While writing ’80s Teen Flick Festival Guide Book, I found myself exploring the life of John Hughes. The fictional festival was running all six of the teen films made by John Hughes at the beginning of his directing career (although he only directed 4 of them). There were two things that seemed nobody talked about when it came to Hughes’ life before Hollywood. First was his job in advertising involved him handling the marketing campaign for Virginia Slims cigarettes. People often wonder how he understood teenagers so well. I’m suspecting part of it was all the research he was supplied on what appeals to teenagers to lure them into smoking cigarettes before they turned 18. The second is Hughes work for the National Lampoon. His short stories were extremely outlandish, perverted and dark. When he tried to bring his savage sense of humor to script, things didn’t go right. His Jaws 3 People 0 script was red lighted. He learned how to dial back on the darker elements in order to get studio executives to think things were funny and not disturbing. Weird Science is a film that appealed to teens and didn’t go nearly as far as a few of teenagers were expecting when two nerds make the ultimate woman in their computer.
Wyatt (The Chocolate War‘s Ilan Mitchell-Smith) and Gary (Sixteen Candles‘ Anthony Michael Hall) have a dream that one day they’ll be so popular that all the hot girls in the school gym will party with them. Before that happens, they end up getting pants in front of the ladies and none of them look impressed. Gary spends the night at Wyatt’s house without any real parental supervision on the first night. While watching Frankenstein, Gary suggests they use Wyatt’s computer system to build their ultimate woman by feeding old issues of Playboy into the scanner along with other things. After they plug into military computers to get more CPU power, things get out of control. They get things to the next level with a Barbie doll, bras on their heads and lightning. After the bathroom door explodes, Lisa (Hard To Kill‘s Kelly LeBrock) emerges. She is something the two boys desire. They quickly realize quickly they can’t handle her. They end up going on an adventure of a lifetime even after Wyatt’s military freak brother Chet (Aliens’ Bill Paxton) arrives. Lisa eventually takes care of him by turning him into a grotesque creature with a buzz cut. Thanks to Lisa’s help, the boys get to throw their wild party that all the kids at school want to attend including their tormentors (The Avengers’ Robert Downey Jr and A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge‘s Robert Rusler). But the party also gets crashed by stars of The Road Warrior and The Hills Have Eyes. Is Lisa going to kill her creators?
John Hughes takes us back to Shermer High School with a film that doesn’t try to be a deep look at the trauma of being a teenager in the ’80s. The story goes that somehow at the start of directing The Breakfast Club, Hughes found the energy to crank out the original script to Weird Science and tell Anthony Michael Hall that he was going to star in it. This was his third time playing the nerd for Hughes. There was not much time between projects since Weird Science came out at the start of August in 1985. The Breakfast Club had been released in February. Hughes worked fast.
Hughes used his ability to dial back his vision by not quite delivering on the Penthouse Forum expectations. This wasn’t going to be outrageous like one of his tales from National Lampoon. Wyatt and Gary seemed ready to get freaky with Lisa when they’re tossing together the items in the computer. But Hughes knew that things had changed at the box office since Private Lessons came out four years before with a teenage boy hooking up with Sylvia Kristel (star of Emmanuelle). The public wasn’t ready to see Farmer Ted and Jim Conrad from The Wild Life getting freaky with Kelly LeBrock. We see them wearing long pants while taking a shower with naked (but non-revealing shot) Lisa. There are plenty of naughty moments such as Lisa asking an old woman if a pair of panties would turn on a 15-year-old boy.
The driving force of the movie is Kelly LeBrock as Lisa. She pushes her sensual persona to the next level on the screen. She was wild, untamed and yet sophisticated. Anyone sitting in the theater wanted to party with her. The only mature woman in ’80s Teen Cinema to compete with her was Jacqueline Bisset’s MILF in Class except Lisa didn’t have a drinking problem, a bad marriage and Rob Lowe as a son. Lisa enjoyed life without hiding deeper issues which is why Weird Science is enjoyable and not overwhelmed with teen angst. It’s a shame Kelly LeBrock didn’t make that many films in the ’80s.
There are other great casting moments starting Bill Paxton as Chet. He’s the perfect douchebag brother. John Kapelos makes his third appearance in Hughes’ Shermer films. After playing the groom and Carl the Janitor, Kapelos is a Greek character who introduced us all to a new swear word at a Chicago blues club. Drinking at Gary and Wyatt’s table is action legend Steve James (The Exterminator). The most startling cameos are during the party when Vernon Wells who had just played the bad guy in The Road Warrior and Michael Berryman from The Hills Have Eyes bust through the door. Hats off to John Hughes for introducing his audience to two of the greatest films ever made. There had to be a few kids who tracked down the VHS tapes at the Video Bar.
