Is the Novocaine film condition real? Is it leprosy?

In the 2025 movie Novocaine, Jack Quaid plays a character called Nathan Caine who cannot feel pain. He uses this ‘superpower’ to fight his way through the many barriers that come between him and saving the girl.

Many people left the cinema with a fundamental question: is the condition real? The answer is that there is a very rare condition called ‘congenital insensitivity to pain with analgesia,’ or CIPA for short.

However, there were also some startling similarities to another disease: leprosy. In this blog, we’re going to break down the ways in which Nathan’s experiences are similar to the experiences of persons affected by leprosy, the ways they are different, and something the movie might have got wrong about living without pain.

What similarities are there with leprosy?

Loss of sensation

Do you remember the scene where Nathan picks up the searing hot pan to use as a weapon? That happens with people affected by leprosy more than you’d think – although usually when cooking, not fighting bad guys.

Lots of people have mythical ideas in their mind about leprosy being a disease that causes your limbs to fall off. A real cardinal sign of leprosy is a loss of sensation. This can happen on the hands, feet and the eyes and it’s hardly a superpower.

It is all too common for a person affected by leprosy to pick up a hot pan without realising it is hot. Just like Nathan in the movie, this causes burns that can lead to serious damage and can quickly become infected if they are not treated properly.

Picture another example: imagine Nathan was wearing sandals one day. There’s a good chance he might get a stone in his sandal and because he can’t feel the bottom of his foot, he wouldn’t feel the stone tearing his skin as he walks for miles. This is another thing that happens too often in leprosy, leading to ulcers. In the worst-case scenarios, these ulcers can become infected and lead to amputations.

Something the movie got wrong: When was the last time you had something in your eye? It hurts, right? And for good reason; if you have something in your eye, you need to get it out so that it doesn’t do any damage – the pain is your friend, telling you to take action. You won’t even think about it, but the same is true of blinking, which keeps our eyes from getting dry. If Nathan cannot feel pain, he would need to be conscious to remember to blink, just like he had to set an alarm to remind himself to use the bathroom. He would have to undergo a rigorous self-care regime to ensure that his eyes stayed healthy and wear protective devices like glasses or wide-brim hats to keep things from getting in his eye. This is a regime that many persons affected by leprosy could teach him. If he didn’t do these things, the consistent damage to his eyes would likely lead to blindness.

Stigma and fear of judgement

In the movie, Nathan is afraid to tell people about his condition and at first, he tries to hide it. This is another similarity with leprosy. Leprosy is a disease that is often associated with terrible stigma. Many persons affected by leprosy try to hide their diagnosis and their symptoms so that they will not face discrimination in their communities.

Nathan also had experiences at school that saw him treated by the other children as a figure of fun. That can happen with leprosy, too. Amar Timalsina, a global advocate for the rights of persons affected by leprosy, speaks in his book ‘Returning the Lost Smiles’ about how he used to entertain other children in his village by putting a needle into his foot where he could not feel any pain. Sadly, Amar eventually faced stigma and rejection by his friends when his leprosy diagnosis became clear.

Hospital stays are an inevitability for some patients

It’s hopefully not too much of a plot spoiler to say that Nathan ends the movie in hospital. This is a well-trodden path for many persons affected by leprosy, as well. The majority of patients in a leprosy hospital are there because they need treatments for ulcers. Thankfully, our ground-breaking scientists have recently developed a new treatment that allows them to heal ulcers faster than ever before, which dramatically cuts the amount of time people spend in hospital.

What are the differences with leprosy?

The loss of sensation is not total across the body

In the movie, Nathan cannot feel any pain at all. He cannot eat solid food in case he bites his tongue, he has to set a timer to remind himself to use the bathroom, and he takes repeated punches to the face without feeling pain.

This is not like leprosy. The loss of sensation is limited to certain parts of the body where nerves have been damaged and not every patient will experience these symptoms in a significant way; they may only have one small patch of skin that cannot feel sensation.

In fact, leprosy can sometimes be a very painful disease, particularly when patients experience something called reaction. This is when the body reacts to the leprosy bacteria in the body, causing an inflammatory reaction. This can last for many weeks, or even months, and is extremely painful.

Leprosy is not genetic

Nathan’s condition is a genetic condition, but leprosy is not genetic. It is spread through water droplets passed through the nose and mouth. It is a mildly infectious disease and the majority of the world’s population has an immune system that is strong enough to fight the disease, meaning they will never show any symptoms. It is treated with a combination of antibiotics known as Multi Drug Therapy and after 72 hours of treatment, a person will no longer be infectious.

What lessons do we have from Novocaine and leprosy?

Perhaps the biggest take away we have is that pain is our friend. It tells us when something is wrong and needs our attention.

In both the film and in real-world leprosy, the lack of pain does not mean that injuries cause no damage. Nathan still passed out from being hit on the head and walking with a stone in your shoe can still lead to an ulcer. Pain is a blessing.

Another thing we can take away is that Nathan was able to access extensive medical treatment at the end of the film. Sadly, many persons affected by leprosy live in low-income, low-resource settings where accessing medical attention is difficult.

The Leprosy Mission works to provide care for persons affected by leprosy across Africa and Asia. If you would like to support that work, you can do so by donating today.