Project X (film)

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Project X was a 1987 film produced by Walter F. Parkes and Lawrence Lasker and directed by Jonathan Kaplan. The film is about a former Air Force Academy cadet named Jimmy (played by Matthew Broderick) who was punished for gross misconduct. He is assigned to a top-secret military project where chimpanzees are being trained on flight simulators (known as a Primate Equilibrium Platforms).

One of the chimps trained by fellow research assistant Teri (played by Helen Hunt) is highly intelligent and becomes attached to Jimmy as does he to the chimp called "Virgil." Virgil communicates with sign language; Jimmy becomes aware of this very quickly and informs his superior.

However, unknown to Jimmy, Teri and the chimps trained on the flight simulators, their fate is to be killed. Once they reach a certain level indicated by different coloured neckbands, they await certain death by exposure to a lethal pulse of radiation in the simulator chamber, a cruel experiment by the military to determine how long a pilot may survive after a nuclear exchange.

Virgil however becomes aware at the end of the film that he would also face the same fate as the others. Jimmy and Teri embark on a desperate race against time to save Virgil and all the other primates from their fate.

In the finale, the chimps pilot a military plane to escape from the military.