The theatrical one-sheet movie poster for My Science Project. (Image courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

My Science Project was a teen science fiction comedy, produced by Touchstone Films, and written as well as directed by Jonathan R. Betuel, who had previously penned The Last Starfighter.

A party to the wave of films in this genre that were released at the time, which included Back to the Future and Weird Science, Touchstone took a formulaic approach towards producing the picture by packaging the youth-oriented subject matter with popular young stars such as Dean Stockwell, Danielle von Zerneck, and Fisher Stevens. Richard Masur and Dennis Hopper also had small roles.

Dean Stockwell stars as Michael Harlan, a high school rebel who’s better at working on muscle cars than studying. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

Despite all the illustrious talent attached, the movie was a dud at the box office, only earning $4.1 million in box office receipts against a budget of $12 million. This was largely due to a mediocre script and direction that failed to inspire the audience’s suspension of disbelief.

The film’s story centers on a rebellious high school student, Michael Harlan (Stockwell), whose interest and talent working on muscle cars far exceeds his performance in school. With just a few days left in his high school career, Michael has neglected to come up with his senior science project, a procrastination that will yield him a failing mark, thus forcing him to repeat 12^th grade.

Danielle von Zerneck plays the nerdy Ellie Sawyer, who becomes Michael’s love interest during the film’s second act. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

While on an unusual date with his nerdy classmate, Ellie Sawyer (von Zerneck), Michael trespasses onto an abandoned Air Force base that years before housed an alien craft recovered from Roswell, New Mexico. There, he stumbles upon the engine from that ship, a compact, plasma globe-esque piece of equipment, and absconds with it, thinking that it could be the answer to his science project dilemma.

The next day, while cleaning the gadget up, Michael and his foul-mouthed, Brooklyn-born sidekick, Vince Latello (Stevens), accidentally activate the device, causing it to emit a powerful energy cloud that somehow manifests an ancient Greek vase, and causes the two to lose a few hours of time.

Fisher Stevens as Michael’s wisecracking, foul mouthed-buddy, Vince Latello. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

Unsure and afraid of what they have unleashed, that evening Michael and Vince take the device to their aging hippie science teacher, Dr. Roberts (Hopper), who postulates that it may be a time/space distortion machine. Attempting to prove his theory, Roberts attaches a power source to the unit, whereupon it emits a massive wave of energy and makes the teacher disappear.

It soon becomes clear that Dr. Roberts was right, as the device creates a time/space vortex, manifesting people, creatures, and objects from the future and the past. With T-Rexes and Roman gladiators now wandering the halls of the high school, it becomes clear that the vortex is a threat to the town, and ultimately the entire universe. It comes down to Michael, Vince, and Ellie to step up and save the day.

Dr. Roberts, an aging hippie science professor, played by Dennis Hopper. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

I’ll refrain from giving my detailed personal thoughts on the picture, as that is really within the purview of my other cinema-based column, Rob’s Car Movie Review, but suffice to say they don’t vary much from the film’s original audiences, who universally panned My Science Project.

What we will focus on here though is the movie’s salient saving grace: Michael’s awesome GTO.

Detective Isadore Nulty, portrayed by veteran character actor, Richard Masur. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

The year 1968 was a seminal one for the Goat. Pontiac completely redesigned its muscle car, giving it sensuous curves in lieu of sharp creases. The company also blessed it with semi-fastback rear styling and an “Endura” front bumper that surrounded quad, horizontally oriented headlamps instead of outboard stacked ones — hidden headlights were an option and the Endura bumper could be deleted for a traditional chrome piece.

To make the car more nimble, the overall length of the GTO was decreased by close to six inches from the previous model. A host of powerful new engines was offered, and all of them could be mated to a buyer’s choice of manual or automatic transmissions.

(This was also the second and last year for the forgettable 400 two-barrel engine option.)

With its excellent performance and swoopy aesthetics, the ’68 Goat was an unqualified success, becoming the new standard in muscle cars.

Michael Harlan’s pride and joy: the 1968 Pontiac GTO he built up himself. As was common, the hideaway headlights appear stuck in the open position. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

Making its first appearance early in the film, Michael’s hardtop GTO receives quite a bit of screentime, and looks splendid throughout draped in Solar Red paint with a black vinyl interior.

Real GTO Options

A sharp eye will note that the car is equipped with quite a few factory extras, including hideaway headlights, Rally gauges, driver and passenger chrome mirrors, a hood mounted tachometer (which is featured in a few shots), and a center console housing a Hurst His/Hers dual-gate shifter for the Turbo HydraMatic 400 three-speed transmission.

One piece of the Goat’s optional equipment — the hood-mounted tachometer — gets some on-screen attention in the movie. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

The car is also fitted with a set of 15-inch, gold-colored “snowflake” wheels, which appear to have been sourced from a late 1970s Trans Am, and has had its rear bumper painted body color.

Most notably though, the car sports a heavily modified motor with a blower that pops up through the non-GTO, LeMans style hood. Close-ups of the supercharger in action occur twice in the film and show the butterflies opening and emitting a red glow from behind them.

Alas, like much in Hollywood, not all is as it seems with Michael’s G.T.O.

In a couple of scenes, Michael and Vinny are shown working on the former’s glorious Goat. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

For starters, the primary Hero Car used in the film started life painted Verdoro Green with a black vinyl top and the black vinyl interior seen in the movie. It was powered by a 360 horsepower, four-barrel, 400 H.O. Pontiac V8. The H.O. had 10 ponies more than the base 400, and the move car did indeed have the His/Hers shifter installed at the factory.

Movie Upgrades

Prior to the studio purchasing the car, its 400 had been replaced with a massive, round-port, Pontiac 455 H.O. V8. By the time the art department was done prepping the car in pre-production for the film, it had received the respray in Solar Red paint, and had a built TH400 slushbox swapped in to better handle the demands of the stunt driving.

The blower, I’m sad to say, was just Hollywood fakery.

Notice anything amiss in this still from the movie? Yeah, there’s no carbs under that blower intake. That’s because the car’s most prominent feature was nothing but Hollywood trickery. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

The blower’s butterflies, red backlighting, and belt drives were all powered by an electric motor that could be actuated by the stunt driver inside the cabin. It was in no way connected to the engine, nor did it generate any power that went through to the rear wheels.

A second GTO, on hand for rough stunt driving, was made to look identical to the Hero Car, but it is unclear if it was ever actually used during the production.

At one point, the G.T.O. is vandalized by Michael’s rivals. Thankfully, it’s just a shaving cream attack. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

The Goat is used to terrific effect in the movie, racing along arid desert roads, and performing quite a few burnouts and oversteer fishtails. At one point, it is sadly vandalized by a bunch of rival high school students who are jealous of Michael’s ride, but thankfully their attack consists solely of spraying shaving cream all over the car’s exterior.

While My Science Project was no pleasure to sit through in my humble opinion, it does stand as one of the best showcases of a second-gen GTO ever filmed. It’s right up there with Two-Lane Blacktop and its famous Orbit Orange ’70.

While no Citizen Kane, the movie does stand as one of the best cinematic showcases of a second generation GTO. (Photo courtesy of Touchstone Films.)

If you’re a Goat fanatic, it behooves you to give the film a spin, or at the very least, scan through it to the muscle car scenes. All others need not apply.