Snake Expert Rates 9 Snake Attacks In Movies | How Real Is It? | Insider
Summary
TLDRHerpetologist Dr. Sara Ruane analyzes scenes depicting snake attacks and snakebites from various movies to judge their realism. She discusses snake behavior, venom, antivenoms, and first aid, noting inaccuracies like hissing, congregating in groups, instant paralysis from bites, and more. Dr. Ruane points out realistic details too, like a snake's calm demeanor when undisturbed. She assigns realism scores to each scene while sharing facts about snakes - their sensing abilities, constriction, feeding, self-defense, and more. Overall an informative, entertaining analysis revealing much myth alongside some truth in Hollywood's snake depictions.
Takeaways
- 😱 Venom needs to enter bloodstream to be effective; eating venom usually harmless
- 😐 Staying calm and still is the best way to avoid snake bites
- 😬 Cutting into snakebite wounds makes things worse; don't try to suck out venom
- 🤔 Snakes don't hear or see well; they sense vibrations and smell with tongue flicking
- 🙅♂️ Pheromones don't make snakes aggressive to humans or other species
- 🚫 Constrictors kill prey before eating; won't just gulp down live humans
- 🐍 Most snakes avoid biting when possible; human myths malign snake behavior
- 💉 Antivenom takes multiple monitored doses; not an instant snakebite cure
- 😡 Neurotoxic venoms like black mamba's quickly paralyze nervous system
- 🏥 Get snakebite victim medical help ASAP; tracking swelling shows venom progression
Q & A
What are some ways snakes actually hear or sense vibrations?
-Snakes don't hear very well, but they can feel vibrations through their jawbones. They may also pick up on super-low frequencies. Mainly snakes use their tongue flicking to collect odor molecules and understand their surroundings.
How exactly does a snake's jaw work when swallowing large prey?
-A snake's upper and lower jaws are not fused together. This allows them to stretch their lower jaw very wide horizontally. Snakes swallow prey by pulling it into their throat using one jaw at a time in an alternating motion.
Why can't anacondas move as quickly on land as shown in the movie clip?
-Anacondas are very large, heavy-bodied snakes that spend most of their time in the water. The buoyancy allows them to reach massive sizes. On land their heavy bodies prevent them from moving rapidly like in the movie scene.
What should you do if a non-venomous snake bites you?
-The bite itself is not dangerous. Non-venomous snakes have small, rear-facing teeth not likely to cause serious injury. Carefully remove the snake if it's holding on. Clean the wound and watch for infection, though serious infection is unlikely.
How does snake venom injected into tissue differ from poison that is ingested?
-Snake venom must enter tissue or the bloodstream directly to be effective. Someone could consume venom by mouth and remain unharmed, unlike poison which causes harm when ingested.
How is antivenom actually administered to snakebite victims?
-Multiple doses of antivenom are given based on bite severity and symptoms, not a single dose like in movies. The patient is monitored and may receive more antivenom if symptoms persist or worsen. Antivenom stops circulating venom but doesn't reverse damage done.
What should you NOT do if bitten by a venomous snake?
-Do not make cuts over the wound or try to suck out the venom. This is ineffective and causes more tissue damage. Also do not kill or bring the snake to medical staff - identification can be done without it.
Why don't groups of snakes swarm or attack humans like shown in some movie scenes?
-These behaviors are completely unrealistic. Snakes act alone defensively; they will not amass as a group to bite someone. A biting snake will release and retreat once no longer threatened.
How does neurotoxic versus hemotoxic venom affect snakebite victims differently?
-Neurotoxic venom attacks the nervous system causing paralysis, loss of breathing capability, etc. Hemotoxic venom destroys tissue cells and blood vessels, causing localized rotting and potential need for amputation.
What should you do if encountering a snake in the wild?
-Try to remain calm and still so as not to startle it. Do not make sudden movements. Back away slowly if possible. Most snakes will not chase or attack without provocation.
Outlines
😨 Discussing snake bites in movies and judging accuracy
Dr. Sara Ruane introduces herself and says they will look at snake attacks in movies and judge their realism. She discusses the plausibility of snakes ending up on a plane, noting they could sneak in luggage or hide on the plane. She identifies the harmless snakes falling from the ceiling and says even nonvenomous snakes can bite defensively. She will rate the movie's realism.
