

And if the trauma is bad enough, as in the case of a 13-year old boy who had an orbit penetrated by a metal bar which herniated his brain stem, treatment can only go so far.įatalities do happen in cases of penetrating eye injury, but many properly treated cases have decent prognoses. One patient who attempted suicide with a ballpoint pen died after four days due to the undiagnosed trauma the pen was only discovered at the autopsy. It is when such injuries are not treated that there is a real danger. The patient who had the arm of the glasses enter his brain was released from the hospital after three days with no complications and intact vision.
#THE JOKER MAGIC TRICK FULL#
In fact, if treated quickly, partial to full recovery describes the majority of these cases. These cases are always serious-an orbitocranial injury always is-but rarely so serious that the patient dies instantly. A small diameter object like a pencil would enter the orbit, pass through the superior orbital fissure, follow grooves in the sinuses, and enter the brain underneath the frontal lobes, near (or in) the cerebellum and close to the brain stem. If the force is lower however, the path of least resistance is directed by bony brain anatomy. If the object enters with enough force-like a bullet-it can exit the back of the orbit, as the bone there is relatively thin. The eyes might be the windows to the soul, but the superior orbital fissure is the window to the brain ( highlighted in white here ).Īn object entering the orbit where your eye sits has two options: it either breaks through the back of the orbit or follows the path of least resistance. At the back of these orbits, there are holes for the eyes to connect to the brain. The human skull has two recesses-orbits-that hold the eyes. The path of the pencil begins with the eye. Part of the “magic” is that once the pencil disappears we only have an idea of where it went. If treated promptly and properly, The Joker’s “magic trick” wouldn’t be so serious. But the brain is far more resilient than you may suspect. There is no trick the pencil would have made it into the goon’s brain. The scene is a cinematic description of the deadly humor of The Joker-and an example of character acting by the late Health Ledger that I have yet to see topped-and the immediacy of the violence likely shocked audiences into thinking that the unfortunate henchman met his end by Number 2. The pencil disappears somewhere inside his head. Stabbing a pencil into a desk, The Joker thrusts a henchman’s head into it eraser-first.
#THE JOKER MAGIC TRICK HOW TO#
The second time we meet The Joker in The Dark Knight, he shows us a magic trick that everyone knows how to do, but no one would ever find a volunteer for.
