Good Will Hunting 

is a 1997 American psychological drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and

starring Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård. Written by
Affleck and Damon, the film follows 20-year-old South Boston janitor Will Hunting (Damon), an
unrecognized genius who, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement after assaulting a police
officer, becomes a patient of a therapist and studies advanced mathematics with a renowned
professor. Through his therapy sessions, Will re-evaluates his relationships with his best friend
(Affleck), his girlfriend, and himself, facing the significant task of confronting his past and thinking
about his future.
The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $225 million during its theatrical run
against a $10 million budget. At the 70th Academy Awards, it received nominations in nine
categories, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won in two: Best Supporting Actor for
Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Affleck and Damon.
In 2014, it was ranked at number 53 in The Hollywood Reporter's "100 Favorite Films" list.[4]

Contents

 1Plot
 2Cast
 3Production
o 3.1Development
o 3.2Filming
 4Soundtrack
 5Mathematics
o 5.1The first blackboard problem
o 5.2The second blackboard problem
 6Reception
o 6.1Box office
o 6.2Critical response
o 6.3Academic response
o 6.4Accolades
 7See also
 8References
 9External links

Plot[edit]
Twenty-year-old Will Hunting of South Boston is a natural genius who is self-taught. He works as a
janitor at MIT and spends his free time drinking with his friends Chuckie, Billy, and Morgan. When
Professor Gerald Lambeau posts a difficult combinatorial mathematics problem on a blackboard as a
challenge for his graduate students, Will solves the problem anonymously, stunning both the
students and Lambeau. As a challenge to the unknown genius, Lambeau posts an even more
difficult problem. Will flees when Lambeau catches him writing the solution on the blackboard late at
night. At a bar, Will meets Skylar, a British woman about to graduate from Harvard College, who
plans on attending medical school at Stanford.
The next day, Will and his friends fight a gang who used to bully Will as a child. Will is arrested after
he attacks a responding police officer. Lambeau sits in on his court appearance and watches Will
defend himself. He arranges for him to avoid jail time if he agrees to study mathematics under
Lambeau's supervision and participate in psychotherapy sessions. Will tentatively agrees but treats
his therapists with mockery. In desperation, Lambeau calls on Dr. Sean Maguire, his college
roommate, who now teaches psychology at Bunker Hill Community College. Unlike other therapists,
Sean actually challenges Will's defense mechanisms. During the first session, Will insults Sean's
deceased wife, and Sean threatens him -- but after a few unproductive sessions, Will finally begins
to open up.
Will is particularly struck by Sean's story of how he met his wife, who later died of cancer, by giving
up his ticket to the historic game six of the 1975 World Series, after falling in love at first sight. Sean
does not regret his decision. This encourages Will to build a relationship with Skylar, though he lies
to her about his past and is reluctant to introduce her to his friends or show her his rundown
neighborhood. Will also challenges Sean to take an objective look at his own life, since Sean cannot
move on from his wife's death.
Lambeau sets up a number of job interviews for Will, but Will scorns them by sending Chuckie as his
"chief negotiator", and by turning down a position at the NSA with a scathing critique of the agency's
moral position. Skylar asks Will to move to California with her, but he refuses and tells her he is an
orphan, and that his foster father physically abused him. Will breaks up with Skylar and later storms
out on Lambeau, dismissing the mathematical research he has been doing. Sean points out that Will
is so adept at anticipating future failure in his interpersonal relationships that he deliberately
sabotages them in order to avoid emotional pain. Chuckie likewise challenges Will over his
resistance to taking any of the positions he interviews for, telling Will he owes it to his friends to
make the most of opportunities they will never have, even if it means leaving one day. He then tells
Will that the best part of his day is a brief moment when he waits on his doorstep thinking Will has
moved on to something greater.
Will walks in on a heated argument between Sean and Lambeau over his potential. Sean and Will
share and find out that they were both victims of child abuse. Sean helps Will to see that he is a
victim of his own inner demons and to accept that it is not his fault, causing him to break down in
tears. Will accepts one of the job offers arranged by Lambeau. Having helped Will overcome his
problems, Sean reconciles with Lambeau, deciding to take a sabbatical. Will's friends present him
with a Chevrolet Nova for his 21st birthday so he can commute to work. Later, Chuckie goes to Will's
house to pick him up, only to find that he is not there, much to his happiness. Will sends Sean a
letter telling him to tell Lambeau that he had to go "see about a girl", revealing he passed on the job
offer and instead is heading to California to reunite with Skylar.

