Not One, But Seven: The Science in "What Happened To Monday"

Scene from Netflix's What Happened To Monday (Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com)

By: Kenneth Tria 

In movies, one of the most common motivations of antagonists in doing cruel acts is overpopulation. One example is the film What Happened to Monday, a dystopian sci-fi thriller film that offers a unique and interesting case apart from other blockbuster hits. In this movie, Earth has already reached the maximum population size it could sustain.

In response to this, the government has issued a one-child policy for every couple. Any excess would then be captured and "stored" in a capsule to hibernate until the population drops in number. However, Terrence Settman has a rather peculiar case as his daughter gave birth to identical female septuplets. His daughter died after delivery and he was left with seven babies to take care of. In the society where multiple births are not accepted, this proved to be a challenge of survival for the children and Terrence.

In reality, multiple births exist and have actually been increasing in the past four decades (Kulkarni et al., 2013). Some of its forms are twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and sextuplets. The one observed in the movie is one example of high-order multiple births which is relatively rare compared to other forms. The most famous case similar to the film would be the McCaughey septuplets. All of them are still alive and have already turned 21. Some of them are studying in college while some are already engaged.

Multiple births occur due to either the fertilization of one or many eggs by many sperms. After the sperm enters the vagina and travels through the fallopian tube, it would then try to penetrate an egg cell in order for conception to occur. Usually, only one sperm fertilizes an egg but sometimes, multiple fertilization can occur. 

Monozygotic twins are a result of two sperms fertilizing a single egg while dizygotic twins are obtained when two eggs are each fertilized by different sperms. In addition, other forms of multiple births occur when the zygote divides into two or more embryos. Hence, it is possible to have different combinations of identical and fraternal children from different forms of multiple births.

Several factors could affect the frequency of multiple births which include mother’s age and fertility treatments (Abdolahhi et al., 2017). For unknown reasons, as the woman gets older, she tends to release more eggs which would really increase the chances of having multiple births. It was also theorized that higher follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) was the reason for such occurrence. 

Aside from these, fertility treatments such as In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is also one of the main reasons for the increase in multiple birth frequency. IVF is performed by extracting eggs from the mother and manually combining the sperm samples from the father in a laboratory dish. The embryo/s would then be transferred to the uterus of the mother to allow for child development. Therefore, multiple birth rates would surely increase due to the possibility of fertilization of more than one egg in the dish.

In comparison to the movie where the Settmans are monozygotic, the real-life McCaugheys are polyzygotic. Meaning, the McCaugheys originated from different egg- and-sperm combinations which led to their birth. On the other hand, the Settmans came from a single egg that was fertilized by several sperms.

This is actually possible, yet highly improbable. Following the Hellin’s law, the probability of having septuplets in the population is 1:89⁶ or 2.01x10^-12% which is extremely low. Moreover, cortical reactions in the egg alters the egg’s surface (with the help of cortical granules and enzymes that digest the zona pellucida) and creates a protective barrier (Sun, 2003). This mechanism is actually triggered after the egg and sperm fuses. It prevents polyspermy which in turn reduces the chances of producing identical twins.

Furthermore, the survival of the septuplets is also very unlikely due to several complications that arise during pregnancy and even after birth. Pre-term labors are not uncommon to multiple pregnancies as there are several conditions which could promote such. These include preeclampsia, placenta problems, ruptured amniotic membranes, and growth restriction (Fierro, 2019). The higher order multiple births would then have less chances of survival due to a large number of offspring in the mother’s womb. In consideration of such risks, the McCaugheys and Settmans are lucky to stay complete and outlast possible problems in multiple births.

Multiple births especially twins actually have practical applications today in behavioural genetics through twin studies. These are conducted in fraternal and identical twins to determine the genetic and environmental influences for trait phenotypes and disorders. It is important to remember that identical and fraternal twins have complete or partial similarity in their genotypes which are used to relate the influence of environment in the expression or inheritance of certain disorders.

Watching movies is truly entertaining and an efficient way to combat boredom. But being a keen observer and sifting through the facts to believe in are important things to keep in mind when viewing films. Knowing the basis of a concept with the help of science or other disciplines is imperative as it would assist in realizing what is right or wrong. Since a simple misconception would always lead to a wrong interpretation impeding our progression.

References:

Abdolahhi, M., Samani, R.O., Hemat, M., Arabipoor, A., Shabhani, F., Eskandari, F., Salehi, M. (2017). Factors that Influence The Occurrence of Multiple Pregnancies after Intracytoplasmic Injection Cycles with Two or Three Fresh Embryo Transfers. International Journal of Fertility & Sterility, 11(3): 191-196.

Fierro, P. (2019, January 8). Reasons Why Twins and Multiples Are Born Early. Retrieved March 30, 2019, from https://www.verywellfamily.com/reasons-twins-are-born-early-2447302

Kulkarni, A. D., Jamieson, D. J., Jones Jr, H. W., Kissin, D. M., Gallo, M. F., Macaluso, M., & Adashi, E. Y. (2013). Fertility treatments and multiple births in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 369(23), 2218-2225.

Sun, Q. Y. (2003). Cellular and molecular mechanisms leading to cortical reaction and polyspermy block in mammalian eggs. Microscopy research and technique, 61(4), 342-348.