MovieChat Forums > Brainstorm (1983) Discussion > How did the death of Wood change the mov...

How did the death of Wood change the movie?

posted 20 years ago by nrnoble
21 replies | jump to latest

Brainstorm is one of my favorite movies and the first time I ever saw Walken in a movie. He was such a nice guy in the movie that even when I see him playing bad guys, it is hard to forget what a nice guy Walken portrayed in this movie.

I've read that after the death of Wood during filming, they considered scraping the entire movie because some critical scenes had not been filmed; they were considering taking the insurance money instead of completing the movie. Does anyone know how the movie changed because Wood's death?

Thanks

[–] 20 years ago

[deleted]

[–] kindeyes 19 years ago

it was towards the final scenes...I think the end would have been much stronger.....

[–] anavarro747 19 years ago

After the death of wood, Hollywood wanted to cancelled the movie but trumbull refused to accept that.So, he rewrite the 2nd part of the film(with the help of some scenes who has been shot before the death of the actress).But after that he has been banned of hollywood.

David From Switzerland.

[–] ragreen259 19 years ago

How the hell do you "ban" someone?

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] DMarkwick 19 years ago

I think the studio was eager to cash in on the insurance claim made possible by the death of a lead actor. They work for profit and I think the insurance claim represented a profit. I don't know under what conditions the claim was reversed but possibly it was a combination of the insurance company and Trumbull (who really wanted to make this film).

[–] wadeindawatta 19 years ago

I don't think it was changed all that much. There are a couple of exteriors in which we see Walken and Wood together (one on the porch of their home before they realize their son is alone with the memory device, one in their car on the way to one of their co-workers) followed by interiors in which Wood's character inexplicably doesn't appear. I believe she had three scenes left to shoot when she died and those are obviously two of them. I also think they wrote her character out of an ensemble scene, and they may have done that with a few others and re-shot them. Her character had been beefed up a bit once she signed on to do the role and Trumbull reverted to an earlier version of the script in order to complete the film.

I imagine that those final days of shooting were tortuous for all concerned, and it is to their credit that the movie never reflects that. It actually feels complete, and though it isn't a great film it is a worthy one.

[–] knife_of_justice 19 years ago

Have you noticed that there are many scenes were Natalie Wood comes into a scene, and sort of sits there motionless with a weird grin on her face. This is because they made up these scenes using the "texture shots" of Natalie which they could cut to if another character was out of sync.

Also near the end, she says to Walken "You must promise never to leave me again", but there is something wrong with the sound. Natalie obviously wasn't alive enough to re-dub this in the studio, so they left it in imperfect.

[–] faviv 19 years ago

All in all, I think she was a very talented actress and she would have proved even better with age. It's a pity she died.
Fabrizio, Florence, Italy.

[–] hmghosthost 19 years ago

I don't see why there had to be any changes at all. Wood was in the film all the way up to the very last scene, the finale, where Walken was plugged into the pay phone and she shouts at him to come back. When he "wakes up", Wood is sitting on the ground with him and looking up at the stars. End of movie.

[–] knife_of_justice 19 years ago

That's where they were clever. That wasn't originally the end of the movie. And there are several scenes where she doesn't appear, how many "flashback" scenes was she in? Not many, apart from the ones at the museum they're all of Walken singing "Let's do the twist" and proposing etc. etc.

[–] pazuzu-2 19 years ago

KOJ,

Do you know what the original ending was supposed to be?

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] wowcharlie3 18 years ago

It makes me very sad--the ending "To Natalie". I wish it had been the blockbuster she was looking for instead of what it turned out to be.

[–] snotjello 17 years ago

I applaud Turnbull and all involved for finishing this movie. I imagine it would have really felt like a crappy thing to do, to trash all of that final work of Natalie. Whether or not it's a great movie objectively, it's an important movie just because of that. I find it very powerful to watch. Can you imagine what it must feel like for Walken to watch some of those scenes, if he ever has?

[–] fundaquayman 17 years ago

I still enjoy the film every time I watch it. In my opinion, the heaven & hell scenes near the end went on for a little too long, and I wonder if Trumbull had originally intended for it to be so much like a 2001: A Space Odyssey type of journey, or if it was there to help move the story toward a reasonable ending. I personally feel they could have done with less of that stargate sequence.

