MovieChat Forums > Brainstorm (1983) Discussion > Confusing, HAL scene, splice scene, etc.

Confusing, HAL scene, splice scene, etc.

posted 19 years ago by brainwarp
9 replies | jump to latest

Just watched the movie again last night since I had seen it a long time ago.

First, I know there is another thread about the HAL chair scene, etc.

Also, while most the posts are probably accurate and most likey what was trying to be conveied. It was not depicted very well.

There is the splice scene. Hal shortly views the tape and does what looks like a simple splice where he cuts about 2 inches out and tapes it back together. This did not appear to be a loop splice. But it seems everyone here says it is. So ok. Then Micheal finds the 2 inch clip and there is no resolution to what is on that clip. My interpretation was that something that wasn't suppose to be seen was on that clip. Not that it was just trash from a loop splice.

So I was expecting there to be something hidden to find. But that never really happened.

Then the Hal scene. Sure it as a sex tape. If it was looping, that really didn't come across very well. Required too much interpritation. Should have been more clear. Then they had to dwell on it with his testing and lame line about how it was some special epiphany that made him "more" than he was before. Way too vague and didn't matter. Maybe the small edit splice was actually the peak cut out so that he could play the tape over and over again without the peak so that he could enjoy it more and experience something he couldn't otherwise. I don't know.

I also know that Natalie Wood died in 1981 while filming it. So it must have been hard to make a lot understandable. And I think it shows. Hal scene wasn't needed to get him a leave of absense. While I enjoyed the movie overall from a thinking point of view. I do think that the death of Natalie Wood make it too difficult to portray the rest of the film and they should have taken the insurance money and reshot the entire thing with a new lady. Would have delayed release of course. But then maybe it would have gotten a better rating than PG, this movie is NOT for kids. And since PG-13 came in July 1984, it wouldn't have been PG.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bcubed 19 years ago

It looks like he takes the tape and cuts it, and then flips one of the cut ends ... and tapes it back together. If you take a piece of paper and do this it makes a mobuius strip (if you take a pen and draw down the strip, you will end up where you started and there will be a line on both sides of the paper) .. he would be playing both sides of the tape continuously no telling what this could do to him.

[–] Marcwolf-2 17 years ago

You mean something like he was cumming, and then Going, repeated all through the night.

That is certainly cause for prostrational distress :>

Walk Quietly throughthis Earth
Leave nothing but Smiles and Pawprints

[–] Headphones 16 years ago

Just what is on the other side of a HAL tape anyhow? Is it like experiencing the world through a mirror?

-nf

[–] jdreck 16 years ago

Maybe I'm wrong, but I always thought he used that piece of tape to create his fantasy girl and recorded his own thoughts of him having sex with her then watched that tape. Make sense?

Where a woman is concerned, if you're not careful, you'll find yourself rooked, hooked, and cooked!

[–] westal_sage 12 years ago

I originally took this as he was splicing together (editing) a sex tape to his liking. That might be partly or totally wrong, though.

[–] kgb383 12 years ago

I always assumed he was cutting out everything but the moment of orgasm and then looping that, so he could just sit there and have one endless orgasm. I assumed the supposition here is that hours and hours spent in a constant orgasmic state has some kind of invigorating effect on a person's physical and mental state. I'd be willing to believe that.

[–] jerky71 10 years ago

I just watched the blu-ray last night. I like watching this movie every couple of years or so. I hope I can explain what I felt about this scene clearly.

I knew what Hal was doing, but I thought that the movie didn't need to be so technical about it. You sensed that Hal had a problem with adult entertainment when he told Gordy that he didn't want to see that tape. I wondered what kind of problem he had since back then there was no youporn and VCRs were in its infancy. I was 12 back then and I was into playing Atari. :)

Anyway, I think that the whole "Hal in the chair" scene would have been better if Brace just found Hal all zoned-out watching the tape, and then somebody would later speak some dialog about, "Hal was playing that tape all night, yada yada yada". The splicing and the infinite orgasm stuff seemed too much to comprehend--epecially back in 1983 (technically 1981) when we were just starting to see home computers.

It's the same problem I had with "Strange Days". They could have proved that the villain was a psycho enough just by recording those rapes. That whole business about feeding the thoughts back to the victim was unecessary. Interesting, but too much.

Did anyone feel the same way as me on this?

[–] gribfritz2 10 years ago

The consensus seems to be that he spliced himself one continuous orgasm. But the facts bear out the opposite. He removed a small section of tape. Wouldn't that mean he spliced out the male orgasm? I think what we have here is a massive case of "edging."

I believe that, logically, the continuous orgasm theory makes the most sense, but the evidence just doesn't bear it out.