Movies You May Not Know – Phenomenon
Grab your seats, class is in session.
I know I’m already on a bit of a drama streak with these articles, but I promise that’ll break soon enough (just not today). Today I’m going to take a look at the 1996 drama entitled:
Phenomenon is listed as a “romantic fantasy drama” which, while a really odd combination, is pretty much spot on. It stars John Travolta (Pulp Fiction, Grease, just about everything else) as a small town mechanic George Malley, Kira Sedgwick (Born on the 4th of July, The Closer, Kevin Bacon’s wife) as his love interest Lace Pennamin, Robert Duvall (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) as the town doctor Doc Brunder, and Forrest Whitaker (Good Morning Vietnam, The Last King of Scotland) as George’s best friend Nate Pope. Honestly, with a cast like that, do you really need to read any further to want to see this movie? You shouldn’t, but just in case you do…
The movie premise, on the surface, is pretty basic and honestly a little hokey, but if you look beyond what they are trying to tell you, dig deep into the meaning of everything that occurs, that’s where you find the true beauty in this movie. The upfront story goes like this: George is a small-town, simple mechanic whom everybody loves. He isn’t the smartest guy but he has a true heart of gold and will do anything for anybody. On his 37th birthday he is at the local bar with his friends and when standing outside, he hears something in the sky. He looks up to see this white light coming at him very fast. The white light makes a sound strong enough to knock him off his feet, but when he goes back into the bar, no one else heard the sound or saw the light. Over the next few days, George begins to become hyper-aware, amazingly intelligent, and even begins to develop telekinesis. His mind starts flooding with ground breaking ideas and new theories, so much so that he isn’t able to sleep anymore. He spends his nights reading book after book to learn about all the things he always wanted to know, but was not smart enough to understand. He ends up on the government radar one night when he and Nate discover a top secret Morse code message while using Nate’s short-wave radio. The government begins to test his intelligence and his decoding skills but is ultimately forced to release George when he threatens to tell the press he is being held against his will.
The movie takes the more dramatic turn during a local town fair where George is trying to reach people about his theories and his ideas for bettering the world. The townsfolk begin to crowd around him, wanting to see his telekinetic abilities instead. The crowd gets so tight that George begins to panic and falls down, where he sees another light coming to him, this time rendering him unconscious. To go into much more detail here would considerably ruin the rest of the movie, so I’m going to stop there, but will say that a major discovery is made while George is in the hospital that drastically changes how things play out from there.
But that’s all the surface, that’s just the upfront story of the movie. What you find after all is said and done is it’s really a movie about acceptance and being able to deal with life’s finalities. George is a great guy, friendly to everyone, yet when he changes, just a little, everyone suddenly becomes afraid of him, everyone except Lace, Doc, and Nate. Those closest to him continue to love him, no matter what he has become, and try to make sure everyone else understands that deep down, George is still George, which is all that matters. The movie also uses a fantastic metaphor when the specter of death rears it’s head during the movie. To explain death to Lace’s children, George brings them an apple. He explains that no matter what, an apple will simply rot and decay if you throw it away, leave it on the ground. However, if you take a bite out of that apple, and enjoy it in that moment, it will become a part of you that you can carry with you forever. It’s a very touching and very moving scene, and in my opinion, a fantastic metaphor.
The movie does also use another piece of dialogue that I’m not ashamed to say I stole and used once before as well. At one point in the movie, one person asks another: “Will you love me for the rest of my life?” The response? “No, I’m going to love you for the rest of mine.” Maybe I’m just a softie, but I think that’s beautiful.
Until next time…
Class dismissed.
