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Altered States (1980)
The Genius: Edward Jessup
The Awesome: Abnormal psychology professor Jessup is ridiculously smart, which also makes him ridiculously curious.
Researching different states of consciousness in his quest for answers about our existence in the universe, he takes various substances and finds himself undergoing startling transformations. We like the caveman one best.
Stupidest Moment: Throwing himself into his experiments without any concern for his wellbeing, or the wife he’d be making a widow of if something went horribly wrong.
Honey I Shrunk The Kids (1989)
The Genius: Wayne Szalinski
The Awesome: Adorably dopy but undeniably brainy, goofmeister Wayne invents a machine that can shrink any object down to a miniscule size.
Sadly, Wayne fails to spy this is an opportunity to tap the literal flea market and flog insects high price miniaturised furniture. Fleas need comfort too, you know.
Stupidest Moment: Actually, y’know, shrinking the kids. The fact that his experiments then go on to blow his baby up (not in that way) and then shrink himself shows he doesn’t really learn anything from that mishap.
Rain Man (1988)
The Genius: Raymond Babbitt
The Awesome: The fact that he’s dismissed so readily as an idiot, dullard and freak of nature is the double-barrelled genius/tragedy of Raymond.
He’s autistic, which is also the source of his absolute genius – Babbitt’s really good with numbers, see. Which leads to a memorable game of blackjack at Las Vegas.
Stupidest Moment: Difficult to say. People suffering from autism are obviously not stupid, but certain irregularities in their behaviour could be misinterpreted as such. Best leave this one alone.
The Usual Suspects (1995)
The Genius: Keyzer Söze
The Awesome: When both criminals and cops fear/respect the same person, that’s quite something. And Söze’s the one who manages it, his callous, fearsome intellect becoming the thing of legend.
An underworld figure of mythic proportions, his greatest achievement is fooling everybody around him – and never getting caught. What a dawg.
Stupidest Moment: We’re sure Söze is never stupid. The fake walk's quite funny, though.
Pi (1998)
The Genius: Max Cohen
The Awesome: Some are good at words. Some are good at sports. Max is good at numbers. Like, really good. The kind of good that makes Stephen Hawking look like an imbecile.
Able to do large calculations in his head and with a computer that can predict stock market happenings, Max is king of the numbers.
Stupidest Moment: Max could very well be a total liar. And lying’s for fools.
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
The Genius: Doc Ock
The Awesome: Formerly known as Dr Otto Octavius, Doc Ock only gets cooler and more awesome after he loses his marbles.
Attempting to create a self-sustaining fusion reaction (yeah, we had to google that one), Ock’s experiment goes horribly awry, killing his wife and fusing his extra mechanical arms to his body. Cue maniacal laughing and a barking mad plan.
Stupidest Moment: Thinking he could beat Spider-Man.
Weird Science (1985)
The Geniuses: Gary Wallace and Wyatt Donnelly
The Awesome: Most men settle for scouring the world for their perfect woman. Not Gary and Wyatt, who have the wherewithal to just create her from scratch.
Using their considerable computing skills and hacking abilities, they hook up their home computer to that of a government machine, using the combined power to transform a Barbie into the woman of their dreams. We tried this once, but all we ended up with was a horribly melted hunk of plastic.
Stupidest Moment: Wyatt may have a cool lady on his arm, but he still gives in to his brother’s bullying.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
The Genius: Will Hunting
The Awesome: Will’s astronomically smart, possessing the sort of intelligence that any professor of mathematics would happily give up his doctorate/house/car/dog for.
He’s also just really nice and down to Earth, and has problems just like us all. The kind of genius who’s just like everybody else. Sort of.
Stupidest Moment: Hiding his talents from those around him. Just be who you are, man.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
The Genius: Spock
The Awesome: What can’t Spock do? He’s got wicked cool pointy ears, a grip on his emotions, the intelligence of 50 men (or thereabouts), plus the ability to mind meld and even cheat death. He also has one of the coolest hand greetings ever.
Beyond that, he’s also been the Lieutenant commander of the USS Enterprise, and is the best bud of Captain Kirk. Now that’s awesome.
Stupidest Moment: Letting everybody believe he was dead at the end of Khan . Talk about messing with people’s emotions.
Back To The Future (1985)
The Genius: Dr Emmett Brown
The Awesome: Just a little thing called time travel. Coming up with the time-inverting flux capacitor, Doc Brown figures out how to unleash the restraints of time. He's then able to travel whenever in the history of the universe he wants. Provided he has some plutonium.
But more than that, Brown also has masses of style – who else would create a time machine using a DeLorean? Now that’s genius.
Stupidest Moment: Emmett’s stupidest moment – slipping and cracking his head on the bathroom sink – is what gave him the idea for the flux capacitor in the first place. Stupidity counts for something, then.
