The Sci-Fi Movie That Ended Two Hollywood Legends: BRAINSTORM (1983) 

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 don't care if it was considered a flop. I liked it.

I agree with your assessment that this movie has been unfairly panned. It's a great story with 10 tons of "heart fuzzies". I think Natalie was at her most expressive level of acting and looked more beautiful than ever. Christopher Walken is... well, he's Cristopher Walken, enough said. The supporting cast is brilliant, from Louise Fletcher to Cliff Robertson. Obscenely underrated.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This movie doesn't get enough attention. I'm glad you did something about that.

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.

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.

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 loved that movie... 25 years later I worked for a company that had labs like the movie and they looked the same. ...

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...

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.

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 😞

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.

Despite its flaws, it remains my all-time favorite SF movie. Trumble was clearly a genius.

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

Saw this many times on HBO back in the day. It was one of my favorites along with Looker and Dreamscape.

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).

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Sadly, these days, in a move that I always see as ghoulish, they would simply CGI the deceased actor into the movie. Brainstorm is a movie I have always enjoyed, but I have to agree, it comes off as rushed and unfinished. Brilliant vid as always!

It has a special place in my heart because it made me consider what it would be like to experience the world in another person's mind. Sights, smells, emotions, and tactical senses. Not merely being privy to information uploaded into your mind, but sharing a soul.

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

Great vid and great to see this flick getting the BTS treatment on here!

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.

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.

Another similar, kind of trippy, version of this theme was "Until The End Of The World" by Wim Wenders.

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.

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 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.

Loved this movie. Cried over Natalie's death. The concept was intriguing and now we have haptic VR, almost the same kind of experience!

Natalie Wood actually got her start as a child actor on miracle on 34th Street

Great review!!! 👍😊

The great line from the trailer: One of the government guys says, 'They're gonna be able to plug right in to the old noodle".

I remember the whole “love triangle” aspect of Wood’s death - that both her husband and boyfriend were in the boat. I naturally assumed this was true since the press was pushing the murder angle and I was like 15. What did I know? Rewatched the movie a year ago, and was stunned by how awkward Wood and Walken were together. I reviewed the movie online, saying it was strange how little chemistry they had since they were dating at the time. Someone who claims to know such things contacted me and said that, no, they were never dating. Tumble himself said that he’d never seen two actors with as little chemistry between them. Evidently he’d thought they were at one point since they were apparently very close, but once he put them together in a scene he realized they were so platonic that they’d size up in their romantic scenes together. Or so the person contacting me (obviously not Trumble since he’d already died) said.

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.

I always loved this film. Unfortunately, when it came to the Blu-ray release, they didn't handle the changing aspect ratios very well. The 1.85:1 ratio was shown within the 2.40:1 aspect ratio, which meant large portions of the film were just a small picture in the middle of the screen, surrounded by blackness on all sides, making it unwatchable for me. I'm hoping they'll fix this if they ever do a new 4k remastering...

I would love to see this remade, but for VR equipment! All the regular scenes could be standard front-view stuff, but when experiencing the effect, switch to 360 degree mode!

One of my favorite movies ever!

I had no idea this movie existed when I came accross it on TV; I loved it and it's still one of my all time favourites.

I saw this as a kid, my formative years as a movie fan. Sci-fi had a particular impact on me, and, for some reason, Brainstorm marked my brain. That heart attack scene was very impressive and imagining the future of media and how the senses would be connected to it was fascinating. I hoped someone gave it the UHD treatment, but sadly...

Yes!! wide screen and high frame rate is all i've ever wanted, that guy is awesome.

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.

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.

Never heard of this ...🤔 fascinating...thanks man...

Brainstorm is a solidly good movie with SFX that were ahead of their time. Every SCI-FI should see it at least once.

Fletcher's death scene was hard to watch and made by heart hurt. Way too realistically painful.

I saw this at some point as a teen. It had to have been broadcast. I remember liking it. I had no idea this is what Natalie Wood was working on when she died. The "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series by Piers Anthony used the same concept with something they called feelies.

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.

Douglas Trumbull is dead???? No! Btw he also directed Back to the Future The Ride one of my favorite theme park rides of all time.

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.

After what happened to Natalie and her murder never solved I'm not surprised he became paranoid

Brainstorm was a great movie! It was one of the first movies my folks bought for our RCA Selectavision (C.E.D. Disc) player! The Future is THEN!

Your clues to the next movie have been getting more and more difficult for me to figure out. The Abyss?

I remember the film being sold trying to downplay her death, hardly even mentioning it. As to how much different, better or worse, it might have been without her death, I've never seen or heard anyone go into that, which would be interesting. I took an industry tour of his showscan which was pretty cool. The final visuals owe much to the book HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND. Walken is too young for Wood and or they just have no chemistry together, the movies hadn't really figured out how to use Walken's talent. I'm bit baffled by you saying you don't think the movie really works and then saying it's a classic at the end. Also some mention of James Horner's excellent music should probably be made. I do like the film, the FX play much better in a theatre where the aspect ratio change is felt more than constantly being noticed, as on any TV even in HD, the FX scenes actually get smaller, though wider. I prefer Silent Running as a whole.

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.

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.

Not a bad movie in fact a solid & interesting premise, admittedly some disjointed execution, but still watchable & obviously finished under terrible circumstances.

They’re getting very close to being able record memories. They captured a still image a few years ago and audio just last year.

The Natalie Wood death, in still controversial circumstances, always reminds me of the first season Columbo episode 'Murder by the Book'. (Those familiar with that one should know why:)) The film itself is most definitely a flawed gem for me, with an excellent score from James Horner (albeit a short one)

I remember this movie. How is it forgotten?

That was one of the problems with many Films of this period... Effects over Good Story!

Natalie was not “ face down “ in the water . She was oddly upright as if standing in the water with her feed down .

Trumbull was the executive producer of The Starlost!

I remember getting this from Blockbuster in the late 80s. I really liked it, even if some of it seemed underdone. At the time, I hadn't know about Natalie Woods, but, it seemed Walken appeared wrong for the role.

Movie is better than the narratives opinion and should seen more often on main tv or streaming services. Okay, the story doesn't explain how the technology works, it doesn't need too or takes away from the story. Seek out to watch as worth the search.

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.❤

The final death dream really stuck with me as a kid

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.

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.

I have this movie in my DVD collection and I watched it last just a couple of weeks ago. An underrated gem

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

The way it is, right now, people or dead figures, can be almost seamless. Like, James Dean in Star Wars, or Elvis in Star Trek.

Recently got it on DVD and watched it again. Same great show I remember. It’s a shame what happened to Natalie Wood.

Amazing movie. Still watch it when I am able or can find it. Last time I saw it was on RU-vid.

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.

Death of a star...bring in the virtual stand-in.

I watched this and your Fright Night video, and in Fright Night you asked for suggestions. And with Keanu Reeves being as big as he is, I saw you haven't done Johnny Neumonic yet. Since it was a very early take on cyber punk genre and stars Keanu in a believable courier.

I obviously don't know any better. It's one of my favorite films.

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.

Great 😊

Definitely an underrated flick with a lot of cool ideas and creative executions of its premise

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.

Loved that movie. I worked in two of the lab sites shown in the movie. (Btw it's Research Triangle Park). Nuralink might be the real life implementation.

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.

Special effects over story. Reminds me of George Lucas's poor attitude when he made The Phantom Menace.

Natalie Wood: My Eternal Maria...