To see some clips from this movie and a short series from CNN, go here. Also be sure to watch this documentary about the history of cybernetics and human experimentation. See here for the movie "Anon," see here for the movie Gamer, see here for more about Surrogates.
A machine, the protagonist of the 1983 movie, “Brainstorm,” bears a striking resemblance to “the technology” deployed in global gangstalking-electronic torture-mind control operations described on this website. The fact that this film was made in 1981 and came out in 1983 indicates how old this “technology” really is. We may consider the film as predictive programming for the masses.
Of special note:
1) “the machine” allows one individual to see through the eyes and hear through the ears of another individual, thus potentially transforming the second individual into a piece of surveillance equipment. This dynamic is reported by innumerable “targeted individuals.”
2) “the machine” is quickly coopted by the military, specifically the US Air Force and NASA, for purposes of espionage and warfare.
3) The machine is used for brainwashing purposes.
4) The machine uses electronic surveillance, trauma, dream states, and physical pain and is capable of creating chaotic and psychotic episodes and psychotic breaks in targets’ brains.
From movie notes:
This machine can record your thoughts and sensations on tape, or to any person.
New York Times Review/Summary of Movie Plot:
IN a button-pusher’s paradise, replete with the dazzling array of hardware that ”Brainstorm” so effectively utilizes, a group of scientists is poised on the brink of an astonishing discovery. They have created a device that allows one person to experience vicariously the sensations of others. If Person A, wearing a specially designed helmet, eats a piece of steak with nuts, chocolate sauce and marshmallow on top (that’s the meal used in the experiment), Person B can taste the same stuff and share in the same indigestion.
When the scientists discover that their invention actually works, they excitedly drink a toast to its seemingly endless possibilities. ”Brainstorm,” which opens today at the Ziegfeld and other theaters, follows the scientists as they then discover that there are less purely research- minded individuals, in the military and in industry, who can imagine more sinister uses for the device. It also follows Dr. Michael Brace (Christopher Walken), one of the inventors, and his wife, Karen (Natalie Wood), as their marriage falters. But mostly it follows the helmet itself, since this is indeed the movie’s real star.
Douglas Trumbull, the special-effects wizard, has devised an unusually varied high-tech look for ”Brainstorm.” The laboratory where the scientists work looks amazingly sophisticated but also very lived in; the helmet itself is refined from a collection of lights and wires and lenses to something streamlined and sleek. Later on, when an automated assembly line is established to mass produce these machines, Mr. Trumbull makes its very immaculateness seem sinister. And when the place is sabotaged, it becomes a sudsy mess, which in this orderly and detail-conscious film, seems even more wicked than it would anywhere else.
The most special of the effects are, of course, reserved for those images provided by the helmet. To say that this device captures the ultimate sensation is hardly hyperbolic, since one of the scientists, while experiencing a heart attack, manages to slip into the apparatus and switch on its recording equipment. Mr. Trumbull can’t convey this for real, thank goodness. But he can certainly make believable the frightening and then euphoric fireworks that explode across the screen.
REVIEW by Roger Ebert:
“Brainstorm” … begins with the invention of an amazing machine that gives you the impression you are actually having somebody else’s experience. Plug into it, and you hear, see, feel, touch and smell whatever’s been programmed. What’s more, it’s telepathic; it can take those sensations out of one mind and channel them into another.
The applications are endless. In one demonstration, the wearer believes he is being chased down a mountain road by a runaway truck, and then his car misses a curve and goes sailing through the air. There also are the usual stunts like putting you in the front seat of a roller coaster. But then there’s a complication. One of the scientists who developed the gadget inadvertently records her own death. And when her colleagues play back her recording, they have the death experience, too.
PLOT AND DIOLOGUE From Movie:
Inventor of “machine” (Christopher Walken) tries to hack into computer program to find out what is being done with his invention by the military.
Here is the computer code he uses to hack into the machine:
Project Brainstorm
Defense Instrument Research Group
Raleigh, NC
Electronic Surveillance
Classified R and D
Flight Data Recording- NASA 6011
Adhesives- Heat Shield 2212
Mylar Nose Cone Sealant- USAF
Related Processes- See File DX09
SECURITY: Top Level Entry
SECURITY MAXIMUM
PROJECT BRAINSTORM
TECHNICAL EVALUATION SERIES- CLASSIFIED
WARNING: THESE ARE FULL SENSORY TAPES AND CAN BE EXTREMELY HARMFUL TO USE
TAPE INDEX —- COERSIVE IMPRINTING SERIES
FEAR STATES
EARLY TRAUMA- RANDOM
EARLY TRAUMA- SELECTED
DREAM STATES- NEG AND POS
PHYSICAL PAIN THRESHOLD SERIES
(SUBDIVISION- MODERATE TO HIGH)
CATALYST FIELD SERIES- ANXIETY
(MODERATE TO INTENSE)
NEGATIVE MEMORY RETRIEVAL
MODERATE TO EXTREME
CHAOTIC EPISODE
PSYCHOTIC EPISODE
-MODERATE TO EXTREME
Dialogue from Movie:
Project Coordinator Talking:
“In a few moments you will have an experience which will seem completely real. It will be the result of your subconscious fears transformed to your conscious awareness. Warning: this tape must not be played by government personnel. It can be extremely harmful and result in severe trauma.”
Inventor of machine (Christopher Walken): “I can’t believe it. They are using my invention for brainwashing people.”
Doctor to parents of 11 year old boy who put on the machine:
“This boy has had a serious psychotic break. He’ll come out of it and he’ll be OK. But I think you better go home and take a rest because we are going to have to watch him a couple days under sedation.”
