Brainstorm

Brainstorm (1983)

1 corrected entry

★★★★☆

(2 votes)

Corrected entry: A device that works by reading the human brain wouldn't record the afterlife as that by definition transcends human bodily experience and occurs in another plane of existence. The movie could clear this if at any point the characters acknowledged they'd accidentally created a supernatural device that doesn't actually work the way they thought it did at all, but as is the story seems to confuse the human mind (which is dependent on the physical brain) with the human soul.

TonyPH

Correction: The device actually does cease to record anything once the user has died and all brain activity has ended: it's not that the device itself can suddenly see into "the other side" somehow, but rather it's picking up the brain's experience in the midst of death, whether induced by spiritual means or simply a dream-like interpretation by the mind.

TonyPH

Correction: This is a fictional device that operates exactly as the filmmakers say it does. Whether it works as you think it should is irrelevant.

This is 100% true, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be a plot hole, it just means the audience doesn't mind that it doesn't strictly make sense.

TonyPH

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Mistakes

Continuity mistake: When Christopher Walken gives his wife a tape of his best memories, many of the shots are 3rd-person, of the two of them, and not 1st-person, from his perspective, like everyone else's recordings. (00:44:40)

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Suggested correction: The device that records experience, esp. memory, is sometimes viewed in a non-logical way. This is because memories and emotions are not usually recalled exactly as they occurred. The brain is not a camera. There are complex mechanisms at work. I assume the filmmaker had this in mind.

Producer/director Douglas Trumbull knew that the montage of romantic memories was vital to establishing a backstory for the relationship between Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood. This montage was the first time we see the love they actually had for one another, so it was necessary to show them interacting on the screen. If Trumbull had stayed strictly with the movie's premise of first-person brain-recording technology, the montage of romantic memories would be nothing but closeup shots of Natalie Wood (from Walken's perspective), with no visual interaction between the couple. So, Trumbull violated the first-person technological premise of the film in order to more firmly establish the depth of their relationship. Trumbull did the same thing for Louise Fletcher's memory sequence. It was a matter of artistic license.

Charles Austin Miller

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Quotes

Dr. Michael Anthony Brace: When I found her, she looked so peaceful. Why do you have to die to let go? All my life, I never needed anybody... And now, because of this thing she left me, I'm scared. For the first time in my life, I'm scared. But the thing is, I like it. I want more. You're married to a man who has a chance to take a scientific look at the scariest thing people ever have to face. I've gotta do this... gotta play that tape, and you gotta help me.

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Trivia

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