I adore this movie! No one talks about it but it’s fucking amazing. This among movies like Dreamscape, Altered States, and Buckaroo Banzai warped my young brain into the totally stable adult I am now.
Same here. I loved all those movies as a kid growing up in the 80s, with a well worn video rental card and a cable box. Even back then, I could tell Brainstorm had a clunky ending that didn't really fit, but there were so many really great moments sprinkled all throughout which more than made up for it.
Saw it in the cinema when it came out. Much like when I saw Blade Runner in the cinema when it came out, I watched it in an almost empty theatre. Both were panned when they came out and I absolutely loved both of them.
REALLY loved the Elion-Hitchings Building & it's architecture, both inside & out. Feels like a building from an alternate future that never was, like something out of Blade Runner or Tron. Wish we had more architecture like that today.
A favorite movie. The subject matter was fascinating and Trumbull made you believe the hardware was real, but you had to give the butchered script some extra thought as they directly addressed the type of things the "array system" would be used for - everything from travelogs to porn. "I'm more than I was..." is something I'm still trying to figure out.
If you don't want to risk the security clearances (and you body is in pretty good physical condition) you could try holotropic breathing. You can gain access to the mirror spheres that way (amongst other places). You could also try the gateway hemisync tapes. But if you are already happy with your life or have other mouths to feed then id say stick to just watching the movies. It's all science fiction fun til you experience it directly.... Just a word of caution🤷🏼♂️
For those lucky enough to see this movie in a theater that could maximize the 35/70mm viewing on a very large screen, this movie was a sight to behold. The opening sequence gave everyone a real sense of vertigo.
Yes. At the 70mm theater we saw it at the huge curved screen accentuated the opening credits. They looked like they were bulging off of the screen without and 3D glasses. It was stunning.
Agreed, one of the most memorable movie experiences I've ever had, plus I got to watch it in a theater right by where they filmed some scenes in Raleigh and a few "movie-related" people were in the audience.
I never actually realized, until I saw it later on home video, that they actually expanded the "memory playback" sequences with a wider aspect ratio than the "real-world" sequences. At first, I thought there was something wrong with my laserdisc player (which tells you how long ago this was!), or the disc itself, until I picked up on the pattern of when the letterboxed aspect ratio would change from one to the other. On a modern widescreen TV, it isn't *quite* so noticeable, but boy was it obvious on a letterboxed image on a 4:3 CRT!
Got to see this movie as a kid the night broadcast tv was showing The Day After. My parents had been invited to a coworkers house for a TDA watch party like it was GoT. They hired a babysitter with strict instructions not to watch TDA. So our baby sitter let us watch the illegally descrambled UHF HBO channel and Brainstorm was what was on.
Our neighbors unlocked our HBO box for us lol. I remember him telling my dad to put red nail polish Ack on the top bracket screw head, that was the security device for no tampering lol.
I remember how TDA was such an EVENT back then! Fortunately we lived in a rural area, but if we'd still been in suburbs I know we'd have had that same kind of gathering at a friend's home.
Honestly one of my favorite movies that Walkin was in. Great actors, and really intriguing ideas. I have to agree with you, Geek, about Louise Fletcher being the strongest performance. I was young when I saw this, and I wasn't sure she had only been acting, she was so convincing. I did also enjoy her in DS9, because good stories need good antagonists. Now... to go listen to Weapon of Choice to decompress after remembering that scene...
Interesting how the same technology in the hands of James Cameron gave us Strange Days, a crime drama where memory recordings were hustled like illegal drugs.
@brianboye8025 I believe that both Brainstorm and Strange days take place in the same universe with the technology being refit into optical media which was the rage at the time Strange Days take place and if they ever make a sequel to Strange Days I hope they are allowed to connect the dots all the way to Brainstorm. Nowadays the Brainstorm/Strange Days tech would be over the internet with probably websites like Tik Tok and TH-cam hosting human memories files think Go Pro on steroids.
As a young boy, I watched Brainstorm several times on HBO back in the summer of '84. I liked it. Especially the scene when Walken's character first tries to hack into the system to access the "death tape." Btw, great score by the late James Horner.
Nice review, Eric. Per that last question, it's my understanding that the insurance riders on the bigger budget films includes stipulations for additional funding for reshoots if an actor, at least the "above the line" ones, dies during principal photography and probably breaks down in a number of ways ( we all no those pesky clauses insurance providers like to slip in) such as if the actor dies after principal photography but before additional photography or various post production stages. At the time, from my outsider perspective, Natalie Woods' death seemed to be so twisted and exploited by different parties. The story about what happened that night always sounded like BS and I think Walken's career suffered (seemingly unjustly) and Robert Wagner's (came off as a suspect and stayed out of sight until maybe Wayne's World?). The end product was muddied in a number of ways. IMO, I call that "death by committee." I did like the film, comparing it somewhat to Dreamscape that seemed to edge it out. I'm not sure when MGM got into so much financial trouble but the late 70's and 80's were not good. They started selling off big chunks of their film rights to all of their big musical films. I worked there briefly in the early 90's, temping in between jobs in their payroll and residuals department. I knew exactly what kind of paychecks were being cut for their top executives. The most memorable residual check was to Marlon Brando for about $40,000 for a movie he did called Missouri Breaks. I couldn't tell you how often those were paid out, but I thought it was good money for a film I'd never seen from about 10 years(?) before, even if it were only annually. I looked it up once but still haven't ever watched it. This also occurred at their old location, and they were preparing to move the studio to somewhere over in Santa Monica due to all their financial restructuring.
@TheUnapologeticGeek it's actually older. Came out in 1976. Arthur Penn directing, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Harry Dean Stanton. I'm not a big fan of westerns as a genre. Everyone looks like they haven't had a bath in months or years to me. Well, except for the water tower scene Rachel Welch does in 100 Rifles... 😉 Or Jenny Agutter in China 9, Liberty 37...
@@TheUnapologeticGeek I think they redrumed her because the technology in brainstorm is actually real. Trut.h.stream media did a report on that years ago. Its on b.itch.chute. ask me, I will lead u
I remember when this film came out. It had been in production hell for 2 years, It wasn’t well advertised, the movie trailers as I recall were not very good, it was getting bad to lukewarm reviews from critics, and there was a dark cloud over it because of Wood’s highly publicized mysterious death. It just plain never had a chance.
Definitely one of my favourite hard SF films, despite its drawbacks. It is one of a kind, and I have eagerly awaited a review from you. Well done, TUG (though I’m disappointed you did not mention the music by the late James Horner, one of my three favourite film composers). I found my first viewing of this absorbing, despite great drawbacks. It was in a flea pit cinema, so lacked the full 70 mm format, and a few rows ahead of me was the distraction of the only other occupants in the cinema pulling their feet up off the ground because of rats scuttling past! The film deserved better. 🙂 I agree that the best performance was from Louise Fletcher, while Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood were both more than adequate in their roles. The special effects were innovative for their time, particularly the “memory bubble” effect, and the subject matter at the time was groundbreaking and interesting. Having focused largely on the production hassles, you perhaps ran out of time for other interesting matters such as the question of life after death. On that point, the plot’s visual hints were more ambiguous than they might have seemed - appearing to support the religious view, though leaving the opportunity for atheists to interpret the visuals as simply in the mind of Fletcher’s character. This film was in the best tradition of hard science fiction, leaving food for thought long after viewing. I agree, it is a science fiction classic, that initially struggled to find the right audience. Since then it has undergone a renaissance, though, with BluRay copies now prohibitively expensive online.
I love this movie, I would show off knowing everything about it when very few knew it existed. I doubt it was Trumbull but the gorgeous beloved Natalie got a buttload of grief for being a bit heavy after her hiatus from films. Being from Va Beach I was familiar with Kitty Hawk and that made it special.
