History Main / BrainInAJar

** Martha Johannsen/No-Girl, a mutant kept alive as a brain in a jar to be used as a telepathic weapon before the ComicBook/XMen rescued her.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Martha Johansson, AKA No-Girl, is a psychic mutant who ran away from home as a teen, only to be abducted by the U-Men. Their leader, John Sublime, had her brain removed and body destroyed, keeping her mind under his control with drugs and using her as a psychic weapon until No-Girl telepathically forced him to commit suicide. Afterwards she joins the Xavier Institute, and is given a hovering glass tank to keep her brain safe and mobile. She apparently adjusts well to her lack of a body, and in a future continuity becomes the new Cerebra.

%%* ''Film/TheySavedHitlersBrain''

%%* ''Donovan's Brain''
%%* ''Film/FiendWithoutAFace''

%%** General Grievious is actually reduced to a brain inside a fully robotic body.%%

%%* The novel ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donovan%27s_Brain Donovan's Brain]]'' by Creator/CurtSiodmak.

** Done to an extent in "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E14HowHermesRequisitionedHisGrooveBack How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back]]", where Bender's personality and intelligence are downloaded into a floppy disk.

* On ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', [[spoiler:the dying Anton Ivanov -- an EvilLuddite who dislikes modern technology for being more software than hardware -- demands that he not be saved by [[BrainUploading uploading his brain into an LMD body]], saying he would rather die. AIDA complies with his dying wish [[ExactWords to the letter]]. She doesn't touch his ''brain'', she cuts off his ''head'' and puts it in a jar where he can control the LMD body remotely. He's a bit pissed upon waking up, but he seemingly gets over it, as by the end of the season [[MesACrowd he has made dozens of LMDs of himself]] and his head is controlling them all simultaneously]].
* In the series ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'', [=AIs=] can't use their FasterThanLightTravel, relying on organics to get them to their destination within a century. To get around this, several automated systems are using WetwareAI systems such as this.
* It's not a brain, but according to ''Series/TheColbertReport'', doctors can now keep a pair of lungs alive and breathing [[http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/229646/june-04-2009/craziest-f--king-thing-i-ve-ever-heard---external-lungs in a glass dome.]] Creepy!
* The brain of Saint Peter shows up in the ''[[Music/DougAnthonyAllStars DAAS Kapital]]'' episode "Felicity", and is promptly corrupted by the All Stars.

* ''VideoGame/CosmicSpaceHeroine'' has an UniqueEnemy that is a brain in a dome controlling a vehicle that shoots missiles. Interestingly, the brain is robotic too.

* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', the #5 ranked Letz Shake controls what looks like a SuperCollider powered by a brain in a jar.

* The [=BioDerm=] (artificially cloned/grown human pilot) "Mentor" in ''[=MissionForce=]: VideoGame/{{Cyberstorm}}'' is one of these, an experiment meant to test the feasibility of direct neural link to a [[HumongousMecha HERC.]] It works - Mentor is scarily competent - but the tradeoff is a very short lifespan.

* Joe Musashi from the ''VideoGame/{{Shinobi}}'' games had to deal with B.I.A.Js quite a few times in his missions. In ''VideoGame/TheRevengeOfShinobi]]'' a stage taking place aboard a huge military transport ended with a BossBattle against a Brain in a Jar that actually controlled the transport. In ''Shinobi 3'' one of the missions takes place in a biowarfare lab where he would deal with Brains that broke out of their jars, Brains with Wings, and at the end, a Brain in a Dalek-esque battle machine.

* In the first episode of ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxTheDevilsPlayhouse", the titular duo encounter a disembodied alien brain named Gordon on General Skun-ka'pe's ship. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As suggested by the title]] of episode three, "They Stole Max's Brain!", Max ends up spending some time as one of these.

Compare to LosingYourHead when the whole head is preserved and capable of independent movement. This may or may not lead to AndIMustScream.

* Part of Araya's "Spiral Paradox" in ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'' relied on these.

* In the 2001 version of ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}}'', [[spoiler: the ''true'' leaders of Black Ghost are '''three''' brains in jars, hiding inside a shuttle. The three can somehow speak: one talks with a man's voice, another with a woman's, and the third has a child's one.]]

* In ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'', after Dimitri is [[DePowered stripped of his Enerjak powers]], he's put on heavy life support. Later, after being experimented on by [[MadScientist Doctor Finitevus]], his head is removed and placed in a floating bubble.

* [[spoiler:Mr. Freeze]] in the Franchise/{{DCAU}} is eventually reduced to this after his condition worsens. He was able to slow it down with the aid of some kidnapped scientists, but by that point, he had already lost everything from the neck down. To make things worse, his condition has also made him TheAgeless. By the time of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', he's still alive... as a disembodied head stuck in a glorified meat locker.

