Weird Science (film)
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| Weird Science | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Hughes |
| Written by | John Hughes |
| Produced by | Joel Silver |
| Starring | Anthony Michael Hall Robert Downey Jr. Kelly LeBrock Ilan Mitchell-Smith Bill Paxton |
| Cinematography | Matthew F. Leonetti |
| Edited by | Chris Lebenzon Mark Warner |
| Music by | Ira Newborn Jimmy Iovine |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date | August 2, 1985 |
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7,500,000 |
| Box office | $14,739,936 |
Weird Science is a 1985 American teen comedy film written and directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock, and Ilan Mitchell-Smith. The film's producer Joel Silver acquired film rights to the pre-Comics Code Authority 1950s EC Comics magazine Weird Science, from which the plot is developed as an expansion and modernization of the basic premise in Al Feldstein's story "Made of the Future" in the fifth issue. The title song was written and performed by American New Wave band Oingo Boingo.
Plot
Gary Wallace (Anthony Michael Hall) and his best friend, Wyatt Donnelly (Ilan Mitchell-Smith), are 15-year-old nerds with low social standing at their Shermer, Illinois high school, who, in the opening scene, are pantsed by two bullies, Ian (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Max (Robert Rusler) in front of a gymnasium full of beautiful girls.
During a weekend at Wyatt's house in which his parents out of town, the boys are inspired by the film Frankenstein, to create a woman by feeding their desired statistics of beauty and great intelligence into Wyatt's computer and hacking into a government computer for more power, while connecting Wyatt's computer to a Barbie doll. After a lightning bolt during their experiment creates a violent explosion, a beautiful woman (Kelly LeBrock) appears before them who, in addition to being totally devoted to them, has a number of superhuman abilities, such as memory manipulation, molecular manipulation and reality warping.
Despite her willingness to be everything Wyatt and Gary wanted, the boys are too intimidated to take advantage of the opportunities presented by her appearance, as when they keep most of their clothes on while showering with her. Realizing that the boys need to lower some of their inhibitions, she transmogrifies their poorly-styled outfits into more flattering clothes before taking them out for a night on the town in a sports car that she conjures out of thin air. After the boys name her Lisa, she conjures fake identification for the boys, and takes them to a blues club. Although initially uncomfortable in these new surroundings, the trio eventually end up ingratiating themselves to the staff and some regulars, in part with the help of alcohol, staying until late at night.
As the trio head home, Lisa asks Wyatt what he will do about his older brother, Chet (Bill Paxton), a brash military school student who abuses and extorts blackmail money from Wyatt, as he does when he brings the inebriated Gary home past his curfew. After putting Gary to bed, Wyatt shares a kiss with Lisa.
When Wyatt begs Lisa to stay out of sight so that Chet doesn't see her, she tells him that he can't hide in fear from his own brother, but does as Wyatt asks. When Chet appears, he further harasses and extorts more money from Wyatt when he sees Wyatt wearing women's underpants.
At a shopping mall, Gary and Wyatt, feeling secure after their time with Lisa, are humiliated again by Ian and Max, who dump an Icee drink onto them in front of the whole mall, upsetting their own girlfriends, Deb (Suzanne Snyder) and Hilly (Judie Aronson). Ian and Max offer an insincere apology to their girlfriends, who relent because Ian and Max having high social standing at school, and don't wish to give up that privilege themselves. Ian and Max then spot Lisa on the escalator and abandon the girls to run after her. When they catch up with her, she invites them to a party at Wyatt's. Gary then pulls up in a Porsche 928 and the three leave together, in order to further lower Ian and Max's esteem.
The milquetoast Wyatt begs Lisa to cancel the party, but she refuses, pointing out that it will lead to the popularity that he and Gary wanted. She then picks up Gary at his house, but when Gary's parents, Al (Britt Leach) and Lucy (Barbara Lang), object to Gary going out with a woman Lisa's age, Lisa stands up to Gary's father, pointing a gun at him, and manipulates their memories so that Lucy forgets the incident, and Al forgets he has a son. In shock over this turn of events on the ride back to Wyatt's house, Lisa tries to lighten the moment by shooting Gary in the face with the gun, revealing it to be a water pistol.
Back at the house, the boys are skeptical that anyone will show up because they have no friends, but when the doorbell rings, a crowd of teenagers is present, and the party begins. Gary and Wyatt, however, still too intimidated to be socialize, lock themselves in the bathroom. At the party are Ian, Max, Deb and Hilly. Deb and Hilly meet Gary and Wyatt in the bathroom, shocked to discover that they, not Lisa, are the hosts of the part. Meanwhile, Max and Ian, after being belittled by the man tending bar, encounter Lisa, and try to make a pass at her. She refuses, explaining that she "belongs" to Gary and Wyatt, and does whatever they say.