In most cases, key scenes are shot first, and then the rest are done later. BRAINSTORM looks to have followed that M.O. as I don't know if there was a need for it to be shot in sequence.

In terms of Trumbull's decision to keep moving forward with the production, he must have really insisted on his contractual right to not kill the project for an insurance settlement -- by the mere fact there is this type of insurance, I wonder if there have been actual cases where a failing project was killed off along with the talent just so the investors can recoup without having to finish the film and risk box-office failure -- one thing would be certain, they wouldn't have to spend as much money in promoting the film if the project is killed off before production finishes.

[–] Agamemnon7 17 years ago

fundaquayman: The last movie River Phoenix worked on, Dark Blood, was scrapped altogether after his death. They'd shot too much to recast, but not enough to put together a complete film. He had a solid two or three weeks of shooting ahead of him when he died.

Natalie only had two or three days left of filming on Brainstorm when she died. There are a couple of instances in the movie when she and Walken are together and take off to do something (one involves their son being left alone with the brainstorm device), but when the action occurs in the next scene only Walken is there. Those were two of the interiors she had been set to shoot. I don't think a stand-in was ever used. Trumbull was adamant at the time that the movie would feature no "fake Natalies in floppy hats", a reference to Jean Harlow's final film, "Saratoga". They might have reshot a couple of ensemble scenes without her to make more sense of the fact that she isn't in a couple of others, which were obviously shot later. But basically her performance feels complete.

[–] funkyfry 16 years ago

I agree, I was just able to see this for the first time recently in the theater, and it didn't feel like her death had a horrible impact. I thought it was just her last movie, I didn't realize she had passed during production.

the other poster asked about films that have been scrapped for insurance money -- they might be interested in the documentary "Lost in La Mancha" which is about the "Don Quixote" film that Terry Gilliam was making in the late 90s with Johnny Depp which was scrapped by insurance after Jean Rochefort, who's actually still alive, became seriously ill and production had to be halted. You can see some bits of what was actually shot in the film, or on youtube as I've been told. More recently, the same director Terry Gilliam was making "the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" and had shot 2 or 3 weeks with Heath Ledger. Ledger died in NYC while the film was in a shooting hiatus. There was talk for a few weeks that the film might be scrapped because not enough of it had been shot, but since it is a fantasy film they decided to rewrite it so that Ledger's character will actually be played by Johnny Depp and Jude Law at various points in his mytiscal journey. Don't ask me how that's exactly going to work, but the movie is going to be released probably next spring.

On a similar note, I remember reading that on Robert Altman's last couple movies he was required as part of the insurance stipulation to have a high profile "standyby" director who would take over the film if he had died or became seriously ill during production. I know they did this for "Praerie Home Companion", P.T. Anderson (of "Boogie Nights" and "There Will Be Blood" fame) was on the set the entire time in case something happened. I bet he learned a lot too.

Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'

[–] knife_of_justice 16 years ago

Trumbull was adamant at the time that the movie would feature no "fake Natalies in floppy hats"

That's unfortunate, there are so many scenes that look just like this (and that I've seen criticised), even though if you pay closer attention you can see it actually is her. Even though they could so easily tidied a few scenes up this way, I'm really glad they didn't. It makes Wood's character seem more suitably detached, not to mention *definitely* enhance the movie's irony. Notice how in the credit sequence Lilian's offscreen voice tells Karen to take a break and no-one responds (what would she be doing there anyway?).

[–] jspringe 13 years ago

Movies are frequently filmed out of order. This is done to optimize locations, cast involvement, or other expensive resources. As I understand from reading other posts here, the North Carolina location shots were filmed first. We have no way of knowing when exactly that final scene was filmed. It could have been on the very first day of filming or later back in California.

It would be very interesting to know more about what they had to do to complete the continuity and story line. I think they did a very good job with it after all. When I originally saw this movie as a kid, I had no idea about the actrice's death and didn't notice anything was wrong.

[–] intexor 13 years ago

I'm with the people that say probably not that much changed at all, they just got a little bit more creative. If some vital scenes for the story were not already shot, I doubt they would have been able to finish it.