Four scenes in Morbius that would trigger Social Anxiety Disorder

Dr. Mobius is one of the most brilliant people in the world. But even his brilliance cannot protect him from Social Anxiety Disorder.

Dr. Michael Morbius suffers from a rare, life-shortening blood disorder. Being physically incapable of walking properly, he is limited in a lot of things in life. Want to be a professional athlete? That’s not happening. Or maybe an astronaut? He definitely has the intellect, but still nope. How about a scuba diver? Well, he doesn’t “have very good sea legs” as he Morbius eloquently stated in the movie. The point is that Dr. Morbius is physically incapable of doing so many things. But where he lacks physically, he excels intellectually. His identity comes more from his brilliance than his handicap.

In fact, his intellect is so outstanding, he managed to cure his physical incapability’s while creating the minor side effect of becoming a blood-sucking vampire.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) does not stereotype. Whether you’re human or vampire, SAD can find you and make you blush. It will make you feel the uncomfortable experience of Red Face. So unless you are nocturnal and no one notices your red face, it’s best to learn a thing or two about SAD here.

The Four Mobius Social Anxiety Scenes

Scene 1: Dr. Morbius removes his shirt in front of Martine (Dr. Bancroft) while on the containership

Anxiety Provoking Event: Revealing his sickly, pale body to his romantic interest

With the goal of curing himself, Dr. Morbius and his colleague Dr. Martine Bancroft, embarked on a container ship over international waters (13 miles off the coast of Long Island). It is here that they planned to do a highly risky experiment with Morbius as the test subject. This experiment eventually resulted in the death of several men (mercenaries) on board, but it also gave rise to a new super hero.

To conduct the experiment, he needed to be prepped by Dr. Bancroft. He removed his shirt so she could inject the serum into his body and also monitor his vitals remotely. A shirtless Dr. Morbius turns out to be a very sick, vein populated, pale colored, and thinly shaped body. In other words, he doesn’t look very attractive.

If Morbius had SAD

If Dr. Morbius had Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), there would be no chance in hell he’d allow his romantic/love interest, Dr. Bancroft, to see him shirtless. Even if he were very sick, he would feel way too uncomfortable showing her his sickly body. He would be afraid of her judgement against him, even if she doesn’t say anything. Morbius would constantly be wondering what she thinks of him and so many scenarios of what her thoughts are would be racing through his mind. With the anxiety of her judgement looming, he will develop the humiliating Red Face symptoms right in front of her. It’s game over after that.

Although Red Face (bright red facial blushing and profuse sweating) is most obvious on the face, Morbius’ body will also sweat from embarrassment. As Dr. Bancroft is attaching leads to his body, she will feel the sweat on her gloves as they become moist. She’ll then look at his face and see the embarrassment of blushing. In this case he can hide behind the excuse of being nervous before his big procedure, so he may get away with that for now.

Scene 2: Coffee shop conversation with Morbius and Martine

Anxiety Provoking Event: Martine consoles Morbius by placing her hands over his.

This may seem incredibly subtle and not something that can trigger anxiety, but let’s not forget the background of the story. Morbius has been working with Martine for a long time. He clearly has strong feelings for her as we learn later in the movie. When a man doesn’t know what his crush thinks of him, that triggers some thought projections and possible anxiety. When his crush puts her hands on his, the wheels of the mind start spinning even more.

Now add Social Anxiety Disorder to that scenario, and Morbius’ mind would be on overdrive. His brain chemistry would be overreactive and a million thoughts would cross his mind about “why her hands are on mine.” If he had SAD, eventually Red Face would strike, and he would have to casually remove his hands from hers to avoid her feeling his hand sweat. Then he’d need to make his way to the restroom to wash his face in cold water to cool down the heat and sweat on his face. In other words, he’d need to wash away the embarrassment.

Scene 3: Interrogation by the FBI

Anxiety Provoking Event: FBI agents try to get Morbius to reveal his secret and confess to crimes he doesn’t fully understand yet (like killing nurse Sutton)

People with SAD are really worried about being observed and judged. Well, no one is more observant of you than law enforcement, especially during an interrogation. They look for physical and psychological clues from you while paying attention to every little thing you do and say. Make no mistake, law enforcement is there to meticulously observe and judge you.

Morbius has a secret about himself that he doesn’t want law enforcement to know. He also does not want to confess to killing nurse Sutton because he simply can’t remember doing it (we find out later that he didn’t kill her). He needs time to figure all this out, yet he is stuck in an interrogation room with the FBI.

If Morbius had SAD

With the amount of observing and judging going on by the FBI, Morbius would no doubt be sweating and blushing. This is especially true if he lies to them. Lying alters brain chemistry and with SAD, brain chemistry is already so erratic causing extreme anxiety and eventually Red Face. So the combination of being observed, being judged, and lying would 100% equal the recipe of SAD symptoms. In addition to Red Face, Morbius would develop trembling hands, thumpingly fast heart rate, stiff muscles causing rigid body posture, and some lightheadedness. And all of this would happen in front of the interrogating FBI agents. Their first thoughts…”oh he’s definitely guilty.”

Scene 4: Dr. Morbius attends the Nobel Prize ceremony

Anxiety Provoking Event: The aftermath of declining the Nobel Prize in front of an auditorium full of people.

Stick with me on this one… Speaking in front of a live audience is not social anxiety. Instead this is a different kind of anxiety called performance anxiety. A lot of people get performance anxiety before a big presentation. It’s that feeling in your gut, “butterflies”, that cause a person to feel really nervous. Although it’s nerve racking, it doesn’t normally cause Red Face symptoms because the context of the anxiety is different. And to get through performance anxiety, all you need to do is what everyone else does. Go up to the podium, accept the award, and leave. If you stick to that plan, you will be fine.

For Dr. Morbius however, that plan didn’t happen. Although we actually didn’t see the scene in the movie where he made a speech to decline the acceptance of the Nobel prize, a newspaper reference was made afterwards that he did indeed do that. The completely unexpected decline of a Nobel prize would send shockwaves around the world. If Morbius had Social Anxiety Disorder, he would draw massive attention to himself. People want to interview him, speak with him, observe him, etc. These are all social anxiety triggers that could lead to SAD symptoms, including Red Face. So although the actual speech in front of a live audience is not the catalyst for SAD symptoms, it’s the aftermath of that speech which is. To avoid the aftermath SAD symptoms of this speech, Morbius would have just chosen to accept the award and move on.