I don’t know of many movies that actually portray a biochemist, but there are a handful out there. In most of them, the biochemist is somewhat dorky, but either hardens up and uses a gun, or gets thrown in prison for embezzlement and lying to the FBI. These are my personal favorites:

1. Nicolas Cage as Stanley Goodspeed in The Rock.

“Listen, I’m just a bio-chemist. Most of the time I work in a glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo. A beige one. But what I’m dealing with here, is one of the deadliest substances the earth has ever known so whaddaya say you cut me some friggin’ slack?”

My personal favorite, especially the quote about biochemists being boring and driving beige volvos.

2. Matt Damon as Marc Whitacre in The Informant.

“Archer Daniels Midland. Most people have never head of us, but chances are, they’ve never had a meal we’re not a part of. Just read the side of the package. That’s us. Now ADM is taking dextrose from the corn and turning it into an amino acid called lysine. It’s all very scientific, but if you’re a stockholder, all that matters is corn goes in one end and profit comes out the other.”

A quirky movie about the real life Marc Whitacre (Nutritional Biochemistry PhD) who exposed price fixing at ADM, but also got caught embezzling from the company and thrown in prison. After serving 8 years, Whitacre is now out and serving as COO of a company in California.

I love his inner monologue. It reminds me of my own inner monologue…

3. Rachel Weisz as Marta Shearing in the Bourne Legacy.

“Well, if you’re going to reprogram human genetic material, you need a delivery system, and nothing works better than virus. It’s like a suitcase.”

Dr. Marta Shearing is a biochemist involved in hacking Jason Bourne’s metabolism, requiring him and the other covert operatives to take a special nutrient pill or their body will shut down.  A built in self-destruct of sorts. Thinking about this approach in real life- knock out a gene involved in a core metabolic pathway, and then supplement the final metabolite of that pathway. Feasible on the surface, and a virus would be the best way to do it. Hmm…