* In ''Literature/{{Twig}}'', it's eventually revealed that Jamie's PhotographicMemory is actually the result of being an interface for a huge collection of these.

* In ''[[ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative Avengers: The Initiative]]'', Think Tank is a member of Montana's state superteam, Freedom Force. To all appearances, his head is a brain in a spherical glass case perched atop an otherwise completely normal human body. He's telekinetic and wears a headband and not much else is known about him.
* ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'' villain The Brain in Franchise/TheDCU. In one continuity he finally does manage to get a body--only to die in an explosion a few minutes later, moments before kissing his right-hand man, Mallah, to whom he'd just confessed his love for. Who's a talking French gorilla. You had a ''brain in a jar in a robot being in love with a homosexual talking French gorilla''. Gotta love comics!

* In ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'', the supervillain Psychoblast has been reduced to a brain in a jar. He apparently still has his powers, as the villain Idea Man comments that he can trigger the apocalypse, but Psychoblast has to be roused from slumber by beaming images into his mind, preferably images of a HotLibrarian.

* The Brain from Sirius, a recurring antagonist from ‘’Comicbook/EMan’’ is a [[MyBrainIsBig huge brain in a container]].

* Franchise/MarvelUniverse:

* During an early '90s ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' story ComicBook/LexLuthor fakes his suicide and has his brain (along with spine and eyeballs) put in a vat from which it directs its very own transplant to a younger Luthor clone.
** Late 80s Superman villain Hfuhruhurr was an alien who removed brains from living people and placed them in machines which psychically linked them together, creating a HiveMind called "the Union" which possessed telepathic and telekinetic abilities.
* In the {{Elseworld}} ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', Lex Luthor is reduced to a brain in a jar [[spoiler:after the Ultra-Humanite hijacks his body in the 1940s]]. He gets a robot suit powered by Kryptonite, becoming this universe's version of Superman villain Metallo. In ''Generations 3'', he causes even more trouble [[spoiler:by helping Darkseid's Parademons set off a bomb that shorts out modern technology, sending humanity into a dark age until they get back on their feet in the 23rd century.]]
* In "Operation Friendship", in ''ComicBook/{{Tales from the Crypt}}'' #41, a genius who felt that he was losing his best friend to said friend's less-intellectual new wife removed about two-thirds of the guy's brain and kept it in a jar with a speaker attachment.

* ''FanFic/LeftBeyond'': Heavy Mech Troopers are a version of this, although usually the whole head is kept intact because rewiring eyes and ears is difficult and expensive.

* ''Film/TheManWithTwoBrains'': Dr Necessiter opportunistically removes the brains of a serial killer's victims and keeps them alive in jars.

** Doctor Sun, a [[YellowPeril Chinese enemy]] of Dracula in ''Comicbook/TheTombOfDracula'' (we know he's Chinese because we are told).

* The Batteries in ''WebVideo/TheMercuryMen'' are brains in jars.

* The Deckmen from ''[[Manga/{{Gunnm}} Battle Angel Alita]]'' are this -- with their facial flesh included.

* The second ''VideoGame/FreedomForce'' game has 'Eyes of the Reich', which are (you guessed it) Nazi Brains in Jars with [[SlowLaser Slow Lasers]].

* The second ''VideoGame/FreedomForce'' game has 'Eyes of the Reich', which are (you guessed it) Nazi Brains in Jars with FrickinLaserBeams.

* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/TheDaedalusEncounter'' is grievously wounded in the intro cutscene, and revived as a "brain in a box" piloting a flying probe with a manipulator arm.

* ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'':
** Mother Brain, a re-occurring final boss, is just a brain in a tank, guarded by various gun turrets and organic barriers. It is supposedly a biological supercomputer.

* One bad ending in the ''Star Challenge'' books has this happening to you. [[spoiler:Your brain is inserted in an armor by an alien who says that he collects heroes' brains, as they're far easier to maintain.]]

** Lister also mentioned in an early episode that his uncle's brain was in a jar and that it was really sad, as he wasn't dead yet.

** Done to an extent in "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back", where Bender's personality and intelligence are downloaded into a floppy disk.

* Mr. Burns in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' ends up as one of these, attached to a robot body (but still fond of his teddy bear.)

** This is the ultimate fate of Lister in the episode "Out of Time", where the future versions of the main cast visit via a Time Drive the characters had only recently found by that point. However this is initially kept a secret from present-day Lister, and present-day Kryten, the secret keeper, is on the point of tears when he finds out, leading Lister to believe that he had been killed instead.