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Brainstorm

317 statements
61 feature instances
10 referencing feature instances

Brainstorm	type	TVTItem
Brainstorm	label	Brainstorm
Brainstorm	page	Brainstorm
Brainstorm	comment	Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })A 1983 sci-fi film directed by Douglas Trumbull, notable for being Natalie Wood's last film.A team of research scientists led by Dr. Lillian Reynolds (Louise Fletcher) and Dr. Michael Brace (Christopher Walken) and later joined by Michael's wife/co-worker Karen Brace (Wood) develop a device called "The Hat", which can record one's experiences while you're having them, then play the tape back to anyone.The lab's general manager, Alex Terson (Cliff Robertson), wants them to make a recording that will "knock (his) socks off"... so they do, developing one that captures such experiences as eating, hang gliding, flying a jet, driving a race car, and riding a roller coaster. Jenkins, the person representing the people funding the project, is very impressed as he realizes that you can "plug right into the old noodle". It is eventually revealed that the group is developing new ways to do a variety of dubiously ethical and ultimately horrible things under Project Brainstorm.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })The movie goes on to show other problems with the development of this technology, some good, some bad. The consequences of being able to receive others' experiences is not always so good. During the film, one of Michael's co-worker's becomes addicted to a section of a tape where a co-worker taped himself and his girlfriend having sex. He had cut out the section where orgasm occurred and played it in a continuous loop for hours. There's also a tape—part of a library of tapes developed to brainwash and torture people—that was so horrible that it would cause psychosis if you played it.Michael's curious son plays it and has a psychotic break that sends him to the hospital but does recover.The remainder of the story revolves around Michael honoring his late friend. He's determined to finish playing a particular tape that his colleague and friend, Lillian, had made of her own death from a heart attack, and he makes every effort to be able to see it because the tape doesn't end with her death - it keeps recording her experience as she enters the afterlife.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_3'); })During the first playback, the management decides to have someone monitor the tape Michael is experiencing. A technician tries to warn their chief researcher about the changes Michael had made to his output but is ignored, and their test subject dies of a heart attack. Michael eventually is able to play the tape in its entirety before waking up from it, overwhelmed and touched.An interesting effect of this is, the experiences, which required a kind of very shiny metallic-optical tape about four inches wide, could be transmitted using an acoustical coupler modem over a phone line going to a pay phone. Apparently, they were able transmit and receive recordings over a voice-grade line at about 23590 bps.note It's not explained what the raw data is and it could simply be just where and when a part of the brain is stimulated or recorded.A well-known Troubled Production due to Natalie Wood's tragic death in 1981 before the film was finished. The film was nearly canned by the studio, but director Douglas Trumbull said the film could still be completed, and it took about two more years of re-shoots and editing to work things out and finish the movie before it was finally released in 1983. The stress of finishing the film after Wood's death pushed the director away from moviemaking as well.Not to be confused with the film of the same name from 1965.
Brainstorm	fetched	2022-07-25T15:26:43Z
Brainstorm	parsed	2022-07-25T15:26:43Z
Brainstorm	processingComment	Dropped link to AnAesop: Not a Feature - IGNORE
Brainstorm	processingComment	Dropped link to Blackmail: Not a Feature - ITEM
Brainstorm	processingComment	Dropped link to TheDeterminator: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
Brainstorm	processingUnknown	TheDeterminator
Brainstorm	isPartOf	DBTropes
Brainstorm / int_116a941b	type	Applied Phlebotinum
Brainstorm / int_116a941b	comment	Applied Phlebotinum: The "tape" used to record a person's experience looks like an optical film, about four inches wide and stored on tape reels. It's like an optical disc but cut into a ribbon.
Brainstorm / int_116a941b	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_116a941b	featureConfidence	1.0
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_116a941b
Brainstorm / int_15756c9d	type	Where It All Began
Brainstorm / int_15756c9d	comment	Where It All Began: Michael sets up his portable terminal to play Lillian's recording one last time in a place that is important to him and his career as a scientist: the Orville and Wilbur Wright Museum. Karen being his wife and knowing him well, she goes there to try to save him.
