by Kyle Anikehn Francisco | Polyplex
The movie Forensic (2020) started with a flashback in a small village where a young boy first sparked his interest in chickens being butchered. Later on he inconspicuously began collecting dismembered animal parts, hiding them under his bed where only he could enjoy them. After the hobby was discovered by his father, the boy was mistreated, abused, and discriminated against because of it. Nothing changed year after year, the boy held on mustering his rage against his father. Later on, the boy had enough and he successfully plotted his father’s murder. No one knew who he was, no one knew what he did. Years later the film progresses with a series of child murders, all of which are blamed upon a boy named Reuben who was mentally ill. Assigned to this case’s forensics team was the medico-legal expert Dr. Samuel. In order to unravel the child murderer’s history Dr. Samuel and the lead detective Ms. Xavier interviewed Reuben’s psychiatrist Dr. Alphonse. After this a profile of Reuben was made and the chase began. The forensics team started analyzing samples found on the sites where the kidnapping took place. They first started to cross check the DNA samples found on the scene to probable suspects, however none of the DNA matched. Eventually they deduced that the current murders were linked to a serial killer responsible for a series of murders in the past. The problem was the serial killer in question was apprehended years ago and made out to be innocent. Once the forensics team realized this they realized that the case was deeper than it seemed. After a while, the police force caught Reuben and later on closed the case without confirming that it was definitely Reuben who murdered the children. The turning point for the film was when the protagonist (Samuel), the head of the forensics team for the case was kidnapped by the real murderer’s henchman. He was able to escape and gather evidence, however he was framed for the kidnapping of another child. After this they had more discoveries which were deeply tied to the past of his brother’s immediate family. Samuel’s niece who they thought was dead, was actually alive and in the custody of the murderer. At this point Samuel already inferred the identity of the real murderer. It was Dr. Alphonse all along. The team assigned to the case was finally able to debunk the elaborate plot concerning the series of murders. Case closed.
As a biology student I was intrigued by the laboratory techniques they employed in the movie. For example, the collection of DNA samples were realistic, however I observed the lack of face masks during the collection of the DNA sample from the foil wrapper. The machine utilized for collecting epithelial cells from the wrapper exhibited the vacuum collection method, which is a legitimate process used in obtaining samples. The only downside from that was that it was unclear whether the foil wrapper got rid of other contaminants. It is hard to ensure the non-contamination of DNA on the wrapper when hygienic protocols are not followed. Contamination may be evident when an individual without a face mask speaks near the sample. Aside from this, numerous equipment were used which were normally used for DNA collection, sampling, and analysis such as the centrifuge, and what seemed like a PCR machine.
In order to pinpoint the primary culprit, the forensics team used DNA profiling from epithelial cells and blood samples. At first I thought they matched fingerprints with blood samples. However, as I was reviewing the movie it became clear to me that they matched DNA from the nuclei of epithelial cells. They also collected blood samples from possible suspects. This is still conflicting for me since DNA matching using blood samples would be exceedingly tedious as compared to using epithelial cells. Blood contains DNA, which is found in the nuclei of the white blood cells, which are not as many in comparison to erythrocytes (Dean, 2005). Meaning they had to pinpoint the white blood cells and harvest them for DNA isolation. They should have just stuck with epithelial cells since all cells in the epithelium contain DNA.
Another conflict for me was the secretive collection of DNA samples which neglected the necessary legal processes. Regardless of the result, I am firm in my belief that they should have followed standard DNA collection protocols. Their dilemma here would be the culprit having a chance to strategize faking his DNA.
They already had the culprit DNA tested, which of course at that time they did not know. However, the DNA of the culprit did not match his own DNA on the wrapper. This is an effect of the bone marrow transplant of the culprit when he had leukemia. Bone marrow transplant also known as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation alters the DNA of the recipient causing DNA chimerism, this chimerism is present in blood and majority of the epithelial cells. However, the cells coming from the fingertips of the recipient still contain some cells with their non-chimeric DNA ( Alsaleh et. al, 2021). DNA chimerism is the alteration of the DNA in a cell wherein additional nucleotides are added resulting in a recombinant DNA. For Dr. Alphonse’s instance, the DNA in his blood leukocytes contain chimeric DNA from his stem cell transplant, while some of the epithelial cells on his fingertips contained non-chimeric DNA or his original DNA before the transplant.
I would say that this movie gave me a great time, most especially when it was explained why the culprit’s DNA did not match. I may not be a fan of the exaggerated fighting scenes but as a biology major, this was an interesting film for me because of how DNA forensic techniques and loop holes were embedded in the plot. Likewise, it did not conform to the usual hero and anti-hero movies where the antagonist’s plans are easy to discover. Overall, I enjoyed the film because of the battle of wits between Dr. Alphonse and Samuel.
References:
Alsaleh, A. B., Alokail, M. S., Kassab, A. C., Chaudhary, A. R., Messaoudi, S. A., Babu, S. R., Albujja, M. H., & Aldawsari, G. (2021). The impact of chimerism on DNA-based human identification from skin surface cells of post-allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCST) patients. Forensic Science International, 318, 110636. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.FORSCIINT.2020.110636
Dean, L. (2005). Blood Groups and Red Cell Antigens. National Center for Biotechnology Information, Chapter 1, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2263/
Posts
0 Comments