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The Brain (1988 film)

1988 film directed by Edward Hunt

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ7719807 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Brain is a 1988 Canadian science fiction horror film depicting a giant brain-like alien that mentally enslaves a town's residents.

Plot

Dr. Anthony Berol Blake runs Independent Thinking, a television show promoting a self-help, quasi-religious program resembling Scientology. But Blake isn't making his audience think any more independently – with the help of an alien organism he calls The Brain, he is using brainwashing and mind control. The only thing that stands between them and world domination is a brilliant but troubled high school student, named Jim Majelewski, with a penchant for pranks.

After being caught flushing sodium down a school toilet, Jim is punished and given a warning that he'll be suspended and won't graduate if he keeps doing pranks; reluctantly, Jim agrees to enlist in Blake's program as an alternative. He is then subjected to Blake's experiments, but he is immune due to being extremely smart and suffering from fantasy. He begins to have visions of The Brain as well as other hallucinations. Jim is aided by his girlfriend Janet and best friend Willie when Blake's assistant Verna attempts to take him back to the lab. Willie is killed by The Brain while Jim and Janet do their best to help free the residents of their town from Blake and The Brain's influence.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Brain (1988 film)” is 1988 film directed by Edward Hunt. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Brain, film and directed, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1988—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1988-01-01. For this dossier, Brain, film and directed is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1988 film directed by Edward Hunt” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7719807. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1988.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Brain (1988 film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Brain (1988 film) primary sources, The Brain (1988 film) archive and Brain research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Brain (1988 film)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Brain (1988 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.