2. Major Characters
Will Hunting......................Matt Damon
A troubled young janitor from Boston who is both an orphan
and an amazing genius with a photographic memory.
Gerald Lambeau...............Stellan Skarsgard
An extremely intelligent Math professor at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) who discovers how brilliant Will really is.
Sean MaGuire....................Robin Williams
A psychologist and old friend of Lambeau
who agrees to try and help Will.
Skylar...................................Minnie Driver
A British science student at Harvard University who falls in love with Will.
Morgan................................Casey Affleck
A good friend of Will and Chuckie.
Billy.......................................Cole Hauser
Another good friend of Will and Chuckie.
3. Plot Summary
Will Hunting is a 20 year old Boston janitor who works cleaning classrooms at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the best and most famous universities in
the world. He is an orphan who grew up in various foster homes, where he had been
physically abused as a child. He is also an extraordinary mathematical genius with a
photographic memory, who
likes to solve math problems that an MIT professor writes on a hallway chalkboard. For
the students, these problems are too difficult to solve, but for Will, they're easy!
4. One day, Professor Lambeau sees Will writing the answer to a problem
on the chalkboard, but Will runs away before they can talk. Lambeau
soon discovers many disturbing things about Will, including the fact that
he is stuck in jail for having just physically attacked someone who had
beaten him up many years earlier. Lambeau arranges with a judge to
keep Will out of jail, as long as Will agrees to work on mathematical
problems and to get psychological help. Will agrees to these conditions.
Will is too difficult a patient for the various psychologists that Lambeau
asks to help, but eventually Lambeau goes to his old friend Sean
MaGuire, who is teaching psychology at a local community collage.
Sean has many of his own problems to face, including the fact that his
wife of 17 years had recently died from cancer. Still, he agrees to work
with Will, and while the relationship is extremely difficult and
emotionally explosive, Sean sticks with it because he is convinced he
can help Will find some stability and happiness.
5. Over the next few months, Will becomes romantically involved
with Skyler, a British student at Harvard University who has
decided to go Medical School at Stanford University in California.
Skyler falls in love with Will, and wants him to go with her to
California, but Will is probably too scared to become so
emotionally close to another person, or too scared to even leave
Boston.
In the end, Lambeau simply wants Will to get a job where he
would use his amazing mathematical intelligence, and even
Chuckie wants Will to find a life for himself that is far from the
difficult working class lives that they both have now. Ultimately
though, it is Sean who patiently gives Will the courage and
direction he really needs to move on with his life.
6. Will passes time with his old childhood
friends, by drinking, working
and solving mathematical equations that
no one else on earth can.
7. Will loses his job as a janitor, but at a local bar for
Harvard students, he shows who is smart enough to get the girl....
16. 1.) We are all eventually trying to find
our purpose in life. Some take longer
than others. But a little help and a push
in the right direction helps speed up the
process.
2.) Unfortunately millions of people don't
get that opportunity.
3.) Sadly many spend their lives doing
something that's nowhere close to what
they're really meant to be doing.
4.) Unfortunately, in today's world,
circumstances determine what and how
you have to live your life.
17. 5.) We spend so much time thinking what
others perceive us as that we eventually lose
track of who we really are.
6.) Education is over-rated. Unless you have
the talent and ambition to back it up.
7.) A classroom can teach you many things life
can't. So long as you're willing to learn from
everything and everyone around you.
8.) Some people are born smarter than
others. Live with it!
18. 9.) To live a life of eventual fulfillment, you
need to find out what makes you tick. The
earlier the better.
10.) We all need genuine friends and catalysts
to help us find our journey. How we respond
to their advice helps speed up the process.
11.) We all need to find someone that makes
us tick. And never let go of them. It helps if
they're of the opposite sex - only if that's your
preference.
12.) The Hollywood film industry doesn't have
any god original writers anymore. Most scripts
we see are either superhero movies,
adaptations of books, or biographies.
19. 13.) Don't remember the last time I watched a
film with zero special effects. Guess that's
why all my Uni mates doing digital effects
degrees found a job faster than me.
14.) Don't remember the last time I heard
dialogues where I went, "Daym! I want to
hear that again!"Except every time I watch
The Social Network.
15.) It must have been cool to smoke and
drink in public.
16.) When was the last time a girl decided to
sleep with a guy based on his intelligence
alone?
20. 17.) I miss getting the cap-cut.
18.) I miss living in a world without us being
so connected. As far as I can remember, you
called someone, you mentioned a time and
place and people were there, committed to
give you 100%. Today's life feels superficial on
so many levels.
19.) You learn so much about life by just
travelling. Unfortunately we're so worried
about our tomorrow's that we forget to live
'today'!
20.) Knowledge is power.
22. Last week, I re-watched Good Will Hunting for
the first time since Robin Williams’ suicide.
I’ve always felt that Williams’ portrayal of Will
Hunting’s psychologist, Sean Maguire, was
one his most powerful performances on the
big screen.
What really struck me watching this film again
was the isolation and loneliness of Sean
Maguire. The healing in Good Will
Hunting was shared by both the patient and
the therapist. Unfortunately, this connection
with others did not transcend the film into
Williams’ life in a lasting way.
23. When Will Hunting first meets Sean Maguire,
Hunting says, “I think you’re about one step
away from cutting your fucking ear off,” after
analyzing a painting of Maguire’s. Matt
Damon’s character then brings up the term
“Any port in a storm.” For Williams and so
many other men, the only port they find in
the storm of their life is suicide.
Why is it that men like Williams felt so
isolated and unable to connect with others?
The film offers insight into this dilemma
through the life of the main character. Will
Hunting is savant who grows up on the wrong
side of the tracks. As an orphan, Hunting
suffers horrible physical abuse.
24. When Will falls in love with Skylar, a wealthy
Harvard student played by Minnie Driver, he
lies to her about having 12 brothers. This
clues us into the shame he feels about being
an abused orphan.
As the love between Will and Skylar
intensifies, so does the commitment. When
Skylar asks Will to come to California with her
where she will attend med school, Will acts
out all the classic avoidance strategies of
someone who fears rejection due to shame.
25. He expresses his fear with a scenario of
moving out to California with Skylar where
she might “find out something” about him
that she doesn’t like and not want to be with
him anymore. He then makes up excuses why
he can’t go to California. As I stated in an
earlier article, fear and loneliness often go
hand in hand. In this case, Will fears rejection,
commitment, uncertainty, and vulnerability to
the point that he is willing to let go of the love
of his life.
Skylar presses him and asks, “What are you so
scared of?” Hunting launches into attacks on
Skylar as a “trust fund baby” who is just using
Will so she can tell her rich friends how she
went “slumming too once.”
26. Will then tries to leave when Skylar pushes
him to be honest with her, but Skylar blocks
the exit. This is where things get violent.
“What do you want to know, that I don’t have
12 brothers? That I’m a fucking orphan?…You
don’t want to hear that I got cigarettes put
out on me when I was a little kid…You don’t
want to hear that shit, Skylar,” Will screams at
her.
