Paul Stevens' high school science project has gotten a little out of hand. He just built an atomic bomb. Now he's got 11 hours to make sure it doesn't work.
The switch is set... The clock has started... Time's running out!

Everyone knows that teenagers are smarter than adults, and if given a chance the kids could save the world -- if they don't blow it to bits first. The Manhattan Project tells of how 16-year-old Paul Stephens (Christopher Collet) tries to alert his community to the dangers of nuclear energy. John Mathewson (John Lithgow), a doctor in a pharmaceutical research plant wherein covert plutonium experiments are taking place, is the boyfriend of Paul's mom, Elizabeth (Jill Eikenberry). While Mathewson is romantically occupied, Paul and his girl, Jenny Anderman (Cynthia Nixon), steal the plutonium and construct their own atomic bomb. They do this, of course, as a warning to foolhardy grown-ups -- none more foolhardy than the folks who put up good money to make this film. The Manhattan Project was directed by longtime Woody Allen collaborator Marshall Brickman, whose expert sense of comic timing obscures the thickheaded "message" of this picture.

The Manhattan Project is an American film, released in 1986.[3] Named after the World War II-era program, the plot revolves around a gifted high school student who decides to construct a nuclear bomb for a national science fair. The film's underlying theme involves the Cold War of the 1980s when government secrecy and mutually assured destruction were key political and military issues. It was directed by Marshall Brickman, based upon his screenplay co-written with Thomas Baum, and starred John Lithgow, Christopher Collet, John Mahoney, Jill Eikenberry and Cynthia Nixon. This was the first production from the short-lived Gladden Entertainment Corporation.

Dr. John Mathewson (John Lithgow) discovers a new process for refining plutonium to purities greater than 99.997 percent. The United States government provides him a laboratory located near a suburban neighborhood in Ithaca, New York masked as a medical company, Medatomics. Mathewson moves to Ithaca and meets real estate agent Elizabeth Stephens (Jill Eikenberry) while searching for an apartment. He attempts to win the affections of the single mom by inviting her teenage son Paul (Christopher Collet) to take a tour of Medatomics and see "one of the sexiest lasers in the entire free world."

Mathewson is confident in the lab's cover story but Paul, an unusually gifted student with a passion for science, becomes suspicious when he discovers a statistically impossible patch of five-leaf clover on the grounds. Paul and his aspiring journalist girlfriend, Jenny Anderman (Cynthia Nixon), decide to expose the weapons factory in dramatic fashion. Paul breaks into Medatomics and steals a container of plutonium. To obtain maximum publicity, Paul decides to build a nuclear bomb and enter it into the New York Science Fair. After convincing his mother and his school that his project is about hamsters bred in darkness, he begins research and construction of the nuclear device.

Mathewson and Medatomics discover that a container of plutonium has been replaced by a bottle of Alberto VO5 shampoo mixed with glitter. A military investigation team, led by Lt. Colonel Conroy (John Mahoney), arrives on the scene. Their investigation reveals that Paul is responsible for stealing the plutonium. Suspecting him of terrorism, the investigators search Paul's home and discover he and Jenny have left for the science fair.

The agents capture the couple in New York City and Mathewson, who feels personally responsible for the crisis, has a private talk with Paul. He tells Paul to just give the bomb to the agents or "they'll lock you in a room somewhere and throw away the room."[4] Several other participants at the science fair help Paul and Jenny escape custody and they become fugitives from the government.

In an effort to expose the lab, Paul hatches a plan to return the bomb on his own terms. Ensuring Jenny is a safe distance away, he calls the agents from a pay phone and walks into Medatomics with the bomb, while being surrounded by snipers and agents. During the standoff, negotiations stall and Paul arms the bomb. Mathewson, convinced that Paul is not an actual terrorist, attempts to intercede on his behalf.

Due to radiation from the plutonium, the bomb's timer suddenly activates on its own and begins to count down with increasing speed. Paul suggests taking the bomb to a quarry outside of the town, but Mathewson advises against it, telling Paul that if the bomb does go off, he'll get a good look at a "50 to 70 kiloton explosion". In building the bomb, Paul thought he was building a regular device and didn't take into account the grade of plutonium being used. There is also no chance of an evacuation as the blast would destroy New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, & parts of Canada- as is pointed out by Col. Conroy to one of his aides who makes that suggestion. Desperate to contain the bomb, all sides put down their weapons and frantically work as a team to dismantle the device. They manage to disarm the bomb right as the timer reads 7:16:45, a reference to the first nuclear test on July 16, 1945.[5] A film flash goes off, showing that the detonators had been disconnected from the source of the light. It's left unanswered if the bomb would have exploded with nuclear force or only the C4. After a brief moment of relief, Conroy decides to arrest Paul. Mathewson refuses to cooperate and opens the door to the lab, revealing a large crowd, including Jenny and the press. He says to the military, "We blew it." The film ends as Mathewson, Paul, Jenny and Elizabeth all depart the scene.

This movie is a cautionary tale regarding the dangers of nuclear weapon capability, a common theme of films dating back to Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.[6] The theme was especially prominent in the early 1980s with the debut of the television film The Day After and the motion pictures Testament and WarGames.[7]

The plot was influenced by the case of John Aristotle Phillips, a Princeton University undergraduate, who came to prominence in 1977 as the "A-Bomb Kid" for designing a nuclear weapon in a term paper using publicly available books and articles.

Release Date: June 13, 1986

Distrib: 20th XCentury Fox


Boxoffice: $3,900,000 2014:$8,367,700