Weird Science (film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A 1985 Speculative Fiction comedy directed by John Hughes, starring Brat Packer Anthony Michael Hall and supermodel Kelly LeBrock, and featuring Bill Paxton and Robert Downey Jr. A typical-for-its-time (if somewhat tame) Wish Fulfillment teen-sex comedy with a sci-fi twist: When a pair of Hollywood Nerds can't get girls on their own, they decide to build themselves the perfect woman in an effort to become popular.

Wyatt and Gary are typical Nerds (if unattractive only by Hughes' standards) who are bullied at school. At home, Wyatt's Jerk Jock older brother Chet makes their lives just as uncomfortable. The guys are desperate for female attention. Unable to work up the nerve to actually talk to real girls, the pair use Wyatt's Magical Computer to simulate a woman. However, a hack into a government mainframe and a freak thunderstorm all come together and bring the woman simulation to real life.

This woman, whom the boys name "Lisa", turns out to be a Magical Girlfriend, able to create "anything [she] want[s]". What she wants, in the end, is to help the boys get girlfriends. To this end she takes them to a blues bar to befriend the clientele (to break them out of their shells); teaches them to kiss (at least, teaches Wyatt); and throws a big raving party at Wyatt's house (to show them that they can be popular, or at least liked). When, however, the boys hide from their own party, Lisa creates a distraction: a home invasion by a biker gang to threaten the guys' dream girls, forcing them to come to the rescue and scare the thugs off. She also stands up to Chet, showing him what it's like to be on the receiving end of a bully's attention.

Adapted into a television series in the early 90s.


Tropes used in Weird Science (film) include:
  • Adaptation Expansion: The comic book story the film was based on was produced in the early 1950s, with the film significantly updating and expanding the premise for the home computer age.
  • An Aesop: "When are you gonna learn that people will like you for who you are, and not for what you can give them?"

Lisa: Well, in your race for power and glory, you forgot one small detail.
Wyatt: We forgot to hook up the doll.
Lisa: You forgot to hook up the doll.
(Cue Pershing missile punching through their floor.)

Wyatt: "Where did you get that gun?"
Gary: "It's a squirt gun, see?" [BOOM] [Oh Crap]

  • Secret Test of Character: Lisa summons up a gang of bikers lead by Vernon Wells in his Wez attire. The intent to show both Gary, Wyatt and their love interests that they are brave while the bullies are cowards. Gary and Wyatt go so far as to point a pistol at them, to get them to leave. They leave politely even apologizing to boot. Further winning the girls over to them
  • Train Escape (version 1): Gary evades a police pursuit in this manner.
  • Weird Science: Not the Trope Namer. This film was named after the genre, not the other way around. If anything, Weird Science is the Film Namer.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The end of the movie shows most of the damage from the party repairing itself, but a couple of questions remain:
    • Is the kitchen still blue??
    • Speaking of the kitchen, are Wyatt's grandparents still catatonic in the pantry?
    • Are David Hodges and the photographer from the party still trapped in the TV?
  • Wild Teen Party: Most of the middle of the movie.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The main aesop of the movie. Gary and Wyatt have to learn that the only thing stopping them from having a good time, getting girlfriends and keeping the bullies from hassling them is themselves.