Brainstorm / int_15756c9d	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_15756c9d	featureConfidence	1.0
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_15756c9d
Brainstorm / int_234073a4	type	Your Mind Makes It Real
Brainstorm / int_234073a4	comment	Your Mind Makes It Real: Lillian dies while hooked up to the machine. Someone else "watches" the recording, and has the exact same heart attack, dying in the process. The tape records all brainwaves and some physical indicators, so playing that tape unmodified would literally give the watcher the same heart arrhythmia. Additionally, Michael has the foresight to remove the biofeedback of the tape, but nearly dies anyway because of the temptation of Heaven.
Brainstorm / int_234073a4	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_234073a4	featureConfidence	1.0
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_234073a4
Brainstorm / int_234bd900	type	For Science!
Brainstorm / int_234bd900	comment	For Science!: Gordy quotes this verbatim as a reason to record him and his girlfriend having sex. It's made pretty clear that this is what motivates Lillian to record her death.
Brainstorm / int_234bd900	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_234bd900	featureConfidence	1.0
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_234bd900
Brainstorm / int_2484396e	type	Know-Nothing Know-It-All
Brainstorm / int_2484396e	comment	Know-Nothing Know-It-All: The guy the group brings in, Dr. Landan Marks, is described by Lillian as a "hack". She is later proven right as he his supposed knowledge (or lack thereof) gets someone killed.
Brainstorm / int_2484396e	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_2484396e	featureConfidence	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_2dc0d2bf	type	Hidden Depths
Brainstorm / int_2dc0d2bf	comment	Hidden Depths: Lillian's views on "The Hat" have philosophical and religious overtones. During the playback of her death tape, we see that one of her confidants is a Pastor (the same Pastor who presided at her funeral).
Brainstorm / int_2dc0d2bf	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_2dc0d2bf
Brainstorm / int_396e1c2a	type	Face Death with Dignity
Brainstorm / int_396e1c2a	comment	Face Death with Dignity: Lillian, suffering from a heart attack and knowing she's about to die, stands up, walks over to the main terminal, puts on a headset and hits record For Science!. Now that's dedication to their work.
Brainstorm / int_396e1c2a	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_3d7ff013	type	How Dare You Die on Me!
Brainstorm / int_3d7ff013	comment	How Dare You Die on Me!:
Brainstorm / int_3d7ff013	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_3d7ff013	featureConfidence	1.0
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_3d7ff013
Brainstorm / int_3dcc914f	type	Took a Level in Kindness
Brainstorm / int_3dcc914f	comment	Took a Level in Kindness: "The Hat" ends up helping Michael reconnect with his wife and become a more open, understanding and nicer guy.
Brainstorm / int_3dcc914f	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_3dcc914f	featureConfidence	1.0
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_3dcc914f
Brainstorm / int_40bb59d0	type	Blatant Lies
Brainstorm / int_40bb59d0	comment	Blatant Lies: By the end of the film, we find that Alex Terson has lied quite a bit. After Hal's overnight "orgasm loop", Alex tells Michael that it'll stay between them. It turns out that the group not only knows but is watching them and Landon asks for a copy of the audio and transcript. When confronted about Project Brainstorm, Alex Terson denies knowledge despite the fact that he personally has Lillian's tape locked up in the restricted area of their tape library. That Gordy is dead after monitoring the death tape unauthorized. Alex was actually there when they did the tap and their leader Zimbach did authorize it. Although it was done over Alex' objections.
Brainstorm / int_40bb59d0	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_40bb59d0
Brainstorm / int_44d0f3ac	type	Mental Picture Projector
Brainstorm / int_44d0f3ac	comment	Mental Picture Projector: The Hat is this.
Brainstorm / int_44d0f3ac	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_44d0f3ac
Brainstorm / int_50f848cc	type	Technology Porn
Brainstorm / int_50f848cc	comment	Technology Porn: Oodles of shots of instrument panels, blinking lights, banks of computer equipment, slick-looking portable computer terminals and spools of "tape" winding around.
