Skip to main content

Movie Identification: People record their experiences on reel-to-reel


I know that this sounds like Strange Days, which I haven't seen, but from the Wikipedia description I don't think that's it.


I saw this back in the early-to-mid-90's on TV, pretty sure it was a premium channel. It follows a research group who develops a way to record experiences. Not thoughts, but at least the sights, sounds, smells, touch, etc. They record it onto this reel-to-reel tape, it looked striated and golden in color. The protagonist is the head of the research team.



I don't remember a great deal of the plot, but there were conspiracies surrounding the invention. The lab clown decides to give it a whirl by putting the bike-helmet-sized apparatus on his head and going out to have a little fun, in the classic wine, women, and song fashion. Once he returns, an older member of the team finds the tape and finds a section where the clown is having sex. Later on, the protagonist, who is the lead researcher, finds the older member shut up in his house seemingly for days and nearly comatose. The older researcher had the playback device over his head and is non-responsive. Worried, the protagonist removes the helmet and puts it on himself, only to find that the older researcher had snipped a few seconds of tape and had them running on a non-stop loop; the moment of orgasm for the clownish researcher. The older researcher eventually comes to and awkwardly apologizes.


I think there were also experiments in recording the sensorum of a lab monkey, and that played into the plot. I remember the plot seemed fairly thin and dull for what seemed to be a pretty neat idea. I don't desperately feel the need to watch the movie, but I'm mildly curious if my impressions would differ 20 years later now.



Answer



The movie you're looking for is called Brainstorm from 1983. It starred Louise Fletcher, Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood.


DVD cover


Fletcher's character invents a device that allows people's memories to be recorded on tape. A member of the team records himself having sex with his girl friend, another scientist gets a hold of that tape and puts it on an endless loop, sort of frying his brain a bit in continuous orgasms. Fletcher's character ends up having a heart attack and records herself dying. Replaying the tape almost kills Walken. The conspiracy is the Military has been following the project and confiscates it.


Scientist with the helmet on


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more