Jason X took Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise into space for what could very well be its most ridiculous installment, but one of Jason’s kills caught the attention of Mythbusters, and they just had to try it out.
While the franchise on the whole is undoubtedly part of the slasher sub-genre of horror, but the addition of science fiction elements in Jason X made for some of the movie’s best – and worst – features. Released in 2001, Jason X was directed by James Isaac and written by Todd Farmer. It starred Kane Hodder in his fourth and final appearance as Jason Voorhees alongside Lexa Doig, Lisa Ryder, and Chuck Campbell.
Jason X didn’t manage to turn much of a profit, with its approximated $14 million budget only grossing $16.9 million at the box office. Reviews weren’t much better, but some of the movie’s kills were enough to get Jason fans on their feet, and even resulted in a pretty neat science experiment by way of Mythbusters‘ build team: Grant Imahara, Kari Byron, and Tory Belleci.
Mythbusters Tested Jason X’s Face Smash Kill
In the scene, Jason (Hodder) ends up attacking Adrienne (Kristi Angus) after he completely thaws out of his cryogenic slumber, and pushes her face into a vat of liquid nitrogen, then smashes her entire head on a nearby table, killing her instantly. While not the most bloody death, as Adrienne was frozen like an ice cube prior to impact, the kill got audiences’ attention, and is widely regarded as one of the best deaths in the entire franchise due to its imaginative and spontaneous nature. It also highlights Jason’s propensity to use his environment, and in space, there are some interesting futuristic toys to play with.
On the Mythbusters 2009 season, episode 129, titled “Hurricane Windows”, the build team set out to either prove or disprove whether or not it would be possible to freeze someone’s head in liquid nitrogen, then smash it into pieces. They decided to start the test with five seconds, and then increase depending on need. In order to complete the test, Grant built a robotic pan hammer that would simulate objects being smashed on the counter like Jason did in the movie. The team then created four different heads made using a mold of Kari’s bust. Three heads were made of ballistics gel, and each of them contained an actual human skull and brain matter analog. The fourth head was made completely of ice. The control for the test was done with an ice head and a ballistics gel head at room temperature. The ice head shattered. The ballistic gel head, at room temperature, received minimal damage by the hammer without the introduction of liquid nitrogen.
In order to simulate what was shown in Jason X, the second gel head was dipped in liquid nitrogen for five seconds and showed results that were similar to the control; part of the head shattered, but not completely. The third ballistic gel head was dipped for five minutes in the liquid nitrogen, but it didn’t shatter completely. To try again, the build team tested the experiment using two real pigs’ heads in order to get a similar feel to human flesh and bone. One head was dipped in liquid nitrogen for five seconds and smashing only flattened the snout. The second one was submerged for fifteen minutes and didn’t fully shatter, so at that point, the Mythbusters completely busted one of the most brutal kills in the Friday the 13th franchise.
