Brainstorm (1983)

Director:

Douglas Trumbull

Writers:

Bruce Joel Rubin (story)
Robert Stitzel (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

30 September 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

...The Ultimate Experience

Plot:

Brilliant researchers Lillian Reynolds and Michael Brace have developed a system of recording and playing back actual experiences of people...

Plot Keywords:

Technology | Military | Memory | Chimpanzee | Peanut Butter

Awards:

2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Christopher Walken	...	Michael Brace
Natalie Wood	...	Karen Brace
Louise Fletcher	...	Lillian Reynolds
Cliff Robertson	...	Alex Terson
Jordan Christopher	...	Gordy Forbes
Donald Hotton	...	Landan Marks
Alan Fudge	...	Robert Jenkins
Joe Dorsey	...	Hal Abramson
Bill Morey	...	James Zimbach
Jason Lively	...	Chris Brace
Darrell Larson	...	Security Technician
Lou Walker	...	Chef
Stacey Kuhne-Adams	...	Andrea
John Hugh	...	Animal Lab Technician
Ira David Wood III	...	Barry (as David Wood)

Also Known As:

The Gordon Forbes Tapes (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M (original rating | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1984) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Company:

JF Productions

Trivia:

The tape used in the tape machines is a variety of decorative tape made by 3M. 3M only sold it in four-inch widths, so it had to be slit by hand to two-inch widths to fit in the tape machines. When filmed, they were astounded at how gaudy it looked, so to dampen its brightness, the prop crew wound the tape back and forth across a sander to dull its brilliance. "One of those things that actually looked a lot better on film when we finished with it," Douglas Trumbull commented.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The soldering iron that Dr. Reynolds accidentally burns her wrist on is a battery operated rechargeable model, and would not have been hot unless she had been holding it and pressing the button.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Dr. Lillian Reynolds: Can you see better if I move it a little closer?
Dr. Michael Anthony Brace: I can see something. It's parts of the grid, but it's still rotating. It's not locking up.
Hal Abramson: Maybe we all need a little break, Lillian.
Dr. Lillian Reynolds: Hal, you take a break.

Movie Connections:

Features Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

Knock my socks off

Brainstorm had a rocky road to completion. After Natalie Wood died before completion of shooting, the studio wanted to shut it down and cash in the completion bond. Trumbull had fought tooth and nail to get the film made to begin with, and when it looked like it would be snatched from the jaws of victory, he hunkered down and dramatically altered sequences to prove it could indeed be finished without Wood's unshot scenes.

The "recorded memory" sequences were even more vivid for us in Indianapolis who saw it at the Eastwood theatre. The Eastwood had one of the few curved Cinerama roadshow screens outside of New York and Hollywood's Cinerama Dome. Think of it as a smaller version of an Omnimax screen. Sitting in the front row, you were completely enveloped by the film, and the visual and audio effect when the "memory" sequences lit up were quite attention grabbing. Trumbull was at this time working on his ill-fated Showscan process for amusement park rides, and was very interested in audience perceptions of diffrent lenses and frame rates. Some of this is used in Brainstorm. It's just not the same on a TV set of any size.

The central core of the story - the recording of the death of Lillian and Michael's obsession to experience it - is a disturbing one, because it explores the very nature of life and death. It can satisfy or dissappoint, because Trumbull has put his vision of memory, experience, death and afterlife on film for everyone to take pot shots at. And they did. It's a shame, because the film is beautiful, thought provoking, and ingenious. Yeah, I know, it has all of that evil government plot boilerplate. Look past it.

(It even revels in the quirks of the researchers, showing the second thing everybody does with new technology is use it for porn.)