Brainstorm / int_50f848cc	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_56863152	type	Operation: [Blank]
Brainstorm / int_56863152	comment	Operation: [Blank]: The project that developed "The Hat" was renamed "Project Brainstorm" once the military takes over.
Brainstorm / int_56863152	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_56863152	featureConfidence	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_586589bc	type	Journey to the Center of the Mind
Brainstorm / int_586589bc	comment	Journey to the Center of the Mind: The Hat can do this, but it becomes more explicit once the MacGuffin of Lillian's record of what she experienced as she died comes forth.
Brainstorm / int_586589bc	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_586589bc	featureConfidence	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_5af55436	type	Forced to Watch
Brainstorm / int_5af55436	comment	Forced to Watch: Chris has a vision of his father forcibly strapping him into a very scary-looking chair in a monstrous-looking version of his lab.
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Brainstorm / int_5b4573b1	type	Near-Death Experience
Brainstorm / int_5b4573b1	comment	Near-Death Experience: Anybody who plays back Lillian's death recording undergoes this. It's an important plot point that the people of Project Brainstorm labeled it as a high-risk "Toxic" recording afterwards.
Brainstorm / int_5b4573b1	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_5db59a03	type	Brown Note
Brainstorm / int_5db59a03	comment	Brown Note: Lillian's recorded death tape, and one of the tapes can have "your subconscious fears transformed to your conscious awareness", designated for military-grade torture. At least Project Brainstorm bothers to have them in a high-security sub-section of the data vault with all of the recordings explicitly labeled as "Toxic".
Brainstorm / int_5db59a03	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_5fc7e0fa	type	Bloody Bowels of Hell
Brainstorm / int_5fc7e0fa	comment	Bloody Bowels of Hell: Michael sees a brief vision of this on Lillian's tape.
Brainstorm / int_5fc7e0fa	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_5fc7e0fa	featureConfidence	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_60f567f1	type	Lonely Piano Piece
Brainstorm / int_60f567f1	comment	Lonely Piano Piece: The end credits are bombastic, but occasionally interrupted by an ethereal, almost Victorian piano melody.
Brainstorm / int_60f567f1	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_60f567f1	featureConfidence	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_62f9d08e	type	Freeze-Frame Bonus
Brainstorm / int_62f9d08e	comment	Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Michael is trying to get back into the computer to play Lillian's tape, we see the name of the government group: Defense Instrument Research Group, Raleigh, North Carolina. Robert Lewis Jenkins is Project Brainstorm's project manager.
Brainstorm / int_62f9d08e	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_639cefd2	type	Go into the Light
Brainstorm / int_639cefd2	comment	Go into the Light: Subverted, Michael almost goes into a great big light with angels flying into it after playing Lillian's tape, but he hears Karen's pleas to not die and luckily he comes back.
Brainstorm / int_639cefd2	featureApplicability	-0.3
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Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_639cefd2
Brainstorm / int_658f7193	type	Lack of Empathy
Brainstorm / int_658f7193	comment	Lack of Empathy: James Zimbach (the group's leader), Robert Jenkins (project leader) and Landan Marks (chief researcher) stand out. They use Lillian's and Michael's work to do horrible things and don't show any empathy or remorse for their actions.
Brainstorm / int_658f7193	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_658f7193	featureConfidence	1.0
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_658f7193
Brainstorm / int_65ddbf8e	type	Aspect Ratio
Brainstorm / int_65ddbf8e	comment	Aspect Ratio: The "real world" sequences were filmed in spherical 35mm and have a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. The "Brainstorm" sequences were shot with Super Panavision 70 and are in 2.20:1 aspect ratio and a higher frame rate. This "Michael's Gift" scene exemplifies this. The Pan and Scan home video actually turned the 2.20:1 aspect into a Fish-Eye Lens-style look, maintaining the difference between the "real" world and "Brainstorm" world.