Saw Brainstorm for the very first time last year and loved it. Didn't know about the troubled production and wouldn't have guessed it. Sadly the habit of dropping films to get the insurance money is more prevalent nowadays with all the bean counters in Hollywood.
Why? The film death was scripted, the Actress death a sudden occurrence. There is nothing to say that Natalie suffered during her death because, the bruising and cuts on her body were confirmed to be post-mortem at the time.
For me, this film is one of my favourites, and that is due to the cast, premise, and effects. I did see this at the cinema, and I have a copy in my library. It is tragic that the film could not have been completed due to the greater tragedy of Natalie's demise. As far as the in-film technology goes, it all seemed okay to me. I see the tapes as a multi-track recording, or which some data is physiological, which is why the key recording in the story way kill as it feeds cardio shutdown instructions into the brain. I also figured that emotional responses could be triggered from physiological control. But that is just my conjecture. It was a great film, and as stated, a forgotten classic. And unfortunately, a footnote in certain careers.
I love this movie with all my heart! It was WAY ahead of its time. For me this movie was life altering in terms of how I looked at the world or beyond it (I saw this at 10). The score from James Horner was also an exhilarating experience! Looking back at it now the ending does feel truncated but it doesn’t change how I feel about the film. This video was wonderful because I didn’t know any of this information other than her death. It’s too bad it didn’t succeed but again like TRON it was just too soon.
In the mid-80's, I had the pleasure of visiting Douglas Trumbull's studio in Marina Del Rey. Trumbull showed us his demo film for Showscan. The film has a sequence where the "film" breaks and the screen goes black - then a technician appears behind the screen, having turned a light on. At one point, the technician presses his face against the screen. It looked just like an actual person, so realistic was the effect. And it sustained this effect for a good few minutes, until it moved on to the more dazzling sequences - cars racing, etc. It was just stunning.
As a youngster, one of my first crushes was Natalie Wood. Fell in love with her when I saw "The Candidate" That made this movie a tough one to watch. What a fantastic review. Eric, how you don't have 50K subscribers I'll never understand
I genuinely like this film. Sure, it falls apart at the end, but I'm fine with that. It only adds to the charm of Trumbull's effort. (If tragedy can be called charming?). I especially like Horner's soundtrack. I know Brainstorm is not considered a mainstream classic, but that doesn't matter to me. I would rather watch this again for the umpteenth time, than sit through a damn Marvel dollop of tosh. Thanks for this retrospective. Bloody lovely.
Great review, Eric. Whether you are impressed with what I'm about to tell you, I can't say, but what I'm about to tell you is true. When Natalie Wood died - I was only 21 when that happened - I was heartbroken. I had grown up on her films and like many other teenage boys at the time, was smitten with her. The irony here? In those days, the Los Angeles Times Sunday paper would actually come out on Saturday, and I couldn't wait to tear into the Calendar Section which was all entertainment-related, and I thrived on it. The highlight of that issue was an interview with Christopher Walken. Towards the end of the article, I would read that he was making a movie with Natalie Wood called "Brainstorm" to be directed by Douglas Trumbull. The next day Natalie had died. By Monday MGM issued a statement saying that they were considering the decision very carefully whether or not to finish the film. Either ways, I would get all caught up on that particular story. Will it ever be finished? Or will it be scrapped? Then the announcement came the following February that that the principal photography would be completed, but only after the rough cut would it be decided to go ahead and finish the movie - and there would be no fake Natalie hidden behind big hats and such - when you saw her, it was her. So I bit my nails. I even wrote to MGM and pleaded with them to complete the film. Well, as we now know, they said yes. Then once again, the movie goes into limbo as apparently Trumbull did NOT complete the principal photography. UGH. But then FINALLY the decision is made to complete it. Call this serendipity or whatever, here in Los Angeles, we used to have a film festival called FILMEX. And one of their lineups would be a tribute to Natalie Wood in which "West Side Story" would be shown - which a special appearance by Douglas Trumbull himself who would also bring a 3 minute clip from the movie that was still in limbo. So yes, I went and luckily got in. And the 3 minute clip looked promising - it was the sequence where Walken and Wood reconcile their strained relationship. It moved the audience. And get this: months later after the announcement was made they would complete the film, the very friend I went to that screening to also worked for a movie-related magazine and had a special invitation to see a demonstration of Showscan - and Trumbull himself would be there. And yes, she invited me. For all the stress that poor guy went through, he looked surprisingly good - not haggard or tired or anything. Skip to the chase: The demonstration knocked me out. OMG. NOW I was REALLY waiting for "Brainstorm". Too bad they couldn't use the Showscan technique, but I was okay with 70mm and 35mm, but I was certain this movie was going to be a gem of a film. So yes, I saw it on opening day, at a very big theater with a giant screen and a great sound system. And though I didn't hate the movie, I didn't love it either. I was 23 when the film came out, and even at that young naive age could tell that the movie was already weak to begin with - it seem to suffer from Trumbull trying to throw everything in plus the kitchen sink - plus a few appliances to boot. They should have just had a plot and a subplot, and maybe an afterlife sequence that we could some how identify with. I don't think Wood's missing scenes would have made any difference - the film still would have only been mediocre. But damn, what scenes that were good were very good. But too bad it didn't all mesh. But this particular film will ALWAYS be a special part of my moviegoing experience. I followed the story, I wrote the studio, I saw a clip while it was in limbo, and followed it to opening day. Just wish the movie could have been right up there with "2001: A Space Odyssey" - but hey, can't always get what you want.
Great review. It is a fascinating movie on different levels, not all with the screenplay or direction. The mystery surrounding Walken and Woods "relationship" and her death. Besides that, the locations in Research Triangle NC and the cinematography. I agree, the film really needed a capable director. IMO Turnbull could have focused on the technical effects. There was so much potential for this movie but it sadly didn't materialize.
The idea that Trumbull's career ended is so incredibly disconnected from reality. Anyone who followed his career up to the BRAINSTORM era knows he was always frustrated by Hollywood. (He did the FX for STAR TREK if they gave him a ton of money AND released him from his contract.) From then until his death he continued to do what he WANTED to do, working from his base in Massachusetts. A computer animator I know irl spent a day there, and said it was what Lucas and Coppola wanted for their non-Hollywood bases. (OT: He said Trumbull was incredibly nice; he mentioned that Trumbull kept James Horner's conductor's score in a place of honor in his office.) He spent the last decades of his life free from Hollywood, which most thought the only game in town, and did what he loved--expanding what was considered cinema when he started out. He did what he pleased--including, btw, working on TREE OF LIFE.
It’s Research TRIANGLE Park (RTP). When I was a kid, the making of this movie was a big deal because it was filmed about a half an hour from my hometown. It has always held a special place in my heart, and honestly, it is kind of a miracle that he was able to salvage it after the tragedy. And it makes a great double feature when paired with Strange Days, one of my favorite movies from the 90s (that also kind of flopped).
Wow, so many memories...! All this tracks with what I remember from the time (a teenager following sci-fi film industry news), and the reminiscing I heard later at THX. Plus I have a good friend who worked closely with Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner and their family during those years; while I never pushed him to share any presumption on what happened on that boat, he truly loved them as such a wonderful family. Later, I *did* get to meet Louise Fletcher on a set (one of those disposable movies to get a paycheck for a role far below her stature). I got to tell her how her death scene in Brainstorm was formative for me, her character's dedication selfless act for science. I want to think I came across well, but she's such a pro her gracious response could have been pap and I'd never know. ;-) FWIW I've heard of the Esalen Institute back when I lived in Marin County, and it sounded exactly as froofy as it comes across here.