Weird Science is a mindless scientific movie. There probably wasn’t a technical advisor on the film correcting Gary and Wyatt crossing computer technology with outlandish rituals. Nobody was going to duplicate his experiment at home especial with the cutting edge of home computers in 1985 with harddrives that held 32 Mbs. When the film was being hyped, there were questions about how far things will go between two underaged boys and Kelly LeBrock. But it wouldn’t turn into Class, Private Lessons or a few of his stories in the National Lampoon. Hughes gives the movie a “wholesome happy ending” without creeping out the audience. Weird Science is the alchemy that John Hughes brought to cinema in his early years.
The video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The transfers is a new restoration from a 4K scan of the original negative. Kelly LeBrock looks spectacular when she emerges in the 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDr10 compatible). The Audio is original lossless stereo audio in DTS-HD MA. The Theatrical version only has 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround option. You’ll hear the madness of creation cleanly. The movie is subtitled in English.
Edited-for-TV version of the film (94:06) is how you might have seen it on cable over the decades. Side By Side Comparison (18:16) lets you see all the stuff that had to be changed for be safe enough for cable channels. There’s a lot of language getting touched up.
Additional Scenes (2:45) include the two scenes added for the TV version. First has Wyatt and Gary watching Frankenstein and arguing what’s a scary movie. The second has the arrival of the Devo Moped group to the party.
Casting ‘Weird Science (6:03) has casting director Jackie Burch go into how things went into third collaboration with John Hughes. Robin Wright was the original Lisa. Sharon Stone was a finalist. She gets into how Robert Downey Jr got the part. She explains how John Kapelos became part of the first three John Hughes films. Burch went on to cast Commando, Predator and Die Hard.
Dino The Greek (6:55) sits down with supporting actor John Kapelos. He worked at Second City before getting into Sixteen Candles and Breakfast Club. John Hughes wanted to put him into him the film. His mom was not happy that he used the “M” word as Dino. He points out his “Chicago” scenes were shot in a Universal Studios soundstage. They don’t ask him about working with Steve James (The Exterminator).
Chet Happens (19:38) gets special makeup creator Craig Reardon explain how they created the blob effect. He explains how he went in to interview for Back to the Future only to be told by Bob Zemeckis that they probably won’t hire him because Spielberg was going to get him to do the Goonies. Reardon had no idea, but got the call. This led to Weird Science although his first interview went bad when he got sick of waiting for John Hughes. The script he was given to start the work is what pretty much ended up on the screen. He gives us early views of the Chet Blob and details how many people were inside it.
Fantasy and Microchips (10:46) cuts into answers from editor Chris Lebenzon. Hughes had three editors working on the film at the same time. He came on after the first rough cut. Eventually Hughes went back and shot the end shot of Kelly LeBrock since people were bummed out about her original disappearing ending. He lays out how three editors worked on the film with Hughes and Joel Silver. After Weird Science, Chris was offered to cut Commando, but he took a gig with Top Gun instead. He worked on many Tim Burton films.
Ira Newborn Makes The Score (13:43) gets the composer talk about how the science element influenced his music. He has great story about dealing with Hughes and Silver right before the Sabbath when Newborn doesn’t work. He also had a theme for the film that was replaced by the Oingo Boingo tune. He was happy his sweet doo wop music for a kissing scene didn’t get tossed for a pop song. He mentions being at Tower Records as John Hughes spent $5,000 on albums.
It’s Alive! Resurrecting Weird Science (16:41) was made for a 2008 DVD release. The archive documentary features interviews with cast, crew and admirers, including star Anthony Michael Hall. Hall recounts how John Hughes came to him with the first 30 pages of the script in the early days of Breakfast Club. They deal with how this was a massive departure from his first two films. Anthony Michael Hall discusses his haircut in the film which was also a departure.
Trailer Gallery includes Theatrical Teaser (2:37), Theatrical Trailer (1:34), Two TV Spots (1:01) and Radio Spots (4:50) all deal with Lisa coming alive. Best is the radio spot with a mother telling you not to see the film. What’s amazing is none of the ads say, “From the director of Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club comes…”
Image Galleries includes the Shooting Script Production Stills and Poster & Video Art. You can see all the pages typed by John Hughes. It opens with Gary and Wyatt watching scary movies and not in the gym.
Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring writing on the film by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Amanda Reyes
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tracie Ching
Arrow Video presents Weird Science. Directed by John Hughes. Written by John Hughes. Starring Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock,Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Bill Paxton, Suzanne Snyder, Judie Aronson, Robert Downey Jr, Robert Rusler, Vernon Wells, Michael Berryman & John Kapelos. Running Time: 94 & 96 minutes. Rating: Rated PG-13. Release Date: August 22, 2023.
