Real Genius

Real Genius
Film poster
Directed by	Martha Coolidge
Produced by	Brian Grazer
Screenplay by	Neal Israel Pat Proft Peter Torokvei
Story by	Neal Israel Pat Proft
Starring	Val Kilmer Gabriel Jarret Michelle Meyrink William Atherton
Music by	Thomas Newman
Cinematography	Vilmos Zsigmond
Editing by	Richard Chew
Studio	Delphi III Productions
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date(s)	August 7, 1985 (1985-08-07)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$12,952,019 (North America)

Real Genius is a 1985 satirical comedy film directed by Martha Coolidge. The film's screenplay was written by Neal Israel, Pat Proft and Peter Torokvei. It stars Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret.

The film is set on the campus of Pacific Tech, a technical university similar to Caltech. Chris Knight (Kilmer) is a genius in his senior year working on a chemical laser. Mitch Taylor (Jarret) is a new student on campus who is paired up with Knight to work on the laser.

The film received positive reviews from critics. The film grossed $12,952,019 at the United States and Canadian box office.

Plot

The film begins with a video presentation of a space-based laser weapon that incinerates a man on the ground with pinpoint accuracy. The CIA has contracted with Professor Jerry Hathaway (Atherton) to develop this secret weapon with his team of brilliant students at the elite university Pacific Tech. When the Agency demands a more powerful laser, Hathaway recruits 15-year-old high-school science prodigy Mitch Taylor (Jarret) to study at the school and help with the project. Arriving on campus, Mitch is assigned a dorm room with Chris Knight (Kilmer), a "senior slacker" who is also supposed to be working on the laser but prefers to party. Mitch also meets Jordan (Meyrink), a hyperkinetic female student with whom he falls in love, and the mysterious Laslo Hollyfeld (Gries), who appears and disappears via Chris' closet. Hathaway's subservient graduate assistant Kent (Prescott), becomes hostile when Hathaway puts Mitch in charge of the project.

Chris increasingly distracts Mitch from his work. After Hathaway scolds Mitch for joining Chris's pool party, Kent records Mitch's tearful telephone call to his mother and plays it over the cafeteria PA system at lunchtime. When Chris and Mitch retaliate by disassembling Kent's car and reassembling it in his dorm room, Hathaway threatens to flunk Chris, and Chris finally returns to his work. His efforts appear to be ruined when Kent sabotages the laser, but, in a fit of anger at the laser's destruction, he has an epiphany that solves the project's power problem. The beam of the redesigned laser is "hotter than the sun" and produces the required six megawatts of power. Hathaway forgives Chris completely.

When the laser team celebrate their success, Laslo points out that the high-energy laser is a weapon. In the research lab, Hathaway has removed both the laser and a tracking system to aim it. This convinces the students that they must destroy the laser. Their first step is to implant a radio transeiver in Kent's braces. Posing as God, Mitch tricks Kent into revealing that the laser is going to be tested soon. Jordan tracks Hathaway to a nearby Air Force base. While Chris and Mitch talk their way into the base, Laslo remotely cracks the laser's computer and changes its target coordinates to Hathaway's house, where the gang have placed a huge tin of popcorn. They call the Dean and the local congressman to witness the weapon firing, and Mitch, as God, orders Kent to visit the house. When the laser hits the house, it shines through a stained-glass window and Kent becomes convinced that he is having a religious experience. The popcorn heats and expands, the house bursts at the seams, and popcorn pours out, pushing Kent along with it into the street. Meanwhile, the laser overheats and destroys itself.

Cast

• Val Kilmer as Chris Knight
• Gabriel Jarret as Mitch Taylor
• Michelle Meyrink as Jordan Cochran
• William Atherton as Prof. Jerry Hathaway
• Jon Gries as Lazlo Hollyfeld
• Robert Prescott as Kent
• Ed Lauter as David Decker
• Patti D'Arbanville as Sherry Nugill
• Stacy Peralta as Shuttle Pilot
• Beau Billingslea as George
• Joanne Baron as Mrs. Taylor
• Paul Tulley as Mr. Taylor
• Sandy Martin as Mrs. Meredith
• Dean Devlin as Milton
• Yuji Okumoto as Fenton
• Deborah Foreman as Susan Decker

Production

To prepare for Real Genius, Martha Coolidge spent months researching laser technology and the policies of the CIA, and interviewed dozens of students at Caltech.^[1] The screenplay was extensively rewritten, first by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, later by Coolidge and Peter Torokvei.^[2] Producer Brian Grazer remembers that when Val Kilmer came in to audition for the role of Chris Knight, he brought candy bars and performed tricks. Kilmer remembered it differently. "The character wasn't polite, so when I shook Grazer's hand and he said, 'Hi, I'm the producer,' I said, 'I'm sorry. You look like you're 12 years old. I like to work with men.'"^[3]

To achieve the house filled with popcorn for the film's climax, the production popped popcorn continuously for three months. The popcorn was treated with fire retardant so it would not combust and covered it so that it would not be eaten by birds and possibly poison them. Then, the popcorn was shipped to a subdivision under construction in Canyon Country, northwest of Los Angeles, and placed in the house that belonged to Jerry Hathaway.^[4]

