Directed by Martha Coolidge
Released August 7, 1985
Screenplay written by Neal Isreal & Pat Proft
Story written by Neal Isreal, Pat Proft, & PJ Torokvei
Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB
"Teenage geniuses deal with their abilities while developing a high-powered laser for a university project. When their professor intends to turn their work into a military weapon, they decide to ruin his plans."
We are back again with another science based 80s movie, for the second week in a row. No I did not plan this.
This movie, I originally didn't think I was going to like. When I say that, it is because the first time I watched the movie, I wasn't in the best environment. The first time I saw this movie, I was a junior in high school in physics class. To put it nicely, I absolutely hated that class and physics in general. So, going into this movie, I had the bad memories of physics come back to me. But after watching the movie again, it actually is a really good and pretty funny movie. So thankfully, physics didn't ruin this movie for me.
I think part of the reason this movie is so successful is because of the brilliant performance of Val Kilmer as Chris Knight. While Val is no stranger to the 80s, I feel he is often times forgotten as a great actor in the mix of all the other stars that emerged from the 80s. But if anything is proof of his acting chops it is his performance in this movie.
Val has to act both as a goof-off and as a genius without coming across as too much of a goof that he can't be seen as a genius, and without pushing the envelop of being over the top goofy like Jim Carrey.
Chris's character is so different than what you would expect from a genius. But we see that it is not an act, it is who he is. And that is proven right at the start of the movie with the first time we see him.
Not only do we see him dressed in a ridiculous outfit, and making borderline inappropriate comments to his future employers, but this scene shows something very important about his personality. Not everyone might have noticed this, but when I saw it, it told me a lot about who this character is. I am talking about the part with the door. While the man Chris is walking with pulls the door open, Chris pushes the other half in and walks in by himself. Now this shows two different things about Chris in a single gesture. The first being that he likes doing everything in a different way from the people around him. Instead of copying the man and also pulling the door open, he intentionally does the opposite. We see how this trait is illustrated throughout the film as he slices nitrogen to be used as quarters in the vending machine, and how he wears bunny slippers instead of shoes. Chris is always trying to find a new way of doing something, even if it is unconventional. The other part of this scene that we see is that when the man opens the door, it looks like he was opening the door for Chris, but Chris ignored it and walked through the other door. This shows how Chris walks to the beat of his own drum, so to speak. He doesn't wait for others to do things, he takes the initiative to do what he wants and doesn't wait around for other people. We see this when he took the initiative to try and get Mitch to relax by throwing the party, without being asked, and when he runs around campus crashing into people in order to find Mitch. He doesn't care about anyone else's plans, he just wants to do what he wants to do.
While talking about Chris, let's talk about all the other people at this school for a moment. What I love about this movie, is it shows all the different types of geniuses. Being a genius doesn't mean just one stereotypical kind of person. You have your lazy geniuses like Chris, who are almost too smart because they get bored easy and decided to act like a goof-off. Then there are people like Mitch who actually try really hard in school, while only thinking of studying and getting good grades. Then there is Kent, who is smart but not as smart as he thinks he is and just comes across as arrogant and annoying. There is Jordan who is so smart that she acts as if she is crazy. And so on. Just looking at all the different personality times that this movie demonstrated is helpful because they considered all kinds of people and not just the stereotype.
Can we laugh for a moment at the fact that this 15-year-old kid is getting more respect and authority than the older kids like Kent. If that isn't proof that you are only as smart as your competition than I don't know what is. It is actually pretty funny because I feel like more often we are seeing younger people taking charge in jobs or projects, leaving their older and more experienced coworkers wondering why they are trusting people so young.
I love when movies give away a small hint to something and you don't realize its significance until the ending. What I am talking about is the popcorn in Professor Hathaway's house.
This was referenced earlier in the movie when Chris was eating popcorn in his house and Hathaway says he hates popcorn. We had no idea then, that popcorn would be used to get back at Hathaway for his wrong doings. So, when it happened it just made the prank even funnier for the viewer because you had forgot about that scene, and the idea that they would fill his house with popcorn probably never crossed the viewer's mind.
Okay, two more things, I know this is a bit of a longer post.
One thing that I was a little annoyed with in this movie, is I felt, again, that this movie left a lot of loose ends. What happened to Hathaway? What happened to this laser project the government was working on? Did Chris still graduate even though he helped destroy Hathaway's plan? What did that professor and congressman do about Hathaway now that they found out what he did? Did Chris work for that company we saw at the start of the film? Did Mitch stay at the school or did he leave? It seems like the movie just ended without giving much of a resolution to the climax of the movie.
Finally, did anyone else catch this comment that Chris made in the film?
"Ice is nice." And at the beginning of the movie, he loved when the hallway was frozen? Ring any bells for you? A movie that came out the following year after Real Genius. Well here is a hint.
Maybe with all the ice in Real Genius they liked the name for Val in Top Gun.
Chris Knight: "This? This is ice. This is what happens to water when it gets too cold. This? This is Kent. This is what happens to people when they get too sexually frustrated."
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