Themes: Inventors, Wishes Come True, When the Parents Are Away
Main Cast: Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Bill Paxton, Suzanne Snyder
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
John Hughes's third directorial effort, Weird Science, follows in the tradition of his previous teen-centered films, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith play the wannabe hipster Gary and his nebbish weak-willed best friend, Wyatt, a pair of high-school geeks who are hapless with members of the opposite sex. Using Wyatt's computer, they create what they believe is the ideal woman. A lightning storm brings that woman to life, and she takes the form of Kelly Le Brock. Lisa sets about building their self-confidence, but trouble begins brewing when Wyatt's cruel, military-minded older brother, Chet (Bill Paxton), begins to realize that something is not as it should be. Hughes would finish his cycle of high-school themed films with his next movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Review
Along with Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, Weird Science helped establish John Hughes as king of '80s teenybopper comedy, though this immature, wish-fulfillment fantasy is clearly meant for the boys. Given his first opportunity to really carry a movie, Anthony Michael Hall does not disappoint, playing the kind of smart-alecky loveable loser that everyone knew back in high school. Ilan-Mitchell Smith, never really heard from again after this movie, is the more sensitive half of the underdog pair, who have a great time learning from the English babe (Kelly LeBrock) they improbably conceive through a combination of computer programs and glamour magazine cut-outs. Unapologetically sophomoric, the film earns its enduring appeal with a number of gonzo set pieces, most notably the climactic party that's interrupted by a biker gang out of Mad Max, which Gary and Wyatt must overcome to win their keep. Weird Science throws together a goofy mixture of sci-fi, teenage sex fantasy, and high school satire to earn guilty grins from beginning to end. As in his other hits from this era, Hughes' screenplay is endlessly quotable. Credit also goes to the memorable supporting performances turned in by Robert Downey Jr., offering up an early version of his trademark dismissive flamboyance; Britt Leach and Barbara Lang as Gary's hilariously spellbound parents; and, in a scene-stealing turn that's assumed classic status, Bill Paxton as Chet, Wyatt's bullying military brother, who takes sadistic pleasure in making the boys squirm. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Judie Aronson - Hilly; Robert Downey, Jr. - Ian; Robert Rusler - Max; Jennifer Balgobin - Biker Girl; Ivor Barry - Henry; Michael Berryman - Mutant Biker; D'Mitch Davis - Bartender; Theodocia Goodrich - Lingerie Saleswoman; Pamela Gordon - Wyatt's Mother; Todd Hoffman - Weenie; Prince Hughes - Party Guest; John Kapelos - Candy Bar Owner; Barbara Lang - Lucy; Britt Leach - Al; Doug MacHugh - Wyatt's Father; Kym Malin - Girl Playing Piano; Renee Props - Weenie; Mary Steelsmith - Girl in Bathroom; Johnny Timko - Weenie; Wally Ward - Weenie; Vernon Wells - Lord General; Jill Whitlow - Perfume Salesgirl; Chino "Fats" Williams - Bar Patron; Phillip Borsos - Candy Bar Owner (uncredited); Jeff Jensen - Metal Face; Rick LeFevour - Policeman; Anne Bernadette Coyle - Carmen; Michael Cramer - Weenie; Robin Frohman - Girl in Bathroom; Joe Gieb - Blob Operator; Darren Harris - Weenie; Syzy J. Kellems - Gymnast; Alison Carole Lowe - Girl in Upside Down Bathroom; Mikul Robins - Weenie; Fred D. Scott - Bar Patron; Vince Monroe Townsend - Bar Patron; Rock Walker - Policeman; Jackie Burch; Steve James - Guy at Table; Kevin Thompson - Blob Operator
Credit
James Allen - Art Director, Jackie Burch - Casting, Jerry Evans - Choreography, Marilyn Vance - Costume Designer, John Hughes - Director, Chris Lebenzon - Editor, Mark Warner - Editor, Scott James Wallace - Editor, Ira Newborn - Composer (Music Score), Michael Germain - Makeup, Henry M. Lebo - Camera Operator, Michael St. Hilaire - Camera Operator, John W. Corso - Production Designer, Matthew Leonetti - Cinematographer, John Hughes - Producer, Joel Silver - Producer, Nick Navarro - Set Designer, Jennifer Polito - Set Designer, David M. Blitstein - Special Effects, Doug Hubbard - Special Effects, Roger Lifsey - Special Effects, Henry Millar - Special Effects, Mike Millar - Special Effects, Richard Thompson - Special Effects, James R. Alexander - Sound/Sound Designer, John Hughes - Screenwriter
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Gary Wallace (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt Donnelly (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) are average, disenfranchised teenagers with low social standing at their Shermer, Illinois high school; in the opening scene we see them being pantsed in front of a gymnasium full of beautiful girls. Frustrated that they can't score with real girls, they hack into a government computer to create their dream woman based on the data of, among others, various photomodels, Albert Einstein and David Lee Roth. The result is Lisa (Kelly LeBrock), a beautiful and intelligent young woman with superhuman powers, including animation, memory manipulation, reality warping, teleportation, time manipulation, and weather manipulation; although she's clearly out of Gary's and Wyatt's league, she's still unswervingly loyal to them.
