Brainstorm (1983 film)

Infobox Film
name = Brainstorm


caption = Film poster
director = Douglas Trumbull
producer = Douglas Trumbull
writer = Philip Frank Messina
Robert Stitzel
from a story by
Bruce Joel Rubin
starring = Christopher Walken
Natalie Wood
Louise Fletcher
Cliff Robertson
music = James Horner
cinematography = Richard Yuricich
editing = Dennis Freeman
Edward Warschilka
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = September 30, 1983
runtime = 106 min.
language = English
budget =
amg_id = 1:6933
imdb_id = 0085271

"Brainstorm" is a 1983 science fiction film directed by Douglas Trumbull and starring Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood (in her last film appearance).

ynopsis

The film follows a team of scientists who invent a device, called "The Hat", which consists of a helmet linked to a recorder and which allows sensations and brain functions to be read directly from a person's brain and written on to a laser scanned tape. The device can be played back so that any subject can experience all the sensations of the original wearer. The team includes estranged husband-and-wife, Michael and Karen Brace (played by Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood) and Michael's research colleague, the cigarette chain-smoking Lillian Reynolds (played by Louise Fletcher).

"The Hat" is refined from a heavy instrument to a lightweight and portable device which can be mass marketed and used in a greater variety of locations and situations.

The team experiments with these new possibilities, recording theme park rides, driving a fast car, and the experience of descending a water park flume chute. The newly improved system even makes it possible to directly experience computer-generated virtual reality. Signals can also now be sent to the headset by telephone line, so that experiences can be had by anyone, anywhere, with a phone connection to a central computer.

These features allow them to demonstrate the device to wealthy backers and gain finance for more development. One of the team members uses the system to create and distribute a "sex tape," resulting in his being dropped from the project. Tension in the team increases as the possibilities for abuse become apparent.

Reynolds is put under pressure by backers to admit a former colleague to the team whom she sees as a hack and part of the military industrial complex. She refuses to have the invention taken over for military use and a big row ensues.

Under this stress Reynolds suffers a fatal heart attack, which is coincidentally recorded up to the point of her death on "The Hat" apparatus.

Michael Brace attempts to experience this recording, but nearly dies in the process when he experiences all the physical feelings of a heart attack. He then modifies his local playback console to prevent it manifesting the lethal physical effects and tries again.

Meanwhile, a group of scientists with ties to the military are monitoring use of the equipment, and discover Brace's attempt to replay Reynolds death tape through a security camera. Senior members of the team want to discover the machine's ultimate capabilities and a junior member is ordered to experience the playback at the same time as Brace. As his recording is viewed without the safeguards Brace has put into place, the person quickly dies from the experience, and the central playback facility is terminated. Brace's experience is cut short by this, but he has seen enough of the approaching death experience to be fascinated and want to know more.

After this incident, the recording is locked away and Michael is told he will never be allowed to view it. Michael finds this unacceptable and protests, but he and Karen are kicked off the team.

Now obsessed with viewing the recording in full, Michael makes several attempts to hack into the lab's computers. He discovers the secret military project known as "Brainstorm," closely related to his own research, which has developed applications of the device for torture and brainwashing. Michael's son is inadvertently exposed to one of these "toxic" tapes, and suffers severe mental trauma as a result.

The subversion of his project adds to Michael's anger and frustration at not being allowed to investigate Reynolds' death tape. Now more determined than ever, Michael enlists the help of his ex-wife, Karen Brace, and a friend who had been part of the original project team. Karen agrees to help him on the condition that he will never leave her again.

Contact with the original founder of the project reveals that the "The Hat" would never have gone as far as it has without powerful financial backing from the defense industry. Michael feels deceived and vows to destroy the Brainstorm project.

By now, the two are being closely monitored by agents of the military, who suspect Michael will make another attempt at accessing the tape. He outwits them by pretending to have a fight with Karen, causing her to leave for her parents' house. Later, as the military eavesdrops, Michael and Karen feign a conciliatory lovers conversation over the phone. Using this ruse as a distraction, Michael accesses the Brainstorm computer via another telephone line. He manages to hack into the system, and proceeds to reprogram robots in the factory that manufactures "The Hat". The machines go berserk, swinging around wildly and creating havoc. Michael then shuts down the security system, trapping personnel in whatever part of the facility they happen to be in. This allows him to remotely load the death tape and experience it unfettered. The Brainstorm leaders realize Michael is the reason for all the chaos and order his immediate arrest. Michael senses something is wrong and just manages to escape the house before capture. He heads for a remote telephone booth at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, located in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. There he again hacks into Brainstorm and accesses the final part of the death tape.

When Michael finally views Dr. Reynolds' death experience, he sees the wonder of her last moments: it is filled with "memory bubbles", each with its own story from a particular time. She recalled a hilarious meeting with Michael and an early robot that knocked down a stack of soda cans; she remembers a potential suitor at her lab, attempting to woo and flatter her; she also remembers being devastated when her boss tells her that her private funding was lost, Project Triad was dead, and the Pentagon would take over.

During her last moments she travels though the universe, seeing stars, galaxies and a heavenly chamber filled with hundreds of angels flying up into a great central cosmic light... and the tape ends. Now Michael has gone so far into the death experience that he cannot return, and appears dead himself. Only the loud pleas of Karen, who had arrived at the telephone booth just in time, pull him back into this world. Awakening from the experience, he weeps with joy, for he realizes that Dr. Reynolds has gone to Heaven.

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 at 60 fps with a wide aspect ratio of 2.2:1,but the rest of the film, was shot in 5 perf 70 MM at 24 fps and cropped for standard 35 mm Scope print down with an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. In the original 70 mm theatrical release, the brain-scan playback scenes appeared dramatically wider and much sharper than the regular scenes because they were shot at 60 fps, giving them a sense of heightened reality and excitement. Brainstorm was to be Trumbull's introduction of the full Showscan 60 fps 5 perf 70 MM process, but both MGM and Paramount backed out of a commitment to release the experimental picture in the new format after the death of the principal star Natalie Wood fearing the expensive process launch would not be profitable. Unfortunately, the video and DVD versions have Showscan 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.

Press reports at the time of production confirm 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.

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.

Natalie Wood's death

"Brainstorm" was Natalie Wood's last film. Near the end of principal photography, the cast and crew broke for the Thanksgiving holiday in 1981. Wood was about to film a crucial, climactic scene for the movie when she drowned on November 29, 1981, off the coast of Santa Catalina Island, California. Production was left 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.

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 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 Polhemus Navigation Sciences motion tracking hardware cobbled with two 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). It needs to be said that such simulation systems were of quite some interest for the military, but it's questionable to claim that there was any relationship whatsoever between this and the basic idea depicted in the film.

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