(Some Spoilers) Trying to find his inner-self since he was 16 years old Professor Eddie Jessup, William Hurt, has been fascinated in what is and what is not real in the world of drug, or spiritually,induced hallucinations. Having himself tested on, in the basement of New York University, in a water tank with electrodes attached to his brain and body Eddie still didn't get the results that he wanted in the field of the human sub-conscious mind.
Since he was a young boy up until his father's death Eddie had visions of biblical events mostly from the New Testament Book of Revelations of fire and brimstone falling from the sky and people falling, and perishing, into a flaming and bottomless pit. Just what were these visions ,or hallucinations, that he had back then all about? Now as a full professor at Harvard Medical School he can use it's state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, with the help of his friend and fellow Prof. Arthur Rosenberg(Bob Balaban), where he can very possibly find out the truth about the human sub-conscious mind once in for all.
The experiments don't lead to anything special in the field of the human mind and it's effects from mind altering Illnesses like schizophrenia but one evening at a party with his wife Prof. Emily Jussup, Blair Brown, Eddie is introduced to Prof. Eduardo Eccheuerria,Thaao Penghlis, of the University of Mexico. Eddie's life after meeting with the Mexican professor made an abrupt U-turn and after that he and his state of mind would never be the same again.
Psychedelic-like movie where you, like the actors in it, can't differentiate what's real and what's not. You need a medical encyclopedia just to understand most of the dialog coming out of the mouths of Prof. Eddie and Emily Jessup as well as their friends and associates Prof. Rosenberg and Harvard Professor of Endocrineogy Mason Perrish, Charles Haid. It's in Central Mexico that Eddie's mind get screwed up by having a drink of this magic mushroom soup, with a sample of his own blood mixed in, courtesy of the Hinchi Indian Cheifton Charles White-Eagle, that drove Eddie literally out of him mind.
Coming back to Boston Eddie is obsessed to go back in the tank and experience the feeling of a prehistoric Homo-Sapien-like Apeman and does become one later in the film, played brilliantly by a very nimble and acrobatic Miguel Godreau. Miguel is absolutely amazing jumping over fences and swinging on pipes as he's chased by the Harvard Collage security men and a pack of wild dogs on the deserted streets of Boston at night.
This monkey-man, he seems a bit too small to be a full-grown ape or guerrilla, breaks into the Boston Zoo and after almost getting his hand ripped off by a tiger, when he tried to steal his lunch, jumps into the open areas of the zoo and kills one of the fleeing gazelles, with a rock. The monkey-man stuffing himself with the dead gazelle's meat intestines and blood is found the next morning ,by the zoo-keepers, naked and back to being a human being, Eddie, as well as sound asleep by the butchered devoured and dead animal UGH!
Trying one last time to prove that he can change his physical as well as mental structure Eddie put's himself in the water tank, against the objections of Emily and Prof. Mason. Eddie proving beyond a doubt that's he's as off-the-wall as everyone around him suspected but at the same time he's also right about his theory. That, every one of us, has everything every thought every experience, spiritual and conventional, inside our brain since the dawn of history as well as that of the the history, and existence, of the vast and endless Universe that's some six billion years old!
Since he was a young boy up until his father's death Eddie had visions of biblical events mostly from the New Testament Book of Revelations of fire and brimstone falling from the sky and people falling, and perishing, into a flaming and bottomless pit. Just what were these visions ,or hallucinations, that he had back then all about? Now as a full professor at Harvard Medical School he can use it's state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, with the help of his friend and fellow Prof. Arthur Rosenberg(Bob Balaban), where he can very possibly find out the truth about the human sub-conscious mind once in for all.
The experiments don't lead to anything special in the field of the human mind and it's effects from mind altering Illnesses like schizophrenia but one evening at a party with his wife Prof. Emily Jussup, Blair Brown, Eddie is introduced to Prof. Eduardo Eccheuerria,Thaao Penghlis, of the University of Mexico. Eddie's life after meeting with the Mexican professor made an abrupt U-turn and after that he and his state of mind would never be the same again.
Psychedelic-like movie where you, like the actors in it, can't differentiate what's real and what's not. You need a medical encyclopedia just to understand most of the dialog coming out of the mouths of Prof. Eddie and Emily Jessup as well as their friends and associates Prof. Rosenberg and Harvard Professor of Endocrineogy Mason Perrish, Charles Haid. It's in Central Mexico that Eddie's mind get screwed up by having a drink of this magic mushroom soup, with a sample of his own blood mixed in, courtesy of the Hinchi Indian Cheifton Charles White-Eagle, that drove Eddie literally out of him mind.
Coming back to Boston Eddie is obsessed to go back in the tank and experience the feeling of a prehistoric Homo-Sapien-like Apeman and does become one later in the film, played brilliantly by a very nimble and acrobatic Miguel Godreau. Miguel is absolutely amazing jumping over fences and swinging on pipes as he's chased by the Harvard Collage security men and a pack of wild dogs on the deserted streets of Boston at night.
This monkey-man, he seems a bit too small to be a full-grown ape or guerrilla, breaks into the Boston Zoo and after almost getting his hand ripped off by a tiger, when he tried to steal his lunch, jumps into the open areas of the zoo and kills one of the fleeing gazelles, with a rock. The monkey-man stuffing himself with the dead gazelle's meat intestines and blood is found the next morning ,by the zoo-keepers, naked and back to being a human being, Eddie, as well as sound asleep by the butchered devoured and dead animal UGH!
Trying one last time to prove that he can change his physical as well as mental structure Eddie put's himself in the water tank, against the objections of Emily and Prof. Mason. Eddie proving beyond a doubt that's he's as off-the-wall as everyone around him suspected but at the same time he's also right about his theory. That, every one of us, has everything every thought every experience, spiritual and conventional, inside our brain since the dawn of history as well as that of the the history, and existence, of the vast and endless Universe that's some six billion years old!