Plot
A team of scientists invents "the Hat", a brain/computer interface that allows sensations to be recorded from a person's brain and converted to tape so that others can experience them. The team includes estranged husband and wife Michael and Karen Brace (Walken and Wood), as well as Michael's colleague Lillian Reynolds (Fletcher). At CEO Alex Terson's (Robertston) instruction, the team demonstrates the device to gain financing for further development.
One team member, Gordo (Jordan Christopher), has sexual intercourse while wearing the recorder, and shares the tape with other colleagues, including Hal Abramson (Joe Dorsey). Hal splices one section of the tape into a continuous orgasm, which results in sensory overload that nearly kills him - leading to his forced retirement. Tensions increase as the possibilities for abuse become clear.
Karen dons the recorder while working with Michael and Lillian. When Michael plays the tape back, the group realizes that emotional experiences are also recorded. Michael makes a tape of his memories, which he shares with Karen, leading to their reconciliation.
Lillian is pressured by backers to admit a former colleague, Landon Marks (Donald Hotton), whom she sees as part of the military industrial complex. She refuses to have the invention taken over for military use. This stress, coupled with the cumulative effects of her lifestyle, causes Lillian to suffer a heart attack while working alone. Realizing that help cannot reach her in time, she dons the Hat and records her experience as she dies.
Following her funeral, Michael decides to experience Lillian's final recording, but nearly dies when the playback causes his body to actually simulate the sensations and effects of a heart attack. Michael modifies his playback console to disconnect the heart and respiration output from the recording.
A team of military scientists wanting to discover the Hat's capabilities monitors the equipment, discovering Michael's attempt to replay Lillian's death tape, and force Gordo to experience the playback at the same time as Michael, but with his heart and respiration connected to the simulation - leading to Gordo's death. As a safety measure, Alex orders that the central playback facility be shut down.
Michael's experiment is cut short, but witnessing what is essentially a digital near-death experience makes him curious to see the entire tape. The recording is locked away and Michael is told he will never be allowed to view it. Michael protests, but Alex removes him and Karen from the team.
Michael makes several attempts to hack into the lab's computers. Hal advises him to look under "Project Brainstorm", a program which, Michael learns, the military has created to re-develop the Hat for torture and brainwashing. Michael and Karen's son Chris is inadvertently exposed to one such "toxic" tape, causing him to have a psychotic experience which results in his hospitalization - where the Braces have a confrontation with Alex over Project Brainstorm.
Michael vows to destroy Brainstorm, and enlists the help of Karen and Hal. Michael and Karen head to a hotel and, realizing they are under surveillance, stage a fight that results in Karen's leaving for Hal's house. As the two feign reconciliation over the phone, Michael accesses the Brainstorm computer via another phone line, while Karen hacks into the system and reprograms the factory robots that manufacture the Hat. The machines go berserk, creating havoc.
Michael shuts down the security system, trapping the staff inside, allowing him to remotely load Lillian's death tape and experience it without interruption. Brainstorm's leaders order his arrest. Michael flees the hotel, heading for a phone booth at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, located in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. He hacks into the computers again and accesses the final part of the death tape, after the point of Lillian's physical death.
While viewing Lillian's death experience, he sees "memory bubbles". Michael experiences Lillian's memories of a humorous meeting with Michael and an early robot, a surprise birthday party, and being devastated when Alex tells her that an earlier project was cancelled.
Karen arrives at the Wright Brothers Memorial while the tape is still playing. To his awe, Michael bears witness to the Afterlife; Lillian experiences a brief vision of Hell before travelling away from Earth and through the universe, even after the tape ends, ultimately witnessing visions of angels and departed souls flying into a great cosmic Light. Michael then collapses in an apparent coma. Karen sobs, pleading for Michael to come back. Awakening from the experience, he weeps with joy.
Read more about this topic: Brainstorm (1983 film)
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