Monkey Shines (1988) on Netflix
Struck by a truck, law student and athlete Allan Mann is left a quadriplegic. His friend Geoffrey Fisher, a research scientist, gives him a capuchin monkey dosed with an experimental serum.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.2/1014,894 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes55%
Trailer
Plot summary
Allan Mann is a law student and athlete until a truck leaves him quadriplegic. Confined to a wheelchair, he struggles to adjust while his mother and a nurse try to help. His friend Geoffrey Fisher, a research scientist, urges him to take a service monkey. Geoffrey has given a lab monkey a serum meant to make her cleverer, and hands her over as an ordinary animal, thinking people will sharpen the effect. Melanie Parker, who trains helper monkeys, joins them. Allan calls the monkey Ella.
Cast
- Tom Quinnas Charlie Cunningham
- Tudi Wigginsas Esther Fry
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Monkey Shines (1988)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Orion Pictures, in financial difficulty, forced George A. Romero to add a happy ending to Monkey Shines, something he had long avoided, and then, after poor previews, recut the film without his knowledge to insert a shock ending.- Disability rights groups including ADAPT and Adapting Society objected to a toy monkey in a wheelchair in the film's promotional materials, and ADAPT members picketed in wheelchairs at the Hollywood Pacific Theater on the opening weekend.
- George A. Romero needed multiple monkey doubles for Boo, the capuchin who played Ella, and had four monkey puppets made by Tom Savini, one of them remote-controlled, each covered in yak fur.
- Romero wrote a shooting script of more than 240 pages for Monkey Shines, and 40 to 50 percent of the footage he shot ended up on the cutting room floor to get the film to a practical length.
- Upset with the way his project had been handled, George A. Romero returned to independent films after making Monkey Shines.