I saw Brainstorm the first week it was released in the Cine Capri Theater a wide curved screen that made the opening title appear as if it left the screen and was floating separate 10 feet away in mid air. It was 3D without the glasses and pure cinema magic. Love your video agree this film should not be forgotten. I feel James Horner composed a master piece in soundtracks and deservers a mention to the brilliance in this film. For loosing a main character/Star in the middle of shooting, Trumbull salvaged it masterfully and in my opinion does not suffer from the criticism you agreed with from shortsighted wannabes that never worked on a production. The Film is a Masterpiece on all levels and purposely squelched for its accurate portrayal of corporate military greed.
Not a bad movie in fact a solid & interesting premise, admittedly some disjointed execution, but still watchable & obviously finished under terrible circumstances.
The change in format for the brainstorm sequences blew me away on a 27” CRT on VHS. It was a big room full of people and we were smoking some weed but we all had a blast watching it. Maybe it’s technically a 6 but it’s an 8 on the entertainment scale.
My dad was a production designer on this and Videodrome and he never shuts up about it. My dad hated Christopher. He literally tried to hit him with his car once. He said he was the most brainless person he ever met.
As a kid in the 80s who had just discovered "self abuse", I thought the infinite orgasm loop scene was both hilarious and awesome at the same time. Still hoping science can get that ball rolling before all my swimmers dry up for good.
I saw this movie when I was younger, during the period of my life when I was actually studying movie making, and I found it to be baffling for many of the same reasons mentioned already. The pacing was bizarre as hell, the way the plot lurches and jumps from one crazy idea to the next has a nauseating effect on anyone who wants to keep up with the actual story, and the hand waving that goes on regarding not just the mechanics of the technology at work but the universe they exist in itself is so frequent and used to gloss over such major aspects of what you're watching that it can't help but take you out of the film. It needed to be a series of movies or have its concept paired down even further. I could've seen it as an awesome hour long Rod Serling offering from Night Gallery or something along those lines.
One of my all time favorite movies that I stumbled upon when Blockbuster was a thing.. It inspired me to write a poorly named and never to see the light of day screenplay called .. Mind Change.... and it's as bad a read as the title is ridiculous. But I had fun.
SPOLIERS: It is a good movie, but the ending is not quite as optimistic as some people think. It records a death experience, similar to the near death experiences many people report. But that does not mean that the experience is 'true', merely that it is real. People really experience this kind of thing, but it does not mean there is an afterlife. Maybe they experience this, die and and never experience anything ever again?
Wow 😮,I’m glad this film was finished to me it’s SCI FI masterpiece classic, seen it on the big screen when came out and it’s been in my video library since the 80’s very nice video and info was very interesting to hear but shocking knowing how close this awesome film almost wasn’t.
Thank you for the exhaustive backstory on Brainstorm. I thought this was a great film and the thought-provoking look at the afterlife with the amazing effects really moved me. I agree though, it feels like an unfinished film and the pacing and editing are weird. It still deserves it's status as a cult classic and stands as landmark to Trumbull's genius, hard work and perseverance.
I like the idea of instead of remaking successful movies over and over again, studios should put the time and budget into remaking movies that had good stories but ran into execution problems. It worked with BAttlestar Galactica. Looking forward to Strange DAys
I distinctly remember what I was doing the day Natalie Wood's body was found (father's birthday) & anxiously waited for her 'final film' to be released! Unfortunately, I was disappointed in this picture & as of now, have only seen it once, in a theater, in 1983! The picture was too technically oriented for that time & may now seem 'dated', 40 years later! It was still great to see the beautiful Natalie Wood, one last time, before the public said "Goodbye"!
One of the things that do get lost with this film when shown like this on video is the intended sensory shock of the brainrecording/playback sequences. In a cinema that's showing it correctly a moviegoer would watch the film with unused screen to the left and right. Quickly tuning it out and accepting it as a regular 1.85:1 film with almost mundane sound. Then, when the big scenes happen, the periphery is filled with the full 70mm footage and surround sound. Of course, these shocks only work in short bits. You do rather quickly get used to them, so it goes back to the 35mm footage for most of the runtime. It's the reasoning that later got popular with IMAX and how they open up the letterbox for the full image height in key scenes. But. For home video. There. There's a conundrum. In order for the effect to work even a little bit. The biggest image needs to be the 70mm footage. But that means you need to make the 35mm bits (which is most of the movie) smaller. So on home video, you have most of the movie windowboxed with black all around. Like a malfunctioning picture in picture circuit. The alternative, to zoom in on the 35mm footage so it fills the screen, solves some things. But now the 70mm sequences are lesser than the 35mm bits. So either you have a windowbox that calls out that something unusual is going on, when you are really supposed to think nothing is about to happen. Or you have full screen for most of it but lose the wow factor. I prefer the windowbox method as it's the closer to the intended thing. And on a projector and scope screen mask you can then get the intended shock at home. But I do not envy the distributors who has to sell the unusually formated film to viewers who might not even accept letterboxes at all on their screens.
Perhaps by being so reliant on technology to tell its story, maybe Brainstorm was predicting a future where we have become so reliant on technology that we literally can't function without it; just as the developers of this highly profitable sector wanted.
I’ve always loved Brainstorm. Yes, even in my late-teens, I realized its unfinished quality, but I guess I saw it for what it was supposed to be, as opposed to what the final product was that they eeked out after Natalie’s death. It’s amazing how,mafter seeing Close Encounters at the age of 11, I could always “smell out” a movie in which Douglas Trumbull was involved. RIP Natalie and Douglas.
i have to say that this is one of my favorite movies i will call a "cult classic" Christopher walken. NATALIE WOOD. And a lesson about how science can leap ahead of ethics.
This movie was phenomenal to see on a big screen able to handle the new 70 mm format when it was released. The story was interesting but seeing it in 70 mm was the real draw, and maybe one of the reasons that people don’t really bring it up. kind of like Avatar, it’s an ‘okay’ film, that happens to have some of the best 3D you’ve ever seen on an IMAX, and if you aren’t watching it in that environment, it doesn’t really leave an impact.
Interesting, I thought Trumbull was given carte blanche to do anything after "2001", but turned too goofy moving out to the outback, refusing even an internet link. How wrong I was. An actor dying during filming depends on how far into the filming. Dies early: Replace and reshoot. Later to late, remap and spend the actor's salary on CGI, keeping the actor digitally. Prepare all major film work by scanning all actors to use as back-ups, re-shoots, amendments, etc. Edit: Brainstorm is a bad film with a story that doesn't lead anywhere. But soon technology will have come near to Digital Showscan, with 4K or 6K UHD and 180 frames per second, I guess.
Watched this last night, man, this movie was bad. Evergreen concepts, terrible film. I'd also like to examine the original screenplay. It's clear they took a lot of inspiration from Zelazny's The Dream Master (1965), and presumably other literary sources. The idea of a human sharing a technologically mediated mental space with a chimpanzee (and suffering ill consequences) is directly from that novel. "You blew my socks off!" Thank you - they used that quote like 3 or four times and it was ridiculous each time lol
Thank you. I was intrigued by this movie from the first time I saw it when it debuted in 1983. I fell in love with the performances and the soundtrack by James Horner. To this day I think it's one of his finest. Thanks for recognizing this as a science fiction classic. While it wasn't perfect for Douglas Trumbull as a director, I'm still amazed by what he managed to get to the screen. The special effects always left me confused, but in a very special way that has changed with repeat viewings. I've really grown to love what's best about this movie.
I saw Brainstorm 3 times the first two weeks it was available at a local theater in MICHIGAN. I had to look for it in an actual "newspaper" as a placed ad by the single theter owner. There was no obvious "push" by the studios. In Detroit, way back then for many this was an almost never imagined concept, especially in a rather finished slick movie for national sober release. There was no semblance of some "elon" character in these actual neaspapers. Let's face it---it WAS a different world back then!!!!! In that millieu this was a crisp relief from mundane scicence fiction which drifted into fantasy much too often---if there was ANY available.😉
While I do feel very badly for all its problems, I don't have any clear or encouraging memories of this. I feel a bit jaded, as it seems to me that two later movies, Flatliners and Strange Days -- which I'm glad you noted -- dealt with these same themes far more successfully. There was an interesting irony in that, at that time, Robertson was AT&T's leading TV pitch man. "Reach out and touch someone," indeed.
