My Science Project

My Science Project, a 1985 American teen science fiction comedy directed by Jonathan R. Betuel, arrived alongside other teen sci-fi/comedy hits from that year like Back to the Future, Real Genius, and Weird Science, but failed to match their success.

The plot begins in 1957, when the U.S. military secures a crashed UFO in a hangar. President Dwight D. Eisenhower inspects the craft and orders it disposed of. In 1985, high school senior Michael Harlan, obsessed with muscle cars, reluctantly hunts for a science project. During what his friend Ellie Sawyer considers a date, Michael breaks into a government aircraft boneyard, discovers a hidden fallout shelter, and grabs a glowing, plasma globe-like device before a guard chases him off. The next day, while cleaning the device in auto shop, he accidentally activates it, causing it to drain power from a boombox. His friend Vince Latello warns against attaching it to a car battery, but when they do, the device emits colorful energy that manifests an Ancient Greek vase and melts the battery. The two then inexplicably lose two hours and miss their final science exam.

After more strange events, Michael brings the "gizmo" to his ex-hippie science teacher, Dr. Bob Roberts, who believes it is a portal to another dimension. Plugging it into an outlet, Roberts bathes in cosmic energy and disappears, leaving only his peace symbol medallion. Unable to disconnect the machine, Michael decides to destroy the town’s power lines. He and Vince steal dynamite from Michael’s father’s hardware store and blow up a tower, stopping a wave of energy and causing a blackout, but are arrested for Roberts’ disappearance. Michael asks Ellie to retrieve the gizmo from school to prove his innocence. There, obnoxious nerd Sherman reconnects it, creating a massive time warp over the school and another blackout, allowing Michael and Vince to escape. They find the school consumed by a space-time vortex, with objects and people from past and future appearing, and a crazed Sherman warning that Ellie is in danger. Armed with weapons from fallen Vietnam War soldiers, they battle a Tyrannosaurus in the gym and post-apocalyptic mutants, reach Ellie, and deactivate the gizmo, restoring normal time just as emergency crews arrive. Dr. Roberts reappears dressed as Hopper from *Easy Rider*, celebrating a trip to Woodstock, and gives Michael an "A" on his pro