The Manhattan Project (1986)

In this nail-biting thriller Paul (Christopher Collet) a bright 16-year-old discovers that his mother's boyfriend Dr. Mathewson (John Lithgow) is refining plutonium undercover right in their neighborhood. Intent on exposing the secret weapons factory Paul steals some plutonium with the help of his girlfriend (Cynthia Nixon) and constructs his own atomic bomb. By the time Dr. Mathewson discovers the plutonium is missing and informs the government the device is built - but the timer inadvertently turns on beginning a countdown to nuclear catastrophe. Suspenseful to the last few seconds this intriguing provocative story takes its name from the real Manhattan Project in the 1940s that brought about the development of the first nuclear weapon used in World War II.Runtime: 117 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG - 13 UPC: 012236214076 Manufacturer No: 21407 Product Description

Manhattan Project

The DVD transfer of this OLDER movie looks great in a upconverted 780P source. The story line may be a bit outdated, but cast does a good job. If you liked the old VHS or DVD release, this one is well worth the cost. December 26, 2007

The movie has even more resonance after the cold war in an age of threatened suitcase bombs

While the central character in this movie is a teenager, a very smart teenager, it isn't anything like the other "science fair" movies you have seen. True, what the kid does he wants to show at a science fair and the other smart kids there have a bit of a role in the plot in addition to their purpose of adding some color and comic relief.

John Lithgow plays Dr. John Matthewson. A new business moves to town and he befriends Elizabeth Stevens (Jill Eikenberry). He takes a shine to her brilliant teenage son Paul (Christopher Collet). One of the interesting aspects of the movie is the suble way we are shown how bright Paul is and how they use his girlfriend to make him very sympathetic and human. When Paul is given a tour of the facility, he quickly sees through the cover story and decides to expose them. Now, the plan he concocts is quite over the top, but he decides to build his own, small, atomic bomb.

Paul's girlfriend, Jenny Anderman (Cynthia Nixon), helps him by distracting some folks while Paul gets his hands on the key ingredient. Again, what Paul then goes through in attempting to build the device is quite interesting, but not really possible for even a genius without very specialized equipment. It isn't the kind of stuff one can simply build on one's own. But we suspend disbelief for the movie.

Things escalate and the final sequence, of course, involves Matthewson and Paul and a bunch of government types inside the facility. This is where the plot has to ride on our sympathy for Paul. In real life, I would suspect, and in fact I would hope that once the realized that Paul hadn't yet armed his device that they would kill him before he could. But that would be too harsh for a Hollywood movie. One simply doesn't kill good boys who have done something stupid even if they are going to accidentally on purpose blow up an entire city and poison a couple of small states downwind.

Still, it is a pretty good thriller and Lithgow and Eikenberry bring good adult maturity to the story without becoming villains or fools. I enjoyed that. And Collet and Nixon do have a very caring and human relationship. While the movie isn't, in the end, realistic, it isn't a cartoon either.

A quite good movie that still holds up after the cold war. In fact, in our age of terrorism and the threat of suitcase bombs, it probably has an even louder ring to it. April 11, 2007

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