Health And Safety Expert Lists The Most Dangerous Fictional Workplaces
A safety expert talks fictional workplaces. I mean, who gave all those storm troopers guns? They can’t shoot!
Ever wondered if other Timelords' TARDISs (TARDISes? TARDUSES? TARDI?) are as unsafe as the Doctor's? Well, as a health and safety expert, I have.
By day, I spend my time inspecting warehouse racking across the UK, but by night I consider the questions no-one else seems to be asking. Like how Homer Simpson, a man who once confused Led Zeppelin with Jesus, is still the safety inspector at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant?
Health and Safety Nightmares and Missed Plot Opportunities
TV shows and films which pride themselves on realism feature all kinds of details. One of the most tragic deaths in The Godfather occurs peacefully and, without any dramatic cause, as a grandfather has a heart attack while playing with his grandson. One of Breaking Bad's most intense cliffhangers occurs when Dean Norris is using the toilet. And even the Fresh Prince of Bel Air was able to wrench the hearts of its fans with that painfully real scene where Will's father bails on him yet again. Will turns to Uncle Phil for support, and everyone watching the show suddenly notices they have something in their eyes...
What about workplace safety then? Why isn't this aspect of everyday life used in fiction to create drama in the same way so many other things are? Well, it is used. It's not used often, but it is used well. In one episode of The Wire, for example, the camera focuses on an unsafe staircase for a long time. This staircase, this workplace accident waiting to happen, helps to drive a subplot forward as Officer Polk considers throwing himself down said staircase in order to cash in on early retirement. The scene struck such a chord, with its realistic depiction of the working life of a policeman, that as late as 2013 (11 years after the episode aired) the scene was still being used as a way of talking about police pension reform.
Health and safety nightmares are more than a cliche. As The Wire shows, they have their own share of drama and politics. Every missed safety inspection is a potential lawsuit or accident waiting to happen.
Fiction is often used as a way of holding a mirror up to the real world and asking questions about it, and workplace safety is an aspect of the real world that many people are keen to ask questions about. Like all worthwhile issues raised by good fiction, not everyone agrees on workplace safety either. Do we take health and safety too seriously in the modern world? Or is the modern world significantly less safe than it was thirty years ago?
There's a lot more to workplace safety than many people realise, and there's a lot more realism in fiction than we often give it credit for. As a result, we should be holding our favourite fictional workplaces to higher standards. After all, none of us want our favourite film characters to die from an accident at work. How on earth would we ever have so many sequels if they did?
And so, after careful consideration, and many hours watching some of TV and film's finest creation's, here's my take on the four most dangerous fictional workplaces of all time.
Become a Community Contributor.
