I like how the novel addresses the question of what the Sphere was designed for. When one of the characters guesses it was designed to test us or punish us, another explains that an ant crawling into a telecom satellite would be killed, and might think the whole thing was some kind of alien device designed to test it.
Possibly a reference to an old science fiction short story about slug-like beings, where one of them discovers a NASA rocket in it's feeding path, and finds the fuel delicious, so ends up stuck inside of the fuel tank when the rocket takes off again. The creature's last thoughts are of how this rocket must have been some sort of cleaver trap.
So the idea is that they assume it was meant for humans because it did affect them but, in all likelihood, it had nothing to do with humans and they just happened to find it. I do like that idea.
I think the actual example was a hyper-intelligent space bacteria and ends with the conclusion why would we design a test for hyper-intelligent bacteria? We don't even know that they exist. I read this book in 8th grade and that's still stuck with me 25 years later. Ultimately, it doesn't _matter_ where the sphere came from. It's just there.
I like the joke after as well, "I hate to be the only non-scientist to notice this, guys. you know what I mean?" shows how, while each member of the team is an expert on their own right, they all are limited by their perspectives. Norman, in the end, solves problem after problem by looking through someone else's perspective, which is what the sphere manifests.
I read the book before the movie came out and enjoyed both. I wish people would stop complaining about the lack of character development in a 2 hour movie adaption verses the novel it is based on. You will always lose out when trying to adapt a novel to a limited medium such as a movie. We all know that the movie will never be as good as the book. Constantly bringing up this point does not make you seem smarter as a reviewer or critic. It would be different if we were talking about an adaption turned into a mini series or multi-movie saga, then the lack of character development would be a valid criticism.
It's tricky to adapt a film from a novel. Part of the problem with Sphere is that the psychology of each character is so important to the story and that's hard to put to screen especially with an ensemble cast. Crichton was also such a technical, scientifically literate writer, which works on page, but not on screen. You can add a lot of subtle details in the film to reflect some of these things, but you can't linger on any of these details like you would in a book. That said there are some film adaptations that I think work better or just as well as their novels because the film is able to highlight certain aspects of the story that novels can't; Jurassic Park is arguably one of them.
I agree. They’re totally different, apples and oranges, I think of movies as time sped up, everything happens very quickly when normally it would take weeks or months.
@@vampricramenTV is the only way to go. Hope Mike Flanagan hurries up and gets started with the Dark Tower. What they did to that series with that movie was criminal….
This is one of my favorite movies! It sucks that the whole idea/message of this novel/movie flew way over most people's heads. Watching this as a child and imagining the horrors that would come into reality if people could make whatever they knew or unknowingly thought of come into existence was truly frightening!
The difference between the manifestation of the sphere and reality is how long it takes. The truth is the world is shaped by the will of groups of people.
No, it didn't. We actually used our brains and figured out that if you have infinite power, you can do anything, including wishing for the knowledge to use that power properly. This is on the level of "you have 3 wishes, so I'm wishing for infinite wishes" type of logic. The movie is practically made for the masses. Any intelligent person can see a bunch of characters with an IQ lower than a child, subconsciously killing each other, while they ACTUALLY HAVE INFINITE POWER! JUST DEACTIVATE THE BOMB! JUST WISH FOR ALL THE KNOWLEDGE! JUST DO SOMETHING... IF YOU KNOW YOU ARE BEING MOVED OR ATTACKED BY SOMEBODY, SUBCONSCIOUSLY WISH TO BE IMMUNE TO THIS ATTACK. IT'S THAT SIMPLE! BAD WRITING...
Damn, what Samuel L. J said at 5:50 was so on point. I mean really, why *would* a being who’s never known or was even capable of death have any concept of morality regarding death (or causing it). In its eyes it may not even perceive someone dying or having been killed as something negative, but as a simple part of our life cycles.
Reminds me of that junji ito story hellstar something or other, with the giant nom-nomming planet that didn’t realize it was actually destroying things.. it was just hungry.
@@f1uc1k1y1o1u in Christianity this is solved by having Jesus live a human life. I think there are other religions who have god come down in some human form to live as their creation lives. Also, if a creator god is omniscient, wouldn’t it be able to fully conceptualize all possibilities?
Michael Crichton wrote some truly terrifying novels. Jurassic Park and Sphere are two of the most recognizable adaptations. His books incorporated enough accurate real world science to introduce fear that his fictional scenarios could potentially become realities.
Crichton truly was a brilliant writer. It's just sad though that he was harassed and shamelessly lambasted by "critics" almost to the level of John Carpenter.
This movie reminded me of the 'Roadside Picnic" trope, where unknowable aliens leave their trash just laying around, not understanding how lesser civilizations could potentially abuse it
Exactly! Grisham borrowed a little from Roadside Picnic. In the novel, stalkers talked about an object that makes any wish a reality, but, the trick was the object made a reality from unconscious thoughts too. One of the team members that joined the search for that object wanted to destroy that object, fearing that unfathomable horrors that human mind might produce.
And the “isolated science crew, making first contact and going insane while trying, due to contactee reading minds and constructing manifestations” personally reminded me of Lem’s _Solaris_
Personally, I always loved the "Toy" theory. The idea that this horrific, unimaginably powerful sphere, so amazing we can only guess at its creation. Is just a toy to a higher being. Like a thing with flashing lights to keep the baby entertained.
I saw this movie so many times as a kid. It has everything, science fiction, psychological horror and nautical exploration. And touches on several thought provoking themes.
Same with me, this was one of those movies that i rented more then once at Blockbuster on a friday night for the weekend. It had Sharon Stone, who triggered my puberty lol, Samuel L Jackson, Dustin Hoffman. It was scary, tense and a mystery at the same time. I forgot about this movie completely until this popped in my feed. I might go buy it digitally and watch it tonight.