😴 Analyzing constriction and feeding behaviors of snakes
Dr. Ruane explains how the movie anaconda moves unrealistically fast and seems unnaturally large and strong out of water. She discusses how lone humans can't easily escape a large constrictor without help. She notes the movie shows the snake gulping down the person, while in reality they consume prey more slowly in a complex process.
💉 Discussing treatments for snake bites and portrayals in movies
Dr. Ruane notes snake bites in the US often occur on hands, ankles and legs. She explains cutting the wound to suck venom is not recommended and ingesting venom is not dangerous. She says the movie realistically shows possibly needing amputation if treatment is delayed after a venomous bite. She rates the accuracy of antivenom portrayal in another movie clip.
😡 Analyzing mamba snake behavior and neurotoxic venom effects
Dr. Ruane says a black mamba could realistically strike at a human's face while feeling threatened. She explains their neurotoxic venom can paralyze nervous system functions like breathing. She says the movie reasonably shows fast acting effects but immediate immobilization from a bite is unlikely.
😃 Most enjoyable clip to analyze; importance of portraying real animals
Dr. Ruane's favorite scene was Indiana Jones with mostly harmless snakes and legless lizards. She enjoyed identifying real animals and found the behaviors realistic. She contrasts with inaccurate movies portraying animatronics or behavior unlike real snakes. She closes by inviting viewers to watch the next video.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡snake
💡venom
💡bite
💡antivenom
💡accuracy
💡behavior
💡anatomy
💡treatment
💡pathology
💡herpetology
Highlights
Venom is only used defensively as a secondary defensive system.
Snakes primarily use venom to acquire prey, and to kill it in a safe way.
To avoid getting bit in a situation like that, staying still is a good strategy to start with.
Flicking their tongues, is how snakes are tasting everything in their environment.
If I was to fall in there, I would just keep an eye on the snake, and just calmly get myself out, just climb on back out.
The blinking, the hearing, that's not accurate whatsoever, but because they portray the snake so nicely, I'm still going to give it a six.
Trying to suck the venom out of a snakebite, it doesn't matter what kind of snake it is, it is absolutely useless.
Neurotoxic venom is going to cause your nervous system to start shutting down.
With snakes like rattlesnakes, I'm always going to be very, very, very cautious with how they're handled.
No herpetologist who doesn't want to end up in the hospital would ever do that.
There's no kind of snakes, including cottonmouths, that are going to congregate together to hang out on somebody just to bite them.
If in fact that kid, say, tried to pick up a snake, or fell on a snake and did end up getting bit, no other snakes would show up to check it out or get involved.
Using that Sharpie and getting the time is tracking how the venom is progressing through the kid's system.
You're going to have swelling. Your cells are going to start doing all sorts of crazy things. Lysing, popping open, hemorrhaging.
Saying, "Let's get this person to the clinic", and then just going to some actual trained medical staff, is absolutely the right answer.
Transcripts
Trying to suck the venom out of a snake bite,
it doesn't matter what kind of snake it is,
it is absolutely useless.
I'm Dr. Sara Ruane, and I'm the assistant curator
of reptiles and amphibians
at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.
Today, we are going to look at snake attacks in movies
and judge how real they are.
What the?
I think a snake could end up
in someone's luggage accidentally and then it gets out,
or it could be just stowaway somewhere in the plane itself.
Snakes are pretty good at getting into really small places,
and they are really secretive, so they could be there
for a long time and you just wouldn't even know it.
There are so many species of snakes in this scene.
They are a mixture of harmless snakes
that aren't going to cause any problems for anybody.
So, those are milk snakes falling out of the ceiling,
maybe a corn snake,
some of the most common pet snakes that people keep.
Even if a snake isn't venomous,
one of the ways it'll defend itself when it is cornered
is by striking and biting.
Snakes actually have pretty weak jaw musculature
with respect to chomping down
because they don't chew their food,
they swallow everything whole.
If the snake doesn't have fangs, if it's not venomous
and all it has are these tiny little teeth
and it was to bite down on you,
it's really not that big of a deal.
Yes, sir, I'm soaking the leis with it.
The pheromone will make these guys go f---ing crazy.
The use of pheromones to make these snakes
act so wild is not realistic.
Pheromones in snakes are very poorly understood,
but pheromone work has been done across squamates,
which is the group that contains snakes and lizards,
and so some work on geckos has shown
that they absolutely do use pheromones to communicate.
Typically, pheromones are going to have a lot to do
with mates, finding mates, mate selection,
maybe even combat between males versus males
or females versus females over potential mates.
But as far as being aggressive towards other species,
that is really unlikely.
