Hacker Cinema
Brainstorm
1983 · Film · 106 min
Directed by Douglas Trumbull
Two brilliant research scientists have invented a device capable of recording and playing back sensory experiences only to have devastating results when one of them records their own death.
9 positive23 neutralfrom 32 commenters
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40 comments on Hacker News
Does anyone remember the movie Brainstorm?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)
This is giving me "Brainstorm" vibes.
If you haven't watched the movie, now would be a good time.
Here's a few:
Brainstorm - shows the progression of developing technology (in this case a device that can record and playback a subjects' experiences.)
Real Genius - College antics with a bunch of kids developing a stronger laser
Silicon Valley - mini series again about silicon valley culture/developing new tech - also how ideas are discovered and others stumble upon similar, etc.
American Experience: Silicon Valley - documentary of early silicon valley and the people who started the companies
Really curious to know what the test shots from Boss Films looked like!
Richard Edlund’s team’s work on various films of the 80s was impeccable (including Ghostbusters, Die Hard, Big Trouble in Little China, and more). They were the inheritor of the crown of high quality 65mm VFX after Douglas Trumbull quit the business (the pinnacle of his work being films like Blade Runner and Brainstorm).
I have to wonder what was wrong that caused the last minute switch to ILM!
The military stuff is a McGuffin-type subplot. The real plot is the main character's obsession with seeing Lillian's vision of the afterlife.
The author of the screenplay, Bruce Joel Rubin, is a self-described spiritual teacher, and "transitional journeys" is kind of his thing. His three most well-known films (Brainstorm, Ghost, and Jacob's Ladder) are all about characters experiencing the afterlife in some way.
Brainstorm (1983) did it before Neuromancer. The movie is about a device that records and replays sensory and emotional experiences, and a central plot point is that it records the dying moments of a character.
Going a bit farther back, we had Brainstorm (Natalie Wood's last movie): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)
There was a scene, where one of the researchers looped a porn scene, and they busted down his door, to find him in bed, twitching.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1003017-brainstorm
is underrated, the visual depiction of the lab is like Crichton's Looker. In my mind Research Triangle Park is as cool as it is this movie, in real life it falls short only a little.
Could be Brainstorm (1983) perhaps?
Also, see the last episode of season one of Black Mirror.
And "brain dances" in Cyberpunk 2077.
Brainstorm (1983)?
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/
Interesting. The movie Brainstorm (1983) had the exact same kind of scene.
I only just got around to watching Brainstorm sometime last year. It's far from a perfect movie, but definitely worth watching.
In this movie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)
a researcher builds a device that can record and play back experiences which takes up most of a room, in a meeting with his boss, he receives some secret microchips made of a room temperature superconductor that he uses to make headsets.
it's been done already in Brainstorm, movie from the '80
Any talk of Vision Pro should include a link to this 1983 movie (Brainstorm) that features Christopher Walken
https://youtu.be/NNiZP2G-nEM
> the ability of the Vision Pro to take “pictures” — memories, really — of moments in time and render them in a way that feels incredibly intimate and vivid.
This reminds me of the following two scenes from Brainstorm (1983 film):
https://youtu.be/cOGAEAJ4xJE?t=34m37s
https://youtu.be/cOGAEAJ4xJE?t=49m50s
This repost is to update my situation. My "imminent" homelessness has become "actual", as I am now living in a homeless shelter in Philadelphia, PA. I merely exist here, as it is difficult to get any useful computer work done. I feel as if I am slipping further, potentially soon reaching the point of no return. I hereby reiterate my above call for assistance, to get myself back to some semblance of normalcy, so that I might be able to make progress on GAGOOT.
To that end, I am offering to produce a detailed white paper, to be delivered in four weeks, to any investor (or group of investors) who is/are willing to make an upfront token payment of $5,000. After delivery, the paper will remain private, for a short while, maybe a week or two, to give the investor(s) a time advantage to decide whether they are interested in making a real investment. If not, then I will publish it, so I can use it as a basis for some other funding approach for GAGOOT.
I realize that this proposition is unusual, but I find myself in an unusual situation, and so I am brainstorming unusual solutions. Also, if you are in or near my city, I am willing to meet in person. Thank you for your consideration.
By the way, speaking of "brainstorming", I am reminded of 1983's "Brainstorm". Here is a fascinating article about the film.
https://popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a25654064/sci-fi-movie-brainstorm-natalie-wood-final-film
I never said intentional. Up until the last decade, filmmakers had little choice but to distribute films in 24fps. I'm ignoring the few titles where they did indeed experiment with higher ones, like Oklahoma at 30fps and Brainstorm.
Well a few experimented with slightly more realism. Todd AO was a film format that ran at 30fps. 20th Century Fox shot Oklahoma in that format. I've seen it projected at 30fps and it certainly has one foot in the "soap opera effect" door.
The movie Brainstorm also experimented with using the HFR as part of the story telling. But being in the film days, it was difficult to project/distribute.
Avatar 2 is the first modern equivalent to Brainstorm, where the filmmaker opted to "turn a knob" to digitally change the frame rate in a variable fashion throughout the film, depending on what the content needed. (Not the final content appeared to be 48fps, but the apparent frame-rate within that container varies from 24 smoothly to 48fps.
I'll add some films that I enjoyed. Some might be flawed, some constrained by their budget etc, but overall I enjoyed watching them. Ordered alphabetical (I hope).
