Devo Chamber

A victim of the Devo Chamber, reduced to primordial ooze

The Devo Chamber (short for the De-Evolution Chamber) is a large, room-sized machine that President Koopa used to de-evolve criminals or those opposed to him in the Super Mario Bros. film. This room is attached to the police precinct and prison of Dinohattan. A room that presumably functions the same is also located in Koopa's Tower called Devo 4. It is not shown to be operational, as once it was used on The King to turn him into fungus, he began expanding and overtaking the machine, the tower and eventually the whole city.

Functions and capabilities

The controls of the machine

The Devo Chamber involves strapping people onto an automatic chair, binding them by the arms to prevent escape. Afterward, when the knob to the time period of the character's ancestors is set, the victim is reeled away before the chair is launched up into a de-evolution device, exposing the head to rays designed to forcibly de-evolve the person's head down to the size indicated. Koopa commonly uses this as a form of punishment.

Koopa used this to create Goombas to serve him as a dumb, but loyal police force, as well as to reduce extreme offenders to primordial ooze. Aside from this, he also used it as a form of execution where they are given a high dose of devolution radiation that turns them into primordial slime.

In the reverse, the Devo Chamber was also capable of evolving recipients forward. Koopa subjected Iggy and Spike to evolve them to the "Advanced" level, vastly increasing their intelligence because he was tired of their antics over not capturing the Mario Brothers and the meteorite piece.

The knob on the Devo Chamber bears the following options: "Advanced", "Now", "Cretaceous", "Jurassic" and "Primordial". An additional switch can be flickered between "Evolve" and "De-evolve".

History

Super Mario Bros. film

Spike undergoing the effects of the Devo Chamber to advance his intelligence

Mario and Luigi are first introduced to the machine after their arrest and meeting President Koopa. President Koopa showcases its abilities by de-evolving Toad to a Goomba. This enrages the brothers who begin fighting with Koopa's allies, and Mario pushes Koopa down into the Devo Chamber chair. Luigi turns it on and the two escape out the room. The machine is stopped by Koopa's allies before it can fully transform him, though there are hints in the film that reveal his de-evolution into a dinosaur has begun such as when he displays his snake-like tongue to Daisy. Later in the film, Iggy and Spike are strapped to the machine and though they initially believe they are to be de-evolved, Koopa actually evolves them forward to gain intelligence as he is fed up with their frequent mistakes.

Deleted scenes

In a deleted scene, the Devo Chamber sequence was expanded upon. After de-evolving Toad, one of the DEVO Technicians sneezes which upsets Koopa as he is a germophobe. He then orders the DEVO Technician to be de-evolved, and after the process, he dies by exploding into primordial slime. The slime coated the floor of the DEVO Chamber, which can still be seen in the final cut of the film. After Mario pushed Koopa into the Devo Chamber chair, it would have been revealed that President Koopa was subjected to the machine long enough for him to start developing reptilian features. This is shown in a short clip where Koopa's eyes transform from human to more reptilian-like. This scene would have been foreshadowing to Koopa's eventual de-evolution and death seen in the finale. This scene is still present in the Todd Strasser novelization of the film.

Gallery

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  President Koopa briefly affected by the Devo Chamber

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  Toad being turned into a Goomba

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  Iggy undergoing the effects of the Devo Chamber

See also

• De-evolution
• Devo 4
• Devolution Gun