Cast[edit]
 Robin Williams as Dr. Sean Maguire
 Matt Damon as Will Hunting
 Ben Affleck as Chuckie Sullivan
 Stellan Skarsgård as Professor Gerald Lambeau
 Minnie Driver as Skylar
 Casey Affleck as Morgan O'Mally
 Cole Hauser as Billy McBride
 John Mighton as Tom
 Scott William Winters as Clark
 Jimmy Flynn as Judge George H. Malone
 Christopher Britton as Executive #2
 Alison Folland as MIT Student
 George Plimpton as Henry Lipkin
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Matt Damon started writing the film as a final assignment for a playwriting class he was taking
at Harvard University.[5] Instead of writing a one-act play, Damon submitted a 40-page script.[5] He
wrote his then-girlfriend, medical student Skylar Satenstein (credited in the closing credits of the
film), into his script. (Satenstein later married Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.)[6] Damon said the only
scene from that script that survived – "it survived verbatim" – was when Will Hunting (Damon) meets
his therapist, Sean Maguire (Robin Williams).[5] Damon asked Ben Affleck to develop the screenplay
together. They completed the script in 1994.[5] At first, it was written as a thriller about a young man in
the rough-and-tumble streets of South Boston who possesses a superior intelligence and is targeted
by the government with heavy-handed recruitment.[5]
Castle Rock Entertainment bought the script for $675,000 against $775,000, meaning that Damon
and Affleck would stand to earn an additional $100,000 if the film was produced and they retained
sole writing credit.[citation needed] Castle Rock president Rob Reiner urged them to drop the thriller aspect of
the story and to focus on the relationship between Will and his therapist. Terrence Malick told Affleck
and Damon over dinner that the film ought to end with Will's decision to follow his girlfriend Skylar to
California, not them leaving together.[7]
At Reiner's request, screenwriter William Goldman read the script. Goldman consistently denied the
persistent rumor that he wrote Good Will Hunting or acted as a script doctor. In his book Which Lie
Did I Tell? Goldman jokingly writes, "I did not just doctor it. I wrote the whole thing from scratch,"
before dismissing the rumor as false and saying his only advice was agreeing with Reiner's
suggestion.[8]
Affleck and Damon proposed to act in the lead roles, but many studio executives said they
wanted Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.[9] Meanwhile, Kevin Smith was working with Affleck
on Mallrats and with both Damon and Affleck on Chasing Amy.[10] Castle Rock put the script in
turnaround, and gave Damon and Affleck 30 days to find another buyer for the script who would
reimburse Castle Rock the money paid, otherwise the script reverted to the studio, and Damon and
Affleck would be out. All the studios that were involved in the original bidding war for the screenplay
now turned the pair down, taking meetings with Affleck and Damon only to tell them this to their face.
As a last resort, Affleck passed the script to his Chasing Amy director Kevin Smith, who read it and
promised to walk the script directly into Harvey Weinstein's office at Miramax. Weinstein read the
script, loved it, and paid Castle Rock their due, while also agreeing to let Damon and Affleck star in
the film. In his recollection of the meeting, Weinstein asked about an out-of-place, mid-script oral
sex scene, which Damon and Affleck explained was a test to see which studio executives had
actually read the script.[11][5]
The Baskin-Robbins/Dunkin' Donuts, in front of which Will mocked Harvard student Clark

After buying the rights from Castle Rock, Miramax put the film into production. Several well-known
filmmakers were originally considered to direct, including Mel Gibson and Michael Mann.
[12]
 Originally, Affleck asked Kevin Smith whether he was interested in directing. He declined, saying
they needed a "good director" and that he only directs things he writes and is not much of a visual
director, but still served as one of the film's executive producers. Damon and Affleck later chose Gus
Van Sant for the job, whose work on previous films like Drugstore Cowboy (1989) had left a
favorable impression on the fledgling screenwriters. Miramax was persuaded and hired Van Sant to
direct the film.

Filming[edit]

The Au Bon Pain in Harvard Square where Skylar asked Will to explain his "photographic memory" to her (as
seen in 2013; it has since been redeveloped by Harvard).
Filming took place between April and June 1997. Although the story is set in Boston, and many of
the scenes were shot on location in the Greater Boston area, many of the interior shots were filmed
at locations in Toronto, with the University of Toronto standing in for MIT and Harvard University.
The classroom scenes were filmed at McLennan Physical Laboratories (of the University of Toronto)
and Central Technical School. Harvard normally disallows filming on its property, but permitted
limited filming by the project after intervention by Harvard alumnus John Lithgow.[13] Likewise, only
the exterior shots of Bunker Hill Community College were filmed in Boston; however, Sean's office
was built in Toronto as an exact replica of one at the college.[14]
The interior bar scenes set in "Southie" were shot on location at Woody's L St. Tavern.[15] Meanwhile,
the homes of Will (190 West 6th Street) and Sean (259 E Street), while some distance apart in the
movie, actually back up to each other on Bowen Street, the narrow street Chuckie drives down to
walk up to Will's back door.[16][17]
The Bow and Arrow Pub, which was located at the corner of Bow Street and Massachusetts Avenue
in Cambridge, doubled as the Harvard bar in which Will met Skylar for the first time.[18] The Baskin-
Robbins/Dunkin' Donuts featured in the "How do you like them apples?" scene was next door to the
pub at the time of the film's release.[17]
The Tasty, at the corner of JFK and Brattle Streets, was the scene of Will and Skylar's first kiss.
[19]
 The Au Bon Pain, where Will and Skylar discuss the former's photographic memory, was at the
corner of Dunster Street and Mass Ave.[20]
The Boston Public Garden bench on which Will and Sean sat for a scene in the film became a
temporary shrine after Williams'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Will_Hunting