Lisa immediately sets about helping Gary and Wyatt to gain self confidence and popularity. The three of them take a trip to a bar for a night of drinking, and return home, where they encounter Wyatt's older, domineering brother Chet (Bill Paxton) who uses this as an opportunity to blackmail Wyatt. At the local mall, Gary and Wyatt encounter two bullies, Ian (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Max (Robert Rusler), who embarrass Gary and Wyatt by dumping an Icee drink onto them. This upsets Deb (Suzanne Snyder) and Hilly (Judie Aronson), Max and Ian's girlfriends. To boost Gary and Wyatt's appeal, Lisa seems to magically summon a "new" Porsche 928 for Gary and invites Max and Ian to a party at Wyatt's house.
Gary's parents Al (Britt Leach) and Lucy (Barbara Lang) are taken aback by Lisa's personality and presumptions that they are not properly raising their son. As Gary readies to be grounded, Lisa brandishes a gun, forcing the Wallaces to let Gary go, and then wipes his parents' memory of the incident, resulting in Al to forget who Gary was completely. Lisa reveals to Gary that her gun is a squirt gun but only she seems to be amused by the joke. At the Donnelly house, the party is a blast of uncontrolled teenage paradise, except that Gary and Wyatt lock themselves in the bathroom out of nervousness, only to be confronted by Deb and Hilly. The boys determine they must have a good time, even if only to impress the girls. Bizarre circumstances plague the party; the entire kitchen becomes a blue-walled room resembling an ER. Wyatt's grandparents pay a visit and Lisa freezes them and puts them in the cupboard. Gary and Wyatt are bullied by Max and Ian into replicating the process of creating Lisa so they can have girls for themselves. Unfortunately, this only irritates Lisa and the experiment instead conjures up a Pershingmedium-range ballistic missile. Lisa creates a group of mutantbikers to rampage the party in order to test Gary and Wyatt's courage. Gary, in a show of bravado, confronts the bikers, wielding the gun that Lisa had shown him earlier, as he and Wyatt face down the bikers and send them running. To their shock the gun had magically been made real. Hilly and Deb fall for Wyatt and Gary. In the wake of the destruction, they finally end up going to sleep. The following morning, Wyatt's bullying brother Chet returns home and sees the mass destruction of the house, his grandparents in the cupboard, and snow falling in his bedroom. With a shotgun, Chet threatens all four of the teens with blackmail. Lisa, revealing herself to Chet for the first time, orders Gary and Wyatt to take their new friends home, while she deals with Chet.
Gary barely avoids getting arrested for speeding, and his parents see him; his father still does not know who 'Gary' is. Both Gary and Wyatt express their interest in the girls they are with, and each girl reciprocates. Upon their return home, they find that Chet has been transformed into a large, grotesque toad-like creature. Lisa is also now aware that Gary and Wyatt finally found girls their own age whom they like and who like them back. In a teary goodbye, Lisa's departure begins to 'undo' the damage from the previous night's chaos. Their sports cars vanish as Chet returns to "normal" and everything returns to its proper place just in time for Wyatt's parents to return home. In an epilogue, the students in a high school gymnasium are greeted with a stunned silence as they are introduced to a substitute gym teacher, revealing Lisa in a tight uniform; the boys in the class all pass out. Lisa's eyes turn to the camera, and she winks.
The movie is rated at 53 percent on the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes[1]. Despite mixed reviews, the film has become a cult classic and is one of the most well-known films of the high-school-in-the-80s genre.
The boys live in Shermer, Illinois, a fictitious suburb of Chicago. The mall scene in Weird Science took place at Northbrook Court on Northbrook, Illinois. It has since been heavily modified.
The exterior high school used was New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, Illinois.
The car chase scene at the end of the movie takes place on St. John's Ave. in Highland Park. When they turn the corner, they are on Central Ave. in Highland Park.
West view of the Long Beach, California (4252 Country Club Drive, Long Beach CA) home used in Weird Science as the fictional, upscale Donnelly family home and the location of the Gary-Wyatt party.
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