How a Cheeky MIT Prank Inspired Good Will Hunting’s Iconic Scene
The legendary chalkboard moment in Good Will Hunting has a surprising backstory, thanks to a crafty prank pulled by Matt Damon's brother at MIT that left students scratching their heads for months.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s rise from struggling actors to Hollywood heavyweights is the stuff of legend. Their breakthrough came with Good Will Hunting, a film that not only launched their careers but also cemented their status as industry mainstays. The pair, who shared a flat and even a bank account in their early days, poured everything into their script. It eventually landed at Miramax, thanks to a push from their mate Kevin Smith, after other studios gave it a miss. The result? A critical and box office hit that swept up awards and made Damon and Affleck household names.
Good Will Hunting didn’t just win over punters; it also cleaned up during awards season. Damon and Affleck took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, while Robin Williams nabbed Best Supporting Actor. The film was up for seven more Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, making it a genuine standout of its time.
The Real Story Behind the Chalkboard Scene
One of the film’s most memorable moments features a chalkboard covered in a supposedly unsolvable maths problem. Will, played by Damon, casually solves it overnight, leaving MIT’s brightest baffled. When a tougher equation appears, he’s at it again, only this time he gets caught in the act. The story behind this scene is a bit of a mix between fact and fiction.
Some reckon the inspiration came from George Dantzig, a mathematician who famously solved two unsolved problems at uni, thinking they were just homework. But Damon has a different tale. According to him, the idea came from a prank his brother Kyle pulled at MIT. During a commencement speech at the uni, Damon shared,
‘Kyle was visiting a physicist we knew at MIT, and he was walking down the Infinite Corridor. He saw those blackboards that line the halls. So my brother, who’s an artist, picked up some chalk and wrote an incredibly elaborate, totally fake, version of an equation.’
He added,
‘It was so cool and so completely insane that no one erased it for months.’
MIT Students Fooled by a Rogue Artist
Kyle’s handiwork didn’t go unnoticed. His made-up equation had students stumped for ages, with blackboards filling up as they tried to crack the code. As Kyle later put it, his prank led to
‘blackboards running down the hall’
as students dedicated themselves to solving what was, in reality, just a bit of artistic mischief.
The story adds a layer of cheeky humour to the film’s legacy, showing that sometimes, a good yarn can be just as powerful as the truth. It’s a classic case of taking the mickey, and it’s no wonder the scene has stuck with audiences for so long.
Damon’s Career After Good Will Hunting
Since then, Damon’s career has gone from strength to strength. He’s taken on everything from action-packed blockbusters like the Bourne series to more serious roles in films such as The Martian and Oppenheimer. Still, many reckon Good Will Hunting remains his standout achievement. The film didn’t just earn him an Oscar; it also set the stage for the careers of Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck, turning them into major stars as well. Like a band’s first big hit, it’s hard to top that kind of debut.