I'm going to give "Snakes on a Plane"
a four for realism.
I like that there are actually some real snakes used
in the movie, but the behavior of these snakes
is a really bad look for snakes and totally inaccurate.
A human can outrun pretty much every snake that exists.
Flat out, an anaconda certainly can't chase down a person.
This anaconda has a lot of upper-body strength
that a real anaconda would not be able to muster up,
particularly out of the water.
Anacondas are primarily aquatic,
and they reach massive, massive girths,
and one of the reasons they're able to do that
is because they live in the water
and the water supports that body weight.
So, the anaconda in this movie seems gargantuan in size.
It seems maybe that it's somewhere in the 40-foot range.
And although anacondas are thought to be able to approach
approximately 30 feet, the reality is that
as far as legitimate documentation
that has not been questioned,
20, 25 feet is a lot more realistic.
If they are on the larger side and you are by yourself
and one was to wrap around you,
you need a second person there to get out of that.
It wouldn't be undoable if you have a second person
who can start unwrapping the snake,
but by yourself, you actually are pretty limited
in what you can do to get out of that situation.
Snakes typically that constrict
are going to fully kill whatever it is they're trying to eat
before they start actually consuming it.
By constricting their food first,
then it takes away the ability for the prey to do anything.
In reality, that snake is going to be taking its time
when it's feeding, and given the way snake skulls
are put together, it's not a simple process.
People talk a lot about snakes
unhinging their jaws when they feed,
but the reality is that their jaws
are not actually attached to start with.
So, the upper skull is all one piece,
but the lower jaws actually sit
in a little groove on each side.
The lower jaw of a snake is the same thing,
where it can stretch out very, very wide.
And so this stretchy ligament allows the snake
not just to open its jaws very wide horizontally.
In this clip, when the snake is feeding,
it seems to just be gulping down the human,
but in reality, in order to pull that person
down into their digestive tract and down their throat,
that snake is actually going to be using one jaw at a time,
and then once it really gets down into the throat
where there's a lot of musculature,
it can start using those muscles
in the same way that we swallow something.
But it takes a while
before that sort of natural reflexive action takes over.
So, I give "Anaconda" a four
because the way that anaconda moves around
and its speed is incredibly unrealistic.
Anacondas are not out looking to eat people, anyway.
What we're seeing is a mixture
of sort of heavy-bodied snakes, boas and pythons,
and then a bunch of legless lizards
that aren't snakes at all.
Snakes are just a kind of lizard,
and so if we were to look at a family tree
of snakes and lizards, snakes are just within it.
The snake sitting there like that and looking defensive
but not really doing anything is pretty accurate.
Snakes are doing almost everything in their power
to not bite.
Venom is only used defensively
as a secondary defensive system.
Snakes primarily use venom to acquire prey
and to kill it in a safe way.
To avoid getting bit in a situation like that,
staying still is a good strategy to start with.
Staying calm, no herky-jerky motions.
Anything that's going to startle the snake is more likely
to make it bite because it's going to get scared.
And then just trying to back away very slowly
and calmly would be the next step.
So, that's a python, and it's just hanging out.
That seems pretty realistic.
That's what most snakes do.
Most snakes, even if you're up close in their face,
are going to remain pretty calm
if they can avoid having to do anything.
One of the best ways snakes defend themselves
is by not moving and hoping you don't really see them.
I'm going to give it a five.
What I like about this clip is that the snakes
for the most part are acting the way snakes do.
These snakes are mostly just minding their own business.
Maybe they are striking a little bit
when Indiana Jones is actually kind of harassing them,
but even the cobra doesn't do anything,
and that's really quite realistic.
I have to take some points off because
most of the animals in this clip aren't snakes at all.
Can you hear me?
Snakes really don't hear the way that we do.
If you have a pet snake,
you're not going to teach this snake its name,
and it's going to look up at you
and recognize that you're even talking to it.
That being said, snakes can feel vibrations,
particularly through their lower jawbones,
so they can feel something like a footfall.
And there is certainly evidence that snakes do hear
super-super-low frequencies,
but the human range is not something
that snakes are picking up on.
Flicking their tongues
is how snakes are tasting everything in their environment
and bringing those odor molecules back into their mouth
and letting their brain process what it is that's around.
So even if they can't see it,
they are able to sense when something is there,
whether that's something to worry about, like a predator,
or whether it's something to be excited about,
like maybe a potential mate,
or whether it's something to eat.
This snake is in a zoo environment.
