Brainstorm
Film poster
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)	September 30, 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). Image File history File links Size of this preview: 392 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (400 × 612 pixels, file size: 22 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Original Source: http://www. ... Douglas Trumbull (born April 8, 1942) is a film director and special effects supervisor. ... Bruce Joel Rubin (born March 10, 1943 in Detroit, Michigan in the United States) is a screenwriter best known for the supernatural romance, Ghost for which he won an Oscar. ... Christopher Walken (born March 31, 1943) is an Academy Award-winning American film and theatre actor. ... Natalie Wood (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was a three time Academy Award nominated American film actress. ... Louise Fletcher as Winn Adami on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Louise Fletcher (born July 22, 1934) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... Cliff Robertson. ... James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953) is an American composer of orchestral and film music. ... For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ... is the 273rd day of the year (274th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Science fiction film is a film genre that uses speculative, science-based depictions of imaginary phenomena such as extra-terrestrial lifeforms, alien worlds, and time travel, often along with technological elements such as futuristic spacecraft, robots, or other technologies. ... Douglas Trumbull (born April 8, 1942) is a film director and special effects supervisor. ... Christopher Walken (born March 31, 1943) is an Academy Award-winning American film and theatre actor. ... Natalie Wood (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was a three time Academy Award nominated American film actress. ...

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 an oversize iridescent videotape recorder/player. Louise Fletcher as Winn Adami on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Louise Fletcher (born July 22, 1934) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... The iridescence of the Blue Morpho butterfly wings. ...

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. Reynolds' 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. Reynolds 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.

The making of the film

Brainstorm was the second film Trumbull directed after Silent Running (1971). For other uses, see Silent Running (disambiguation). ...

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 2.2:1 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. Super Panavision 70 was the marketing brand used to identify movies photographed with Panavision 65mm cameras and spherical optics between 1959 and 1970. ...

Press reports at the time of production indicate that Trumbull's original intent was to shoot the brain recording sequences in the Showscan process that he had previously developed. The Showscan format uses 70 mm film (65mm negative stock) in the same format as conventional 65/70 processes but is shot and projected at 60 frames per second creating a greater sense of realism. If this plan had followed the other parts of the film would have been printed in a way to make them compatible with 60 fps projection so the entire film runs as a single 60 fps 70 mm strand but only the virtual reality sequences would convey the stark realism from the Showscan system. The plan was abandoned in light of the impracticality and expense of installing Showscan projection in large numbers of theatres. The difficulty in producing conventional 24 frame per second 35 mm prints for ordinary theatres may have also been a consideration. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

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. James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953) is an American composer of orchestral and film music. ... Varèse Sarabande is a record label, which specialises in soundtrack record releases, and reissues of hard-to-find (sometimes long- or previously-unavailable) albums, and singles collections. ... The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom. ...

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 1983 release. Stories had Natalie's sister Lana Wood doing certain scenes, but it wasn't really needed. Most of the film had been shot. is the 333rd day of the year (334th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... Svetlana Smedley (born Svetlana Gurdin March 1, 1946), better known as Lana Wood, is an American actress and producer born to Russian emigré parents, Nikolai and Maria Zakharenko. ...

While critically acclaimed, the film was a box-office disaster.

Brainstorm carries the dedication credit To Natalie (in honor of Wood's memory).

Application and further Inspiration of the Film

Brainstorm was an inspiration to early virtual reality work by Mike McGreevey and Scott Fisher (technologist) 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). This article is about the simulation technology. ... Scott Fisher is Professor and Chair of theInteractive Media Division in the USC School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, and a Fellow of the Annenberg Center for Communication there. ... Aerial View of Moffett Field and NASA Ames Research Center. ... Jaron Lanier Jaron Lanier (born 1960) is a virtual reality developer. ...

External links

• Brainstorm at the Internet Movie Database