Top 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsMost Popular Video GamesMost Popular Music VideosMost Popular Podcasts
    Release CalendarBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Good Will Hunting

  • 19971997
  • RR
  • 2h 6m
IMDb RATING
8.3/10
979K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
126
39
Robin Williams and Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997)
Official Trailer
Play trailer2:21
7 Videos
99+ Photos
DramaRomance
Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.
IMDb RATING
8.3/10
979K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
126
39
    • Gus Van Sant
    • Matt Damon
    • Ben Affleck
  • Stars
    • Robin Williams
    • Matt Damon
    • Ben Affleck
    • Gus Van Sant
    • Matt Damon
    • Ben Affleck
  • Stars
    • Robin Williams
    • Matt Damon
    • Ben Affleck
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 1KUser reviews
    • 164Critic reviews
    • 70Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Top rated movie #81
    • Won 2 Oscars

    Videos7

    Good Will Hunting
    Trailer 2:21
    Watch Good Will Hunting
    Good Will Hunting
    Trailer 0:33
    Watch Good Will Hunting
    Good Will Hunting: Blu-Ray
    Trailer 2:24
    Watch Good Will Hunting: Blu-Ray
    Essential Guide to Matt Damon
    Clip 4:48
    Watch Essential Guide to Matt Damon
    Alphabet of Movies | A to Z
    Clip 1:33
    Watch Alphabet of Movies | A to Z
    What Roles Was Ben Affleck Considered For?
    Video 4:10
    Watch What Roles Was Ben Affleck Considered For?
    What Roles Has Matt Damon Turned Down?
    Video 3:27
    Watch What Roles Has Matt Damon Turned Down?

    Photos606

    Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, and Cole Hauser in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Robin Williams and Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Matt Damon and Minnie Driver in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Ben Affleck and Cole Hauser in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Matt Damon and Minnie Driver in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Matt Damon and Minnie Driver in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Robin Williams and Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, and Cole Hauser in Good Will Hunting (1997)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Robin Williams
    Robin Williams
    • Sean
    Matt Damon
    Matt Damon
    • Will
    Ben Affleck
    Ben Affleck
    • Chuckie
    Stellan Skarsgård
    Stellan Skarsgård
    • Lambeau
    John Mighton
    • Tom
    Rachel Majorowski
    • Krystyn
    Colleen McCauley
    • Cathy
    Casey Affleck
    Casey Affleck
    • Morgan
    Cole Hauser
    Cole Hauser
    • Billy
    Matt Mercier
    Matt Mercier
    • Barbershop Quartet #1
    Ralph St. George
    • Barbershop Quartet #2
    Rob Lynds
    • Barbershop Quartet #3
    Dan Washington
    • Barbershop Quartet #4
    Alison Folland
    Alison Folland
    • M.I.T. Student
    Derrick Bridgeman
    • M.I.T. Student
    Vik Sahay
    Vik Sahay
    • M.I.T. Student
    • (as Vic Sahay)
    Shannon Egleson
    • Girl on Street
    Rob Lyons
    • Carmine Scarpaglia
      • Gus Van Sant
      • Matt Damon
      • Ben Affleck
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    A Beautiful Mind
    8.2
    A Beautiful Mind
    The Truman Show
    8.2
    The Truman Show
    Catch Me If You Can
    8.1
    Catch Me If You Can
    Inglourious Basterds
    8.3
    Inglourious Basterds
    The Departed
    8.5
    The Departed
    Django Unchained
    8.4
    Django Unchained
    Forrest Gump
    8.8
    Forrest Gump
    Saving Private Ryan
    8.6
    Saving Private Ryan
    Se7en
    8.6
    Se7en
    Pulp Fiction
    8.9
    Pulp Fiction
    Shutter Island
    8.2
    Shutter Island
    American Beauty
    8.4
    American Beauty

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      In 2014, after Robin Williams died, the bench in the Boston Public Garden where he and Matt Damon had their conversation scene became an impromptu memorial site. People left flowers, quotes, and various items at the bench. A petition has been passed around to erect a statue in Williams' memory near the bench.
    • Goofs
      When Sean tells Will his wife used to fart all the time, even in her sleep, everybody laughs. The camera starts bobbing up and down twice during that dialogue. Apparently, the camera operator was laughing, too.
    • Quotes

      Sean: [during a therapy session] You're not perfect, sport, and let me save you the suspense: this girl you've met, she's not perfect either. But the question is whether or not you're perfect for each other.