It's probably incredibly used to people,
and it's probably very well fed.
If I was to fall in there,
I would just keep an eye on the snake
and just calmly get myself out, just climb on back out.
They act the way I'd expect people to act.
Jumping on furniture, trying to get out of the way.
If a snake wanted to do something to a person though
because it felt defensive
or whether it thought it was going to eat somebody,
which is really unlikely,
climbing up on something is probably not an effective way
to get away from it.
But again, you could just kind of walk away quickly.
The snake's not likely to follow you.
It portrays the snake as very calm and docile,
which is pretty realistic.
The blinking, the hearing,
that's not accurate whatsoever,
but because they portray the snake so nicely,
I'm still going to give it a six.
That snake in the clip looks like it is very deliberately
coming over, sinking its front two fangs only into her
with the express purpose of biting her.
And that's a really weird thing to try to portray
because that's really not how snakes bite.
They're going to engage both their upper and lower jaws
and bite fully.
In the United States, getting bit on the hand
or on the ankle or leg
tends to be where people get bit the most.
Cutting a cross or an X or a slash into a snakebite wound
is something that you see even in medical advice
for snakebite kits when you go back in time a little bit.
But the reality is that doing that
is only causing you more problems.
What people think when they do that
is they're going to make a nice incision
so they can start trying to suck that venom out
and really get it all out there.
Venom really needs to be injected
into the circulatory system, into the tissue directly
for it to be effective.
And so you could, assuming you don't have any sores
in your mouth or an ulcer maybe, something that's allowing
that venom to get into you, you could eat snake venom
and you would theoretically be totally fine.
And that's what makes venom different from poison.
Poison is something that you ingest it, you have to eat it,
and then it is able to penetrate into your body
through your stomach or through, sublingually in your mouth.
This character ultimately is unable to get help in time
to totally negate the effects of the venom
and ends up having to lose her arm.
If somebody gets bit by a snake like a rattlesnake
and is unable to get treatment relatively quickly,
it's not a death sentence.
However, that hemotoxic venom is going to start eating away
at the tissue where the bite site is,
and it's going to cause issues such as gangrene, rotting,
and ultimately, it may result in an amputation
even if you don't die from it.
So this is realistic in that this is what somebody might do
if they saw somebody get bit by a snake,
even if it's not the best treatment.
So I'm going to give this a six.
F---!
So, that's not a boomslang whatsoever.
This is a rat snake.
This is not anything what a boomslang even looks like.
It's probably the most inaccurate portrayal I've ever seen
given how many close-ups there are of a snake
that's quite distinctive-looking.
They don't have teeth up in the front of their mouth
that inject venom.
Instead, they have these enlarged teeth
in the back of their mouths.
They do not have a sophisticated venom-delivery system
like a syringe, the way a rattlesnake does.
Boomslangs were not known to necessarily be dangerous
because they don't have these front fangs.
30 seconds before the venom does its thing.
You could get yourself a big syringe of snake venom, 100%.
Because the way that antivenom is made,
you have to get venom from the snake species
you're targeting, and you do that by taking the snake,
and it's called milking it.
And basically, under controlled circumstances,
the snake is encouraged or forced to bite,
typically, it's kind of a rubber sheet
that is stretched over some sort of vial or cup,
and the snake bites into it,
and then the venom starts dripping down into the cup.
Oh.
Typically, when you see antivenom administered
in a movie like "Bullet Train,"
it's really not how it would go down in real life.
Antivenom isn't just a, oh, one dose and you're good.
Typically, you are given a certain number of doses
based on the severity of the bite
and the symptoms you're having,
specifically for the species or a group of species
that that antivenom was made to work for.
And you're monitored, and if you keep getting worse,
they'll give you a little bit more.
It's also ridiculously expensive.
It's not something you're just carrying around.
Having a dose of antivenom
and then getting bit relatively soon afterwards,
it might actually protect you from a subsequent bite.
One thing I'll point out
is that antivenom is very good at stopping the venom
that's circulating in somebody's body,
but whatever damage has happened typically isn't reversed.
A boomslang is not a constrictor,
and it's not necessarily going to wrap around something
and really hold on tight.
A rat snake, the snake that this looks like,
can do something like that,
but the snake's not going to hang on for dear life
given the opportunity to get away.
I'm going to give this a one.
I think this is one of the most unrealistic scenes
I've ever seen.
The snake isn't a boomslang.
The behavior of the snake is not anything like a boomslang.
