Kominers’s Conundrums: Never Trust a Genius With a Laser
Honoring a cult classic’s 35th anniversary with a new puzzle.
Prelude to a puzzle, starring Val Kilmer.
Photographer: Michael Ochs Archives/MoviepixI recently found myself lost in college nostalgia: late nights in the lab, last-minute cram sessions, and the time someone turned the dorm floor into an ice skating rink. Wait, what!?
That last memory was actually a scene in “Real Genius,” a Val Kilmer movie that turned 35 this week. It only made about $13 million at the box office, but math and science geeks like me have embraced it as cult classic. Set at the fictional “Pacific Tech,” the film follows two young Einsteins -- Chris Knight and Mitch Taylor -- on their quest to cut class and build a five-megawatt laser.1
In the real world, the U.S. military hasn’t quite made it that far yet, although they’ve tested some truly terrifying laser cannons. “Real Genius,” on the other hand, was never meant to be taken literally -- but that’s OK, a little imagination and out-of-the-box thinking may be just what you need to solve a Conundrum in the movie’s honor: