Real Genius/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

* The ending of the film has been subjected to [[Fridge Logic]], with the unanswered question of what exactly happens ''next''. {{spoiler|The military can still build more lasers now that their prototype was proven successful, right? Except that the whole scheme was exposed to public scrutiny, with a congressman directly witnessing it, ensuring that there will be subpoenas and indictments aplenty going around. And if nothing else, Hathaway's ruined}}.

** Not to mention that, {{spoiler|as far as the military is concerned, the only 100% successful laser test was done by Chris and Mitch in the lab. The aerial test laser, in addition to hitting the wrong target, also burst into flames. Even without the added public scrutiny, there is no way the military would risk using a weapon that potentially unstable on a plane or spacecraft. (Of course, the laser's self-destruction was engineered by Chris and Mitch, but the military doesn't know that.)}}

* At no point does any of the protagonists bother to exposit ''why'' it's so wrong to build a laser capable of vaporizing ground targets from space. They simply state flatly that it is, and act on that basis. But [[Fridge Logic]] suggests that unless the assassination laser was fired willy-nilly at innocent people (at which point the problem would not be the existence of the laser, but the murderous insanity of whoever's firing it), it would actually pose much less risk to innocent bystanders and less general destruction to simply vaporize a hostile dictator from space than, oh, declare war on his entire nation. And there is ''no'' plausible deniability involved when you're talking about giant glowing laser beams from space. Only one nation in the world at that time could be credibly suspected of owning laser satellites, and a scenario that posits a conspiracy of agents acting without sanction from National Command Authority is an even ''bigger'' plot hole, because National Command Authority is going to be the first person to ask "Why the hell did one of our own 'weather satellites' just vaporize someone with a giant laser beam? Who is responsible for this?" as soon as said satellite is actually seen firing.

** Although there is the fact that the man in charge of building it made his students work on it, without their knowledge, with only the shaky promise of a job or graduate study as potential payment.

*** Wrong! The opening scenes exposit in detail why the whole concept is bad, bad, bad. All you can do with it is kill unsuspecting targets; it would be useless in open warfare, against enemies who are either unknown or in hiding. "It's the perfect ''peacetime'' weapon." All it's good for is deniable assassinations. And ones without space capabilities at that.

**** Also, the claim of 'the weapon is only good vs. unsuspecting targets' is risible. That beam punched a six-inch hole through several feet of reinforced concrete -- and quite likely a heat-absorbing layer as well, given that that was the backstop in a high-energy laser lab. That's enough penetrating power to rip straight through anything short of a nuclear-hardened underground bunker, much less the top armor on any military vehicle in use today. Forget 'unsuspecting targets', this thing is a battlefield fire support weapon. You could use it to snipe tanks. You could use it to snipe ''warships''.

**** Furthermore, it would be ''by far'' the most effective ABM system yet invented, and mightn't mitigating the megadeaths of a possible nuclear exchange during the [[Cold War]] perhaps be a good thing?

**** "Unsuspecting" is not the same as "innocent". Besides, you're taking the movie as a given that it would only be used as a tool of assassination. The opening video shows a single zap-and-done, but the actual test shows it as able to drag a fairly destructive line... it would be an amazing weapon for taking out enemy fortifications or battle lines that were keeping forces from advancing or keeping them pinned down, or taking out strategic targets like missile silos, runways, and storage facilities. It has plenty of applications on the actual battlefield, ones that could probably save numerous American soldiers' lives.

*** You mean kind of like they take advantage of the college giving them a free ride on their education and research and getting them a job post-graduation? This makes about as much sense as someone joining the armed forces just to get the "free" money for college, and then throwing a fit when their commanding officer actually had the audacity to ''deploy'' them as if they were an ''actual soldier''. But then, people do that, so maybe it's just being realistic about how shortsighted and entitled some people can be.

