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Brainstorm almost was never completed
I remember back in 1981 when Natalie Woods died it was on all the news and they were mentioning the film she was working on Brainstorm,They were showing clips of her in the movie on the news and other programs on TV, The movie looked like it would have been great.
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About exploring experience, life, love, even death, from the point of view of others.
Everyone knows this was Natalie Wood's last film, and that some of her scenes were filmed after her death with a stand-in you only see from behind. Director Donald Trumball, best known for his special effects work in Blade Runner, Close Enounters, and Star Trek, chose this time to build his story on plot and character development, a good choice given the enormous talent he had to work with. Trumball's battle with studio execs to finish the film after Wood's death, rather than claim the insurance proceeds and call the film off, ended his career in Hollywood, but assured that this gem would not be lost. It is somewhat ironic that Natalie's swan song should be a sci-fi movie, since she was hardly known for work in the genre, but she brings a grace and charm, as well as depth and beauty, to the genre that is usually lacking.
Most sci-fi films based on technology don't age well, and there are times where this is no exception. The idea of recording on tape, let alone making tape loops, must seem like wax cylinder recordings to today's MP3 generation. The tapes themselves were props borrowed from a film being shot nearby, and that film was itself a dismal failure. But the concept is timeless, and so well done that, all in all, the film still works as well as it did in 1983.
Lesser screenplays would have been content with the main story line; scientists invent a way to record brainwaves and play them back for a real life out of body experience, and for just such a stinker, check out Strange Days. But then along comes the incomparable, utterly fabulous Louise Fletcher, who, as one of the co-inventors of the aforementioned device, records her death when she suffers a heart attack while working late one night. For the rest of the film, people are either trying to play the tape or prevent others from playing it. Meanwhile, the technology gets hijacked by two-dimensional government lackeys trying to exploit the weapons potential of the invention.
One can easily pick out scenes of this movie to vilify or exalt, all these years later, and any object viewed over time eventually has a vanishing point. The almost slapstick scene where the assembly robots go berserk is one example of a scene that, while consistent with its contemporaries, is silly today. The death scene, though much maligned, is equally misunderstood, and provides the metaphysical underpinnings that elevate Brainstorm above mere gadget flicks. Brainstorm is about exploring experience, life, love, even death, from the point of view of others, and Academy Award winner Louise Fletcher allows us to do so through her consummate skill in presenting a death scene of sufficient awe and wonder to warrant exploration.
If you want to find out what else happens, watch the film, but when you do, don't ignore the beautiful, delicate interplay between Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood. Their careening relationship seems somehow tied to the invention they helped make, and there are sequences so beautiful that I sometimes take out the DVD just to marvel at them.
Despite changing styles in special effects, this is a timeless and beautiful story that transcends the genre and, with Walken, Wood and Fletcher, becomes more than just a story about shiny gold tapes that record brain waves. It's more about immovable objects and irresistible forces and what happens when they collide. Intrigued? Good. Go watch it.
Most sci-fi films based on technology don't age well, and there are times where this is no exception. The idea of recording on tape, let alone making tape loops, must seem like wax cylinder recordings to today's MP3 generation. The tapes themselves were props borrowed from a film being shot nearby, and that film was itself a dismal failure. But the concept is timeless, and so well done that, all in all, the film still works as well as it did in 1983.
Lesser screenplays would have been content with the main story line; scientists invent a way to record brainwaves and play them back for a real life out of body experience, and for just such a stinker, check out Strange Days. But then along comes the incomparable, utterly fabulous Louise Fletcher, who, as one of the co-inventors of the aforementioned device, records her death when she suffers a heart attack while working late one night. For the rest of the film, people are either trying to play the tape or prevent others from playing it. Meanwhile, the technology gets hijacked by two-dimensional government lackeys trying to exploit the weapons potential of the invention.
One can easily pick out scenes of this movie to vilify or exalt, all these years later, and any object viewed over time eventually has a vanishing point. The almost slapstick scene where the assembly robots go berserk is one example of a scene that, while consistent with its contemporaries, is silly today. The death scene, though much maligned, is equally misunderstood, and provides the metaphysical underpinnings that elevate Brainstorm above mere gadget flicks. Brainstorm is about exploring experience, life, love, even death, from the point of view of others, and Academy Award winner Louise Fletcher allows us to do so through her consummate skill in presenting a death scene of sufficient awe and wonder to warrant exploration.
If you want to find out what else happens, watch the film, but when you do, don't ignore the beautiful, delicate interplay between Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood. Their careening relationship seems somehow tied to the invention they helped make, and there are sequences so beautiful that I sometimes take out the DVD just to marvel at them.
Despite changing styles in special effects, this is a timeless and beautiful story that transcends the genre and, with Walken, Wood and Fletcher, becomes more than just a story about shiny gold tapes that record brain waves. It's more about immovable objects and irresistible forces and what happens when they collide. Intrigued? Good. Go watch it.
