The Adventures of Captain Calculus

Western Honors Program student and Molecular/Cellular Biology major Michael Lee of Port Angeles decided WWU needed its own action hero - and Captain Calculus was born. After watching the video, find out more about who made it and why below.

"I had the idea for this video shortly watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier for the third or fourth time. There’s a scene in the movie near the beginning in which Captain America fights a skilled martial artist. At first, the martial arts guy appears to be winning; Captain America is entirely on the defensive. About halfway through the bout, the other guy taunts Captain America in Russian (there are English subtitles): 'I thought you were more than just a shield.' Captain America, angered, takes off his helmet, puts his shield away, and replies (also in Russian): 'Let’s see.' He then proceeds to unequivocally win the fight. That scene inspired this calculus duel," said Lee.

"I starred in the video as the nerdy calculator guy, and was the principal director of the project.

Kenny Otani is from Freemont, CA. His major is Vehicle Design. He starred opposite me as the principal antagonist of the film (the one who jumps out the window near the beginning).                                                                                           

Daniel Gallegos is from El Paso, Texas. He is currently double-majoring in Biology and Philosophy. He did almost all of the visual post-production work on the video (e.g., editing, visuals for the calculus problems, credits, etc.).

Eric Anderson is from Sequim, and is currently double majoring in Music and Computer Science. He wrote the musical score for this project (including the backtrack for the calc rap at the end).

Daniel Repp, from Issaquah, is double-majoring in Physics and Theatre. His YouTube channel, which contains “Captain Calculus” as well as other productions, may be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1EE8YfHGuFH7y2_85yV5JA. He assisted in cinematography the first day of filming and also wrote and performed the calculus rap near the end of the video.

Dawson Sanders created the explosion effect near the end of the film."