Chris Knight



Chris Knight in one of the main protagonists in the 1985 comedy film Real Genius. He is portrayed by Val Kilmer.

Chris Knight is a student at Pacific Technical University a.k.a. "Pacific Tech", a college in California. Chris is known for his humorous remarks. He is the top of his class in physics back in 1981, when he was a freshman. In 1985 in his senior year, he was working on a project for Professor Jerry Hathaway, developing a laser. Chris advanced the project some and later on started to work more and more less cause he felt he needed to have some fun. Chris has a job lined up at Darlington Instuments after he graduates. Chris went to Darlington to talk to the recruiter and me meets Sherry Nugil, she tells Chris that she met 7 top minds of the country and Chris is #8. Chris also meets Dr. Mike Dodd, the inventor of the Telcom satellite.

Chris would later on get a roommate at Pacific Tech, Mitch Taylor, a young 15 year old genius who he would be come real good friends with and work together on developing the laser. Chris would first meet Mitch when he comes to his room. Chris unpacked some of Mitch's things, made the room messy. Later on that night, Chris, along with Ick, Jordan Cochran, and a few other are ice skating in the dorm, using some ice made from gas. Mitch, about to leave his dorm room, sees the ice on the floor. Kent Torokvei, a student at Pacific Technical University, who is also working on the laser tells Chris that Mitch beat his placement scores over 20 points. Kent brought Mitch so much of the data thinking it would wear Mitch out. Chris said about it being unfair and we're going make Kent the king of the Winter carnival, though joking. Kent asks about the ice and Chris makes a joke about the ice and Kent calls them degenerates. Chris says about Kent finding him one day naked with a bowl of jello and Kent responds "I was hot and I was hungry".

In the morning, Chris gets some coffee from the coffee machine using liquid nitrogen as a coin. Mitch was telling Chris "You know, um, something strange happened to me this morning..." Chris asks "Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?" Mitch responds "No..." Chris asks humorously :Why am I the only one who has that dream?" Mitch was asking Chris about the man that keeps going into their closet and Chris tells him that he is Lazlo Hollyfeld. The week has gone by and Mitch and Chris are working on the laser.

Chris goes to Dr. Hathaway's house cause Hathaway wanted to talk to Chris. Jerry has a jog later on, he arrives at home to meet up with Chris Knight. Jerry shoos a dog away that always comes to his yard. Chris has a bag of popcorn with him and tells Chris to get rid of it cause he can't stand the smell of popcorn. Jerry has a talk with Chris Knight about wanting 5 megawatts by mid May and tells Chris that he wants him in the lab more. Jerry threatens Chris about his future.

Chris, who sees Mitch in the lab, sees that Mitch is tired cause he has been working so much. Chris adjusted the laser beam on the laser and tells Mitch to turn on the power of the laser and sees the beam splitting up some and Chris tells Mitch to follow the beam and sees it leads to a party pool. The beam spells out "Tanning Invitational". Chris tells Mitch, Ick and the others that girls are from a nearby college, a beautician school. Mitch decides to have fun and the others do. Kent arrives and sees them having a party and goes to Dr. Hathaway and tells them they are at a party. Kent takes him there and sees Mitch and tells him that he is not too pleased with him.

Chris goes to talk to Mitch in the cafeteria the next morning and sees Mitch not too happy. Kent, along with Bodie, Carter, and Cornell tap into Mitch's phone and record what he says. The next morning whole Mitch was in the cafeteria, he hears the recording of his conversation over the intercom and sees Kent laughing, humiliated, decides to leave, but is talked out of leaving by Chris Knight. Mitch, upset, gets ready to leave, Chris convinces him to stay by explaining to him that Lazlo was the top genius at Pacific Tech in the 1970s, but suffered a breakdown when he learned that his theories were being used to build weapons. Chris tells Mitch that if he does not want to "crack" like Hollyfeld, he must learn to have fun, and the first order of business is to get even with Kent, calling it a "moral imperative" to do so. They accomplish this by disassembling Kent's car and rebuilding it inside his dorm room. Kent vows revenge.

