John Stockwell, Danielle von Zerneck, Dennis Hopper, Fisher Stevens, Raphael Sbarge ...( see more  see more... ) , Richard Masur , Barry Corbin , Michael Berryman , Robert DoQui , Pamela Springsteen

Faced with not graduating unless he completes his science project, a high school gear-head sneaks into a nearby Air Force base, looking for some gizmo he can pass off as his own invention. What he f...( read more  read more... )inds is an alien energy device that rips holes in both time and space, infesting the school with everything from dinosaurs to the Viet Cong. Writer-director Jonathan Betuel tries to mine some of the same veins as Weird Science and Real Genius (all three films were released in 1985) but with less success--mostly due to a slapdash script. The film veers from being The Breakfast Club to WarGames to Rambo, leaping over plot holes all the way. As the hero, John Stockwell is too low-key for his own good, but Danielle Von Zerneck is appealing as his emerging love interest, and Fisher Stevens and Raphael Sbarge do their best to inject some life into the material. Dennis Hopper (as a hippie-dippie science teacher) chews the scenary with gusto--and at one point shows up wearing the costume he wore in Easy Rider. --Geof Miller

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53% liked it

5,430 ratings

PG, 95 min.

Directed by: Jonathan R. Betuel

Release Date: August 1, 1985

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DVD Release Date: May 18, 1999

Stats: 182 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (182)


  • October 20, 2009
    True guilty pleasure! Has everything a young moviegoer would go to the movies to see, even now my imagination still runs wold with this movie.
  • September 5, 2009
    At a junkyard a high school science wiz finds a piece of equipment that opens black holes and portals. Only him, his butt-buddy and a nerdy girl from the school newspaper know of this (sound familiar? - see Zapped!). When the teacher (Dennis Hopper playing an old hippie) discover...( read more)s this he gets sucked into the warp. Later the three kids try to shut it down but are transported to an alternate reality with Nazis, gladiators, monsters etc that they have to battle. Not as good as it sounds, the sets were on par with something terrible like Creepozoids, but this is a bit better for the kiddies.
  • May 18, 2009
    Now this movie still rocks.I rented it again a little while ago and enjoyed it as much as I did when I was a kid.I wish that sort of thing happened in my school.
    A real cool movie.thats for sure!
  • January 30, 2009
    I Used To like This Movie When I Was A Kid But Now It Kinda Gets Crappy If You Watch It A Few Times But Still A Great Movie I Think When I Was A Kid
    ...( read more)ixster.com/photo/52/90/40/5290402_gal.jpg" border="0"/>

    Michael and Ellie break into a military junkyard to find a science project for Michael's class, and discover a strange glowing orb which absorbs electricity. When the orb begins to blend past, present, and future, its up to Michael and Ellie to stop the orb and save mankind.
  • August 30, 2008
    i remebering seeing this movie when i was a kid i thought it was a horror movie but its Science Fiction god i used to hate this movie its boring but some parts were really cool but anways its about Faced with not graduating unless he completes his science project, a high school g...( read more)ear-head sneaks into a nearby Air Force base, looking for some gizmo he can pass off as his own invention. What he finds is an alien energy device that rips holes in both time and space, infesting the school with everything from dinosaurs to the Viet Cong. Writer-director Jonathan Betuel tries to mine some of the same veins as Weird Science and Real Genius (all three films were released in 1985) but with less success--mostly due to a slapdash script. The film veers from being The Breakfast Club to WarGames to Rambo, leaping over plot holes all the way. As the hero, John Stockwell is too low-key for his own good, but Danielle Von Zerneck is appealing as his emerging love interest, and Fisher Stevens and Raphael Sbarge do their best to inject some life into the material. Dennis Hopper (as a hippie-dippie science teacher) chews the scenary with gusto--and at one point shows up wearing the costume he wore in Easy Rider. so if you havent seen it then you may not want to
  • August 4, 2008
    This was a favorite of mine from my childhood, but it had been a long time since I'd seen it. From what I remembered of it, it seemed that it was a fairly well made film, and that it would manage to hold up over 20 years later. And it did, surprisingly well in fact, even much of ...( read more)the special effects, because they didn't try to get too fancy with them, sticking to the basics; including a cool stop-motion dinosaur. (See below) None of the 80's fashions or dialogue is too obnoxious, nothing so distracting that it'll pull you out of the film. I think this film would still work for a kids. It's a fun, whimsical ride.


    Mike Harlan is a decent kid, a bit obsessed with cars, in fact it's the only thing he cares about, but he has a good heart. When his science teacher, played by Dennis Hopper in full-on psychedelic mode, asks him to turn in anything for his science project so he can graduate, Mike wants to do it right and go big. So he breaks into the military junkyard that's outside of town, he kills two birds with one stone, by inviting along the nerdy, but cute Ellie, who sort of blackmailed him into a date. While sneaking around the dilapidated war planes, he accidentally falls into a bunker, where he comes across some crazy looking machine; that is originally from a spacecraft from Area 51, but he doesn't know that. On the drive home, we see a sneak peak of the machine's powers, when it drains the battery from Mike's precious car.


    While showing it to his buddy Vince, played by the very funny Fisher Stevens, before class, they plug it into the wall and unknowingly jump a few hours into the future. When they show it to their science teacher, even stranger things happen, like Dennis Hopper getting sucked inside to another time. After that, they decide to leave it alone, but when it gets left on by the geeky Sherman, who's jealous of Mike and Ellie's new relationship, all hell breaks loose. And it's up to Mike, Vince and Sherman to travel through all of Earth's history contained within their high school, to save Ellie who's trapped inside. They battle through everything from dinosaurs to futuristic mutants wielding laser guns.
    It came out in 1985, the same year as another teenager travels through time to chaotic and comic results film, Back to the Future, that completely blew up the box office, and made My Science Project, an afterthought. Which is unfortunate, it is a well made, light hearted romp, with some funny performances; Fisher Stevens gets in some great one-liners as the Brooklyn transplant Vince. John Stockwell is fairly bland in the lead role of Mike, he doesn't offer up much, but doesn't take anything off the plate either. I think that most that have seen this film, enjoy it; but I don't think it's that widely known either, it deserves to be remembered.

    Originally posted on What I Watched Last Night
  • July 30, 2008
    This movie is my childhood favorite. It requires heavy suspension of disbelief. However, once you just go with it, the movie is brilliantly simple and entertaining. Who doesn't love seeing movies that use 80's lingo?
  • July 7, 2008
    "SCIENCE! SCIENCE PROOOJECT!"

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