pain is not a super-power. In fact most people with the condition have to rigorously check each morning that they haven't bitten their own tongue off or injured themselves terribly in their sleep.

Flynn 24

[–] El_Stone 13 years ago

That's a really good point ttrek-1.

But then again, this is the same movie where earlier Niedermann had 2 people he wanted to kill passed out in a barn. Instead of just killing them, he locked them in the barn and set the barn on fire allowing them to escape.

He's not exactly adept at getting things done and you have to suspend a little belief to watch this movie.

[–] jondoe888 13 years ago

Kinda the same with hitting him in the head. Maybe he wouldn't feel it, but he would still get the concussive forces. If you hit someone like that in the head with a pipe, it would still knock them out.
The voltage of a taser overloads the nervous system, and it takes a while for the signals to reset.

[–] ats02171 13 years ago

It seems like Niedermann has more than one genetic condition. People can't feel pain generally the problem of not noticing they are hurt, so they have be extra careful. It seems that Niedermann had superior strength and extra hard bones. In the book it seems that Niedermann's condition he also used drugs.

[–] pmedmoe 12 years ago

Yes, his body would have reacted to the electric volt of the taser, he just wouldn't have felt it.

Also, regarding his mental status, congenital insensitivity to pain is often accomapined by other neurological abnormalties. In the book, he was described as not having a great mental capacity. For example, if he was told to do something, he would but he might not figure it out on his own.

Also, in the book, he had a great fear of the dark and imagined monsters or demons.

[–] broncos24 13 years ago

I thought the exact same thing, I believe yes he would be on the Ground becuase of the muscles spasming.

The other post have valid points on punching etc, but the taser would tempority parazlize him providing lisbeth an upper hand

[–] hambrehorst 12 years ago

I suppose, since LS has a thing for using her stungun on peoples genitalia, which is a mostly a muscle free area, that he didn't spaz out because of that?

Nah, it was just an un-thought out scene. Don't know if it's in the book but I don't think Stieg though too much about it.

[–] bhobnine 12 years ago

Pondered this myself. Not being a taser expert I had a few questions. How effective is a taser through clothing was my first question, after the first guy took a shot to the crotch. Next was, does a taser to the neck render you unconcious? Ive seen several police training type videos where they taser a guy, and he usually goes down but does not pass out. And finally, the ' even if a guy is impervious to pain, doesnt it still render his central nervous system out of whack? We need a taser expert on board. ;)

"Pffft, my suspension of disbelief has higher standards than that"

[–] fishrockcarving 12 years ago

She is using a stun gun, not a taser. Not semantics, a completely different breed of cat.

I took 200,000 V stun gun shock to my forearm, (Experimentally, a very short hit, and with someone behind me to catch me if I fell.) It didn't knock me off my feet or anything, but it shook me up and left me shaking for a while. There was no real pain per se, but it did feel like my arm had been punched in the stomach. This was on my forearm, not my body, and with a very short shock through a light jacket.

A good stun gun through clothing deliberately applied to the body, or the neck, as she did, for as long as she did, I have no doubt that it could render someone unconscious in a few seconds. Applied to the genitals, I imagine it would be very painful, maybe enough to make someone pass out from the pain.

My arm was sore for a few hours, my elbow, which was above the shock site, and my wrist and fingers joints felt stiff. I think that had I taken that shock bodily, as in center body mass or abdominally for a few seconds, 3 or 4 full seconds, I would have been pretty much incapacitated for about 10 seconds, and struggling for the same to get back in the game.

As to the story, as someone else pointed out, she got him in the gonads. No muscle there. Stun guns aren't about pain, pain is incidental, they are about losing muscular control. No muscle there, just lots of nerve endings, but his nerve endings don't work right.

[–] padfootbob 12 years ago

Maybe what he felt was an odd tickling sensation, or something like that? Good question though, was wondering the same thing...

[–] DonaldFDraper 12 years ago

Stun guns also don't knock people unconscious.

[–] maratonrunner 9 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcOMhnf38LE it is a stun gun.