History Headscratchers / RealGenius

**** Furthermore, it would be ''by far'' the most effective ABM system yet invented, and mightn't mitigating the megadeaths of a possible nuclear exchange during the ColdWar perhaps be a good thing?

** Don't forget, the opening scene of the CIA meeting explicitly stated that the Agency had ''gone behind the backs'' of the President and other legitimate authority to arrange for the laser's construction. Agency heads are going to roll now that the project's existence has been exposed, and by the time the resulting scandal has run its course -- whether publically or in-house and in secret -- cheaper options like drones will already be in development, turning the film's laser-satellite assassination concept into an overbuilt boondoggle by comparison.

*** Someone attempting to break a law? And young people having sex with each other even if it's not fully sanctioned by the law and society? [[RealityIsUnrealistic Gosh, that never happens.]]
** Sherry's a brain-chaser, not a pedophile. Whatever the law might have to say about it, she may have been waiting for Mitch to be physically mature enough that ''she'' could find him appealing.

** When she said she'd been waiting three years for him, I didn't think she meant for him personally, but for the next super-genius to come along at the school. If she tried Chris when he was a freshman, that should have been about three years before Mitch's arrival.

*** ''Or'', the congressman goes public with the information for political reasons, leading to public outcries and, yes, public scrutiny. Read up on how much the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative#Controversy_and_criticism SDI was criticized]] and you might get a better understanding about why John Q. Public in the '80s would be interested in ''solid proof''[[hottip:*:And yes, I'm sure that Chris, Mitch, and co. would have ensured that there ''was'' solid proof]] that the government was testing death rays in a time of peace.
*** Truthfully, without WordOfGod to confirm it one way or another[[hottip:*:Someone should look up Neal Israel and/or Pat Proft (or even Martha Coolidge) to ask them]], or with the present lack of a {{sequel}}, the final outcome remains strictly in the realm of [[WMG/RealGenius Wild Mass Guessing]]. I like to think that, at the very end, when it's all said and done, that the project was a flop. Definitely not thrown out altogether, but put aside for a while (maybe boxed up and stashed away in [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull Hangar 51]], haha).

**** In it's prototype form, perhaps. But ScienceMarchesOn, and this laser bears a remarkable resemblance to the powerguns from HammersSlammers, which occupy weaponry niches from heavy artillery to small arms and everywhere in between.

*** Truthfully, without WordOfGod to confirm it one way or another[[hottip:*:Someone should look up Neal Israel and/or Pat Proft (or even Martha Coolidge) to ask them]], or with the present lack of a {{sequel}}, the final outcome remains strictly in the realm of [[WMG/RealGenius Wild Mass Guessing]]. I like to think that, at the very end, when it's all said and done, that the project was a flop. Definitely not thrown out altogether, but put aside for a while (maybe boxed up and stashed away in [[IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull Hangar 51]], haha).

* What age is Mitch when Sherry Nugil vamps on him? Her dialogue states that she [[JailBaitWait waited three years for him to be legal]], and I thought that age of consent in California is 18. Since he comes to "Pacific Tech" at 15, that means that one of three things must be the case:

** The HardWorkMontage covers a lot more time than it implies. This creates more FridgeLogic in that Chris is supposed to be a senior when Mitch arrives at school, and the laser is explicitly supposed to be done on a much shorter timetable. That or Mitch is in some kind of [[TimeyWimeyBall time bubble]].

**** They've been invited to work on a laser with the express goal of making it more powerful and therefore more destructive. At that point their blinding themselves to the reasons anyone would want such a thing isn't anyone's fault but their own. "I was too dumb to know that my genius could be weaponized even though I was blatantly building a weapon" isn't exactly a heroic excuse.

**** You mean kind of like they take advantage of the college giving them a free ride on their education and research and getting them a job post-graduation? This makes about as much sense as someone joining the armed forces just to get the "free" money for college, and then throwing a fit when their commanding officer actually had the audacity to ''deploy'' them as if they were an ''actual soldier''. But then, people do that, so maybe it's just being realistic about how shortsighted and entitled some people can be.

Moved from the main article:

* The ending of the film has been subjected to FridgeLogic, with the unanswered question of what exactly happens ''next''. [[spoiler:The military can still build more lasers now that their prototype was proven successful, right? Except that the whole scheme was exposed to public scrutiny, with a congressman directly witnessing it, ensuring that there will be subpoenas and indictments aplenty going around. And if nothing else, Hathaway's ruined.]]

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* StrawmanHasAPoint: At no point does any of the protagonists bother to exposit ''why'' its so wrong to build a laser capable of vaporizing ground targets from space. They simply state flatly that it is, and act on that basis. But FridgeLogic suggests that unless the assassination laser was fired willy-nilly at innocent people (at which point the problem would not be the existence of the laser, but the murderous insanity of whoever's firing it), it would actually pose much less risk to innocent bystanders and less general destruction to simply vaporize a hostile dictator from space than, oh, declare war on his entire nation. And there is ''no'' plausible deniability involved when you're talking about giant glowing laser beams from space. Only one nation in the world at that time could be credibly suspected of owning laser satellites, and a scenario that posits a conspiracy of agents acting without sanction from National Command Authority is an even ''bigger'' plot hole, because National Command Authority is going to be the first person to ask "Why the hell did one of our own 'weather satellites' just vaporize someone with a giant laser beam? Who is responsible for this?" as soon as said satellite is actually seen firing.

* Assuming that there are blueprints and detailed notes and knowing that the concepts behind it are sound,wouldn't the DoD just be able to build another laser? They know it works...and they still maintain the rationale for building it...so why wouldn't they just build another one?
** They don't know it works. They know it missed its target and burst into flame. They ''don't'' know that this was intentional, and probably assume it's just a piece of junk.

* Assuming that there are blueprints and detailed notes and knowing that the concepts behind it are sound,wouldn't the DoD just be able to build another laser? They know it works...and they still maintain the rationale for building it...so why wouldn't they just build another one?

*** Also, the opening credits spell out the point of the film pretty clearly: the song "you took advantage of me" playing over schematics of Little Boy.