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Critica en el periodico "La Vanguardia" (18-4-1984)
El cine no deja de especular con el inmediato futuro, que posiblemente se este fraguando ahora mismo en unos laboratorios tan fríos, asépticos y atomizados como los que muestra "Proyecto Brainstorm". Al margen de que el género de anticipación vuelva a venderse bien, en una taquilla que engorda gracias a las pesadillas del hombre moderno, el cine, a lo largo de su historia, siempre ha querido descifrarnos el futuro, aprovechando su capacidad para la imaginaria visual. "Proyecto Brainstorm" es un filme especulativo, pero no exclusivamente de ciencia-ficción. De la misma manera que no es sólo la película póstuma de Natalie Wood, una baza que tampoco le ha servido del desastre económico en el mercado norteamericano. su autor Douglas Trumbull, es un maestro en los efectos especiales. Formó parte del numeroso equipo que Stanley Kubrick, tuvo a su servicio en "2001, una odisea del espacio", y después ha colaborado decisivamente en películas como "Encuentros en la tercera fase", "Star Trek" y "Blade Runner", sin olvidar su participación en aquella pequeña maravilla de Robert Wise titulada "La venganza de Andrómena". Trumbull debutó en la dirección cinematográfica con "Naves Misteriosas" (1972), película de ciencia-ficción de serie B, a la que el paso del tiempo, se ha encargado de revalorizar. Su retorno a la dirección en "Proyecto Brainstorm", bajo la égida de la poderosa MGM, no ha sido muy estimulante para él. Al morir Natalie Wood en noviembre de 1981, cuando sólo le quedaban por interpretar algunas secuencias, sin excesivo relieve, la Metro quiso cancelar la producción y detuvo el rodaje. La posterior participación económica de Lloyds of London, que había asegurado el filme, permitió su finalización. De cualquier modo, Trumbull se ha negado después a promover la película, de ahí que no estuviera en el último "Imagfic" de Madrid, donde "Proyecto Brainstorm" clausuró el certamen, siendo sustituida su visita por la actriz Louise Fletcher. "Proyecto Brainstorm" describe la invención, por parte de un grupo de científicos, de un ingenio grabador, capaz de registrar las zonas más ocultas del cerebro humano, y transmitir sus sensaciones y vivencias a otras personas. El caudal de conocimientos, las experiencias e incluso la propia agonía de una persona, pueden ser "vividos" por otro individuo, cuantas veces quiera. Sólo hace falta ponerle el "cassette"... Es un viaje al interior de la mente humana, donde nada, ni lo más intimo o recóndito, puede quedar oculto. Trumbull mantiene a menudo una mirada irónica, porque esa posibilidad de grabar y revivir las sensaciones, pensamientos y experiencias del ser humano, no puede sino al control total, la manipulación de las conciencias. El equipo de científicos inventor del proyecto es revelado y éste pasa a manos del Ejército. El mensaje resulta preocupante: nada nuestro quedará a salvo; todo es manipulable, incluso nuestros pensamientos. Sin embargo, la película de Trumbull no se limita a mostrarnos el siempre estéril combate entre buenos y malos. Los científicos viven voluntariamente retirados en unos complejos ultramodernos, donde la fundación para la que trabajan dispone de todo su tiempo, sus conocimientos y su intimidad. Cuando los intereses militares hacen que el proyecto se les quite de las manos, el filme se adapta a un patrón más maniqueo. Claro que entonces Trumbull parece sentir un goce nada oculto en destruir los "maravillosos avances" mostrados. Asistimos a la sistemática destrucción de la fábrica automizada de "Tiempos modernos", convincentemente actualizada en nuestra era electrónica. La rebelión incruenta de los robots deviene en anarquía. Trumbull recurre al humor destructivo como remedio contra la pesadilla de una sociedad que ya no respeta nuestros sueños y pensamientos. Natalie Wood tenía hasta cierto punto un papel secundario en el filme. El peso interpretativo de "Proyecto Brainstorm" recae casi siempre en los excelentes Christopher Walken y Louise Fletcher. Pero Natalie y su carácter de figura de porcelana hecha añicos, no puede menos que conmovernos. LLUIS BONET MOJICA.
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A Piece of My Mind
I first watched Brainstorm when I was barely a teenager and was fairly impressed, an impression that lasted to date. For the first time, I'd seen a movie where someone was presented with amazing options, and the movie actually covered everything I'd have thought of. Unlike in those flicks where someone would get three wishes and never would wish to get as many wishes as they wanted (or happiness ever after, or instant death, or whatever), "Brainstorm" explores all possible consequences of the introduction of new, ground-breaking options:
A team of scientists comes up with a way to *really* share experience, to let each other in on how they experience the eternal essentials; love, life, sex; even death. And then, it doesn't stop there, taking into consideration the dark side as well -- what happens if you share your pain as well? What happens if The Wrong People(TM) monopolize the Amazing Secret(TM) first?