Don't know how Hollywood _should_ handle the death of a principal cast member during filming, but it seems these days they have the technology to substitute the actor's face (and maybe bits of the performance) over a body double or digital avatar. That's how I suspect they'll handle these tragedies going forward, given the millions of dollars riding on these projects.
This movie was absolutely visionary. It's main problem was that it was absolutely ahead of its time. So many predictions (outside of the life/death philosophy) have basically come true with VR, almost half a century later.
To me, the story for Brainstorm suffers from the lofty expectations set by its very premise. Which is, providing a creative philosophical explanation of the afterlife, if any. I’ve heard said, that the afterlife is one of the three-biggest questions of humanity. Along with, is there a God, and are there aliens visiting us? So intriguing is the premise of Brainstorm, complete with a plausible technology to answer that question in the film, that anything less than a new, and truthful feeling answer was bound to be a let down for viewers. It’s this disappointing 3rd act which leaves the film as little more than a garden variety Sci-Fi, film with good special effects.
Christopher Walken made the movie too hammy, Natalie Wood was a bit too old-school and not young enough for the role, the movie itself is an inconsistent mess, with too much emphasis on some not-so-important elements and too little on other, more important ones. The angel-like figures at the end, when the protagonist watches the complete recording, are too generic and meaningless, they should've done something more sinister and ambiguous. Otherwise it's a memorable experience and I like everything Mr. Trumbull worked on, you can clearly see his enthusiasm and creative energy. He was one of the pioneers of the film-industry and of film as an artform.
In the 80s, my parents would record basically any movie they watched, and so I found this on an old VHS when I was a teenager sometime in the 90s. It left an impression on me, I remember liking the ending sequence where Walken's character is watching the death recording.
Watched the film recently and really liked it, but you can see where the breaks are. It's a really good idea and certainly had potential to be either great or better remembered than it is today. I really loved how clunky the prototype is versus the final product as things progress. It would a great candidate to be remade and modernized.
And here I thought I was the only person who connected "Strange Days" to "Brainstorm"! I saw this in a theatre, and it was great except ... yeah, that story. I had no idea wtf was supposed to have happened with that ending. The FX were amazing, tho.
I remember going to see this movie in the theater when it came out. It was interesting, but I didn't find it groundbreaking or moving. It didn't leave a strong impression. I was surprised by the mention of the Eselan Institute. The institute is linked to many new-age ideas about human potential and physics. I think the book "the Dancing Wu-Li Masters" was written by staff who were trying to link Buddhist and Taoist philosophy with modernphysics.
That was interesting seeing those dates again for Natalie Wood - I was in army basic training, and my parents were sending me newspaper articles about it.
The first time I saw it I thought that even before the military would be interested in the technology, a different class of Hollywood filmmakers would want to make, uh, "Blue movies". Sure enough.
Like "Strange Days", "Brainstrom" does the proper cyberpunk thing of showing a technology, and then showing ways in which it can be twisted and changed,
The Hobbit footage they showed at Sho-west in 2012 turned a lot of people off, as at the higher frame rate the sets looked like sets, so the higher production design costs kinda killed it for wider use. Gemini Man was a test bed for how much things had improved in just 7 years, so it will be interesting to see how emerges in the next 2-3 years.
I just watched this film, and it was surprisingly ahead of its time in many respects.The slapstick laboratory scene was beyond ridiculous and felt like an entirely different movie.
I watch this flick whenever it airs. The special effects are (there's got to be a better term) mind-blowing. Trumbull could dissolve the bore factor of any flick with visuals.
I saw this movie in a widescreen theater inside a Chuck E Cheese in Dallas, Texas. It included the short at the beginning where the film appears to break and the maintenance guy goes behind the screen with a ladder and looks like he's pushing against the screen with his face. It included the widescreen 70mm parts which was really a cool effect.
I saw it in the theatre too, the movie is like a palindrome it shows there are two sides of technology depending on the user good or bad. nerve induction technology looks pretty powerful, and it probably will be. Seeing how the hardware was built was pretty cool too. It's the ultimate novelty it would destroy all other media.
Wow, I hadn't heard about the Esalen connection. I used to live and work at Esalen. Yeah, they don't allow people to use psychedelics there, although you can find them if your the type of person to be so inclined.
Maybe more people would have watched it if the title was so confusing. Half the people probably ended up searching streaming services for Green Needle.
I saw and loved this movie when it was released and had to wait years for it to come out on beta, then vhs I still have the vhs copy today. Even by today's standards this was a groundbreaking piece of art.❤
Very odd because to me this movie never felt incomplete. In fact the opposite. I think some movies are meant to shine on cable tv, not at the box office. And that’s what happened with Brainstorm.
Brainstorm was neat but not very good as a movie. Knowing nothing about the background or actors doesn’t change the fact that the movie wasn’t well executed.
This is one of my all time favorites. The whole life after death aspect was fascinating! I didn’t realize they hadn’t finished filming before Natalie’s death.
I saw it at some point in the eighties, and several time on cable in the eighties and nineties; I had no idea, that the production had such problems. Well reported. So I subscribed.
Thank you for the video! In spite of the flaws, I think the movie is redeemed by the ending of what Ms. Fletcher's character had experienced after death.
As far as finishing a movie after a star dies during production, I think we can all agree that Ed Wood nailed it on the first try.
Dude. You win. I bow down to this comment!
@@TheUnapologeticGeek You are far too kind. I merely mentioned what we all already knew.
I am pretty sure Ed Wood didn't care to his actors like Trumbull did and this made the work far more difficult.
I don't care if it was considered a flop. I liked it.
I really enjoyed it.
Carpenters The Thing and Blade Runner were also considered Flops , so I don’t care
I liked it so much I saw it twice in the theaters. Dragged my parents out to see it the second time.
I loved it🤠 have not watched it in 30 years, think it is available on Tubi😊
Money doesn't equal quality.
I adore this movie! No one talks about it but it’s fucking amazing. This among movies like Dreamscape, Altered States, and Buckaroo Banzai warped my young brain into the totally stable adult I am now.
Altered States … I need this as BluRay and some LSD pills
😂😂😂
I LOVE "Buckaroo Bonzai"!
Good for u, because brainstorm is actually real.
Same here. I loved all those movies as a kid growing up in the 80s, with a well worn video rental card and a cable box. Even back then, I could tell Brainstorm had a clunky ending that didn't really fit, but there were so many really great moments sprinkled all throughout which more than made up for it.
I only know some of them by name. Are these like Inception and Paprika (Anime)?
Saw it in the cinema when it came out. Much like when I saw Blade Runner in the cinema when it came out, I watched it in an almost empty theatre. Both were panned when they came out and I absolutely loved both of them.
REALLY loved the Elion-Hitchings Building & it's architecture, both inside & out. Feels like a building from an alternate future that never was, like something out of Blade Runner or Tron. Wish we had more architecture like that today.
A favorite movie. The subject matter was fascinating and Trumbull made you believe the hardware was real, but you had to give the butchered script some extra thought as they directly addressed the type of things the "array system" would be used for - everything from travelogs to porn. "I'm more than I was..." is something I'm still trying to figure out.
Just try an average dose of psychedelics, and you will know what it means to become 'version 2.0' of yourself...
@@joechip4822 When I don't need my security clearances anymore, I might take you up on that.
Isn’t AI full of “inscrutable arrays”?
