A high school prodigy builds an atomic bomb with stolen plutonium to win the 45th National Science Fair and expose a nuclear weapons lab posing as nuclear medicine in Ithaca NY.
An Air Force pilot joins a top secret military experiment involving chimps, but begins to suspect there might be something more to the mysterious "Project X".
A high school student and his friend find a strange, orb-like piece of equipment to use as a science project, but must stop it when it begins to threaten mankind.
Director:
Jonathan R. Betuel
Stars:
John Stockwell,
Danielle von Zerneck,
Fisher Stevens
Apprentice lawyer Robin Weathers turns a civil suit into a headline grabbing charade. He must re-examine his scruples after his shenanigans win him a promotion in his firm, and he must now ... See full summary »
A high school prodigy builds an atomic bomb with stolen plutonium to win the 45th National Science Fair and expose a nuclear weapons lab posing as nuclear medicine in Ithaca NY.
Paul Stevens' high school science project has gotten a little out of hand. He just built an atomic bomb. Now he's got 11 hours to make sure it doesn't work. See more »
John Lithgow was also in The Day After (1983), in which he has to deal with the aftermath of a full global nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. See more »
Goofs
A plutonium pit weighs at least 5.5 kg (~11 lbs), but Paul lifts it out of the tube with a magnet attached to what must be the steel shell he used for casting. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Dr. John Matthewson:
Now, the beta synchrotron sends the electrons through this magnet which bends the course of them down to the reaction vessel. Stay away from that elbow joint. All right. Bran, you want to get that? Now, this is a tunable excimer laser. It's tuned to the exact resonance of the plutonium-239 that's in the reaction vessel down at that end. Now, I think we're all set. Hit it.
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I don't understand why this movie is so lowly rated. The movie has a really good plot, and I really like how there is even a little comedy combined with the movie's serious plot. The part in the beginning, where he steals from the government building is a little slow, I think because it didn't have much lines to back it up, but the movie picks-up when he actually starts to build the nuclear device. I wonder if the more comical moments had come from John Lithgow's roll in all of this. I especially like his jokes about the government works.
"They're gorillas, they can hurt you. If you try to talk it out with them, they'll lock you in a room somewhere and throw away the room."
"What did you want us to do, put up a neon sign saying 'secret weapons laboratory'?"
The Science Fair moments in the movie were also quite entertaining. Especially where they introduce themselves to the science fair kids, then when they get out with the same kids pulling them out of the room and resoling them out away from the government's agents.
The movie itself is somewhat unbelievable, but it's interesting and entertaining.
23 of 41 people found this review helpful.
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I don't understand why this movie is so lowly rated. The movie has a really good plot, and I really like how there is even a little comedy combined with the movie's serious plot. The part in the beginning, where he steals from the government building is a little slow, I think because it didn't have much lines to back it up, but the movie picks-up when he actually starts to build the nuclear device. I wonder if the more comical moments had come from John Lithgow's roll in all of this. I especially like his jokes about the government works.
"They're gorillas, they can hurt you. If you try to talk it out with them, they'll lock you in a room somewhere and throw away the room."
"What did you want us to do, put up a neon sign saying 'secret weapons laboratory'?"
The Science Fair moments in the movie were also quite entertaining. Especially where they introduce themselves to the science fair kids, then when they get out with the same kids pulling them out of the room and resoling them out away from the government's agents.
The movie itself is somewhat unbelievable, but it's interesting and entertaining.