I love this movie. It ties up eternal questions and hopes with fun F/X and combines them into a touching and thrilling plot that makes other movies (mostly of the "cyberpunk"-era) like "Strange Days" that exploit a similar theme seem anemic in comparison at best.
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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.
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?
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One Great Movie
This is a great movie. It has a great story line, and it has a scientific "what if" that is as compelling today, as it was then. This is a movie to see. It may be a bit dated in its social themes, as well as its imagery. That can be said of many of the great movies, if you think about it. This is also a great movie on the basis in that it is the last movie Natalie Wood was in. I believe she is one of the most beautiful actresses of all time. She was also a great actress. I may have my order of statements backwards there. The movie also contains a great wealth of moral statement. I believe a viewer will come away with a better perspective of life.
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"Nobody locks me out!"
Cutting edge sci-fi film is interesting and absorbing enough to make it good entertainment. It's not so much about story. There really isn't much of one, and we don't ever get to know the characters *that* well. This is more a film about concepts - and imagery, of course. Marking a directorial effort for visual effects specialist Douglas Trumbull ("2001: A Space Odyssey", "Silent Running"), it definitely has the right look to it. Trumbull uses multiple aspect ratios in order to maximize the experience. Fortunately, he does give the proceedings a level of humanity, particularly as they pertain to a shaky marriage, and there are moments of poignancy during the narrative.
Christopher Walken and Louise Fletcher star as Michael Brace and Lillian Reynolds, two old- fashioned mad scientists working to perfect a virtual reality device that records human experiences. It can allow you to taste what somebody else is eating, for example, or feel what it was like for them as they rode a roller coaster. The people funding and backing Brace & Reynolds ultimately don't like the way they do things, and try to alter the course of the research. Michael becomes obsessed with checking out a tape made by Lillian, and figures out a way to sneak past the defenses of the computer program running the show.
Overall, this is an amusing show, with solid acting by all concerned. Fletcher is indeed a standout. "Brainstorm" is notable for being the last credit for co-star Natalie Wood (who isn't given very much to do), whose untimely death occurred during production. Supporting cast members include Cliff Robertson, a likable Joe Dorsey ("Grizzly"), and a young Jason Lively ("Night of the Creeps") as Walken and Woods' son. (Walkens' real-life spouse Georgianne, who usually works as a casting director, appears on screen here as Dorseys' wife.) The technical work on the film is of course first rate, with eye popping visual effects, effective production design, and a thunderous music score by James Horner.
Worth a look for fans of this genre.
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My very favourite movie of all time
This is a fascinating movie. A wonderful ride, and brings up some intriguing ethical issues in the development of some technologies. Obviously not meant as an educational experience. Walken is a wonderful actor and you as the viewer share his desperation, right up until the amazing climax. Some of the technology is very dated (tapes for data storage!), but hey, this was the early 80's. I think they did a cool job despite challenges. The acting as a whole was very well done, especially Natalie Wood.
An interesting commentary on the basis of human consciousness and existence.
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This is a totally awesome movie!!!!!!!!
The only other person who has reviewed Brainstorm just didn't get it. The point behind viewing the tape was to see what happens after death. I mean, think about it, could there really be a much more important scientific discovery? Only if he found out how to stop death. As far as the comment, "And how does the tape record Lillian's feelings after she dies? Her out-of-body experience? The machine isn't connected to her 'spirit', but her dead brain", if you watch it again you see the tape run out but he is still continuing the "journey". The idea is that the machine can physically change the body because the images/sounds/smells/feelings/etc are the exact recording from another person. The other things that happened like Hal's Orgasm Splice, the Braces son's torture, etc, where the set up for the ending. You should watch this movie again because it is extremely great! The ideas in this movie are very well thought out!
For those that haven't seen it, you should at least check out Christopher Walken. This is one of the few movies where he doesn't play a psycho (not that he isn't great at that). He plays a sort of nerdy character and does a great job. Everyone else does a great job as well.
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Into The Depths Of The Mind
Now unfortunately better known as the final starring role for Natalie Wood, who died during the film's production in late 1981, this 1983 science fiction/suspense thriller deals with a very ambitious concept, one that may very well be coming to pass now in reality.
Christopher Walken and Louise Fletcher play a pair of scientists building a machine that can transfer the thoughts, sights, senses, and smells of one person to the mind of another. They are greatly aided in their quest by an ambitious and supportive sponsor (Cliff Robertson). The test of this new machine on a group of backers is hugely successful...maybe a bit TOO successful.
