Media featuring brains in jars

This is a list of media featuring brains in jars (not to be confused with the "brain in a vat" thought experiment).

One of the earliest, and best-known, examples is the oft-parodied They Saved Hitler's Brain

The Man with Two Brains was a film that gave a comedic treatment to the subject.

A brain in a jar, known simply as "the Brain", is the leader of the Brotherhood of Evil in Doom Patrol comics.
- The concept of the brain in a vat was used to drive the plot of an issue while the comic was helmed by Grant Morrison. Therein, two brains in vats, one evil and one good, engage in combat through the medium of, respectively, a genetically-enhanced mutant ape and a super-strong robot. Morrison used the thought experiment to comedic effect, in order to explore several difficult features of mind-body dualism.

Morrison featured another brain-in-jar in New X-Men, Morrison's run on X-Men. Martha Johansson is a young telepath with bioluminiscent blood that was captured by the U-Men, a cult of baseline humans seeking to empower themselves by grafting mutant body parts to themselves. Martha's brain was removed and kept in a jar. The U-Men's leader, John Sublime, used Martha's brain to control the minds of mutants. After being rescued, Martha became an X-Men student and later a member of Xorn's Brotherhood of Mutants.

The series of novels Captain Future and the corresponding anime series features Professor Simon Wright, a living brain into an artificial floating case.

The cartoon series Futurama had several characters who consisted of heads in a jar, including Richard Nixon (and was also a method where real-world celebrities like Lucy Liu and Leonard Nimoy made cameo appearances). This is however dissimilar from the brain-in-a-vat concept in that the heads were still interacting through their intact sense organs with the ostensibly "real" world of the cartoon setting, rather than with an invented or simulated reality through their nerve endings.

Similarly, in the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf, character Dave Lister encounters his future self as a brain in a vat, the result of a horrible accident that is ultimately prevented from coming to pass when the future Starbug crew shoots down the present Starbug crew, creating a timeline paradox.

Also, the science fiction series Doctor Who features an episode titled "The Brain of Morbius" where a mad scientist keeps a brain alive in a vat of liquid while building a body of replacement parts. In the new series, the villain Lady Cassandra is little more than a brain in a vat, with some stretched skin as a face.

In the 1974 comedy film Young Frankenstein, Igor steals a brain (the wrong one) in a jar from the local "brain depository".

The French film La Cité des enfants perdus (english title: The City of Lost Children) included a character named Irvin who was literally a brain (continually plagued by migraines) in a vat, connected by external sensors and a speaker to the "real world".

The Star Trek episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion" (1966) features three Brains in a Vat who are The Providers for a race of "thralls" (slaves) whom Capt. Kirk et al must battle to the wagering amusement of the Brains. Capt. Kirk and Spock debate the brains along lines similar to Descartes arguments.

The Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain" (1968) features Spock's psyche and brain being removed and his body is augmented by Dr. McCoy to be remotely controlled while they search for the method of "re-embodying" Spock's removed brain.

Krang, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is a brain in a vat. In addition, in the 2003 animated series, Baxter Stockman is severely mutilated for his continued failures, to the point where he is just a head in a jar. Strangely, during his next appearance, his body now consisted of just his brain, remaining eyeball and spine (which he earlier lost with the rest of his body below the neck) in a much larger container.

In the film RoboCop 2, the drug kingpin Cain is preserved as a brain in a vat for a time while a new cyborg body is built for him.

In the Star Wars expanded universe, a sect called the B'omarr Monks deliberately remove their brains from their bodies as an aid to distraction-free contemplation.

See also the American film Donovan's Brain, or the recent Canadian play/film, "Possible Worlds".

The Dune prequels feature Cogitors who are disembodied brains living a life of introspection and contemplation. They also feature Cymeks who use their disembodied brains to control robots.

Roald Dahl's short story "William and Mary" is about a man who is persuaded to have his brain and one (ever-open) eye kept in a vat as a way to escape death.

In the video game Psychonauts Dr. Loboto and Coach Oleander steal the brains of Razputin's fellow campers to power a "Psychic Death Tank". The ones that do not work (Such as being too weak or too nice) are placed into vats and thrown away. Razputin must give these to Ford Cruller for "Re-Braining".

The animated television special Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip includes a distant future "Dextopia," in which Dexter's nemesis, Mandark, has been reduced to a brain in a domed tank, perched on a stand. Despite the tank's immobility, Mandark's brain manages to pin down this time period's elderly Dexter by knocking the tank over.

In the MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing, there is a monster called a Brainsweeper whose illustration is that of a brain in a vat controlling brooms.

Also, in the 1996 strategy game MissionForce: Cyberstorm, one of the best characters available to command the players "hercs", or war machines, is a brain in a jar.

The Outer Limits episode "The Brain of Colonel Barham" told the story of a dying astronaut who volunteers whose brain is removed from his body placed in a jar and connected to the systems of a starship so that he can pilot space journey. It first aired on 2 January 1965.

Irregular Webcomic! features "Hitler's Brain in a Jar" in the "Cliffhangers" and "Mythbusters" themes.

The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time introduces a character, Arthur the Artificial Intelligence, who is depicted as a brain in a jar with eyeballs. However, in the The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time, Arthur reappears and is depicted differently.