Brainstorm
One of the things I love most about science fiction is not just how it explores fantastic adventures and creates imaginative worlds, but how it boils down spiritual and emotional journeys into futuristic aspirations for humanity. This isn’t always the case, but a film like “Brainstorm” allows us to consider new ways to get closer to humanity, even as it allows for a compelling and dark narrative at its center. This has been a film on my radar for some time, and now that I’ve seen it, I’m grateful for its existence.
In his two feature films as a director, visual effects master Douglas Trumbull attempted to create experiences that bring us closer together with the universe through the language of science fiction. Both times, I think he succeeds, but he was also probably too early for his films to have their maximum impact. His 1972 film, “Silent Running,” feels like a hippie’s fever dream attempt to get us to care about nature, years before climate change became a major topic in society. In 1983, his film, “Brainstorm,” asks profound questions about the nature of communication, and the manipulation of the mind, in a way that would have been right at home in the late ’90s/early ’00s, but in the high concept “roller coaster” ’80s, it falls flat. Both films bring value, I think, to their respective conversations, but “Brainstorm” is the most lively of the two, because at its core, it looks to use technology as a way of bringing people closer together.
Based on a story by Bruce Joel Rubin (who would later write “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Ghost”), “Brainstorm” follows a group of scientists as they work towards understanding the mind, and how it works, better. The way they are doing that is by creating a device that allows the wearer to record their experiences and memories, and download them to another user. For the project’s researchers like Michael Brace (Christopher Walken), Lillian Reynolds (Louise Fletcher) and Gordy Forbes (Jordan Christopher), it’s an opportunity to discover more about how the human body works, and how people can further understand one another, but for their financier (Alex, played by Cliff Robertson), when he is looking to new investors in the project, he’s open to all avenues of funding, even government funding, and all the compromises that means. Another team member is Karen (Natalie Wood), Michael’s ex-wife, who’s helping them on the tech side. When a breakthrough is made, the technology is extremely valuable, but also dangerous when the true possibilities of what it can do to the body are clear.
“Brainstorm’s” screenplay, by Robert Stitzel and Philip Frank Messina, is trying to thread a lot of needles at once, balancing philosophical issues, scientific discovery, political intrigue, as well as the emotional connections we have to the characters, and their values. I don’t know how successful it is, but with Trumbull’s direction, I think the film works beautifully at getting to the heart of discovery. That’s because, as the film continues, it focuses on the relationship between Michael and Karen. They begrudgingly work together, having wanted to separate the personal with the professional, but after a certain point, Karen’s expertise is too valuable to the team. Walken and Wood are fantastic in this film, especially in moments where their emotions are laid bare as a result of the ways the technology is tested. In particular, there is a moment where Michael shares his true memories of their love that is a beautiful culmination of the good this could bring to people. This was Wood’s final film- she died during a production break- and I’m so grateful that Trumbull fought to have this film finished; she has some wonderful moments throughout.
The way that Trumbull designed “Brainstorm” shows his technological mind working. Originally, his hopes were to shoot the “brainstorm” sequences in his 60-frames-per-second, 70mm “Showscan” process, but that ended up being scrapped. He did still shoot the sequences in 24-frames-per-second 70mm, and the effect of going between that and the regular scenes makes this a uniquely imaginative film to watch, not even taking into consideration the images Trumbull and his effects team create during those sequences. Many of those sequences are extensions of reality, but the boldest ones take us into a more metaphysical sense of reality and the universe that is among his best work, especially when the ultimate “what if?” scenario- that of seeing what happens when we die- is potentially realized by this technology. The contrast between the filmmaking in the brainstorm sequences and the dramatic moments is stark, but the way Trumbull goes between them- goosed by a terrific James Horner score- makes the film more impactful than it would have been with a less talented filmmaker at the helm. “Brainstorm” has ideas that sometime exceed its filmmaking, but those ideas had me engaged every step of the way.
