ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

This movie has a very imaginative premise, handled pretty well despite the fact that it's a semi-comic teen movie.

It starts out slow and gains momentum as two teenage boys investigate an alien device from a spacecraft that crashed decades earlier. The device was (believe it or not) stored and forgotten by the military in an old underground area on an air base.

As silly as it may sound, they hope to pass the device off as their desperately needed high school science project, which they need to graduate. But when they take it home and start cleaning it up, the device activates and begins absorbing power for electrical systems around it.

The prop which was created for the movie is plum awesome, a fairly complex machine that looks well constructed.







The alien device begins to affect time and space, propelling the two boys two hours into the future . . . causing them to miss their final exam in the science class. The time distortion progresses until the entire high school (empty of students by that evening) is transformed into an incredible collage of time periods in different areas of the building.

Cavemen, dinosaurs, and barbarians run amok, and the boys (along with a shy but science-mind girl) struggle to survive.

And yes, there is a scene with T-Rex in the gymnasium — very nicely done, I must say.

Here's the trailer and the full movie.

____________ My Science Project 1985 - trailer


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_________________ My Science Project 1985


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

The space drive is one of the most wanted props. On the RPF, people talk about replicating it, but the big problem is the custom-made plasma sphere.

I always thought one of the funniest scenes was where the only person that knew how to operate the M16 rifles was the nerd. He knew because he had read the manuals.

Now I want to see this movie again.

David.

[Pow]

Trivia } The tyrannosaur scenes were a combo of a 30-inch rod puppet as well as a full size animatronic that required 35 cables with 5 separate joysticks and operated by 8 operators.

The full-scale dinosaur was constructed by the same crew who worked on the brontosaurus family dinos for the earlier film by Disney "Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend."

The tyrannosaur for MSP was constructed using cannibalized brontosaur parts from B: SotLL.

[Bud Brewster]

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Thanks, Mike!

I think they did a pretty good job with those special effects, despite the fact that CGI raised the bar so high for dinosaur scenes when Jurassic Park came out.

I was so impressed with my recent viewing of My Science Project (the second time I'd even seen it) from YouTube recently — despite the somewhat blurred picture — that I ordered the DVD, and I'm looking forward to watching the movie again fairly soon.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I agree with you, Bruce, regarding how well executed the dino scenes were done considering it's now 35-years old. Yikes!

I haven't viewed the film in ages and just re-watched it again recently.

Not exactly a classic, but it sure is entertaining.

The premise of discovering an alien gizmo that opens up a vortex through time and space is compelling. Makes one wonder what exactly did this race do with it?

Were the aliens not only exploring other worlds in the present but were they also examining these different planets historical eras in order to better understand the civilizations evolution?

Man, the actor playing President Eisenhower sure as heck was a perfect looking clone to the real "Ike."

And speaking of duplicates;when high school science teacher Bob Roberts, played by Dennis Hopper, reappears from his trip back in time he is in the same hat and clothing that he wore as Billy in the classic 1969 movie "Easy Rider."

I thought that was a hoot and a holler that the film did that homage. As well as a nod to the space ship crash being the famous Roswell, N.M. incident.

Puppets were created for alien crew of the downed star ship for the opening of the movie but were scrapped.

As always, I wondered what the dinosaur sequence would have looked like in the hands of stop~motion legend Ray Harryhausen. He did a superlative job with his "Valley of Gwangi" dinos.

The FX crew said that they only had about 4 hours to rehearse the full-size animatronic tyrannosaur scene for the film. That was not enough time to really work it all out as well as they would have liked according to the crew.

Makes me wonder what the scene would have looked like had the crew had all the time they required to practice it?

Amazing looking scene in any event.

I also liked the design for the alien machine that they came up with for the movie.

Reboot? Sequel? Why not?

[Bud Brewster]

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Mike, I love your comments.

Your speculations concerning the true nature and capabilities of the alien device definitely highlight the heart and soul of his movie's premise.

As you said, we certainly don't fully understand what the device was capable of or how the alien's used it. It was obviously designed to be a powerful multi-functional mechanism!

The fact that the three wacky high-school kids managed to understand that the device was extremely dangerous was a real plus for this movie. They certainly weren't like the kids in Real Genius, who actually invented a new super-weapon which was then misused by the military.

These kids rose to the occasion and prevented a terrible situation from occurring — despite the fact that they didn't really understand it!

As for a sequel/reboot of this movie — hell yes!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

[Bud Brewster]

[Krel]

I never mentioned anything about the morality, or immorality of the weapon's purpose. I just said that the Military got what they paid for.

Although you must admit, such a pinpoint weapon could be useful for surgical strikes for the elimination of people like terrorists before they can kill innocents. Nations actually use drones for such purposes now. So moral or immoral, that horse has already left the barn.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

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Good points, David!

I should probably clarify my statement below.

[Gord Green]

[Krel]

[Krel]

[Bud Brewster]

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My goodness, all this debating, just because I said the military "misused" the scientific breakthrough the young scientists created, hoping it would benefit mankind.

Apparently I should have phrased my statement this way.

"They certainly weren't like the kids in Real Genius, who actually invented an amazing laser which was then used as a weapon by the military, something which the young scientist disapproved of."
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[ralfy]

Thanks! I found a high-definition (1080p) version here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdx96mTASgU