Brainstorm (1983): VR Memories, Military Tech, & Christopher Walken's Massive Headgear
Brainstorm(1983)
This week on Tech Film Noir, we're watching Brainstorm (1983), the Christopher Walken sci-fi oddity where scientists invent a machine that can record your entire sensory experience, and humanity immediately asks: “Cool. Can the military use it?”
Join Lianne Potter and Jeff Watkins as they strap themselves into one of the most ridiculous pieces of 1980s headgear ever committed to film and attempt to work out what the hell Brainstorm is actually trying to do. Is it virtual reality? Mind control? Psychological warfare? An afterlife simulator? A very elaborate marriage counselling device? Yes.
Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood star alongside Louise Fletcher in Douglas Trumbull's wildly ambitious sci-fi film, where a headset that starts out recording sight, sound, taste and touch somehow also starts recording memories and emotions because apparently we're just making the rules up as we go along.
Along the way, we get into 1980s VR, sensory recording, military technology, hacking, virtual reality, mind manipulation and the surprisingly accurate prediction of how humans immediately find increasingly questionable things to do with new technology. We also admire the glorious lab equipment, Christopher Walken's increasingly Walken-y performance, some spectacular practical effects, the world's most unnecessary aspect-ratio changes, and a headset that goes from massive medical contraption to something suspiciously like modern bone-conduction headphones.
Plus: why does everyone in this film type like they're trying to win a piano competition? Why does the technology make no sense? Why is Christopher Walken apparently the world's first VR relationship hacker? And why does every new piece of technology immediately become somebody else's terrible idea?
When movies guess the future, we check their work.
