Brainstorm (1983)

Brilliant researchers Lillian Reynolds and Michael Brace have developed a system of recording and playing back actual experiences of people. Once the capability of tapping into "higher ... See full summary »

Director:

Douglas Trumbull

Writers:

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

Stars:

Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher

2 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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)

Storyline

Brilliant researchers Lillian Reynolds and Michael Brace have developed a system of recording and playing back actual experiences of people. Once the capability of tapping into "higher brain functions" is added in, and you can literally jump into someone else's head and play back recordings of what he or she was thinking, feeling, seeing, etc., at the time of the recording, the applications for the project quickly spiral out of control. While Michael Brace uses the system to become close again to Karen Brace, his estranged wife who also works on the project, others start abusing it for intense sexual experiences and other logical but morally questionable purposes. The government tries to kick Michael and Lillian off the project once the vast military potential of the technology is discovered. It soon becomes obvious that the government is interested in more than just missile guidance systems. The lab starts producing mind torture recordings and other psychosis inducing material. When ...

---

Plot Keywords:

high tech | experimental technology | virtual reality | subjective camera | character's point of view camera shot | 

---

Taglines:

The door to the mind is open!

---

Genres:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 September 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Gordon Forbes Tapes

Filming Locations:

Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,196,965, 2 October 1983, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$8,900,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

JF Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), SLM Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

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

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the film was shown in the UK it was advertised as being in "Dynamic Expanding Frame", which meant that, although much of the film was in the conventional 35mm format, for the subjective camera scenes of people using the helmet, the image would suddenly expand into a huge 70mm wide-screen aspect ratio.

---

Goofs

The scene after Gordy experiences the death tape, the IV needle is shown being pushed in with the bevel down. This defeats the purpose of the bevel, it should be inserted with the bevel up.

---

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.

---

Crazy Credits

After the final credit has rolled, 'TO NATALIE' appears for a couple seconds

---

Connections

Referenced in Death in Hollywood (1990)

User Reviews

Karen, look at the stars!

There's something magical about "Brainstorm". If it's the plot, the music, Christoper Walken, i don't know. But this one changed my digital lifestyle.

"Brainstorm" feels like a farsighted dot.com commercial to me, way before the web was won. OK, merchandised mind reading technology. Well, that was a doubtlessly stunning plot. But gee, this guy hooked a mobile (!) PC to some company's intra-net via phone line (!), just like operating a fax machine! Far out, THAT was cool and sensational! I was completely struck, and the next day i got me an acoustic coupling device, "communication software" and online i went, visiting "mailboxes" with my 1MHz IBM compatible. On 300 baud/sec. Or 0,003 MBit in contemporary terminology. The digits dropped in, one by one, and i felt sooo hip. Some months later i was the first person i knew doing online banking, and my friends considered me not hip but eccentric. However, it took me 20 years to actually purchase a mobile PC, because i needed slots slots slots *lol*...

By the time "Brainstorm" was made, being online was for nerds. The technological "atmosphere" held not the faintest haze of what we know now as the world-wide-web, turning the most remote and separate corners of the world into one global village.

The idea of sharing sensual impressions by technical means is not necessarily new, as plenty of sci-fi authors (especially of east-European origin) dealt with that before. "Brainstorm" was just too cool in depicting the consequences of such-alike machinery: elder men going nuts with looped orgasms, children haphazardly checking out tapes with psychotic episodes, deliberately tracked death experiences locked away by military, a black market of ethically questionable contents etc.

We're working on it, i guess. In fact, we're working on everything that mother nature won't supply voluntarily. Weird we are. The only question is: helmets or implants?