The boy who saved billions—forgotten by history, exploited by science.
Gloucestershire, England, 1796. A poor day labourer is offered work but must first let his son be used in a medical experiment. Based on the story of James Phipps, the eight-year-old boy used by Dr Edward Jenner to test the world's first smallpox vaccine.
Acting
Watkins' desperation, Hollington's terrifying trust.
Direction
Oakley makes 15 minutes feel like a lifetime of dread.
Production
Muddy authenticity that reeks of 1796 poverty.
Director
Claire Oakley
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
James Phipps was the first person ever vaccinated. He later had two children with Jenner's gardener's daughter—smallpox immunity became literally hereditary in his bloodline.
Jenner never paid Phipps, though he charged London's elite for the vaccine. The film exposes how 'medical progress' often extracts from the poor to protect the powerful.
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