Line #13 YMMV/RealGenius


1	* EsotericHappyEnding: Hathaway's weapon ''worked''. Blowing up Hathaway's house still proved that it worked; and it's shown that the CIA knew it was a problem with targeting; not the laser function. Chris had given the schematics (the dynamite laser) to Hathaway before he decided against it. Even if the original KillSat was destroyed after destroying Hathaway's house due to the reflected laser; Hathaway and his military contacts would have made copies of this information. That is, unless it was subject to added public and Congressional scrutiny--see [[Headscratchers/RealGenius Headscratchers]].
2	** As pointed out, it could be an aversion to EsotericHappyEnding due to the fact the government wanted a reuseable high powered laser to use for their weapon. The laser self-destructed after firing just once (making it look like it wasn't going to be able to be used again), and that laser was fired at a house in front of a Senator and other eyewitnesses, which in turn would basically be made public.
3	* GeniusBonus: The target for the test at the end is a reenactment of JFK's motorcade. It's even more blatant in the shooting script where, in the first scene, Decker says that it isn't like they're going to use the laser to [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial kill the president]].
4	** Also a FreezeFrameBonus during Hathaway's final, where the camera pans across the exam questions on the blackboard. One of them is to design a self-limiting laser. The most obvious solution is an excimer, which is the kind of laser that Chris builds a couple of scenes later to solve the power problem.
5	* HarsherInHindsight:
6	** This little exchange:
7	--->'''Hathaway:''' I want to see more of you in the lab.\
8	'''[[Creator/ValKilmer Chris]]:''' Fine. I'll gain weight.
9	** Worse is how the kind of targeted assassinations that the death laser was planned for ''is actually now done'' with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4NRJoCNHIs unmanned attack drones.]] Turns out the death laser would have done far less collateral damage.
10	* HilariousInHindsight:
11	** Ast after Chris Knight feeds his fish and Lazlo peeks his head out the door, the newspaper clip on the wall appears to show a picture of [[Music/TheDoors Jim Morrison]] in the lower left corner. Creator/ValKilmer would later play Morrison in ''Film/TheDoors1991''.
12	** Gabe Jarret plays Mitch, and Yuji Okumoto plays Fenton. And both of them later got punched out by [[Film/TheKarateKid Daniel Larusso]].
13	** Speaking of Gabe Jarret, in this film he laughs off Laslo's concerns about the laser's usefulness by saying, "Let the engineers figure out a use for it, that's not our concern!" Ten years later in ''Film/Apollo13'' he'd play a NASA mission control guidance engineer ''very much'' concerned about how to help solve a problem.
14	* HoYay: Between Chris and Mitch, so very much.
15	* ItWasHisSled: By now the popcorn house ending is fairly well known.
16	* MemeticMutation: "'Rue the day'? Who talks like that?"
17	* SignatureScene: The laser blowing up the house full of popcorn.
18	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: This movie could only have been made in TheEighties, when the Strategic Defense Initiative was a pressing concern. Not to mention that computer technology has marched along quite significantly since then.
19	* TheWoobie: Mitch, deliberately. His parents are so aloof and neglectful, they don't understand why a bullied fifteen year old would want to return home or why renting out his room to a stranger would upset him. Add in the bullies, the aloof roommate who is more into partying than working, the apathetic classmates who put recording devices in a class so they don't have to appear but still get the lessons, and the teacher of said class who gave up and put his lesson on a recording for the class to listen to, and Mitch was the only student to still attend in person, college was not the joy he thought it would be.

Context YMMV / RealGenius