'' NOVOCAINE '' FILM REVIEW : PAIN

A STRANGER TO PAIN : A new movie action hero is immune to pain. But that real-life condition is more of a danger than a superpower.

NOVOCAINE - a new action movie starring Jack Quaid, introduces a fresh take on the superhero  genre. It features a hero whose superpower actually exists.

Mild-natured Nathan '' Novocaine '' Caine  [Nate] is catapulted into the criminal underworld when his love interest is kidnapped by bank robbers.

On his quest to save her from almost certain peril, he absorbs blades and bullets. He even manages to retrieve a gun from a scorching-hot deep fat fryer that he then uses to shoot a baddy.

The movie's tagline is '' Meet Nathan Caine, he can't feel pain.''

Nate's '' superpower '' is a syndrome called  congenital analgesia, or congenital insensitivity to pain [CIP].  As the name suggests, it's an inability to feel pain. But those who have it really do suffer. Being able to feel pain has many advantages.

Congenital insensitivity to pain is something of a misnomer. Technically speaking you aren't sensitive to pain. Pain is the sensation that the brain constructs from sensory information obtained from the body.

This sensory information might include mechanical injuries, such as a prick from a pin or cut from a knife. Or the extremes of hot and cold temperatures, or irritant chemicals like acids coming into contacts with the skin.

We call these sorts of stimuli '' noxious ''  -meaning potentially damaging to the body. The nerve cells [ neurons ] that detect these stimuli are hence called nociceptors. They have an essential role in protecting the body from harm. 

If you step on something sharp, you'll automatically move your foot away. Or if you spill something corrosive on your hand you'll rush to a sink to wash the substance off.

So, while Nate might make the most of not feeling pain, his ability is far from being a superpower.

Pain may not feel nice, but it saves lives.

The World Students Society thanks Dan Baumgardt, a Senior Lecturer at the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience at the University of Bristol in the UK.