Real Genius - Plot

Plot

The film begins with a video presentation of a top-secret project called "Crossbow": a high tech space shuttle mounted with a computer-guided laser weapon that is shown to incinerate a man on the ground with pinpoint accuracy. The film ends and a group of CIA agents discuss the project, noting that the researchers developing the laser have not yet been able to generate the power needed. It is also stated that it has no wartime applications and is designed solely for illegal assassinations. One agent has moral qualms about this and quits the program. It is strongly implied that this agent is himself assassinated.

Meanwhile, Professor Jerry Hathaway (Atherton) meets up with fifteen year old genius Mitch Taylor (Jarret). Hathaway lets him know that he's been admitted to Pacific Tech, and also that he'll be rooming and working with with physics "legend" Chris Knight on Dr. Hathaway's laser project. We later learn that Hathaway is the researcher contracted by the CIA to develop the laser weapon, and that instead of doing the research himself, he's subbed the job out to his students and used his funding to remodel his house. Arriving on campus, Mitch meets Chris and is surprised and bit irritated to learn that Chris, while brilliant, is also an irreverent slacker who spends his time constructing elaborate pranks, such as freezing the dorm floors to go ice skating. Mitch also meets Jordan (Meyrink), a hyperkinetic female student with whom he falls in love, and the mysterious Lazlo Hollyfeld (Gries), who seems to live in Chris and Mitch's dorm room closet. Hathaway's subservient graduate assistant Kent (Prescott), becomes hostile when Hathaway puts Mitch in charge of the project.

Hathaway, under increasing pressure from the CIA to get results, cracks down on Chris, giving him an unrealistic timetable. Chris dismisses this, and increasingly distracts Mitch from his work. After Hathaway brutally scolds Mitch for joining Chris's pool party and Kent records Mitch's tearful telephone call to his mother and plays it over the cafeteria PA system at lunchtime, Mitch is ready to quit. Chris convinces him to stay by telling him of Lazlo's story: He was the top genius at Pacific Tech until he learned of the misuse of his theories and became a recluse, living in the steam tunnels under the dorm behind a secret passageway in the closet. Chris tells Mitch that if he doesn't want to crack, he needs to learn to have fun, and the first order of business is to get even with Kent. The two disassemble Kent's car and reassemble it in his dorm room, much to his horror. Hathaway, now nearly desperate to show the CIA some progress, berates Chris and lets him know that no matter what he does, he will be flunked out of school. Chris, with encouragement from Mitch decides to not only fix the power problem, but also to ace Hathaway's exam. His efforts appear to be ruined when Kent sabotages the laser, but, in a fit of anger at the laser's destruction, he has an epiphany that solves the project's power problem. The beam of the redesigned laser is "hotter than the sun", has an unlimited range and produces the required five megawatts of power. Hathaway forgives Chris completely.

When the laser team celebrate their success, Laslo shows up, having overheard Chris's solution, and points out that the high-energy laser can only be used as a weapon, and in fact that it must have been conceptualized for this purpose. Chris is devastated. In the research lab, Hathaway has removed both the laser and a tracking system to aim it (developed in secret by Kent). Their first step is to implant a radio transceiver in Kent's braces. Posing as Jesus, Mitch tricks Kent into revealing that the laser is going to be tested soon. The group tail Hathaway to a nearby Air Force base. While Chris and Mitch talk their way into the base, Laslo remotely cracks the laser's computer and changes its target coordinates to Hathaway's house, where the gang have placed a huge tin of popcorn. They call the Dean and the local congressman to witness the weapon firing, and Mitch, as Jesus, orders Kent to visit the house. When the laser hits the house, it shines through a stained-glass window and Kent becomes convinced that he is having a religious experience. The popcorn heats and expands, the house bursts at the seams, and popcorn pours out, pushing Kent along with it into the street. Meanwhile, the laser overheats and destroys itself. Lazlo states his intention to get married and retire to the midwest while the rest of the group watch as Dr. Hathaway's newly destroyed house is ransacked by kids playing in the popcorn. The final shot during the credits shows Hathaway pulling up to his house and seeing the damage up close.