Kearns is a husband, father, engineering professor, and sometimes inventor. And while paying the toll for refusing to compromise his dignity, this everyday David will try the unthinkable: to bring Goliath to his knees. He becomes a man obsessed with justice and the conviction that his life's work-or for that matter, anyone's work-be acknowledged by those who stood to benefit. Ignored, threatened and then buried in years of litigation, Bob is haunted by what was done to his family and their future. But their aspirations are dashed after the auto giants who embraced Bob's creation unceremoniously shunned the man who invented it. When Bob invents a device that would eventually be used by every car in the world, the Kearns think they have struck gold.
Local university professor Bob married teacher Phyllis and, by their mid-thirties, had six kids who brought them a hectic but satisfying Midwestern existence. The Kearns were a typical 1960s Detroit family, trying to live their version of the American Dream. But this determined engineer refused to be silenced, and he took on the corporate titans in a battle that nobody thought he could win. automobile industry, Flash of Genius tells the tale of one man whose fight to receive recognition for his ingenuity would come at a heavy price. In some cases, we already have, but we’re too scared to fight for it.Robert Kearns takes on the Detroit automakers who he claims stole his idea for the intermittent windshield wiper.īased on the true story of college professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns' long battle with the U.S. In this life, we could all be so lucky to have a flash of genius. America has always prided themselves on their automotive industry and this film insults it.īut in the end, Bob Kearns’s invention is carried in over 145 million cars worldwide.
Yet, it also involves two great American companies - companies we support - which could be why the film was only mildly successful. It involves one man’s struggle against a large villain. This story is the most American story that can be told. He studied the law himself, helped by his son and took down two of the biggest auto names in the business. They offered money and then more money, but Kearns never took it unless they admitted their mistake The additional source of conflict in this film was Bob Kearns did not only want money for his stolen invention, he wanted this American automobile companies to admit he created the intermittent windshield wiper – he wanted them to admit what they did was wrong. And he knew the correct way to explain to the court that right is right, fair is fair and even Charles Dickens would agree. He brought it to them and they exploited it. The auto industry might have had the products to make this invention, but it took Bob Kearns’s flash of genius to create it. That line was the entire film – it was the entire case. In a brilliant move, Kearns pulls out “A Tale of Two Cities…” and explains everyone had the words, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” but it took Charles Dickens to put it together. In the scene above, an automotive engineer explains to the court that their factories had all the pieces to make the intermittent windshield wiper, but hadn’t put it together until after Bob Kearns meeting. He eventually won over thirty million dollars by suing both Ford and Chrysler – the price of righteousness Bob Kearns wouldn’t back down from. He invented a great product, it was stolen, and he fought against the system losing everything he cared about in the process. He was an average man in an average city, trying to live the American Dream. automobile industry, while raising six children is the source of any conflict. In the film, Bob Kearns fight against the U.S. And after everyone rejected it, Ford and Chrysler started installing Kearns’s invention in 1969.īob Kearn (Greg Kinnear) had a flash of genius - a term used in patent law that describes someone inventing a product out of nowhere and without any prior knowledge or experience of the subject. Once completed, brought it to the “Big Three Auto,” to make a deal. Within that city, there was a story about a man named Bob Kearns who invented the intermittent windshield wiper. A town created around automobiles, Tiger baseball, and Coney Island dogs. Writer: Phillip Railsback and John Seabrookĭetroit is a tough town.