*** That's not a valid comparison. With the military and the GI Bill, yes, you ''know'' that you might be deployed to combat--you expect it because that's what you signed up for. However, Chris, Mitch, and co. don't ''know'' that they're working on a military death ray. The protagonists are pacifistic science students who are coerced/manipulated into making a working assassination ray. As far as they knew, it was going to be purely a scientific endeavour with unlimited applications. (Except [[Death Ray|the most obvious one]], granted...) Remember the story Chris told about Laslo having a [[Heroic BSOD]] in [[The Seventies]] after finding out his [[Noodle Incident|research project would be hurting people]]? Same type of thing with our protagonists and their laser.

*** They've been invited to work on a laser with the express goal of making it more powerful and therefore more destructive. At that point their blinding themselves to the reasons anyone would want such a thing isn't anyone's fault but their own. "I was too dumb to know that my genius could be weaponized even though I was blatantly building a weapon" isn't exactly a heroic excuse.

*** That's just the characters' hubris at work. Hubris is a subtle recurring theme in the film. Chris and Mitch make the exact same mistake that Chris said happened to Laslo: they got so caught up in their work that it blinded them to what the final outcome was. However, when they are alerted to their shortsightedness, their morals instantly come into focus, and they react as they see fit. I expect that Laslo got involved purely because he doesn't want Chris and Mitch to suffer the same [[Heroic BSOD]] that he himself suffered after he finished ''his'' project.

** Again, the point that people seem to be missing is the ''added public scrutiny''. The Congressman, the college dean, and a few passersby saw a laser beam hit Hathaway's house. Eventually, a Congressional oversight committee and an interested public are going to start asking questions. I expect that the laser project would be buried underneath red tape for YEARS to come.

*** Congressman and others go to Congress. The Congresspeople that actually approved the project in the first place say "It's classified" and send them on their way, to gripe to the college newspaper and whatever publications will listen to them about "a giant space laser". Red tape cut.

*** ''Or'', the congressman goes public with the information for political reasons, leading to public outcries and, yes, public scrutiny. Read up on how much the [[wikipedia:Strategic Defense Initiative#Controversy and criticism|SDI was criticized]] and you might get a better understanding about why John Q. Public in the '80s would be interested in ''solid proof''<ref>And yes, I'm sure that Chris, Mitch, and co. would have ensured that there ''was'' solid proof</ref> that the government was testing death rays in a time of peace.

*** Truthfully, without [[Word of God]] to confirm it one way or another<ref>Someone should look up Neal Israel and/or Pat Proft (or even Martha Coolidge) to ask them</ref>, or with the present lack of a [[Sequel]], the final outcome remains strictly in the realm of [[Real Genius/WMG|Wild Mass Guessing]]. I like to think that, at the very end, when it's all said and done, that the project was a flop. Definitely not thrown out altogether, but put aside for a while (maybe boxed up and stashed away in [[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull|Hangar 51]], haha).

 

** The film covers three years rather than single year it implies. This makes no sense, as Chris is already a senior when Mitch arrives and Hathaway is clearly under pressure to complete the laser that same year.

** The age of consent is actually sixteen for purposes of the film, and Sherry's been stalking Mitch since he was ''[[Squick|thirteen]]''.

** Mitch is in some kind of weird [[Timey-Wimey Ball]].

** Sherry is blatantly lying.

** Sherry is attempting statutory rape, and Jordan does actually commit it (or is implied to), but the movie simply ignores this.

*** Sherry says she's been waiting for Mitch to be "old enough", presumably to be old enough to make his own decision about whether he wanted to have sex or not, as opposed to old enough by the law. Considering that Mitch proceeds to turn her down, and chooses to instead go have sex with Jordan, she was clearly right about him being old enough to make his own decisions. Eighties movies in general were surprisingly un-shy about portraying teenagers as being perfectly willing and capable of deciding to have sex whether it was legal or not, often without world-destroying consequences.

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[[Category:Headscratchers]]

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