If you don't want to risk the security clearances (and you body is in pretty good physical condition) you could try holotropic breathing. You can gain access to the mirror spheres that way (amongst other places). You could also try the gateway hemisync tapes. But if you are already happy with your life or have other mouths to feed then id say stick to just watching the movies. It's all science fiction fun til you experience it directly.... Just a word of caution🤷🏼♂️
For those lucky enough to see this movie in a theater that could maximize the 35/70mm viewing on a very large screen, this movie was a sight to behold. The opening sequence gave everyone a real sense of vertigo.
Yes. At the 70mm theater we saw it at the huge curved screen accentuated the opening credits. They looked like they were bulging off of the screen without and 3D glasses. It was stunning.
Agreed, one of the most memorable movie experiences I've ever had, plus I got to watch it in a theater right by where they filmed some scenes in Raleigh and a few "movie-related" people were in the audience.
I never actually realized, until I saw it later on home video, that they actually expanded the "memory playback" sequences with a wider aspect ratio than the "real-world" sequences. At first, I thought there was something wrong with my laserdisc player (which tells you how long ago this was!), or the disc itself, until I picked up on the pattern of when the letterboxed aspect ratio would change from one to the other. On a modern widescreen TV, it isn't *quite* so noticeable, but boy was it obvious on a letterboxed image on a 4:3 CRT!
Got to see this movie as a kid the night broadcast tv was showing The Day After. My parents had been invited to a coworkers house for a TDA watch party like it was GoT. They hired a babysitter with strict instructions not to watch TDA. So our baby sitter let us watch the illegally descrambled UHF HBO channel and Brainstorm was what was on.
I was in 5th or 6th grade then. We were *told* to watch The Day After as "homework" and discuss it in class the next day.
That's a good memory. The Day After gave a whole generation of kids trauma that was reported in Time or Scientific American about a year later.
Our neighbors unlocked our HBO box for us lol. I remember him telling my dad to put red nail polish Ack on the top bracket screw head, that was the security device for no tampering lol.
I remember how TDA was such an EVENT back then! Fortunately we lived in a rural area, but if we'd still been in suburbs I know we'd have had that same kind of gathering at a friend's home.
@@SpunkMonkey it was a very rural area. It was a four to five hour drive to get to the city
This movie doesn't get enough attention. I'm glad you did something about that.
Honestly one of my favorite movies that Walkin was in. Great actors, and really intriguing ideas. I have to agree with you, Geek, about Louise Fletcher being the strongest performance. I was young when I saw this, and I wasn't sure she had only been acting, she was so convincing. I did also enjoy her in DS9, because good stories need good antagonists. Now... to go listen to Weapon of Choice to decompress after remembering that scene...
Interesting how the same technology in the hands of James Cameron gave us Strange Days, a crime drama where memory recordings were hustled like illegal drugs.
Strange Days, what a remarkable scifi movie. It was immersive.
@brianboye8025
I believe that both Brainstorm and Strange days take place in the same universe with the technology being refit into optical media which was the rage at the time Strange Days take place and if they ever make a sequel to Strange Days I hope they are allowed to connect the dots all the way to Brainstorm. Nowadays the Brainstorm/Strange Days tech would be over the internet with probably websites like Tik Tok and TH-cam hosting human memories files think Go Pro on steroids.
@@brianboye8025 Yes it was. There was more to the story than Brainstorm or Total Recall.
Oh my God, I love that movie that movie made me fall in love with Firnnes and Bassett I think that movie is an unappreciated underappreciated gem
James Cameron wrote the screenplay, but Kathryn Bigelow directed Strange Days.
As a young boy, I watched Brainstorm several times on HBO back in the summer of '84. I liked it. Especially the scene when Walken's character first tries to hack into the system to access the "death tape." Btw, great score by the late James Horner.
Nice review, Eric. Per that last question, it's my understanding that the insurance riders on the bigger budget films includes stipulations for additional funding for reshoots if an actor, at least the "above the line" ones, dies during principal photography and probably breaks down in a number of ways ( we all no those pesky clauses insurance providers like to slip in) such as if the actor dies after principal photography but before additional photography or various post production stages.
At the time, from my outsider perspective, Natalie Woods' death seemed to be so twisted and exploited by different parties. The story about what happened that night always sounded like BS and I think Walken's career suffered (seemingly unjustly) and Robert Wagner's (came off as a suspect and stayed out of sight until maybe Wayne's World?). The end product was muddied in a number of ways. IMO, I call that "death by committee."
I did like the film, comparing it somewhat to Dreamscape that seemed to edge it out.
I'm not sure when MGM got into so much financial trouble but the late 70's and 80's were not good. They started selling off big chunks of their film rights to all of their big musical films. I worked there briefly in the early 90's, temping in between jobs in their payroll and residuals department. I knew exactly what kind of paychecks were being cut for their top executives. The most memorable residual check was to Marlon Brando for about $40,000 for a movie he did called Missouri Breaks. I couldn't tell you how often those were paid out, but I thought it was good money for a film I'd never seen from about 10 years(?) before, even if it were only annually. I looked it up once but still haven't ever watched it. This also occurred at their old location, and they were preparing to move the studio to somewhere over in Santa Monica due to all their financial restructuring.
I've never heard of Missouri Breaks. 😂
@TheUnapologeticGeek it's actually older. Came out in 1976. Arthur Penn directing, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Harry Dean Stanton. I'm not a big fan of westerns as a genre. Everyone looks like they haven't had a bath in months or years to me. Well, except for the water tower scene Rachel Welch does in 100 Rifles... 😉
Or Jenny Agutter in China 9, Liberty 37...
@@TheUnapologeticGeek I think they redrumed her because the technology in brainstorm is actually real. Trut.h.stream media did a report on that years ago. Its on b.itch.chute. ask me, I will lead u
I remember when this film came out. It had been in production hell for 2 years, It wasn’t well advertised, the movie trailers as I recall were not very good, it was getting bad to lukewarm reviews from critics, and there was a dark cloud over it because of Wood’s highly publicized mysterious death.
It just plain never had a chance.
Despite its flaws, it remains my all-time favorite SF movie. Trumble was clearly a genius.
Definitely one of my favourite hard SF films, despite its drawbacks. It is one of a kind, and I have eagerly awaited a review from you. Well done, TUG (though I’m disappointed you did not mention the music by the late James Horner, one of my three favourite film composers). I found my first viewing of this absorbing, despite great drawbacks. It was in a flea pit cinema, so lacked the full 70 mm format, and a few rows ahead of me was the distraction of the only other occupants in the cinema pulling their feet up off the ground because of rats scuttling past! The film deserved better. 🙂
I agree that the best performance was from Louise Fletcher, while Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood were both more than adequate in their roles. The special effects were innovative for their time, particularly the “memory bubble” effect, and the subject matter at the time was groundbreaking and interesting. Having focused largely on the production hassles, you perhaps ran out of time for other interesting matters such as the question of life after death. On that point, the plot’s visual hints were more ambiguous than they might have seemed - appearing to support the religious view, though leaving the opportunity for atheists to interpret the visuals as simply in the mind of Fletcher’s character.
This film was in the best tradition of hard science fiction, leaving food for thought long after viewing. I agree, it is a science fiction classic, that initially struggled to find the right audience. Since then it has undergone a renaissance, though, with BluRay copies now prohibitively expensive online.
I love this movie, I would show off knowing everything about it when very few knew it existed. I doubt it was Trumbull but the gorgeous beloved Natalie got a buttload of grief for being a bit heavy after her hiatus from films. Being from Va Beach I was familiar with Kitty Hawk and that made it special.
This film made a big impression on me when I watched it on TV in 1988 when I was a kid. That death sequence frightened me so much, memorable visuals
Saw Brainstorm for the very first time last year and loved it. Didn't know about the troubled production and wouldn't have guessed it. Sadly the habit of dropping films to get the insurance money is more prevalent nowadays with all the bean counters in Hollywood.
Saw this many times on HBO back in the day. It was one of my favorites along with Looker and Dreamscape.
