h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It just something I've been wondering, as I've seen it a couple of times in movies where a person receives a major blow to the head and you know they are dead by the way their legs twitch.

Here's an example from "Kill Bill."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ9fh_v2Df8

There was another clip I was trying to hunt down (unsuccessfully) from "The Rock" where from memory the soldier guarding the first rocket to be disarmed gets an engine block dropped on him and you know he's dead by the way his left leg jerks about like he's got a live ferret in his trousers.

So - is this as I presume a movie conceit, or does it really happen.

I'm guessing this might have been imported over from scenes of execution by means of hanging, and that people who didn;t die immediately might while suspended kick and thrash about but I'm not sure, so I figured SEx - over to you.

Post-mortem twitchiness: true or false?

It doesn't seem all that unreasonable to me. The explanation I have in my head is of uncontrolled nerve impulses from the dying brain, that are no longer being coorinated I'm sure I've seen mention of it in too many places; popular media and more serious articles, for it to be a made up idea for gory effects in films.

So I vote; 'Yes'

Slightly off topic but then, that's what h2g2 is famous for, isn't it?

My mother told me this story, from when she was training to become a :

In those days, you'd have someone 'wake' at a diseased person's body, even in a hospital.

Anyway, dead body in bed, my mother sat on a chair next to it.

Then suddenly, the rigor mortis ceases and the body suddenly sits up straight and then toples over the side of the bed.

Gave my mother a good scare, it did - but there was no more movement after that.

Slightly different approach, I admit, but still interesting - sort of a continuance of a spasm that seemed to have happened during his last living minutes.

Not seen a human die, but I have been present at the passing of a dog, and a cat (both beloved pets, the dog belonged to a friend, the cat was mine).
After the vet pronounced both animals dead (no heartbeat) they both continued to twitch. The dog twitched for almost 20 mins, the cat only for about 10.

I don't have enough biological knowledge to explain why, but they definatly do.