FilmSkool — a free film school
Good Will Hunting
Will Hunting is a headstrong, working-class genius who is failing the lessons of life. After one too many run-ins with the law, Will's last chance is a psychology professor, who might be the only man who can reach him.
1997 · Directed by Gus Van Sant · 127 min · Drama · Screenplay in the scene database · 43 frames
Tagline
Some people can never believe in themselves, until someone believes in them.
Plot
After being paroled, self-taught polymath Will Hunting, a rebellious 20-year-old man from South Boston, works as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and spends his free time drinking with his friends Chuckie, Billy and Morgan. At work, he anonymously solves a complex mathematical problem posted on a blackboard by Professor Gerald Lambeau as a challenge for his graduate students. Later, Will and his friends start a fight with a gang that includes one of Will's childhood bullies. When police intervene, Will is charged with assaulting an officer. Lambeau posts a more difficult problem to test the mysterious stranger and later catches Will writing the solution. Mistaking Will for a vandal, Lambeau chases him off but quickly realizes that he was solving the problem. At a bar, Will meets Skylar, a student about to graduate from Harvard University, with plans to attend medical school at Stanford. Skylar approaches Will and flirts with him, before giving him her phone number.
Lambeau asks the campus maintenance staff about Will's whereabouts, but learns that he did not come to work. He discovers that Will was placed at MIT through a program for parolees and obtains his parole officer's details. At Will's court appearance, Lambeau watches as Will argues in favor of pro se legal representation and later arranges for him to avoid jail time, on the condition that he study math under Lambeau's supervision and attend therapy. Will agrees but treats his therapists with mockery. A desperate Lambeau contacts Dr. Sean Maguire, his college roommate, who teaches psychology at Bunker Hill Community College. Unlike the previous therapists, Sean challenges Will's defense mechanisms. In the first session, Sean threatens Will after he insults his deceased wife. In the next sessions, Sean encourages Will to open up and Will invites Sean to move on from his wife's death. Will starts dating Skylar but lies to her about his background.
Sean recounts to Will his first meeting with his wife: he saw her at a bar and fell in love at first sight, giving up his ticket to the famous sixth game of the 1975 World Series to his friends by saying he had to go "see about a girl". Sean tells Will that he never regretted that decision, despite the hardships that followed. Will decides to introduce Skylar to his friends. Lambeau sets up several job interviews for Will, but he scorns them. In particular, he turns down a position at the National Security Agency (NSA) with a scathing critique of the agency's moral position.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
- Cinematography: Jean-Yves Escoffier
- Edited by: Pietro Scalia
- Music: Danny Elfman
- Production design: Missy Stewart
- Produced by: Lawrence Bender
Cast
- Matt Damon as Will Hunting
- Robin Williams as Sean Maguire
- Ben Affleck as Chuckie Sullivan
- Stellan Skarsgård as Gerald Lambeau
- Minnie Driver as Skylar
- Casey Affleck as Morgan O'Mally
- Cole Hauser as Billy McBride
- Vik Sahay as MIT Student
- John Mighton as Tom
- Rachel Majorowski as Krystyn
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Lawrence Bender Productions, Be Gentlemen Limited Partnership, Miramax
- Budget: $10,000,000
- Box office: $225,933,435
- Themes: boston, massachusetts, mathematics, genius, male friendship, flashback, psychologist, janitor, dating, courtroom, group of friends
Own the film
FilmSkool earns a small commission from qualifying Amazon purchases, at no cost to you.
More by Gus Van Sant
On this film
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.