Phenomenon
An ordinary man sees a bright light descend from the sky, and discovers he now has super-intelligence and telekinesis.
- Director:Jon Turteltaub
- Genre:Drama / Fantasy / Romance
- Runtime:119 minutes
Cast
John Travolta : George Malley
Kyra Sedgwick : Lace Pennamin
Forest Whitaker : Nate Pope
Robert Duvall : Doc Brunder
Jeffrey DeMunn : Prof. John Ringold
George Malley (John Travolta) is an amiable auto mechanic whose “everyman” life is transformed by a strange flash of light he observes on the evening of his 37th birthday.
Over the course of the following days, George starts to experience an extraordinary form of genius-level intelligence, rapidly absorbing vast amounts of information, formulating new, revolutionary ideas, and even exhibiting telekinetic abilities.
George tries to use his new intelligence for the good of his community. At first local town folks are intrigued and amused by George’s new abilities, but as they increase, community members gradually become afraid of him, with the only exceptions being love interest Lace Pennamin (Kyra Sedgwick), town physician Doc Brunder (Robert Duvall), and best friend Nate Pope (Forest Whitaker). Matters are complicated further when the government begins to take an interest in his newfound genius.
While participating in a town fair, George wants to publicize his revolutionary findings to the community with the hopes to make people’s lives better; instead, the townsfolk are more interested with seeing a display of his telekinesis, and a frenzied press conference ensues, overwhelming George, knocking him down. Soon after, another great flash of light appears to George and he loses consciousness. He awakens in a hospital where Dr. Brunder explains what’s been causing his change. He has an astrocytoma brain tumor that has spread out like a hand, with threads of it everywhere. But, instead of destroying brain function, so far it’s been stimulating it. Thus, George has more area of active brain use than anybody ever tested because of the tentacles from the tumor.
The tumor is claimed to be what caused the dizziness and illusion of light experienced by George, rather than a mystical or extraterrestrial source, but this is never definitively concluded, and the telekinesis isn’t explained either, leaving the viewer to speculate. As a result of the tumor, George doesn’t have much time to live. Government-employed doctors propose cutting George’s life even shorter by examining his brain before he can die a natural death, and argue that if he objects to their plan, the objection itself would be proof that he is mentally unfit to make such a decision, and that the government would then proceed with the examination anyway. Held against his will—allegedly just for observation, but really until the government can put its plan into action—George eventually escapes, hoping to continue his research. He hopes that seismologist Dr. Ringold (Jeffrey DeMunn) from UC Berkeley might continue his experiments and, ultimately, complete the research he’ll never get to finish. Read more
Watch full Phenomenon online streaming for free
