Movies - Brainstorm

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	Movies - Brainstorm

: For other uses: see Brainstorm (disambiguation).

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

Synopsis

The picture (filmed mostly in Super Panavision 70 mm) centers around a team of scientists which includes estranged husband-and-wife, Michael and Karen Brace (played by Walken and Wood) and Michael's research colleague, Lillian Reynolds (played by Louise Fletcher) who co-invent a device which allows sensations to be scanned directly from the brain, recorded, and played back, allowing another person to experience them.

When Reynolds suffers a fatal heart attack, she manages to record her own death. Michael attempts to play back the tape, but is nearly killed doing so. After modifying the output of the device to prevent the lethal effect, he tries again, but is interrupted after another scientist who was secretly monitoring the playback dies. The tape is locked away, and Michael and Karen are kicked off the team.

Michael, now obsessed with seeing the tape to the end, makes several attempts to hack into the lab's computers, and discovers project "Brainstorm" - which includes such applications of the device as torture and brainwashing. Michael's son is inadvertently exposed to one of the "toxic" tapes that had been developed as part of the project, and suffers severe mental trauma as a result.

Now more determined than ever, Michael enlists the help of his ex-wife, as well as a friend who had been part of the original project team, so that he can finally view the tape of Reynolds' death, even at the cost of his own life, and destroy project Brainstorm.

Ultimately he succeeds on both counts, and finally knowing what death truly is and what lies after it, he and Karen rediscover their love for one another.

The making of the film

Brainstorm was Trumbull's second film he directed after his 1971 film Silent Running. It was actually filmed in two processes, flat 1.85:1 35 mm (for the "real world" sequences) and 2.2:1 70 mm Super Panavision (for the "Brainstorm" device scenes). Because two different (and incompatible) film processes were used, the 35 mm footage had to be blown up to the 65 mm/70 mm negative in order to be visually consistent. As a result, the 35 mm sequences (in its original theatrical release) were "pillarboxed", while the 70 mm scenes were presented in full 'scope screen format (the video and DVD versions have the 35 mm and 70 mm sequences letterboxed in their respective aspect ratios).

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.

Tragic circumstances

Brainstorm was Natalie Wood's last film. Near the end of principal photography Wood was about to film a crucial, climactic scene for the movie when she tragically drowned on November 29, 1981, leaving production in limbo for almost two years. MGM considered offering the rights to Paramount Pictures so the movie could be finished but ultimately the studio decided to create an ending using body doubles and Natalie Wood soundalikes along with already-shot footage, completing production for a fall 1983 release.

While critically acclaimed, the film was a box-office disaster.

Brainstorm carries the dedication credit For Natalie (in honor of Wood's memory).

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