The Manhattan Project

Paul's dropped rubber glove mysteriously appears on his hand as he reaches for his bag.

The specific details of the construction of the bomb and all its component parts are incorrect (obviously).

The security guard spends several minutes in the rain.

When he goes into the lab to investigate he is dry and leaves no wet trail.

As the townsfolk drive to the lab at the end of the movie, as the guy on the scooter heads offroad, his scooter becomes a dirtbike.

Paul's mother is surprised when he gets up at 4:00 in the morning at the beginning of the movie.

Later on, she tells Mathewson that Paul has been getting up this early - and earlier -regularly for years.

Every time Paul opens the glove box in Dr.

Matheson's Mercedes he picks the lock with his nail file, but never locks it again.

Since all three happen in the same evening it would make sense that he didn't lock it because he had to open it again to put the stole ID card back.

Still he used the nail file to pick the lock again.

Paul shows Jenny a fistful of four leaf clovers that he had picked some time ago from the grounds of the lab.

When revealed, they're crisp and freshly picked.

If they were in his pocket for as many hours, they would have withered and been much darker in color.

When Paul picks up the toy car with the Plutonium he is kneeling on his knees in the dirt.

There was just a very heavy rain storm, yet his pants are dry around the knees when he stands up.

When Dr.

Mathewson threatens to "blow us all to HELL!", he is betting the Feds that he can still turn the key even after he is shot.

He assumes that turning the key will cause the device to detonate.

However, turning the key only starts a countdown sequence.

Since the timer was still set to 3:00 minutes, the Feds would have that time to disarm the device.

During the process of making the sphere of plutonium Paul doesn't use any type of protection (filter) from airborne plutonium particles.

There is a high probability of death when plutonium is inhaled.

As a minimum it results in radiation sickness.

Plutonium must be alloyed with another metal (usually gallium) in order to prevent forming allotropes which cause it to crack while cooling.

Cracks in the pit would have significant impact in the weapon, and could result in a fizzle (non-nuclear explosion.

) A plutonium pit weighs at least 5.

5 kg (~11 lbs), but Paul lifts it out of the tube with a magnet attached to what must be the steel shell he used for casting.

When Paul picks up the toy car with the plutonium he is kneeling on his knees in the dirt.

There was just a very heavy rain storm, yet his pants are dry around the knees when he stands up.

"The Manhattan Project" is a fairly entertaining movie, so long as you keep it out from under a microscope. Still, those holes are inescapable.

It's pretty good, well paced, with competent to even great acting.But the script is so ridiculous.

The genius kid steals plutonium and builds a Bomb. Ok.

This is a very bad movie that just ignores reality. A teenager SOMEHOW steals plutonium from a nuclear weapons lab in Cold War America of the 80's, magically creates an atomic bomb, becomes a wanted terrorist by seemingly all branches of the federal government and just walks away with ZERO CONSEQUENCES.

I think people are critical of this movie, its a long list of nuclear movies made during a 4 year gap. It was a popular time to bring this subject up.

"Manhattan Project" is a thriller... maybe a little too aware of its own social importance, but it has some very funny scenes (the science fair's a laugh riot, especially for anyone who's ever been in one).

Bill Gates needs to rewatch this movie and rethink nuclear energy as a solvent for the climate change crisis... Still prevalent for this time period as much as the china syndrome was it its own.

The Manhattan Project, I suppose, is an anti-nukes themed comedy/drama. Christopher Collet (some might remember him from Firstborn, Sleepaway Camp Part I, and Prayer of the Rollerboys), stars as teen Paul Stevens, who discovers a clandestine nuke plant in his upstate New York neighborhood.

Other reviewers have suggested they added the hole-in-the-wall laser and RC car only to add lasers & complications to the plot. But the reason is obvious to me: I'm sure there was a radiation detector at the front door, and he'd sound the biggest alarm in the place if he tried to carry it out the front.