MovieChat Forums > Real Genius (1985) Discussion > Actual events in Caltech?

Actual events in Caltech?

posted 16 years ago by lesterpn
13 replies | jump to latest

The movie is supposedly based on actual events at Caltech (see "Truly Trivial" of June 10, 2009). Does anyone know what those "actual events" are?

[–] kriticalmass 16 years ago

This peaked my interest as well.

From the Wikipedia page:

"To prepare for Real Genius, Martha Coolidge spent months researching laser technology, the policies of the CIA, and interviewed dozens of students at Caltech."

So it looks like maybe they got some stories/inspirations from the kids at caltech though obviously it's not really *based* on actual events.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] crysjumar 15 years ago

Dude, that was awesome reading. This is one of my favorite all-time movies and it's always interesting to know the back story.

thanks for the link.

-That's all the time we have, thanks for playing.

[–] satansfist 9 years ago

an administrator deleted it! what kind of link was it??

[–] Riot_Nrrrd 13 years ago

As someone who once went to Caltech (a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ... ), please ... it's officially "Caltech", not "CalTech".

BTW ... one of the cameos in the film is by David Marvit, mentioned on your linked page (and in the Cast & Crew here on IMDb) ... he was the 3rd person to go to Caltech from my High School in Massachusetts. His older brother and his younger sister were the 2nd and 4th. I blazed the trail for them ...

[–] crysjumar 11 years ago

As someone who once went to Caltech (a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ... ), please ... it's officially "Caltech", not "CalTech".

----------------
Riot, don't be THAT guy.

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[–] kolybear70 10 years ago

For those of us who grew up in Pasadena (and everyone else), it's OFFICIALLY The California Institute of Technology. Caltech is the popularized abbreviation, so it's a little silly to criticize the supposedly incorrect capitalization of one letter.

I have family members who attended Georgia Tech and Texas Tech. Capitalizing the "tech" part is not such an outrageous assumption.

[–] crysjumar 10 years ago

right on!

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[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Mccadoo 14 years ago

Great link, this is one of my all time favorite movies and after reading your link I'm going to watch it again...

[–] escherplex 14 years ago

Old news maybe but a friend of mine who recently graduated from CalTech told me that the real-life inspiration for the Jordan character ("Tigger") is actually one Liralen Li, who now lives in Colorado. If interested in reading her web blog it's http://liralen.livejournal.com/

[–] StrongCarl 9 years ago

Old news maybe but a friend of mine who recently graduated from CalTech told me that the real-life inspiration for the Jordan character ("Tigger") is actually one Liralen Li, who now lives in Colorado. If interested in reading her web blog it's http://liralen.livejournal.com/

She recently wrote an article about that.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/08/real_genius_30th_anniversary_how_i_helped_inspire_the_lead_female_character.html

[–] crysjumar 11 years ago

This was interesting as well:

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_caltech_sweepstakes_caper

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