Watched Dreamscape a few too many times myself. I can still hear the smarmy saxophone music in my head.😄
I always thought it was a bit uncanny for Louise Fletcher to have that intense death scene while in real life Natalie Woods real life death happened 😞
Why? The film death was scripted, the Actress death a sudden occurrence. There is nothing to say that Natalie suffered during her death because, the bruising and cuts on her body were confirmed to be post-mortem at the time.
For me, this film is one of my favourites, and that is due to the cast, premise, and effects.
I did see this at the cinema, and I have a copy in my library. It is tragic that the film could not have been completed due to the greater tragedy of Natalie's demise.
As far as the in-film technology goes, it all seemed okay to me. I see the tapes as a multi-track recording, or which some data is physiological, which is why the key recording in the story way kill as it feeds cardio shutdown instructions into the brain.
I also figured that emotional responses could be triggered from physiological control.
But that is just my conjecture.
It was a great film, and as stated, a forgotten classic. And unfortunately, a footnote in certain careers.
I love this movie with all my heart! It was WAY ahead of its time. For me this movie was life altering in terms of how I looked at the world or beyond it (I saw this at 10). The score from James Horner was also an exhilarating experience! Looking back at it now the ending does feel truncated but it doesn’t change how I feel about the film. This video was wonderful because I didn’t know any of this information other than her death. It’s too bad it didn’t succeed but again like TRON it was just too soon.
In the mid-80's, I had the pleasure of visiting Douglas Trumbull's studio in Marina Del Rey. Trumbull showed us his demo film for Showscan. The film has a sequence where the "film" breaks and the screen goes black - then a technician appears behind the screen, having turned a light on. At one point, the technician presses his face against the screen. It looked just like an actual person, so realistic was the effect. And it sustained this effect for a good few minutes, until it moved on to the more dazzling sequences - cars racing, etc. It was just stunning.
As a youngster, one of my first crushes was Natalie Wood. Fell in love with her when I saw "The Candidate"
That made this movie a tough one to watch.
What a fantastic review.
Eric, how you don't have 50K subscribers I'll never understand
Another similar, kind of trippy, version of this theme was "Until The End Of The World" by Wim Wenders.
I genuinely like this film. Sure, it falls apart at the end, but I'm fine with that. It only adds to the charm of Trumbull's effort. (If tragedy can be called charming?). I especially like Horner's soundtrack. I know Brainstorm is not considered a mainstream classic, but that doesn't matter to me. I would rather watch this again for the umpteenth time, than sit through a damn Marvel dollop of tosh. Thanks for this retrospective. Bloody lovely.
Great review, Eric. Whether you are impressed with what I'm about to tell you, I can't say, but what I'm about to tell you is true. When Natalie Wood died - I was only 21 when that happened - I was heartbroken. I had grown up on her films and like many other teenage boys at the time, was smitten with her. The irony here? In those days, the Los Angeles Times Sunday paper would actually come out on Saturday, and I couldn't wait to tear into the Calendar Section which was all entertainment-related, and I thrived on it. The highlight of that issue was an interview with Christopher Walken. Towards the end of the article, I would read that he was making a movie with Natalie Wood called "Brainstorm" to be directed by Douglas Trumbull. The next day Natalie had died. By Monday MGM issued a statement saying that they were considering the decision very carefully whether or not to finish the film. Either ways, I would get all caught up on that particular story. Will it ever be finished? Or will it be scrapped? Then the announcement came the following February that that the principal photography would be completed, but only after the rough cut would it be decided to go ahead and finish the movie - and there would be no fake Natalie hidden behind big hats and such - when you saw her, it was her. So I bit my nails. I even wrote to MGM and pleaded with them to complete the film. Well, as we now know, they said yes. Then once again, the movie goes into limbo as apparently Trumbull did NOT complete the principal photography. UGH. But then FINALLY the decision is made to complete it. Call this serendipity or whatever, here in Los Angeles, we used to have a film festival called FILMEX. And one of their lineups would be a tribute to Natalie Wood in which "West Side Story" would be shown - which a special appearance by Douglas Trumbull himself who would also bring a 3 minute clip from the movie that was still in limbo. So yes, I went and luckily got in. And the 3 minute clip looked promising - it was the sequence where Walken and Wood reconcile their strained relationship. It moved the audience. And get this: months later after the announcement was made they would complete the film, the very friend I went to that screening to also worked for a movie-related magazine and had a special invitation to see a demonstration of Showscan - and Trumbull himself would be there. And yes, she invited me. For all the stress that poor guy went through, he looked surprisingly good - not haggard or tired or anything. Skip to the chase: The demonstration knocked me out. OMG. NOW I was REALLY waiting for "Brainstorm". Too bad they couldn't use the Showscan technique, but I was okay with 70mm and 35mm, but I was certain this movie was going to be a gem of a film. So yes, I saw it on opening day, at a very big theater with a giant screen and a great sound system. And though I didn't hate the movie, I didn't love it either. I was 23 when the film came out, and even at that young naive age could tell that the movie was already weak to begin with - it seem to suffer from Trumbull trying to throw everything in plus the kitchen sink - plus a few appliances to boot. They should have just had a plot and a subplot, and maybe an afterlife sequence that we could some how identify with. I don't think Wood's missing scenes would have made any difference - the film still would have only been mediocre. But damn, what scenes that were good were very good. But too bad it didn't all mesh. But this particular film will ALWAYS be a special part of my moviegoing experience. I followed the story, I wrote the studio, I saw a clip while it was in limbo, and followed it to opening day. Just wish the movie could have been right up there with "2001: A Space Odyssey" - but hey, can't always get what you want.
Great review. It is a fascinating movie on different levels, not all with the screenplay or direction. The mystery surrounding Walken and Woods "relationship" and her death. Besides that, the locations in Research Triangle NC and the cinematography. I agree, the film really needed a capable director. IMO Turnbull could have focused on the technical effects. There was so much potential for this movie but it sadly didn't materialize.
The idea that Trumbull's career ended is so incredibly disconnected from reality. Anyone who followed his career up to the BRAINSTORM era knows he was always frustrated by Hollywood. (He did the FX for STAR TREK if they gave him a ton of money AND released him from his contract.) From then until his death he continued to do what he WANTED to do, working from his base in Massachusetts. A computer animator I know irl spent a day there, and said it was what Lucas and Coppola wanted for their non-Hollywood bases. (OT: He said Trumbull was incredibly nice; he mentioned that Trumbull kept James Horner's conductor's score in a place of honor in his office.)
He spent the last decades of his life free from Hollywood, which most thought the only game in town, and did what he loved--expanding what was considered cinema when he started out. He did what he pleased--including, btw, working on TREE OF LIFE.
It’s Research TRIANGLE Park (RTP). When I was a kid, the making of this movie was a big deal because it was filmed about a half an hour from my hometown. It has always held a special place in my heart, and honestly, it is kind of a miracle that he was able to salvage it after the tragedy. And it makes a great double feature when paired with Strange Days, one of my favorite movies from the 90s (that also kind of flopped).
Wow, so many memories...! All this tracks with what I remember from the time (a teenager following sci-fi film industry news), and the reminiscing I heard later at THX. Plus I have a good friend who worked closely with Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner and their family during those years; while I never pushed him to share any presumption on what happened on that boat, he truly loved them as such a wonderful family. Later, I *did* get to meet Louise Fletcher on a set (one of those disposable movies to get a paycheck for a role far below her stature). I got to tell her how her death scene in Brainstorm was formative for me, her character's dedication selfless act for science. I want to think I came across well, but she's such a pro her gracious response could have been pap and I'd never know. ;-) FWIW I've heard of the Esalen Institute back when I lived in Marin County, and it sounded exactly as froofy as it comes across here.
Every person who has ever tried to connect with another person will find the "this is me" sequence heartbreaking.