The more mainstream ones:
- Brainstorm (1983)
- Gamer (2009)
- Midnight Special (2016)
- Pandorum (2009)
- Outland (1981)
- Possessor (2020)
The more low budget/indie ones:
- Alien Arrival (2016)
- Chariot (2022)
- The Endless (2018)
- Galaxy of Terror (1981)
- Honeymoon (2014)
- The man with the magic box (2017)
- The Objective (2008)
- Senn (2013)
- The Signal (2014)
- Time Trap (2017)
- Welcome the Stranger (2018)
> Remember the film "Brainstorm" from the 1980's? Where the guy almost dies because he blasts a real-life full brain capture of sex into his own brain in a loop for days?
No, I had to go look for it and it was on youtube (NSFW) but is this the scene [0] you're talking about? This was likely what inspired the braindance features in Cyberpunk 2077, it's pretty much the 1980s iteration (with a massive tape) on what looks like a futuristic VHS cassette and a phone for some reason.
Well, it wasn't exactly just dopamine, but there was woman who pleased herself to severe level [1] with 30 min orgasms that impacted her entire life, it's a become a meme on JRE [2].
Sidenote: this is probably the only film where Chris Walken wasn't like he is portrayed now, even Kings of NY had that vibe about him but here he is kind of... normal?
0: https://youtu.be/cOGAEAJ4xJE?t=2969
1: https://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/brain-pain-center-brain-24052013/
2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq6KMk8tkNE
We may experience the first ever dopamine burnout. How much can the brain handle?
Remember the film "Brainstorm" from the 1980's? Where the guy almost dies because he blasts a real-life full brain capture of sex into his own brain in a loop for days?
We'll probably learn if there is a thing as too much dopamine.
The 1980s movie Brainstorm had that plot. Only instead of a primitive EEG, it was helmet that recorded replayable brain experiences. It hypothesized near-death and early-post death.
Ironically the movie's star Natalie Wood (of West Side Story and Miracle on 34th Street) dies toward the end of the filming (drowning). The movie was a little choppy because they released it without a few intended scenes.
Thanks, I was just about to post it (I remembered it as "Project Brainstorm", but as you state it's actually just called "Brainstorm"). One of the most remarkable movies I've ever seen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)
Unrelated but there was an old trippy (freaky) movie about this Brainstorm
That is also the premise behind a 1983 film called Brainstorm starring Christopher Walken.
I agree.
Your comment made me think of Natalie Woods' last movie: "Brainstorm."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)
Hmm. It was watchable, but not overwhelmingly so. But no trash either.
edit: Also, along the lines of "be careful what you wish for", the alltime classic "Brainstorm" from 1983 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271 comes to mind.
On the other hand you have the reverse engineering of what people see.
[1] https://news.berkeley.edu/2011/09/22/brain-movies/
[2] https://nuscimag.com/your-brain-on-youtube-fmris-reverse-engineer-the-visual-experience-2650eb055e8f
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4941940/
[4] http://longnow.org/seminars/02018/oct/29/toward-practical-telepathy/
While this reminds me a little bit of all the back and forth in nutrition, I simply enjoy the ride and think of
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)
:)
I asked because the world of Brainstorm consisted of payphones too, and they did that 'telepathy' with headsets which could replay recorded experiences over that modem line.
Hard to classify that movie, at its time it was pure science-fiction, now it is a technothriller from the past. But very watchable, i think.
Have you seen Brainstorm from 1983?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/
Movies like "Brainstorm": "The Final Cut" "Strange Days" "Total Recall" "Altered States" "Lawnmower Man" "Ex Machina" "The Thirteenth Floor" "The Truman Show" "Inception" "Selfless" "Flatliners"
reminds me of the movie Brainstorm (1983) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Interesting, I just watched brainstorm and noted how interesting all of the locations were architecturally. There seemed to be a real sense when making the movie that the locations should look futuristic and interesting.
The Burroughs-Wellcome building in RTP is another Modernist design under threat of being significantly changed by a new owner. It was featured in the 1980's movie "Brainstorm", starring Natalie Wood and Christopher Walken.
http://paulrudolph.blogspot.com/2013/03/burroughs-wellcome-under-threat.html
The Burroughs Wellcome building in RTP is also an amazing design that leaked like a sieve (they may have fixed it by now). It was used in the Christopher Walken & Natalie Woods movie Brainstorm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73172555@N00/1958939613/in/set-72157603071653420/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73172555@N00/1958939599/in/set-72157603071653420/
Indeed, Douglas Trumbull invented Showscan in the early 80's. It was a high FPS 65mm film process, and it resulted in a overly "real" subjective effect very much this article is complaining about. Showscan was demoed at some conferences and some critics (Ebert?) were big fans but it was never used for a feature film (although he tried to get the studio to use for his film Brainstorm). It was positioned against IMAX and lost (although to my eye, IMAX suffers greatly from strobing and could use a frame rate boost).
But there's something else going on with the Hobbit. I watched the trailer, which is definitely not 48 fps, and more than once I got the feeling of watching an actor-on-a-stage-on-video. This might be more related to the use of RED cameras than the framerate.
Using my film degree about once a year here on HN!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/
Brainstorm - 1983.
Is anyone else getting awesome flashbacks to Christopher Walken's film Brainstorm? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)
One scene was how they continually used "microchips" to shrink the size of the headset.
Well, Trumbull is just a cut above. Hands down.
I still want a computer setup like the one in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Or a tape scanner like the one from Brainstorm (a very underrated movie btw)