To promote the film, the studio held what they billed as "the world's first computer press conference" with Coolidge and Grazer answering journalists' questions via computer terminals and relayed over the CompuServe computer network.^[1]

Soundtrack

1. "You Took Advantage of Me" performed by Carmen McRae
2. "The Tuff Do What?" performed by Tonio K
3. "Summertime Girls" performed by Y&T
4. "The Pleasure Seekers" performed by The System
5. "The Walls Came Down" performed by The Call
6. "I'm Falling" performed by The Comsat Angels
7. "One Night Love Affair" performed by Bryan Adams
8. "All She Wants to Do Is Dance", performed by Don Henley
9. "Number One" performed by Chaz Jankel
10. "You're the Only Love" performed by Paul Hyde and the Payolas
11. "Standing in Line" performed by The Textones
12. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Urban Mix)" performed by Tears for Fears

Reception

Box office

Real Genius was released on August 9, 1985 in 990 theaters grossing $2.5 million in its first weekend. It went on to make $12,952,019 in North America.^[5]

Critical response

Real Genius received mixed to positive reviews and has a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 23 reviews.^[6] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "the film is best when it takes [the students] seriously, though it does so only intermittently".^[7] David Ansen wrote in his review for Newsweek magazine, "When it's good, the dormitory high jinks feel like the genuine release of teen-age tensions and cruelty. Too bad the story isn't as smart as the kids in it".^[8] In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley wrote, "Many of the scenes, already badly written, fail to fulfill their screwball potential ... But despite its enthusiastic young cast and its many good intentions, it doesn't quite succeed. I guess there's a leak in the think tank".^[9] Chicago Sun Times film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film three and a half stars out of four, saying that it "contains many pleasures, but one of the best is its conviction that the American campus contains life as we know it".^[10] In his review for the Globe and Mail, Salem Alaton wrote, "Producer Brian Grazer craved a feel-good picture, and she [Martha Coolidge] turned in the summer's best, and she didn't cheat to do it. There's heart in the kookiness. Real Genius has real people, real comedy and real fun".^[11] Time magazine's Richard Schickel praised the film for being a "a smart, no-nonsense movie that may actually teach its prime audience a valuable lesson: the best retort to an intolerable situation is not necessarily a food fight. Better results, and more fun, come from rubbing a few brains briskly together".^[12]

Scientific accuracy

In the MythBusters episode, "Car vs. Rain", first broadcast on June 17, 2009, the MythBusters team tried to determine whether the final scene in the film, the destruction of Dr. Hathaway's house with laser-popped popcorn, is actually possible. First they used a ten-watt laser to pop a single kernel wrapped in aluminum foil, showing that popping corn is possible with a laser, then they tested a scaled-down model of a house. The popcorn was popped through induction heating because a sufficiently large laser was not available. The result was that the popcorn was unable to expand sufficiently to break glass, much less break open a door or move the house off its foundation. Instead, it ceased to expand and then simply charred.^[13]

It was also specifically stated in the program that a five-megawatt laser still did not exist, even in military applications, and that the largest military laser they knew of was 100 kilowatts.^[13]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Attanasio, Paul (August 7, 1985). "The Road to Hollywood: Director Martha Coolidge's Long Trek to Real Genius". Washington Post. 
2. ^ Attanasio, Paul (August 7, 1985). "Fun With the Whiz Kids". Washington Post. 
3. ^ Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca (June 30, 1995). "Cool Hero: Val Kilmer". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,297866,00.html. Retrieved September 2, 2009. 
4. ^ Ryan, Kyle (April 21, 2010). "Random Roles: William Atherton". The Onion A.V. Club. http://www.avclub.com/articles/william-atherton,40332/. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
5. ^ "Real Genius". Box Office Mojo (Internet Movie Database). http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=realgenius.htm. Retrieved March 30, 2009. 
6. ^ "Real Genius (1985)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/real_genius/. Retrieved December 24, 2010. 
7. ^ Maslin, Janet (August 7, 1985). "Real Genius". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9A05E3DD1138F934A3575BC0A963948260&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes. Retrieved March 30, 2009. 
8. ^ Ansen, David (August 26, 1985). "Hollywood's Silly Season". Newsweek. 
9. ^ Kempley, Rita (August 9, 1985). "Real Genius Reels, Falls". Washington Post. 
10. ^ Ebert, Roger (August 7, 1985). "Real Genius". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19850807/REVIEWS/508070301/1023. Retrieved March 30, 2009. 
11. ^ Alaton, Salem (August 12, 1985). "This time the teen antics are funny Real Genius is a real gem". Globe and Mail. 
12. ^ Schickel, Richard (August 12, 1985). "Guess Who Flunked the IQ Test?". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1050506,00.html. Retrieved April 23, 2009. 
13. ^ ^{a b} Car vs. Rain. Discovery Channel. June 17, 2009. No. 11, season 2009. Retrieved on December 24, 2010.

External links

• Real Genius at the Internet Movie Database
• Real Genius at AllRovi
• Real Genius at Rotten Tomatoes
• Real Genius at Box Office Mojo