Product Description

A dangerous game starts the clock ticking on a nuclear bomb. Can anyone stop Armageddon? This gripping doomsday story follows a high school science whiz who builds an atomic bomb as a prank only to trigger a horrifying race against time. Co-starring John Lithgow (A Civil Action), ChristopherCollet (The Langoliers) and Cynthia Nixon ('sex and the City ), The Manhattan Projectis intelligent and entertaining [with] a satisfyingly suspenseful finale (The Hollywood Reporter)! Teenage science genius Paul (Collet) realizes the lab of Dr. Mathewson (Lithgow), his mother's new boyfriend, isn't really developing lasers. It's building nuclear bombs. To expose the lab'ssecret mission, Paul and his girlfriend Jenny (Nixon) steal some plutonium, build a bomb and enter it in a science fair. But the military learns of Paul's plans and pursues him with lethal force. Now, as time is running out, only Dr. Mathewson can save Paul and stop the unthinkable from occurring!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37302 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-04-01
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Running time: 117 minutes

From Amazon.com
Directed and cowritten by Woody Allen collaborator Marshall Brickman, this comedy-thriller doesn't seem to know where it wants to go or what it wants to say (other than, obviously, nuclear weapons are scary things). Christopher Collet plays an overachieving high school student who decides to show just how dangerously easy it is to construct a nuclear device. He builds one for his science fair, using his mother's relationship with a government official (John Lithgow) to sneak into a secret facility and steal plutonium. When the feds find out what's going on, they overreact in a brutish showdown that threatens nuclear annihilation of everyone within a 10-mile radius. While the movie makes some antinuke points and features a strong performance by Lithgow, it seems a little too breezy, given what's going on. --Marshall Fine

Review
An uneasy blend of precocious teen comedy, cautionary tale, and message movie, Marshall Brickman's directorial debut highlights some of the best and worst aspects of mainstream moviemaking in the '80s. Manhattan Project starts out a warm, winning human comedy on the aftermath of divorce, with mom Jill Eikenberry and new boyfriend John Lithgow exhibiting loads of awkward charm, and son Christopher Collet striking the right balance between perturbed and just plain annoying. When the ripped-from-the-headlines plot kicks in, however, the film forgets that it's supposed to be about real people and not trumped-up atomic agitprop -- it becomes a left-wing Red Dawn. (It doesn't help that the technology featured in the film would have seemed out of date in 1978.) It's clear that former comedy writer Brickman is out of his league when the film's would-be pulse-pounding finale is shot and edited so as to have all the tension and buildup of a Midwestern state fair. Obviously, Brickman and company intended for a WarGames-style fusion of suburban sitcom and Cold War thriller, but where that film was buoyed by a pair of animated teen performers -- Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy -- Manhattan Project has to make do with the capable-but-underused Cynthia Nixon and the sedate, opaque Collet. Best to shut this one off at the midway point. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

On the DVD
ccOriginal theatrical trailer
English: stereo Surround
English, French, Spanish language subtitles

Customer Reviews

Forget the bomb, it's about the characters
This movie has been a personal favorite since I first saw it on HBO in the 1980s, enough that I bought a copy on Laserdisc, when there still were such things!

A generic recipe for any decent movie might run along these lines: Take some interesting and/or sympathetic characters, put them in a situation that challenges them and their attitudes, and see what they do. Here we have the light-hearted high school genius (who stumbles upon a secret nuclear weapons lab in his town, and wonders what to do about it); his socially-conscious political-activist girlfriend; and a government scientist for whom ultra-purification of Plutonium is an abstract, intellectual challenge (until he finds himself in a situation where the end product might kill actual people that he knows).

People who dislike this movie generally have a complaint either with its plausibility, or its tone. OK, plausibility first. The weapons lab is "hidden in plain sight." An obvious high security presence would call unwanted attention to it; instead, it is disguised as a medical facility. (When I was in high school, my band teacher had some tape recorders that he used for students to record and listen to themselves in the practice room, etc. He kept these thrown in a big cardboard box, right out in the open, and each unit had scrawled on it: BROKEN. Not a single one was ever stolen. Same strategy here.) And the techniques that our young student hero uses to break into the lab are all well-established earlier in the film, including the fact that he can throw a mean Frisbee.

Yes, it requires some suspension of disbelief, but no more so than most other movies. At least an attempt is made to explain the events and make them seem logical. (My one minor peeve: Every time I see this film, I keep telling our young hero on the screen not to hold that unshielded weapons-grade Plutonium so close to his HEAD, but he never listens to me! Oh well.)

As far as tone goes, it has been said that this film is too light and cheerful, given its plot elements. One musician friend of mine commented, as we watched young Paul build his device, that "This [cheery underscoring music] doesn't sound like Music To Build A Nuclear Bomb By." My response to my friend was: The music is not for the bomb, it is for young Paul! He is having fun building a complex gadget, without any evil or underhanded purpose, and the character of the music represents his frame of mind very nicely. (I should add here that I like the musical score of this film overall, especially the just-mentioned building-the-bomb sequence, and the opening title music, which has just the right undertone of suspense in it.)

It seems that even the movie studio is confused by this film's tone. The Laserdisc release had, very cheezily pasted onto the film, a subtitle, making the name "The Manhattan Project: The Deadly Game", presumably to make the film sound darker and scarier. It didn't work. Nor does this film need to be dark and scary to do what it is trying to do. I was very happy to see that the DVD no longer has this lame subtitle.

What it comes down to: This film is not about the bomb, it is about the characters and how they react to the unfolding situation. The bomb is merely The Crisis that motivates the film's action. I for one like the characters, and I like the actors portraying them. (In particular, it is refreshing to see John Lithgow playing a friendly character for once, rather than a psychotic wacko, as he does in Cliffhanger, for example.)

I also appreciate that young Paul is not portrayed as a geeky, outcast nerd. He is charming, athletic, and not afraid of girls. This sets up some humorous moments when he meets some actual nerds later in the film. (Favorite quote: "Why are you helping us?" "Because life, my dear, is more than freezing toads.")

I for one recommend The Manhattan Project. It may not be in the Top Ten Films Of All Time, but I think it deserves a solid four stars.

DVD transfer quality seems decent, and is definitely at least as good as the laserdisc version. No extra disc features to speak of, really, just a theatrical trailer. Still worthwhile!

'too many secrets'
Like "real genius" and "wargames", this is a smart, funny, and endearing 80s movie with an important message about the responsibility that comes with intelligence and privelege. In all three movies, we forgive the bright but naive high school kids for their actions (hacking into military computers, building a military laser, building a nucler weapon) because they are ethical human beings who try to do right. Their morality puts into sharp relief the profound immoralities of authoritarian institutions and the cowardice or fear that causes people to participate in them.

Preposterous!
The first half of this movie was interesting...then it got a little silly...then it got downright laughable. A high school kid creates a nuclear bomb that could destroy a city. He enters it into a science fair. Are you still with me? Ok, so the kid's name is all over the news as a nuclear terrorist. The bomb he made (partly out of salad bowls, mind you) could have killed thousands of people. The kid should be sent to prison for life, right? Oh, wait, the kid only wanted to alert the community about a secret government project, so all is forgiven, and his mom gives him a big hug as he walks out of the nuclear facility! It doesn't get more ridiculous than that.