Agreed. That's probably my favorite scene.
I saw Brainstorm the first week it was released in the Cine Capri Theater a wide curved screen that made the opening title appear as if it left the screen and was floating separate 10 feet away in mid air. It was 3D without the glasses and pure cinema magic. Love your video agree this film should not be forgotten. I feel James Horner composed a master piece in soundtracks and deservers a mention to the brilliance in this film. For loosing a main character/Star in the middle of shooting, Trumbull salvaged it masterfully and in my opinion does not suffer from the criticism you agreed with from shortsighted wannabes that never worked on a production. The Film is a Masterpiece on all levels and purposely squelched for its accurate portrayal of corporate military greed.
Not a bad movie in fact a solid & interesting premise, admittedly some disjointed execution, but still watchable & obviously finished under terrible circumstances.
The change in format for the brainstorm sequences blew me away on a 27” CRT on VHS. It was a big room full of people and we were smoking some weed but we all had a blast watching it. Maybe it’s technically a 6 but it’s an 8 on the entertainment scale.
My dad was a production designer on this and Videodrome and he never shuts up about it. My dad hated Christopher. He literally tried to hit him with his car once. He said he was the most brainless person he ever met.
As a kid in the 80s who had just discovered "self abuse", I thought the infinite orgasm loop scene was both hilarious and awesome at the same time. Still hoping science can get that ball rolling before all my swimmers dry up for good.
I saw this movie when I was younger, during the period of my life when I was actually studying movie making, and I found it to be baffling for many of the same reasons mentioned already. The pacing was bizarre as hell, the way the plot lurches and jumps from one crazy idea to the next has a nauseating effect on anyone who wants to keep up with the actual story, and the hand waving that goes on regarding not just the mechanics of the technology at work but the universe they exist in itself is so frequent and used to gloss over such major aspects of what you're watching that it can't help but take you out of the film. It needed to be a series of movies or have its concept paired down even further. I could've seen it as an awesome hour long Rod Serling offering from Night Gallery or something along those lines.
I enjoyed this movie immensely.. I thought it was fascinating.
One of my all time favorite movies that I stumbled upon when Blockbuster was a thing.. It inspired me to write a poorly named and never to see the light of day screenplay called .. Mind Change.... and it's as bad a read as the title is ridiculous.
But I had fun.
SPOLIERS: It is a good movie, but the ending is not quite as optimistic as some people think. It records a death experience, similar to the near death experiences many people report. But that does not mean that the experience is 'true', merely that it is real. People really experience this kind of thing, but it does not mean there is an afterlife. Maybe they experience this, die and and never experience anything ever again?
One of my favorite movies ever!
Natalie Wood actually got her start as a child actor on miracle on 34th Street
Wow 😮,I’m glad this film was finished to me it’s SCI FI masterpiece classic, seen it on the big screen when came out and it’s been in my video library since the 80’s very nice video and info was very interesting to hear but shocking knowing how close this awesome film almost wasn’t.
I would like to think that Strange Days is the unofficial sequel to Brainstorm. The company was able to save the technology and improved on it.
Yup for all intended purposes they take place in the same fictional universe.
Thank you for the exhaustive backstory on Brainstorm. I thought this was a great film and the thought-provoking look at the afterlife with the amazing effects really moved me. I agree though, it feels like an unfinished film and the pacing and editing are weird. It still deserves it's status as a cult classic and stands as landmark to Trumbull's genius, hard work and perseverance.
Yes!! wide screen and high frame rate is all i've ever wanted, that guy is awesome.
I like the idea of instead of remaking successful movies over and over again, studios should put the time and budget into remaking movies that had good stories but ran into execution problems. It worked with BAttlestar Galactica. Looking forward to Strange DAys
I distinctly remember what I was doing the day Natalie Wood's body was found (father's birthday) & anxiously
waited for her 'final film' to be released! Unfortunately, I was disappointed in this picture & as of now, have only
seen it once, in a theater, in 1983! The picture was too technically oriented for that time & may now seem 'dated',
40 years later! It was still great to see the beautiful Natalie Wood, one last time, before the public said "Goodbye"!
17:42
Think I’ll check it out.
One of the things that do get lost with this film when shown like this on video is the intended sensory shock of the brainrecording/playback sequences. In a cinema that's showing it correctly a moviegoer would watch the film with unused screen to the left and right. Quickly tuning it out and accepting it as a regular 1.85:1 film with almost mundane sound. Then, when the big scenes happen, the periphery is filled with the full 70mm footage and surround sound. Of course, these shocks only work in short bits. You do rather quickly get used to them, so it goes back to the 35mm footage for most of the runtime.
It's the reasoning that later got popular with IMAX and how they open up the letterbox for the full image height in key scenes.
But. For home video. There. There's a conundrum. In order for the effect to work even a little bit. The biggest image needs to be the 70mm footage. But that means you need to make the 35mm bits (which is most of the movie) smaller. So on home video, you have most of the movie windowboxed with black all around. Like a malfunctioning picture in picture circuit.
The alternative, to zoom in on the 35mm footage so it fills the screen, solves some things. But now the 70mm sequences are lesser than the 35mm bits.
So either you have a windowbox that calls out that something unusual is going on, when you are really supposed to think nothing is about to happen. Or you have full screen for most of it but lose the wow factor.
I prefer the windowbox method as it's the closer to the intended thing. And on a projector and scope screen mask you can then get the intended shock at home. But I do not envy the distributors who has to sell the unusually formated film to viewers who might not even accept letterboxes at all on their screens.
This sounds like, in terms of dealing with an actor's passing, it's between The Crow and Heath Ledger's last film.
Perhaps by being so reliant on technology to tell its story, maybe Brainstorm was predicting a future where we have become so reliant on technology that we literally can't function without it; just as the developers of this highly profitable sector wanted.
I’ve always loved Brainstorm. Yes, even in my late-teens, I realized its unfinished quality, but I guess I saw it for what it was supposed to be, as opposed to what the final product was that they eeked out after Natalie’s death. It’s amazing how,mafter seeing Close Encounters at the age of 11, I could always “smell out” a movie in which Douglas Trumbull was involved. RIP Natalie and Douglas.
I was so stoked to see this movie
BUT IT SUCKED
i have to say that this is one of my favorite movies i will call a "cult classic"
Christopher walken. NATALIE WOOD. And a lesson about how science can leap ahead of ethics.
This movie was phenomenal to see on a big screen able to handle the new 70 mm format when it was released. The story was interesting but seeing it in 70 mm was the real draw, and maybe one of the reasons that people don’t really bring it up. kind of like Avatar, it’s an ‘okay’ film, that happens to have some of the best 3D you’ve ever seen on an IMAX, and if you aren’t watching it in that environment, it doesn’t really leave an impact.
Interesting, I thought Trumbull was given carte blanche to do anything after "2001", but turned too goofy moving out to the outback, refusing even an internet link. How wrong I was. An actor dying during filming depends on how far into the filming. Dies early: Replace and reshoot. Later to late, remap and spend the actor's salary on CGI, keeping the actor digitally. Prepare all major film work by scanning all actors to use as back-ups, re-shoots, amendments, etc. Edit: Brainstorm is a bad film with a story that doesn't lead anywhere. But soon technology will have come near to Digital Showscan, with 4K or 6K UHD and 180 frames per second, I guess.
Watched this last night, man, this movie was bad.
Evergreen concepts, terrible film.
I'd also like to examine the original screenplay. It's clear they took a lot of inspiration from Zelazny's The Dream Master (1965), and presumably other literary sources. The idea of a human sharing a technologically mediated mental space with a chimpanzee (and suffering ill consequences) is directly from that novel.