Brainstorm / int_65ddbf8e	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_6627695f	type	Author Appeal
Brainstorm / int_6627695f	comment	Author Appeal: Bruce Joel Rubin loves writing about the afterlife (Jacob's Ladder, Ghost (1990)).
Brainstorm / int_6627695f	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_6627695f	featureConfidence	1.0
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_6627695f
Brainstorm / int_6ac3af76	type	Divorce Is Temporary
Brainstorm / int_6ac3af76	comment	Divorce Is Temporary: Michael and Karen have recently divorced, but one night Michael uses the device on himself to record the happy memories and experiences he remembers from their marriage, and then plays them back for Karen, which leads to a reconciliation between them.
Brainstorm / int_6ac3af76	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_6ac3af76	featureConfidence	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_6b05b601	type	Jerkass Has a Point
Brainstorm / int_6b05b601	comment	Jerkass Has a Point: When Gordy dies and Michael ends up in the hospital after playing Lillian's death tape, Alex locks it up with a written note that it's toxic and not to be played. Considering that it can literally kill the user playing it or send them into shock, Terson has a pretty valid point not letting anyone access it.
Brainstorm / int_6b05b601	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_6b05b601
Brainstorm / int_6da90c4d	type	Full-Name Ultimatum
Brainstorm / int_6da90c4d	comment	Full-Name Ultimatum: At the climax. "Michael! Anthony! Brace!" Followed by How Dare You Die On Me.
Brainstorm / int_6da90c4d	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_7064ec04	type	Cassette Futurism
Brainstorm / int_7064ec04	comment	Cassette Futurism: The equipment of Project Brainstorm is huge, with the "portable" terminals being the size of a large suitcase and equipped with acoustic couplers, and the recordings being on huge reels of optical tape.
Brainstorm / int_7064ec04	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_7286e96d	type	Idiot Ball
Brainstorm / int_7286e96d	comment	Idiot Ball: The research group has a technician who is actively monitoring the computer system. He caught Michael and immediately called in Jenkins. They were fully aware of Michael's first break in to Project Brainstorm. The technician suggested he cut him off but instead Jenkins just lets him go right in—he wanted to see how far he gets and how good he is—and find out too much about the project. Jenkins even allows him to play one of the "toxic" tapes despite it serving no purpose other than to further violate project security and a Kick the Dog moment that ultimately backfires. The security people Jenkins has following Michael and Karen are total incompetents. For starters, they fail to notice the two large hard-sided cases containing two very specialized computer terminals. They also follow them and watch them openly in public, making them stick out a mile. They completely buy the couple's staged "blow-out" and subsequent make-up phone call and keep watching Michael and allow Karen to leave their sight. When Jenkins order them to arrest Michael, they completely fail at their task and allow Michael to escape. That same technician seems to be the only person monitoring everything at Xavier / Xian. So he and Jenkins are completely focused on surveilling Michael and completely ignore everything else. They only find out when one of their security people and Landan literally knocks on their door and explains what's going on. When conducting the tap on the death tape, the technician tries to tell Dr. Marks about the changes that he heard Brace made to his output and is coldly ignored. Adding insult to injury is that Landan was watching Michael and Hal making modifications to their console. When things start going wrong, Landan's unfamiliarity with the equipment and how it functions gets Gordy killed.
Brainstorm / int_7286e96d	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_7286e96d
Brainstorm / int_7570a10c	type	Bond Villain Stupidity
Brainstorm / int_7570a10c	comment	The research group has a technician who is actively monitoring the computer system. He caught Michael and immediately called in Jenkins. They were fully aware of Michael's first break in to Project Brainstorm. The technician suggested he cut him off but instead Jenkins just lets him go right in—he wanted to see how far he gets and how good he is—and find out too much about the project. Jenkins even allows him to play one of the "toxic" tapes despite it serving no purpose other than to further violate project security and a Kick the Dog moment that ultimately backfires.