The antivenom and how they portray it working
is totally unrealistic.
A snake definitely would be able
to sort of lunge forward and bite someone in the face.
Mambas are really big, or they can be really big.
They move pretty fast.
They do spend some time climbing around,
and so they do have pretty good ability
to come right at someone's face from that angle.
That would not be impossible.
It is possible that the snake would feel pretty worried
and defensive being surprised by a human,
which, from the snake's perspective,
is probably going to try to kill it
because that's usually what people try to do to snakes.
Most snakes posture
and only bite when they're really pushed towards it,
but it's certainly not impossible.
Budd, I'd like to introduce my friend, the black mamba.
Black mamba.
Somebody probably wouldn't so instantaneously
be feeling that bad.
I mean, they'd feel it, but it wouldn't necessarily be just
fall-on-the-floor-instantaneously bad
from a mamba bite.
Venomous snakes come in two main flavors.
You can have a snake that's neurotoxic
with respect to its venom or hemotoxic.
And black mambas fall
into the general category of neurotoxic.
Neurotoxic venom is going to cause your nervous system
to start shutting down,
and this occurs because the venom molecules
sort of glom on to our sodium potassium channels
and make it so that they don't pump efficiently,
and that's what causes you to have things like paralysis,
your diaphragm stops being able to function,
and so you can essentially have
no ability to breathe anymore.
This is not a bad clip with respect to realism.
I'm going to give this a seven.
With snakes like rattlesnakes,
I'm always going to be very, very, very cautious
with how they're handled,
and I'm never going to just pick up a rattlesnake like that.
No herpetologist who doesn't want to end up
in the hospital would ever do that.
When snakes bite, they typically strike, they make contact,
and they let go pretty quickly.
The only times where you see a snake hanging on like that
is, snakes have these recurved teeth,
and so because they curve backwards,
if they manage to kind of sink their teeth into something,
sometimes they can get a little bit stuck.
You do in fact have to kind of push them forward
and unhook them because of those recurved teeth.
That's not a thing that's going to work.
You could just do nothing, and it would be as effective.
Trying to suck the venom out of a snakebite,
it doesn't matter what kind of snake it is,
it is absolutely useless.
It just starts acting so fast
and dissipating through the tissues, through the blood
that there's no time to start trying to suck it out.
And it's not something that is, like, in a capsule
where you can just get it all out in one big suck.
Pouring alcohol on it is,
I can't imagine it really matters,
and it's certainly not going to suddenly
make the person sit up and be OK.
As far as portraying what a rattlesnake looks like,
it looks like a legitimate rattlesnake.
As far as the behavior,
as far as the way they're dealing with the bite,
totally ineffective.
I'm going to give this a five.
This is the worst one. For accuracy.
There's no kind of snakes, including cottonmouths,
that are going to congregate together
to hang out on somebody just to bite them.
If in fact that kid, say, tried to pick up a snake
or fell on a snake and did end up getting bit,
no other snakes would show up
to check it out or get involved.
That would never happen.
And the snake that was responsible for the bite,
the second it was no longer feeling threatened
or was being harassed,
it would take off and get out of there.
Mud: What time is it?
Neckbone: 4:18!
Mud: Yell it out every 10 minutes.
Using that Sharpie and getting the time is tracking
how the venom is progressing through the kid's system
and seeing how the swelling is progressing,
and that can be something useful.
Typically, you see that more in snakebite treatment
once the person's already at a hospital
so that they can see if the effects
of the venom are being slowed down
and that it has been essentially stopped by treatment,
typically by antivenom.
But that's not a bad thing to do.
The progress of the snake venom
and the swelling progressing through the kid's leg,
that seems pretty legitimate.
You're going to have swelling.
Your cells are going to start doing
all sorts of crazy things.
Lysing, popping open, hemorrhaging.
I'm going to give this a nine.
The snakes themselves are not portrayed
particularly accurately in their behavior,
but saying, "Let's get this person to the clinic"
and then just going to some actual trained medical staff
is absolutely the right answer.
And so for that reason alone, this gets my,
probably the highest rating I could give.
My favorite scene watching these clips today
is "Indiana Jones."
This is a movie I've seen before,
but it's only now in retrospect watching it,
seeing that all of the "snakes" in the movie
for the most part are actually just legless lizards,
I found it pretty charming.
It's fun trying to identify actual real animals,
versus something like "Bullet Train,"
where it's totally inaccurate.
Thanks for watching. If you liked this video,
why not slither on over to the next one?
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)