"You blew my socks off!" Thank you - they used that quote like 3 or four times and it was ridiculous each time lol
Thank you. I was intrigued by this movie from the first time I saw it when it debuted in 1983. I fell in love with the performances and the soundtrack by James Horner. To this day I think it's one of his finest. Thanks for recognizing this as a science fiction classic. While it wasn't perfect for Douglas Trumbull as a director, I'm still amazed by what he managed to get to the screen. The special effects always left me confused, but in a very special way that has changed with repeat viewings. I've really grown to love what's best about this movie.
I saw Brainstorm 3 times the first two weeks it was available at a local theater in MICHIGAN. I had to look for it in an actual "newspaper" as a placed ad by the single theter owner. There was no obvious "push" by the studios. In Detroit, way back then for many this was an almost never imagined concept, especially in a rather finished slick movie for national sober release. There was no semblance of some "elon" character in these actual neaspapers. Let's face it---it WAS a different world back then!!!!! In that millieu this was a crisp relief from mundane scicence fiction which drifted into fantasy much too often---if there was ANY available.😉
70mm six track Dolby Stereo enough said with a JBL professional , lucasfilm ltd THX sound system
While I do feel very badly for all its problems, I don't have any clear or encouraging memories of this. I feel a bit jaded, as it seems to me that two later movies, Flatliners and Strange Days -- which I'm glad you noted -- dealt with these same themes far more successfully. There was an interesting irony in that, at that time, Robertson was AT&T's leading TV pitch man. "Reach out and touch someone," indeed.
Don't know how Hollywood _should_ handle the death of a principal cast member during filming, but it seems these days they have the technology to substitute the actor's face (and maybe bits of the performance) over a body double or digital avatar. That's how I suspect they'll handle these tragedies going forward, given the millions of dollars riding on these projects.
This movie was absolutely visionary. It's main problem was that it was absolutely ahead of its time. So many predictions (outside of the life/death philosophy) have basically come true with VR, almost half a century later.
To me, the story for Brainstorm suffers from the lofty expectations set by its very premise. Which is, providing a creative philosophical explanation of the afterlife, if any. I’ve heard said, that the afterlife is one of the three-biggest questions of humanity. Along with, is there a God, and are there aliens visiting us?
So intriguing is the premise of Brainstorm, complete with a plausible technology to answer that question in the film, that anything less than a new, and truthful feeling answer was bound to be a let down for viewers. It’s this disappointing 3rd act which leaves the film as little more than a garden variety Sci-Fi, film with good special effects.
Christopher Walken made the movie too hammy, Natalie Wood was a bit too old-school and not young enough for the role, the movie itself is an inconsistent mess, with too much emphasis on some not-so-important elements and too little on other, more important ones. The angel-like figures at the end, when the protagonist watches the complete recording, are too generic and meaningless, they should've done something more sinister and ambiguous. Otherwise it's a memorable experience and I like everything Mr. Trumbull worked on, you can clearly see his enthusiasm and creative energy. He was one of the pioneers of the film-industry and of film as an artform.
In the 80s, my parents would record basically any movie they watched, and so I found this on an old VHS when I was a teenager sometime in the 90s. It left an impression on me, I remember liking the ending sequence where Walken's character is watching the death recording.
Watched the film recently and really liked it, but you can see where the breaks are. It's a really good idea and certainly had potential to be either great or better remembered than it is today. I really loved how clunky the prototype is versus the final product as things progress. It would a great candidate to be remade and modernized.
And here I thought I was the only person who connected "Strange Days" to "Brainstorm"!
I saw this in a theatre, and it was great except ... yeah, that story. I had no idea wtf was supposed to have happened with that ending. The FX were amazing, tho.
I remember going to see this movie in the theater when it came out. It was interesting, but I didn't find it groundbreaking or moving. It didn't leave a strong impression.
I was surprised by the mention of the Eselan Institute. The institute is linked to many new-age ideas about human potential and physics. I think the book "the Dancing Wu-Li Masters" was written by staff who were trying to link Buddhist and Taoist philosophy with modernphysics.
That was interesting seeing those dates again for Natalie Wood - I was in army basic training, and my parents were sending me newspaper articles about it.
Loved this movie. Cried over Natalie's death. The concept was intriguing and now we have haptic VR, almost the same kind of experience!
The first time I saw it I thought that even before the military would be interested in the technology, a different class of Hollywood filmmakers would want to make, uh, "Blue movies". Sure enough.
Like "Strange Days", "Brainstrom" does the proper cyberpunk thing of showing a technology, and then showing ways in which it can be twisted and changed,
The Hobbit footage they showed at Sho-west in 2012 turned a lot of people off, as at the higher frame rate the sets looked like sets, so the higher production design costs kinda killed it for wider use. Gemini Man was a test bed for how much things had improved in just 7 years, so it will be interesting to see how emerges in the next 2-3 years.
I just watched this film, and it was surprisingly ahead of its time in many respects.The slapstick laboratory scene was beyond ridiculous and felt like an entirely different movie.
I watch this flick whenever it airs. The special effects are (there's got to be a better term) mind-blowing. Trumbull could dissolve the bore factor of any flick with visuals.
I saw this movie in a widescreen theater inside a Chuck E Cheese in Dallas, Texas. It included the short at the beginning where the film appears to break and the maintenance guy goes behind the screen with a ladder and looks like he's pushing against the screen with his face. It included the widescreen 70mm parts which was really a cool effect.
I saw it in the theatre too, the movie is like a palindrome it shows there are two sides of technology depending on the user good or bad. nerve induction technology looks pretty powerful, and it probably will be. Seeing how the hardware was built was pretty cool too. It's the ultimate novelty it would destroy all other media.
Wow, I hadn't heard about the Esalen connection. I used to live and work at Esalen. Yeah, they don't allow people to use psychedelics there, although you can find them if your the type of person to be so inclined.
Maybe more people would have watched it if the title was so confusing. Half the people probably ended up searching streaming services for Green Needle.
It's got flaws, but it's a also great movie to watch. And scary thing is, now in 2024, we're on the cusp of being able to record human brain signals.
I saw and loved this movie when it was released and had to wait years for it to come out on beta, then vhs I still have the vhs copy today.
Even by today's standards this was a groundbreaking piece of art.❤
That was one of the problems with many Films of this period... Effects over Good Story!
Robert Wagner is either gay or bi-sexual.
I know this from a man who knew Robert when he was very young and just starting out in Hollywood.
I am crasy about this one of a kind movie ! It s original and tremendous ❤and Christopher Walken is, as always, amazing .. waiting for it in 4k
Someone should feed Trumbull's original script into an AI to generate the scenes Ms. Wood should have been in and finish the full movie.
Very odd because to me this movie never felt incomplete. In fact the opposite. I think some movies are meant to shine on cable tv, not at the box office. And that’s what happened with Brainstorm.
Brainstorm was neat but not very good as a movie. Knowing nothing about the background or actors doesn’t change the fact that the movie wasn’t well executed.
This is one of my all time favorites. The whole life after death aspect was fascinating! I didn’t realize they hadn’t finished filming before Natalie’s death.
I saw it at some point in the eighties, and several time on cable in the eighties and nineties; I had no idea, that the production had such problems.
Well reported. So I subscribed.
Even though seriously miscast, it way still better than a similar one, "Dreamscape" from the same year (featuring Dennis Quaid).
While we like to complain about reboots, I'd like this to be rebooted. I think there's a great story in this, even updated for today's AI.
Special effects over story.
Reminds me of George Lucas's poor attitude when he made The Phantom Menace.
I'm sorry but high frame rate film looks terrible. Avatar 2 looked like a 3 hour cutscene from an Avatar Video Game.
I could be mistaken, but I think that's stock footage insert @10:59 of a very young Scarlett Johansson?
Thank you for the video!
In spite of the flaws, I think the movie is redeemed by the ending of what Ms. Fletcher's character had experienced after death.
Recently got it on DVD and watched it again. Same great show I remember. It’s a shame what happened to Natalie Wood.