The Philadelphia Experiment
In this segment, I will be discussing three (3) movie incarnations, as well as the 1943 - Project Rainbow, also known as The Philadelphia Experiment.
This is the original movie poster from 1984.
The way I understand it, Project Rainbow was done as a series of experiments by the US Navy in 1943 to degauss (make non-magnetic) a battleship and to render it radar invisible. They did this by putting conductive wires around the USS Eldridge and then electrifying them with high powered generators on board the ship. The results of these experiments were highly classified, but rumors came out that strange phenomena were experienced by the crew members on board. Some of these phenomena were said to be: Complete invisibility of the ship, crew members fusing into the hull, and the most interesting of all, time displacement. It is said that two sailors ended up in 1983 during another identical experiment in Norfolk, Virginia called the Montauk Project.
 The USS Eldridge from 1943. |  The Montauk dish, Norfolk, Virginia. |
The Philadelphia Experiment was first brought to surface in Dr. M.K. Jessup’s book, The Case For the UFO, originally published in 1955. The book was suppressed by the government but was finally re-released as an indie book by Amazon’s Createspace in 2014. There remains to this day, a mystery surrounding Dr. Jessup's strange death. Was it suicide or murder? Will I now be investigated for blogging about this?
From Amazon.com: "This is the first ever reprint of the book that brought the entire legend of the Philadelphia Experiment into the public sphere, and created controversy for decades: "The Case For the UFO!" Why has this book been suppressed for so many years?"
From Amazon.com: "This is the first ever reprint of the book that brought the entire legend of the Philadelphia Experiment into the public sphere, and created controversy for decades: "The Case For the UFO!" Why has this book been suppressed for so many years?"
It is said that no attempt to make a movie about The Philadelphia Experiment was being allowed by the US government, but a British director by the name of Stewart Raffill got the movie made. Using all American actors, the movie literally slipped under the government’s nose. But it was banned from being shown in this country until the secrets of the Montauk Project were about to become public. Allegedly, the movie was finally allowed as a preemptive strike. In other words, if a sci-fi movie makes these claims, it sends up smoke and mirrors around the actual truth.
So we have the 1984 movie, called The Philadelphia Experiment, and it turned out to be a wonderful time travel film. It stared Michael Paré as one of the 1943 crewmen (David Herdeg) who ends up in 1984 (the movie used the current year, instead of 1983). The other crew member was Jim Parker, played by Bobby Di Cicco. It’s fun to watch these confused 1943 sailors, experiencing the sights of modern objects such as new gas pumps, aluminum Coke cans, an empty German beer bottle, and fighter jets.
 Michael Paré as David Herdeg. |  Bobby Di Cicco who played Jim Parker. |
The film also stars Nancy Allen as Allison Hayes, who helps the men and becomes romantic with Paré’s character, David.
This film is among my favorite movies in this genre. It has all the elements of a good time travel film, great props, action, a sense of time-travel awe from the characters, good special effects, and of course, romance. The movie comes to a very satisfying conclusion.
Nancy Allen and Michael Paré promo from The Philadelphia Experiment .
Ten years later, in 1994, The Philadelphia Experiment II was released. This movie ended up on my blog for worst time travel movies. {CLICK} I won’t even review it here.
In 2012, a remake of The Philadelphia Experiment was released on the Syfy network. It stared Malcolm McDowell and Michael Paré returned, but this time played the bad guy. This movie wasn’t very good. They took many liberties with the story and the characters had no real connection to one another. But the special effects were good and so was the sense of awe by the traveler. All in all, the story lacked all the charm of the original. I think Syfy movies are more about the action in our video game society.
 The 2012 remake of The Philadelphia Experiment. Didn't like the movie, but loved the images. |  Michael Paré in 2012. |
I watched a three hour long interview with the men who supposedly were part of the original Project Rainbow and Montauk Project. Two of them claimed to be the men who ended up in 1983 from the USS Eldridge. Their names are listed in many sites on the Philadelphia Experiments and the sincerity in which they spoke was very convincing. They claimed the original movie was all true except for the added romance part. It’s very intriguing to think about real time-travel experiments actually being carried out and kept secret by the US Government.
My own time travel books! Click Picture to go to Amazon.com
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