Bennett Hoenicker

Bennett Hoenicker is one of the a supporting antagonist of the 1997 Disney comedy film Flubber. He is the son of the millionaire Chester Hoenicker, who planned to close down Medfield College due to shortage on loan payments.

He was portrayed by Wil Wheaton.

Role
Bennett was sent by his father to Midfield College to get straight As so that he can go to Harvard Business School. However, this wasn't the case when the college started falling on loan payments, prompting Hoenicker to publicly announce that he's going to close down the college if the loan isn't paid by the end of the school year. He's also angered to hear that Bennett is put on academic probation and thrown off the college basketball team due to failing Professor Phillip Brainard's chemistry class.

Wanting to settle scores, Hoenicker sends in his two security Smith and Wesson to Brainard in an attempt to coerce Brainard in giving Bennett a passing grade. Little did he knew that Brainard has created a new energy source known as Flubber (a living green goo that increases in speed as it bounces and flies) in an attempt to raise enough money to pay off the loan and save the college from closure. This was shown when Brainard applied samples of crystallized Flubber into a hand cream, which he uses to send a golf ball and bowling ball bouncing off into the sky endlessly, accidentally hitting Smith and Wesson twice. Upon returning back to Hoenicker's mansion, Smith and Wesson explain their discoveries, though Hoenicker doesn't believe them as he thinks they've gone drinking, even after they revealed the head injuries they received from the bouncing balls.

During the basketball game between the Medfield Squirrels and Rutland Rangers, Bennett is upset to see the Medfield players being beaten down by the more skilled Rutland players during the first half of the game. However, in the second half, the Medfield players turned the tables (thanks to Brainard applying Flubber-coated tacks on their shoes and the same hand cream on their hands to improve their abilities) to win the game, much to Bennett's surprise and delight. Upon witnessing this, Hoenicker realize that Smith and Wesson were telling the truth and deduced that Brainard has created an energy source that allowed the Medfield players to win. Bennett was surprised to hear from his father that the latter witnessed Brainard riding home on his flying car, deducing that it was the same energy source that could've caused it to happen.

Bennett then tags along with his father's plan to steal the Flubber and transform the energy industry for profit. To that end, Smith and Wesson broke into Brainard's house and steal the Flubber after destroying Brainard's robot assistant Weebo when she tried to stop them. Upon returning home with Medfield College President Sara Reynolds, Brainard is horrified to see that the Flubber is stolen and that Weebo is destroyed. Deciding to settle scores with Hoenicker, Brainard cooks up a plan with Sara in confronting Hoenicker under false pretenses of forming a deal to sell the Flubber, eventually learning that Wilson Croft himself is allied with Hoenicker as he too intends to profit out from it. However, applied with Flubber-coated tacks on their shoes and the same hand-cream, Brainard and Sara defeat Smith and Wesson prompting a annoyed Bennett to grab a glass ashtray in an attempt to smack Brainard in the head. However, Brainard applied fluid Flubber on his butt and jumps up, causing the ashtray to deflect and hit Bennett on the head, knocking him out.

It is unknown what happened to Bennett afterwards, though it can be implied that he, along with his father and their men, are arrested and sent to prison. Brainard would later use his flying car to form a deal with the Ford Motor Company (since it was a vintage Ford Thunderbird), allowing him and Sara to gain enough money to save Midfield College from closure.