Ironic Title


It's rather ironic that a movie titled "Mercury Rising" is about a boy with autism cracking a top secret government code. Mercury is a preservative added to many childhood vaccines and is believed to be a leading contributing factor to developing autism. I'm still waiting for a movie called "Mercury Falling" about the outlawing of this nasty practice and the dramatic decline in the number of children diagnosed with autism.

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[deleted]

Its not ironic at all. I think your looking to far into it.

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yeah. Im only commenting here cause Im watching this movie on USA right now. I actually did think about that too. But I dont think thats what the writer had in mind when he was thinking up a title. Mercury is what they used to use in thermometers, think about it. I think Ill change the channel.

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[deleted]

no, I think you may be right. I have no idea what the writers may or not know, but it's certainly in the realm of possibility. "Mercury," of course, is used as the name of the code in the movie, and btw, "Mercury Falling" was one of the alternate titles

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I agree - I think it is actually quite ironic.

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Autism runs in my family - I have signs of it, as do some of my siblings, father and his siblings, and two of my cousins on my father's side have full-fledged autism. One of my cousins has undergone a lot of therapy, including a lot of kelation (the removal of heavy metals from the body, which just stay there causing damage unless forcibly removed), and he has gone from extreme autism to almost normal. It is an amazing change. Even when he was four he could hardly string two words together. Now he just won't stop talking, and he is clearly extremely intelligent.

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That’s a lovely story, but I fail to see the relevance in this topic - was Mercury one of the metals forcibly removed from your cousin's body, and if so, do you think that it makes the film’s title ironic?

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Some people believe that it is just paranoia that keeps parents from wanting to give their kids innoculations, and that they are bad parents for "risking their child's health." The point of my story was to give some strong evidence that heavy metals (yes, that includes mercury) is a main contribuiting factor to autism. I think that autistic people already have a genetic susceptibility to it, but things like mercury can either trigger the symptoms or just make them worse.

Finally, I had never thought of it before I read this thread, but yes, I think it's ironic, and perhaps intentional.

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[deleted]

I never thought about the 'mercury' part of the title "Mercury Rising".
Thimerasol is a mercury filler used in immunizations. Within the first two years of life a baby has up to 12 immunizations, a little too much for such a little humanoid to handle all at once.
The last time I heard, Gov. Schwarzenegger was the first to outlaw the use of this preservative. California was previously into epidemic rates, they are now dropping since the use of thimerasol has been banned. Now Minnesota and Oregon are in the lead for cases of autism.

I live in MN. It's difficult to remember when my twin boys were reaching all their milestones at regular times. At 15 months, three months after the MMR immunization (the main immunization containing thimerasol.) they stopped speaking, stopped smiling. At four years of age I heard the one three letter word I hadn't heard since they were 1 year old, "Mom". They are now 9, one is still in diapers and has to be home schooled, the other is higher functioning, but still can't do simple things like spell the word, 'car', he has a hard time making friends too.
Half of the kids on my neighborhood block have autism.

"Autistic...because he sees too much, too much yet not enough to understand what he sees..."

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See, that's funny that you mention that, cause as I'm doing my project on Autism, I come across a passage about the MMR causing autism and the side heading is "Mercury Rising". Ironic I thought... so I ran over to here to see if the title had anything to do with the kid, cause I saw this movie like YEARS ago! Glad I found this, and I'm definitely going to use it in my assignment!

Sooner or Later it'll be Later... (or sooner)

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The title "Mercury Rising" may also come from the fact that the substance used in older model thermomiters to show temperature, refering to the intensity of the movie.

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