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".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".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".
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
William Sadler
- Dr. Carroll
- (as Bill Sadler)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe back of Jimmy's jacket says "King Louis". King Louie is the name of the Borden orangutan in Walt Disney's 1967 animated film "The Jungle Book", as well as the Gigantopithecus in the 2016 adaptation.
- GoofsThe leather jacket Jimmy Garret wears is actually a Navy G-1 flight jacket worn by Navy aircrew. The Air Force did not begin issuing leather flying jackets to aircrew (theirs, being the A-2) until 1988, one year after the release of this film.
- Quotes
Jimmy Garrett: A human pilot would react differently, because a human pilot would know that he's going to die.
- SoundtracksShock The Monkey
Written and Performed by Peter Gabriel
Featured review
Air Force trainee (Matthew Broderick) is caught with a girl in a plane and is punished by being sent to a research facility where they train chimpanzees to fly with flight simulators. He becomes attached to one chimp in particular named Virgil, who was trained to speak sign language by Helen Hunt. Eventually he learns that the chimps are subjected to deadly experiments. So he seeks out Virgil's trainer so they can try to save the chimps.
Obviously this is an easy movie to deride. With its animal rights and anti-military themes, it's going to lose some audience members at the door. I'm not saying that the movie is completely fair on these issues. It's a pretty clear black & white/good vs bad kind of story that tugs at the heartstrings more than it engages the mind. But it does it very well. I enjoyed the movie a lot despite not agreeing with its oversimplified viewpoints 100%. Broderick and Hunt were great but the chimps really steal the show. It's hard not to feel sympathetic towards their plight. I also liked the ending, which many seem to think is silly. It was Disneyesque but appropriately hopeful. It's a good film. Check it out if you're not overly cynical.
Obviously this is an easy movie to deride. With its animal rights and anti-military themes, it's going to lose some audience members at the door. I'm not saying that the movie is completely fair on these issues. It's a pretty clear black & white/good vs bad kind of story that tugs at the heartstrings more than it engages the mind. But it does it very well. I enjoyed the movie a lot despite not agreeing with its oversimplified viewpoints 100%. Broderick and Hunt were great but the chimps really steal the show. It's hard not to feel sympathetic towards their plight. I also liked the ending, which many seem to think is silly. It was Disneyesque but appropriately hopeful. It's a good film. Check it out if you're not overly cynical.
- How long is Project X?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $18,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $18,532,286
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,309,985
- Apr 19, 1987
- Gross worldwide
- $21,589,395
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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