Jerry calls Chris to his house again. Chris arrives and meets Susan Decker, the daughter of David Decker, the director of the C.I.A.. Jerry was talking to David Decker and Maj. Carnagle and was being hassled by Decker to get the laser ready. Chris talks to Susan, tries to hit on her. Chris asks her "So, if there's anything I can do for you - or, more to the point, *to* you - just let me know. Susan responds "Can you hammer a six-inch spike through a board with your penis? "Chris responds "Not right now." Susan responds "A girl's gotta have her standards." They leave and Jerry tells Chris Knight that he is giving the Darlington Instruments job to Kent though it was Chris's job cause Chris is not in the lab much. Jerry threatens to flunk Chris even if he passes his class. Hathaway tells Chris he is giving Kent the job at Darlngton.

Chris later on that night talks to Mitch and tells him he might leave cause Hathaway will flunk him out, but Mitch like Chris did to him tells him not to go and that Chris owes him 20 bucks. Mitch tells Chris that he must get even with Hathaway cause it is a moral imperative. Chris and Mitch work more and more on the laser and are going in the right direction. Later on that night, Lazlo Hollyfeld talks to Chris.

Chris, along with Kent, Bodie, Carter, and Cornell just got done working in the lab. Chis tells Kent about the exam and insults Kent. After Chris leaves, Kent sabotages the laser Chris was working on, but it was later on when Chris figured out how to solve the power problem on the laser by using liquid nitrogen, jumping with excitement. Chris goes to Dr. Hathaway's house to tell him he solved the power problem. Chris sees Susan Decker there at Jerry's house. At the lab with Chris, Dr. Hathaway, Mitch, Carter, and Cornell. Chris tells them where the problem was and how he solved it. "As you know, Mitch and I were working on the cyanide system. Well, earlier today it ate itself. But, these little set-backs are just what we need to take a giant step forward. Right, Kent? Needless to say, I was a little despondent about the melt down, but then, in the midst of my preparations for hari kiri, it came to me. It is possible to synthesize excited bromide in an argon matrix. Yes, it's an excimer frozen in its excited state." "It's a chemical laser but in solid, not gaseous, form. Put simply, in deference to you, Kent, it's like lasing a stick of dynamite. As soon as we apply a field, we couple to a state that is radiatively coupled to the ground state. I figure we can extract at least ten to the twenty-first photons per cubic centimeter which will give one kilojoule per cubic centimeter at 600 nanometers, or, one megajoule per liter." The laser worked, Dr. Hathaway now pleased, tells Chris he gets the job at Darlington.

Chris, Mitch, a long with Jordan and Ick go to a bar and grill and celebrate. Lazlo Hollyfeld pay them a visit and he tells them about the laser and that it has a use for it and that is is designed for. Chris, Mitch, and the others find out they were lied to and go to see the laser and find it gone. They figure out that Kent knows about it. Kent, who knows about the situation is knocked out with sleeping gas in his dorm room by Chris, Mitch, Jordan, and Ick. They put a little microphone in Kent's braces. Later on that night, Mitch wakes Kent up and Kent hears a deep voice speaking to him, Mitch is speaking to him on a microphone with a voice disguiser, claiming to be Jesus and asks Kent where the laser is at and Kent tells him that Hathaway is going to do a test of it. Mitch says to Kent "I want you to think about what you done and from now on, stop playing with yourself". Kent responds, "It is God".

Chris, Mitch, Jordan go to get tons of popcorn and put it in a big tin foil ball in Dr. Hathaway's house. Chris and Mitch get fake I.D.s to get onto the Air Force base. Jerry is there with David Decker, Maj. Carnagle, and a General who are getting ready to test the laser. Chris and Mitch posing as technicians, put a different microchip in the computer and then leave. The laser is being reprogrammed to aim at Dr. Hathaway's house.

Later on, Chris, along with Mitch, Jordan, and Ick bring Dr. Meredith and Congressman Duggan to show proof of Dr. Hathaway's misdeeds. Kent arrives after getting a message from Jesus. The laser is activated and hits the house, Kent goes inside and sees a light, the laser hits the foil ball and the popcorn pops and floods Dr. Hathaway's house. Kent is saved by the overflow of popcorn.