Fletcher becomes incredibly alarmed when federal agents are thinking about taking over the project; and when she dies, the feds think that this is their way in to using this invention to brainwash people. But there are two things they don't count on--that she would leave a tape of her final death throes; and that Walken would want to get a glimpse of what it's like to die. Death, as he says, is "the scariest thing a person ever has to face"; and he quickly becomes obsessed by it.
Despite some clunky dialogue, BRAINSTORM is a visually spectacular film, coming as it does from special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull, whose 1972 film SILENT RUNNING is a minor sci-fi cult classic. Wood is far better than average in her final role, and Walken, Robertson, and Fletcher don't do too badly either. The story, by future GHOST screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, is extremely metaphysical, helped out immensely by the fine visual effects, which remain innovative to this very day. The excellent orchestral/choral music score is by the very talented James Horner, who conducts the London Symphony Orchestra on the soundtrack.
Though slightly flawed, BRAINSTORM remains a must-see sci-fi film with an idea whose time is quickly coming
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Brainstorm almost was never completed
I remember back in 1981 when Natalie Woods died it was on all the news and they were mentioning the film she was working on Brainstorm,They were showing clips of her in the movie on the news and other programs on TV, The movie looked like it would have been great.
Other shows that was covering her death was saying that the studios wasn't going to finish the film, then about a year later there was talk of finishing the film because Natalie Woods had done most of her shoots for the Movie and the ones that weren't finished they would work around it to complete the movie, also I believe there was talk about all the money already invested in the movie and that was one of the major reason they decided to finish the film.
Then finally when Brainstorm was released in 1983 It was a Hugh hit because of all the publicity surrounding it with Natalie Woods Untimely death, News coverage and taking 2 years to get finish movie.
Brainstorm was a great movie!
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Confusing, but it's kinda cool!
"Brainstorm" is more of a roller coaster ride of visual effects, than a film. I watched this a few years ago, and it really frightened me. But now, I'm desperately trying to figure out what happened. They develop this headset, which can record your thoughts on tape. But one of the developers records her own death. And meanwhile, the government takes over the project, and makes tapes to kill people (or just make them go nuts). It's a neat idea, but "Brainstorm" has too many confusing distractions to keep our mind on the subject. I still don't know what I was looking at, but hey, it was something. The end of the film obviously showed a director's interpretation of death, using state of the art special effects. It's scary the first time you see it, because the suspense builds up throughout the movie. The developer's death tape keeps implying what were going to see. At this point, we feel trapped in a nightmare. But the ending is kind of sad, because we see the angels going into heaven. We don't want our loved ones to die, and go away from us. Everyone has to die someday, but this film reminds us of that, and, lets us know that we should not be afraid of dying. The worst thing about seeing this movie, is seeing it on TV! It's messed up on TV! The ONLY way to watch this film is in letterbox form, because all of the dream sequences are in widescreen, letting you know whether or not you're looking at real life, or if you're looking into a dream. I guess Trumbull was trying to emphasize that the human mind is a much wider world than the real world (the real world was seen in only a less-wide widescreen. This is the kind of film that would be good for IMAX theaters, because IMAX makes you feel like you're really there. And therefore, it's more exhilarating. There are still a few points I missed in this movie, but with the cool special effects and the multi-screen effects, it hardly matters.
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Brainstorm indeed!
Brainstorm is an indecently beautiful and deliciously scary slice of 80s aspirational cinema. Chris Walken and Natalie Wood co-star as married scientists Michael and Karen Brace, who are part of a team that invent a device that records and can re-transmit experiences. The film is maybe an American example of the 80s cinema du look, every shot is framed, for every shot an effort is made. When Michael is in hospital, he has bright red jello on his lunch tray, there's a Vasarely serigraph and some great abstract sculpture in the corporate environment. Everything is controlled. I would love to know how they got some of the shots they did.
Even though it's such a beautiful movie, there's some nice messages there. One of which is about seeing yourself through the eyes of others, and rekindling lost love. I actually felt lucky to be alive watching the movie - it's been a long time since I felt any such thing.
It's quite a reflexive movie in that the initial corporate use of the technology is to get someone to do a grand prix, and then peddle the sensorium of that, but the movie is also in many ways about experiencing something beautiful yourself, what it's like to live the life of a genius and feel true love.
Brainstorm is one of those rare movies which mention a force that could be used for good or bad, without seeming trite. The story could be tighter, and isn't helped by Nathalie Woods dying in mysterious circumstances before the film was totally wrapped. I just absolutely love it though, the movie came on me as a revelation. I had suspected when watching Silent Running, particularly the opening glide over a quite artificial forest, that Trumbull loved fetishised imagery, but I still wasn't prepared for Brainstorm.
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MY WEB PAGE TO NATALIE WOOD
