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From: davidl@orca.UUCP (David Levine)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Brainstorm loose ends
Message-ID: <1418@orca.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Mar-85 13:12:50 EST
Article-I.D.: orca.1418
Posted: Mon Mar 25 13:12:50 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Mar-85 01:43:09 EST
References: <1020@topaz.ARPA> <577@ahutb.UUCP>
Reply-To: davidl@orca.UUCP (David Levine)
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 34
Summary: 

>Clearly brain-death hadn't happened, since the machine was
>still recording information from the brain.  Those weren't
>the experiences of her soul, those were subjective
>impressions of random signals as the brain broke down...

I thoroughly agree with this interpretation.  I'd come to the same conclusions 
myself.  However, I happened to catch Brainstorm again last night, and I 
noticed that the final scene, with the angels and all that, occurred in 
Brace's (Christopher Walken's) mind after the tape ran out!  This can be 
interpreted in (at least) two ways:

	a) Brace's mind was locked into "something beyond this world" by
	following the brain patterns of a dying person, and would have
	continued to the Beyond if his wife hadn't brought him back.

	b) Brace's mind was slightly deranged by "subjective impressions
	of random signals," and continued the sequence according to the 
	dictates of his (Brace's!) religious training.  I think that the 
	angels did not appear until after the tape ran out.  

I don't think there's any evidence in the film that Trumbull intended it either
way.  As in any fiction with depth, there's room for interpretation by the
viewer.

Neat simile at the end: the conclusion of the film takes place at Kitty Hawk.
The Wright Brothers' first flight was less than the wingspan of a modern
airliner.  This first 'flight' of Brainstorm took us to the edge of Infinity...
where might we go from here?  

This is a fine film about the development of a technology.  What's Trumbull 
doing today?

David D. Levine  (...decvax!tektronix!orca!davidl)          [UUCP]
                 (orca!davidl.tektronix@csnet-relay.csnet)  [ARPA]