Phenomenon is a film
about George Malley, a man who was born and raised in a small
town in northern California. On George's thirty-seventh
birthday the locals threw him a party at the Elk Horn Bar.
That evening seemed like any other ordinary night in town
until George walked outside and looked up into the sky. What
he saw was a bright light in the night sky that literally
knocked him to the ground. When he went inside to inquire if
anyone else had heard or seen anything, everyone said they had
not, but after George described what he had seen and what had
happened to him, everyone immediately assumed that he had seen
a UFO.
The next day strange
things started happening to George. He could not sleep at
night and he could speak fluent Spanish. He started reading
two to three books a day, and could move objects with his
mind. The local doctor became concerned and had him come in
for a check-up. After getting the results back, George finds
out that he has a tumor on his brain. Tumors usually
deteriorate the brain cells, but in his case it has
accelerated the brain cells which explains the sudden
intelligence he has acquired. When the government finds out
about this phenomenon, they ask for George's permission to do
open brain surgery on him. The only problem is, they want to
do it while he is still alive, which would inevitably cause
his death to come sooner than if he did not have the surgery.
When he refuses, the government doctors get a court order to
claim that he is mentally incompetent. Therefore, they can
legally keep him in the hospital. George decides that he wants
to die peacefully with his loved ones, so he escapes from the
hospital and spends his last remaining days with Lace, his
girlfriend, and her children.
Animal Action:
When George is
introduced in the film, he is seen sitting on his front porch
with his dog, Attila. In one scene, George and Attila are
dancing in the hall outside his bedroom. Attila is standing on
his hind legs and George is holding his front paws as the two
dance back and forth. Then later, George is again seen with
his arms around the upper half of Attila's body dancing. When
the dog is seen sitting on the front porch, the trainer merely
placed the dog on his mark and used verbal and hand commands
to cue him to stay. For the dancing scenes, the actor merely
picked up his front paws and they danced.
In another scene,
George knocks over a chair and startles Attila. The dog gets
up and runs around the corner. Then he peaks back around to
see George. Trainer #1 placed dog on his mark and trainer #2
used verbal commands to cue the dog to get up and come around
the corner. Then trainer #1 cued the dog to peak around the
corner.
There are several
scenes where Attila is seen sitting or lying on the floor or
porch at George's house while he is reading or working on one
of his latest inventions. He is also seen at Lace's house
running out of the front door when George arrives from the
hospital. In one scene, Attila is seen running out of the door
of George's house and jumping up on the window of a visitor's
car window. For the scenes of the dog lying or sitting on the
floor or porch, the trainer merely placed the dog on his mark
and used verbal commands to cue him. When he is seen jumping
up on the car, trainer #1 placed the dog on his mark and cued
him to walk to the car while trainer #2 cued the dog from
inside the car to jump up on the vehicle.
Other animal action
consists of a rabbit seen eating lettuce in George's garden
and then hopping out of the open gate. The trainer had
released the rabbit and used a buzzer to cue the rabbit. In
the beginning scene some cows are seen standing in a field in
the background. There is also a scene where George is seen
feeding some pigs in their pens.
