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Spoiler Points for Flash of Genius (2008) [PG-13] 119 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $13.50
DVD Release Date: Unscheduled (please check back)
Spoiler for the Ending of Flash of Genius
• After turning down a settlement with Ford Motor Co. for around $400K arranged by attorney, Gregory Lawson (Alan Alda), electrical engineering professor Bob Kearns (Greg Kinnear) ends up losing his wife, Phyllis (Lauren Graham) and kids. Some of this kids still visit and stick by his pursuit of restitution.
• Eventually, the laws are changed allowing for speedier trials on patent infringement law suits to allow them to come to trial prior to the patents expiring!
• So, with the help of his kids and pure perseverance, he files suit for patent infringement by Ford Motor Co. in a Detroit circuit court.
• He serves as his own prosecuting attorney against a team of Ford Motor Co. attorneys all bent on proving that their client didn't steal anything.
• The jury looks pretty sympathetic.
• The night after closing arguments, Charlie Defao (Tim Kelleher) shows up at Kearns's door. Bob's kids are all there hoping to keep their father company as they await the decision of the jury. Charlie offers Kearns $30,000,000 to settle the case. He has his kids vote. They all vote to go ahead with the trial.
• The next day, the Jury finds that Ford Motor Co., did, in fact, infringe on Kearns's patents. They award him $18,000,000 in damages.
• Kearns feels vindication at last. Phyllis is there to see the big victory, but she's moved on her life, even as he's stood still.
• She leaves him to his adoring inventor fans and walk on into her future.
• The film then reveals just before the credits, that Chrysler came forward with a payment to Kearns for $10,000,000 bringing his earnings closer to the $30 million Defao had offered. Turned out that Kearns really wasn't in it for the money, he was in the suit to prove a point and to get the credit for the idea he invented.
Why's the film called "Flash of Genius"?
• This is a reference that Kearns brings up in a statement he delivers on the stand as his own witness. He mentions that in order to file a patent with the US Patent office, and in order for there to be cause for a patent, there must be a moment when the inventor experiences a "Flash of Genius" and the idea is born. That moment of inspiration, apparently, must be listed on the patent application.
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