My Science Project

High school student Michael Harlan needs a science project to pass his class, so he and his friend Vince search a military salvage yard for something they can pass off as their own work. What they take is a machine of alien origin that opens gateways through time and between dimensions. Its power proves unstable, and the two teenagers and their classmates are pulled into a series of journeys through the past and future while the device keeps demanding more electricity. A detective, Isadore Nulty, and Michael's father, Lew, become caught up in the widening disruption around the machine.

The film is a science fiction comedy directed and written by Jonathan R. Betuel, who made it as his first feature before Theodore Rex a decade later. John Stockwell plays Michael, with Danielle von Zerneck as Ellie Sawyer, Fisher Stevens as Vince Latello, Raphael Sbarge as Sherman, Richard Masur as Nulty and Barry Corbin as Lew Harlan, among a credited cast of 37. It was produced by Jonathan T. Taplin for Touchstone Pictures and Silver Screen Partners II.

Made for about 10 million dollars, it took in roughly 4 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 5.9 out of 10 from about 6,900 votes, and on TMDB 6.3 out of 10 from about 170 votes, a small sample that sits a little above the larger IMDb figure.