Max and Ian then scheme to offer Gary and Wyatt permission to date their own girlfriends in exchange for dating Lisa, leading Gary and Wyatt to explain how they created her, and an attempt to recreate the process in Wyatt's bedroom with the computer. They forget, however, to connect the computer to a Barbie doll, instead leaving it clamped to a Time magazine on whose cover is Pershing medium-range ballistic missile. The missile, like Lisa, becomes real and ends up emerging in the middle of Wyatt's house from underground.
When Gary and Wyatt are dejected by this, Lisa decides to provoke a confrontation in order to spur them to stand up for themselves. She conjures a group of mutant bikers to disrupt the party. At first the bikers intimidate and humiliate Gary and Wyatt, but after they accost Deb and Hilly, Gary and Wyatt stand up to the mutants, with Gary producing the gun that Lisa used earlier with his parents. After forcing the mutants to leave, Gary assures Wyatt that the gun is a water pistol by firing it, but when a real bullet fires out of it, everyone present, including Deb and Hilly, are impressed by the boys. They end up pairing off, Gary with Deb and Wyatt with Hilly.
The following morning, Chet returns and is outraged by the state of the house, and further terrorizes Wyatt and his friends. Lisa, however, instructs Gary and Wyatt to take Deb and Hilly home, and then confronts Chet, informing him that he will no longer threaten, abuse or extort money from Wyatt, much to Chet's amusement.
Gary and Wyatt take the girls home, each one sharing a kiss with his new girlfriend, though they are left with the question of what to do with Lisa. Back at the house, Lisa has transformed Chet into a squat, green, grotesque creature, humbling him enough to apologize to Wyatt. They then speak to Lisa, who understands that the boys now have girlfriends, which is all she ever wanted for them. After saying their goodbyes, she disappears in a cloud of smoke and the damage to the house, along with Chet's transformation, is immediately reversed, just in time for the return of Wyatt's parents.
In the epilogue, a group of male high school gym students socialize, until their hear the new gym teacher's whistle. When their gym teacher turns out to be Lisa dressed in form-hugging leotard and a cutoff T-shirt, the entire class of boys faints.
Cast
- Anthony Michael Hall as Gary Wallace
- Ilan Mitchell-Smith as Wyatt Donnelly
- Kelly LeBrock as Lisa
- Bill Paxton as Chet Donnelly
- Suzanne Snyder as Deb
- Judie Aronson as Hilly
- Robert Downey, Jr. as Ian
- Robert Rusler as Max
- Vernon Wells as Lord General
- Britt Leach as Al Wallace, Gary's dad
- Barbara Lang as Lucy Wallace, Gary's mom
- Ivor Barry as Henry Donnelly, Wyatt and Chet's grandfather
- Ann Coyle as Carmen Donnelly, Wyatt and Chet's grandmother
- Michael Berryman as Mutant Biker
- John Kapelos as Dino
- Jill Whitlow as Susan, the Perfume Salesgirl
- Wallace Langham as Art (billed as "Wally Ward")
- Renee Props as a member of The Weenies
- Kym Malin as Girl Playing Piano
Reception and box office
The movie is rated at 53% on the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes.[1] The film was moderately successful at the box office with a gross of over $14.7 million, from an estimated budget of $7.5 million.
TV series
A television show based on the film debuted in 1994 and ran for 88 episodes. Following the same basic plot as the movie it starred Vanessa Angel as Lisa, Michael Manasseri as Wyatt, John Mallory Asher as Gary, and Lee Tergesen as Chet.
Soundtrack
- "Weird Science" – Oingo Boingo
- "Turn It On" – Kim Wilde
- "Deep in the Jungle" – Wall of Voodoo
- "Tubular Bells" – Mike Oldfield
- "Tesla Girls" – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
- "Private Joy" – Cheyne
- "Wanted Man" – Ratt
- "Don't Worry Baby" – Los Lobos
- "Forever" – Taxxi
- "Method to My Madness" – The Lords of the New Church
- "Eighties" – Killing Joke
- "Why Don't Pretty Girls Look at Me" – Wild Man from Wonga
- "Nervous and Shakey" – The Del Fuegos
- "The Circle" – Max Carl
- "Tenderness" – General Public
- "Do Not Disturb (Knock Knock)" – The Broken Homes
- "Oh, Pretty Woman" – Van Halen
