It’s hard to believe that "Real Genius" will turn 40 in August of this year. The 1985 Martha Coolidge-directed college comedy classic starring Val Kilmer in just his second movie (and still one of Kilmer’s best roles) wasn’t a huge box office hit, and it’s often forgotten about these days, but it became a staple of cable TV in the mid-'80s. A generation of kids raised on HBO and Cinemax has made it a beloved cult classic.
The movie follows the hijinks of a group of “nerds” at a fictional university (based loosely on Cal Tech) as they build a skating rink in the dorm, mess with the bully Kent (Robert Prescott), chase the mysterious Hollyfeld (played by "The White Lotus" cast member Jon Gries) down into the steam tunnels, and, in the grand finale, destroy their professor’s house by redirecting a military laser into his entryway and pop a giant vat of popcorn. The popcorn literally pushes through the windows and ultimately knocks down the walls as it expands. It’s an incredible scene, and we still love to rewatch it all these years later. What we never knew until we wondered about it recently was how the stunt was pulled off in an age before CGI. Well, now we know.
The movie follows the hijinks of a group of “nerds” at a fictional university (based loosely on Cal Tech) as they build a skating rink in the dorm, mess with the bully Kent (Robert Prescott), chase the mysterious Hollyfeld (played by "The White Lotus" cast member Jon Gries) down into the steam tunnels, and, in the grand finale, destroy their professor’s house by redirecting a military laser into his entryway and pop a giant vat of popcorn. The popcorn literally pushes through the windows and ultimately knocks down the walls as it expands. It’s an incredible scene, and we still love to rewatch it all these years later. What we never knew until we wondered about it recently was how the stunt was pulled off in an age before CGI. Well, now we know.
Category
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Short film