Brainstorm (1983 film)
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| Brainstorm | |
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 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Douglas Trumbull |
| Produced by | Douglas Trumbull |
| Written by | Philip Frank Messina Robert Stitzel from a story by Bruce Joel Rubin |
| Starring | Christopher Walken Natalie Wood Louise Fletcher Cliff Robertson |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Cinematography | Richard Yuricich |
| Editing by | Dennis Freeman Edward Warschilka |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | 1983 |
| Running time | 106 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Brainstorm is a 1983 science fiction film directed by Douglas Trumbull and starring Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood (in her last film appearance).
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[edit] Synopsis
The story involves a team of scientists which includes estranged husband-and-wife, Michael and Karen Brace (played by Walken and Wood) and Michael's research colleague, Lillian Reynolds (played by Louise Fletcher) who co-invent a special computer device which allows sensations and higher brain functions to be scanned directly from the brain, recorded, and played back, allowing another person to experience them. The device that read thoughts was called "The Hat". Memories and experiences are stored on a oversize iridescent videotape recorder/player.
When Reynolds suffers a fatal heart attack, she manages to record her own death. Michael attempts to play back the tape, but is nearly killed doing so. After modifying the output of the device to prevent the lethal effect, he tries again, but is interrupted after another scientist who was secretly monitoring the playback dies. The tape is locked away, and Michael and Karen are kicked off the team.
Michael, now obsessed with seeing the tape to the end, makes several attempts to hack into the lab's computers, and discovers project "Brainstorm" - which includes such applications of the device as torture and brainwashing. Michael's son is inadvertently exposed to one of the "toxic" tapes that had been developed as part of the project, and suffers severe mental trauma as a result.
Now more determined than ever, Michael enlists the help of his ex-wife, as well as a friend who had been part of the original project team, so that he can finally view the tape of Reynolds' death, even at the cost of his own life, and destroy project Brainstorm.
Ultimately he succeeds on both counts, and finally knowing what death truly is and what lies after it, he and Karen rediscover their love for one another.
Michael views Dr. Reynold's deathtape. It recorded all of her last thoughts, filled with time memory bubbles, each with its own memory or story. As she actually dies, she remembers the hilarious meeting with Michael and the robot that knocked down stacked up soda cans, She remembers a potential suitor at her lab, attempting to woo and flatter her. She also remembers being devastated, when her boss told her that her private funding was lost, Project Triad was dead and the Pentagon would take over. Her last thoughts on the tape, right before she died, was that of seeing stars and a heavenly chamber and hundreds of angels flying into a great central cosmic light......Then the tape ran out. Michael began crying, because Dr. Reynold's had seen Heaven and made it.
While Michael Brace views the tape, his wife Karen hacks the computer that destroys the robotic factory that makes the memory recording helmets for the US Military.
[edit] The making of the film
Brainstorm was the second film Trumbull directed after Silent Running (1971).
The "Brainstorm" virtual reality sequences were photographed in Super Panavision 70 with a wide aspect ratio of 2.2:1, while the rest of the film was shot in standard 35 mm with an aspect ratio of 1.66:1. In the original 70 mm theatrical release, the brain-scan playback scenes appeared dramatically wider and much sharper than the 35 mm scenes, giving them a sense of heightened reality and excitement. Unfortunately, the video and DVD versions have the 35 mm and 70 mm sequences letterboxed in their respective aspect ratios, spoiling the intended effect. The laserdisc release, however, presents the movie as it should be seen: the brain-scan playbacks take the full width of the screen (with black bars on the top and bottom since the presentation is letterboxed) and other scenes are narrower, having black bars on the sides as well. In the theatre the curtain would have been opened to show the entire 1:2.2 sized image so brain-scan playbacks would fill the entire screen making quite an impression while other scenes would be narrower. The sound also changed dramatically between brain-scan playback and other scenes with playback scenes having enhanced surround effects and other scenes being predominantly centre-channel only.
James Horner composed and recorded the haunting musical score in Hollywood using a studio orchestra. The Varese Sarabande album/CD release is a re-recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, produced shortly before the original theatrical release.
[edit] Natalie Wood's death
Brainstorm was Natalie Wood's last film. Near the end of principal photography Wood was about to film a crucial, climactic scene for the movie when she drowned on November 29, 1981, leaving production in limbo for almost two years. MGM considered offering the rights to Paramount Pictures so the movie could be finished but ultimately Trumbull decided to create an ending using body doubles and Natalie Wood soundalikes along with already-shot footage, completing production for a f1983 release. Stories had Natalie's sister Lana Wood doing certain scenes, but it wasn't really needed. Most of the film had been shot.
While critically acclaimed, the film was a box-office disaster.
Brainstorm carries the dedication credit For Natalie (in honor of Wood's memory).
[edit] Application and further Inspiration of the Film
Brainstorm was an inspiration to early virtual reality work by Mike McGreevey and Scott Fisher at the NASA Ames Research Center. McGreevey located the essential optics from Pop Optics in MA which combined with the data glove by Jaron Lanier and Polehemus motion tracking hardware cobbled with 2 Evans & Sutherland Picture Systems created their first head mounted "glasses" and later their first helmet mounted system using a pair of 100x100 LCD (B&W) arrays (one to each eye).