Brainstorm / int_7570a10c	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_7570a10c	featureConfidence	1.0
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_7570a10c
Brainstorm / int_7b144404	type	Mental World
Brainstorm / int_7b144404	comment	Mental World: The recordings of the Hat, when it's a whole load of memories being reviewed, look like a large bunch of bubbles that you navigate through. Furthermore, the recording sequences were filmed using a different format from the regular film.
Brainstorm / int_7b144404	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_7b144404
Brainstorm / int_863fa679	type	What Happened to the Mouse?
Brainstorm / int_863fa679	comment	What Happened to the Mouse?: During the above Phone-Trace Race, Jenkins' people are able to trace the phone call to a specific phone number in the area where Michael might be, but it's not clear if the call they traced came from the payphone at the Orville and Wilbur Wright Museum or Hal's land line at the country club.note There is at least one country club located in the Kill Devil Hills area on the Outer Banks making it plausible that Landan traced the wrong call. Although it should also be noted that when Michael visits Hal, he's wearing a cap that says Pinehurst and one of the filming locations was Pinehurst, NC. However, it's a 4-hour drive from Pinehurst to the Memorial. So either the death tape is over four hours long or it's a filming goof.
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Brainstorm / int_875615dd	type	Truth in Television
Brainstorm / int_875615dd	comment	It's also Truth in Television in that some vendors install electronic locking, telephone and CCTV systems and set them up incorrectly making them fully accessible from the Internet and therefore easily hackable. The same is true of automated production lines and electrical control systems. This is decades before hacking was a concern and the Internet was common. On the other hand, we are talking about a Government group whose chief researcher is a "hack" and air-gapping those systems from one another didn't occur to them.
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Brainstorm / int_8f57d5eb	type	Another Man's Terror
Brainstorm / int_8f57d5eb	comment	Another Man's Terror: When Michael plays back Lillian's final recording, he experiences everything she did when she died.
Brainstorm / int_8f57d5eb	featureApplicability	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_957e5fc2	type	Villainous Breakdown
Brainstorm / int_957e5fc2	comment	Villainous Breakdown: When all the damage that Michael and Karen's shenanigans have caused end with power being cut to the lab except for the lab computer, Landan snaps and goes to damage the lab computer—which they rely on to process all the recording and playback sessions—but Alex calmly stops him.
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Brainstorm / int_ad1db87c	type	Oh, Crap!
Brainstorm / int_ad1db87c	comment	Oh, Crap!: Karen has one when Michael has finished the tape, but hasn't come back.
Brainstorm / int_ad1db87c	featureApplicability	1.0
Brainstorm / int_ad1db87c	featureConfidence	1.0
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Brainstorm / int_ad1db87c
Brainstorm / int_ad7a381d	type	P.O.V. Cam
Brainstorm / int_ad7a381d	comment	P.O.V. Cam: Most of the "Hat" scenes are shot like this.
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Brainstorm / int_b6aad019	type	Snuff Film
Brainstorm / int_b6aad019	comment	Snuff Film: Lillian's dying tape. Unlike most examples of the trope, she did it for scientific purposes.
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Brainstorm / int_b6aad019	featureConfidence	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_b7b0c10d	type	Phone-Trace Race
Brainstorm / int_b7b0c10d	comment	Phone-Trace Race: When Jenkins realizes that the Michael has to be hacking everything from telephone contact with the lab computer, he has Dr. Landan Marks do a phone trace. It's subverted as either Michael doesn't know or care about the trace. Though they do get a phone number and solid location, it's not established whether that's the payphone Michael is using or Hal's home phone as there are two active phone connections to the lab computer at the same time.
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Brainstorm / int_bb18a227	type	It's All About Me
Brainstorm / int_bb18a227	comment	It's All About Me: Lillian and Michael are both guilty of this at one point or another. Lillian's work creating "The Hat" is crucial but Michael reminds her that he made a major contribution to it too and that the work is as much his as her own. Later, when Michael is trying to access Lillian's tape, his attempts to access it gets single-minded to the point that he unwittingly endangers his son. He gets some much needed humility afterward.
