Jessica Alba in Awake

While I sit here clicking “refresh” during this brutally slow day, here are some stills of Jessica Alba on the set of her next movie Awake. Alba co-stars with Hayden Christensen in the film about the phenomenon called “anesthetic awareness,” which leaves patients paralyzed but fully conscious during surgery. They remain completely aware of their surroundings and they can feel every slice of the knife, but they cannot move or speak in any way. Hayden plays a man having heart surgery who is, for all intents and purposes, awake during the procedure. This is a very real phenomenon, made even scarier by the fact that doctors can’t truly explain why anesthesia works or how it turns off the ‘fight or flight’ instinct hardwired into us all. Which is amazing if you think about it. How is it we can put horses on Mars but we can’t explain a simple thing like ether. So much still to learn, my friends. So many worlds to conquer!