THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE MOVIE

That’s because we are all, in some way, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, right now. Or, when he was lucky, being set outside on a street, near, but not with, anyone else – always separated, psychologically, and emotionally.ġ976 was long before there was an Internet, mobile phones, social media, delivery services, or video chat – all the compensatory tools that make life in isolation today tolerable. It seemed isolating – this idea of spending life at home, with the same few family members, day in and day out, because of the threat of pathogens.

All I knew was that John Travolta, aka Vinnie Barbarino, from Welcome Back, Kotter – pre- Grease, pre- Saturday Night Fever – was walking around, separated by everyone else by a thin layer of plastic, mostly at home, or nearby, as far as pragmatism would allow him.

THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE MOVIE

The movie was based on the tragic real-life story of David Vetter, who died at twelve due to severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). By the time he was in high school, they experimented with a spacesuit so that he could walk around, and interact with his classmates, until it almost killed him so they went back to the Popemobile. To keep him safe, they built a giant transparent bubble like the incubator shell in the NICU of his youth, then expanded it as he grew into a portable room, like some early version of the Popemobile. It was arresting: a boy (named Tod), born without an immune system, forced into isolation from people and pathogens by his loving family, in order to maximize his chances of survival. I was just seven when I saw the made-for-TV special, starring John Travolta.

The boy in the plastic bubble