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Brainstorm / int_bc21c08f	type	My Life Flashed Before My Eyes
Brainstorm / int_bc21c08f	comment	My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: Well, Lillian's life to Michael that is. When playing her death tape, he sees an massive field of "memory bubbles", each one containing a memory from her life, some good, some not so good.
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Brainstorm / int_bc74ef27	type	Berserk Button
Brainstorm / int_bc74ef27	comment	Berserk Button: Hurting Michael's son—albeit unintentionally—and locking up Lillian's tape are serious sore points for him.
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Brainstorm / int_bc74ef27	featureConfidence	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_beb1cc89	type	Computer Equals Tapedrive
Brainstorm / int_beb1cc89	comment	Computer Equals Tapedrive: As expected of technology of the time, the files are stored in large reels of computer tape.
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Brainstorm / int_beb1cc89	featureConfidence	1.0
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Brainstorm / int_c2299d6e	type	Cutting the Knot
Brainstorm / int_c2299d6e	comment	Cutting the Knot: When the electronic locks end up jammed, they break through the doors with fire extinguishers and a piece of furniture. When breaking a window doesn't work, a worker brings in a gas-powered grinder to cut through the lock. They also try to cut power to the lab computer and production line when they can't regain control.
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Brainstorm / int_c313d43a	type	True Companions
Brainstorm / int_c313d43a	comment	True Companions: Hal, Michael, Lillian and Karen are this by the end of the film.
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Brainstorm / int_c9aea8c8	type	Armies Are Evil
Brainstorm / int_c9aea8c8	comment	Armies Are Evil: The government group with clear military connections are very interested in the technology for use in defense and training programs — as also a means of psychological torture.
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Brainstorm / int_ce1d78bc	type	Foreign Queasine
Brainstorm / int_ce1d78bc	comment	Foreign Queasine: When the mind-recording device is first being tested, one of the people wearing it orders up a "steak sundae" to test the sensation of taste, which tastes rather disgusting to Michael on the receiving end of the device.
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Brainstorm / int_ce2969d8	type	Spiritual Antithesis
Brainstorm / int_ce2969d8	comment	Spiritual Antithesis: To Strange Days. Brainstorm addresses the technological advances and the possibilities for the expansion of knowledge inherent in the sensorium-recording technology. In Strange Days, the technology has become, in essence, a street drug.
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Brainstorm / int_d08595d3	type	Broken Bird
Brainstorm / int_d08595d3	comment	Broken Bird: At the start of the film, Gordy, who works as a test subject for Michael and Lillian, is pretty laid back and enthusiastic. By the time of his death, he's sullen and doesn't question being plugged in to observe his friend's death tape.
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Brainstorm / int_d087a0b6	type	Sex by Proxy
Brainstorm / int_d087a0b6	comment	Sex by Proxy: One of the Hat scientists had sex with his girlfriend while wearing the thing to record his biological feedback.
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Brainstorm / int_d11a344d	type	Refusing Paradise
Brainstorm / int_d11a344d	comment	Refusing Paradise: Michael chooses to remain on Earth with his wife instead of Heaven.
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Brainstorm / int_d72164e9	type	Must Have Nicotine
Brainstorm / int_d72164e9	comment	Must Have Nicotine / Cigarette of Anxiety: Implied with Lillian, a rabid chain smoker and Workaholic who almost always has a cigarette on hand. Unfortunately this lifestyle choice of hers, combined with the stress of work, causes her to have a fatal heart attack while working alone one night.
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Brainstorm / int_da15842d	type	Brain/Computer Interface
Brainstorm / int_da15842d	comment	Brain–Computer Interface: The Hat is this, allowing people to review other people's memories. It is further developed to allow Gordy to control a simulated aircraft and perform a high-G dive just by thinking about it.