    • Crazy credits
      Throughout the end credits, Will's car is driving down the highway until the very end, when the car drives around a bend and disappears.
    • Alternate versions
      In the theatrical release, Chuckie gets angry with Morgan for using his little league baseball glove as "clean up." However in the TV version, Chuckie ends the scene with a curt "Why don't you do what you're doin' at your house." Also, when Will is with the first psychiatrist, the mention of "putting from the rough" is deleted.
    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Alien Resurrection/Welcome to Sarajevo/Flubber/Public Housing/Bent (1997)
    • Soundtracks
      Big Strong Man
      Arranged by Brian Warfield

      Performed by The Wolfetones (as Wolfe Tones)

      Courtesy of Shanachie Entertainment Corp.

    User reviews1K

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    The Genius In Our Midst
    So many personal projects of our best players never come out quite right. The vision they have somehow doesn't translate to the screen, or it's not box office subject matter, or maybe the actors aren't gifted with writing or directing talent. That's certainly not the case with Good Will Hunting which was not only the breakthrough film for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, but it will probably remain their most personal endeavor.

    Not too much imagination was required though because these guys set this film in their native Boston the city they grew up in, the city they seem to know every nook and cranny of. They didn't even have to lose the New England accents they would have to in most of their other films.

    When Matt and Ben wrote Good Will Hunting the fact they were able to interest a top director like Gus Van Sant in the project should have said something before one views a frame of film. Van Sant got an Oscar nominated performance for Matt Damon and a Supporting Actor Oscar for Robin Williams as the psychologist who counsels Damon.

    Will Hunting is this average lower middle class kid from South Boston who was in the foster care system and suffered a lot of abuse while growing up. He has some low level jobs, he's constantly getting in trouble with the law for minor scrapes, and he's a functioning genius who for kicks solves a highly complex mathematical equation between buffing floors at MIT.

    Which perks the interest of Stellan Skarsgaard highly touted mathematics professor there. He feels and I agree with him that one of the worst sins in the world is wasting the talent the Deity blesses you with, whatever it is. After a succession of therapists who are unable to cope with Damon's genius, Robin Williams gets his turn at bat.

    Robin Williams one of the wildest, wackiest, most innovative comics that ever walked the earth, drops all of that to deliver a highly sensitive performance as the psychologist who finally reaches Damon on some level. What Damon does with it is for you to see Good Will Hunting for.

    Some of that breakthrough is achieved with the help of Minnie Driver, a British student at Harvard who falls hard for the blue collar Will Hunting. Most of it is achieved though in the film's key scene as Ben Affleck tells him that no matter what your IQ is, if you don't use it and move up and on, you're the stupidest guy here. It's one of Affleck's best scenes in his whole career on film.

    I've known a few Will Huntings in my day, blessed with talent I would like to have had and who threw it away for a combination of reasons. One in particular I knew back in the Eighties was a kid who originally grew up in Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountain country to some really uneducated hicks. They discovered he was gay and immediately had him committed. Back in the day, they did all kinds of things to him like electroshock therapy and guess what, it all didn't work. But it left him a twisted and bitter person who gravitated to the new gay rights movement because it was something that finally validated him as a human being.

    He also was blessed with an incredible baritone singing voice, he could have sang opera had that been trained instead of his parents trying to change his orientation. But when I last saw him in the middle Eighties no one had or could reach him. He made a living running a cleaning service for apartments. If he couldn't sing militant songs of protest he wasn't interested, even if he could have reached millions more with his issues had he studied, learned, and developed.

    Unlike Will Hunting, Jimmy Flowers wasn't reached as far as I know. But Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in writing their Oscar winning original screenplay could have known him. So I'm sure they won't mind if I dedicated this review to Jimmy whether he's alive or no longer with us.

    I'm sure there are Jimmy Flowers and Will Huntings that we've all known and hopefully we have the wit to recognize the talent whatever it is and the encouraging nature to make people develop that talent.
    helpful•106
    35
    • bkoganbing
    • Sep 3, 2008

    Iconic On-Screen Romances

    Iconic On-Screen Romances

    From all-consuming passion to forbidden encounters, these love stories will stand the test of time.
    See the gallery
    View image
    Photos

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 9, 1998 (United States)
      • United States
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Central Tech. High School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • Production companies
      • Miramax
      • Be Gentlemen Limited Partnership
      • Lawrence Bender Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 2 hours 6 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby Digital

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Robin Williams and Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997)
    Top Gap
    What is the streaming release date of Good Will Hunting (1997) in India?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.