fair. After the agents capture the couple in New York City, John, who feels personally responsible for the crisis, talks privately with Paul and persuades him to give the bomb to the agents before a group of other participants at the science fair help Paul and Jenny escape from the hotel. In an effort to expose the lab, Paul hatches a plan to return the bomb on his own terms. Ensuring Jenny is a safe distance away, he calls the agents from a pay phone and walks into the lab with the bomb while being surrounded by snipers and agents. During the standoff, negotiations stall and Paul arms the bomb. John, convinced that Paul is not an actual terrorist, attempts to intercede on his behalf. Due to radiation from the plutonium, the bomb's timer suddenly activates on its own and begins to count down with increasing speed. Paul suggests taking the bomb to a quarry outside of the town, but John admits that he had not fully understood the ramifications of his plutonium refining process. As a result, Paul's bomb will have a nuclear blast yield nearly five times bigger than the one that destroyed Hiroshima if it detonates. Desperate to defuse the bomb, all sides put down their weapons and frantically work as a team to dismantle it. They manage to disarm the bomb a fraction of a second before it explodes. After a brief moment of relief, Conroy decides to arrest Paul. John refuses to cooperate and opens the door to the lab, revealing a large crowd, including Jenny and the press. The film ends with Paul freely departing the scene. Cast Production After making Lovesick, Brickman was interested in doing something other than comedy. "Jokes are easy," he said. "Humor comes to me so easily I'm suspicious of it. I secrete jokes like the pancreas secretes. . .whatever the pancreas secretes. I wanted character, I wanted to go for the emotions that the kid feels, that the scientist feels; I wanted the audience to feel the seductiveness of machinery." He chose the Manhattan Project. However he decided against doing something historical because "It's such a monster to do, the scope is so enormous - I couldn't come up with a viable way to make it that wouldn't cost under $60 million to produce." He decided to do something in a contemporary setting which dealt with the same