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Brainstorm / int_dca70c44	type	Reasonable Authority Figure
Brainstorm / int_dca70c44	comment	Reasonable Authority Figure: Alex Terson makes an effort to be this throughout the film. He encourages his people to innovate and is supportive. Later, when the group that funded the project starts to take over, he emphasizes to them that they need to give his people room to work. But as the group takes more and more control, he finds himself overridden and outmatched by both sides. He does regain some small measure of reasonable authority in the end when he calmly stops Landan from trashing the lab computer out of frustration.
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Brainstorm / int_e132a621	type	Fluffy Cloud Heaven
Brainstorm / int_e132a621	comment	Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Well, Fluffy Space Heaven.
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Brainstorm / int_e3915747	type	The Rule of First Adopters
Brainstorm / int_e3915747	comment	The Rule of First Adopters: As mentioned above, one of the first non-scientific uses for the technology was to record sex acts and replay them as full-body experiences.
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Brainstorm / int_efdb5236	type	In Another Man's Shoes
Brainstorm / int_efdb5236	comment	In Another Man's Shoes: The Hat was designed to allow people to review other people's memories and experience the exact physical and psychological feedback they felt of the experience.
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Brainstorm / int_f4b1129f	type	Anger Born of Worry
Brainstorm / int_f4b1129f	comment	Anger Born of Worry: Michael finds his son Chris had put on a headset and was playing back one of the "toxic" tapes that his father had come across. His anger quickly breaks down to tears.
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Brainstorm / int_f6507695	type	Everything Is Online
Brainstorm / int_f6507695	comment	Everything Is Online: The "Project Brainstorm" facilities — everything, including security doors, the build line for the Hats and terminals, fire control, and the memory tape library — can be accessed by Michael through a couple of portable terminals and acoustic couplers. What is crazier is that in the middle act of the film he tries to access Lillian's recording and we see that part of the memory library has a human operator that must physically turn the reader and its auto loader on, but when he hacks into the facility at the climax, not only is he able to raise all kinds of hell and destroy the Brainstorm production line, but he's also able to order the computer to play Lillian's recording automatically while keeping people from entering the library to prevent it. This is justified somewhat as Xavier / Xian is a cutting edge technology company and the lab computer, production line and locks were all networked together; a round-the-clock security technician was supposed to actively monitor the equipment and intervene in the event of a breach. On top of which, Dr. Landan Marks, the chief researcher that replaced Michael (whom Lillian describes as a "hack") doesn't entirely understand how the technology works nor how the lab computer was built and configured. It also helps that Michael is one of the people who actually built the Lab Computer in the first place and would know exactly how to access everything through it. Also justified in that the lab computer had to be networked and accessible remotely as all the terminals relied on it to process the recording and playback of the tapes. Michael and Karen use that computer to not only play Lillian's tape but to get into all the other systems. It's Jenkins who realizes that they must be making telephone contact through that system and asks for a phone trace. It's also Truth in Television in that some vendors install electronic locking, telephone and CCTV systems and set them up incorrectly making them fully accessible from the Internet and therefore easily hackable. The same is true of automated production lines and electrical control systems. This is decades before hacking was a concern and the Internet was common. On the other hand, we are talking about a Government group whose chief researcher is a "hack" and air-gapping those systems from one another didn't occur to them.
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Brainstorm / int_ff7f34c5	type	Pet the Dog
Brainstorm / int_ff7f34c5	comment	Pet the Dog: After Chris' exposure to a toxic tape that causes him to have a psychotic break, Alex Terson brings in an expert to help Chris recover.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Brainstorm	hasFeature	Another Man's Terror / int_25e762ad
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Cyberpunk / int_25e762ad
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Film Noir Index / int_25e762ad
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Films Noirs Index / int_25e762ad
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Peaceful in Death / int_25e762ad
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Psychic Glimpse of Death / int_25e762ad
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Sex by Proxy / int_25e762ad
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Technology Porn / int_25e762ad
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Your Mind Makes It Real / int_25e762ad
Brainstorm	hasFeature	Electric Instant Gratification / int_25e762ad

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