9 Fictional Torture Devices That Made Us Shudder

Strictly speaking, the Ludovico Technique from A Clockwork Orange isn't designed for torture - that is, causing pain is not its primary purpose. Still, it's plenty unpleasant. After receiving drugs that cause extreme pain and nausea, victims must watch film scenes of sex and violence; their eyelids are propped open so they can't even close them to avoid watching. 

The device's purpose is to create a visceral, conditioned response in the subject, so they're unable to contemplate criminal acts without feeling physical pain. Its use on juvenile delinquent Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) provides the moral crux of the film, asking what it means to be a moral human. If someone is psychologically conditioned to be lawful, does that make them a good person - and does it really matter, as long as they can't harm others?

We never see the bore worms in the campy 1980s sci-fi film Flash Gordon. Presumably, they bore into victims' flesh. All we see is the terrified reaction of Princess Aura (Ornella Muti) - duplicitous daughter of Emperor Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow) - when his security chief Klytus threatens to use them on her during an interrogation. 

The sheer terror with which she delivers the line “No! Not the bore worms!” is really all the evidence we need of their horrific nature.

Many of us assume the Iron Maiden was an actual historical torture device from medieval times. But evidence suggests it was actually fictional - a product of modern imaginations rather than medieval cruelty.

It was supposedly an enclosure into which a victim was locked and pierced by spikes. The “maiden” entered popular consciousness thanks to Matthew Peacock, a 19th-century collector who pieced one together and gifted it to a museum, without any real evidence about its backstory. The concept can be traced to Johann Siebenkees, an 18th-century archeologist who wrote a fictional account of the device being used in the 16th century.

The contraption used against hero Westley in The Princess Bride is known only as “The Machine.” Somehow, it's able to suck life out of a person's body, one year at a time, and cause plenty of pain along the way. Put it on the maximum setting for long enough, and it will suck out all of someone's life. Fortunately for Westley, the process leaves him only “mostly dead.”

Not all torture implements are machines; some can be living things. Take the Ceti Eel from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. A wormlike creature indigenous to the barren world Ceti Alpha V, it can burrow into a human's brain if placed inside their ear.

The person becomes extremely susceptible to suggestion before going insane and dying. Khan uses Ceti Eels to put two officers of the USS Reliant (Captain Terrell and Commander Chekov) under his command, using them to capture the ship.

In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, after taking control of Cloud City on the planet Bespin, Darth Vader orders Han Solo tortured, but doesn't ask him any questions. Vader isn't seeking to extract information from Solo - rather, he simply wants to use him as bait, hoping the Force-sensitive Luke Skywalker will detect his friend's pain and fly to Bespin to rescue him. 

The Scan Grid isn't designed for torture at all; it's a piece of mining equipment. But it emits electrical charges that can, in a pinch, be used to make a prisoner suffer.