Dustin Hoffman said in an interview that there was an hour of footage that was filmed but cut from the movie, and how he was very disappointed to learn that Warner Bros butchered the final cut of Barry Levinson's movie.
Dustin Hoffman is also said to be an unregistered sex offender. So just pump the brakes on making any insane assumptions based on Mr Hoffman's incredible statements, okay Shaine?
I come back to this movie every once in a while. Although the critics took poorly to it, there’s something that just screams “classic psychological horror/thriller” about it that keeps me coming back to enjoy the story. The effects hold up surprisingly well, and the suspense is really well done. Love Sphere!
The idea is not at all "classic". The concept of an alien presence making a person's subconscious imagination become reality was actually kind of a rip-off from Stanislaw Lem's 1961 novel and movie Solaris. The book Sphere was good because it could take the time to really flesh out an interesting approach to the concept, the movie was awful because it just presented the idea in a rushed screenplay format. You could tell it was just slapped together to profit off of Crighton's name recognition at the time from Jurassic Park being relatively recent on people's minds. The actors really phoned it in.
I come back to this movie everytime after I get to hammered and sleep with my step sister again. I've gotten her prego 3 times already. 3 drunk semi incestuous imprego's = 3 sober abortions every single time son.
@@brando3342 And you must be an expert on how people should comment on other people's opinions.... do you see how your logic is circular and nonsensical? If I had agreed with your publicly posted opinion you would have no problem, but since I didn't agree with your publicly posted opinion you get offended. It's like trying to reason with an emotionally unstable child.
@@jennyanydots2389 I never suggested I wanted to reason with you. Post all you want, my only point was this is my opinion. You can have your own if you want, but it doesn’t make mine “invalid” or whatever you were implying.
I always thought of the sphere as a cosmic "swiss army knife"... a useful and possibly even common tool for an advanced race. If I remember properly, this was even mentioned in the book. I picture it as having been misplaced by accident where some kids (humans) could find it. The kids get cut by the blades, and assume it is a test when in reality, they just do not know how to use it safely.
I always assumed it was like a fabrication device and was one of many spread throughout the universe like gas stations by some ancient race to resupply their ships and colonies and one of them was found by the American spaceship and was brought back to earth
@@vipvip-tf9rw I will give you an example that it could happen. A loaded gun found by a child. When you know what it is and how to use it safely it can be a tool. When you don't know what it is or what is does it can be dangerous.
@@georgemartinez9084 a gun is more weapon than tool. I'd like to think it just like one of doraemon gadget. but without doraemon to explain it, or a manual to read from. Imagine stumbling upon doraemon shrinking ray. You dont know what it is, how it works, then accidently shrink one of your colleague. One could think that was dangerous weapon.
I also wonder if Crichton originally meant for the Spaceship members to have tried to destroy the sphere with the black hole, but one(or more) of them didn't want to die but instead get back to Earth and that's what caused the time travel instead of gravity squishing.
I remember feeling tension watching this movie, but I don't remember it being horror. It wasn't dread that I felt. It was more like despondency, because I was shown my limitations. Even geniuses couldn't fathom it, what hope does anyone else have? The "good end" was them simply escaping it. It didn't love them. It didn't hate them. It wasn't even apathetic. They were irrelevant and could do nothing but avoid it.
The score for this movie was composed by Elliot Goldenthal and it’s just fantastic. He did a lot of sci fi movies around this era like Aliens 3 and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Weird to think that the guy who does all of Julie Taymore’s film scores and won an oscar for Frida had a brooding sci fi phase.
I was so excited to be working on this film. Had only been in the industry for a few years, mainly working on TV. This was a big budget feature film. Shot on location in the Bay Area. Great director. Great cast. Based on a Crichton novel. It was science fiction which I loved. I'm building all these amazing sets. Sphere was going to be a science fiction masterpiece and I'd be able to say I had a small part in making it happen. Wha wha whaaah...horrible reviews, bombs at the box office, now long forgotten.
Just to let you know. This is one of my favorite science fiction films ever. The acting is amazing the concept was different and in the end, the biggest villains are just the people's violent impulses and fears. This is an amazing movie and you should be so proud to have worked on it
This film and your work will be appreciated by people like me for decades to come. This has been one of my sci-fi favorites since watching it in the theater. It’s an underrated classic.
@@Nob911 I was IATSE Local 44 propmaker for 13 years. I was a carpenter. Wearing heavy toolbags on a filthy soundstage. Working my ass off 80 hours a week. Trust me, if I was going to lie about working in the industry I'd pick something more glamorous.
The movie was terribly made though. The book was okay but... even then, the concept is pretty much just a modernized version of 1961's Solaris. This is one of Crighton's books that most think he put out just for the money, there are not a lot of original ideas. The entire foundation of an alien presence making a person's imagination become or seem to become real is directly lifted from Solaris which came out in 1961. Solaris was more psychological/philosophical while Sphere was more scientific and "real world" based.
@@jennyanydots2389 Sorta but there was the whole slightly hidden implication that the whole thing is a timeloop. With a few characters stating that the amazon in the hibernation chamber looked kinda like Beth and with it heavily implied that Beth choose not to forget at the end. But yeah outside of that the Sphere is just one big badly used Mcguffin, its never explained in the book what so ever.
Michael Crichton is one of my absolute favorite authors, I've read almost all of his Sci-fi stories of not all of them some more then a couple times. Sphere has always been one of my favorite. Although the movie did leave a lot out of book it was still a great movie that i haven't seen in several years so i just might have to watch it tonight.
I always found this film to be an underrated gem of sci-fi perfection. The director really pushed the stakes in this film and yes we don't get much back story but then again it's hard to get an entire book into a movie without making it too long. I thought the film did enough with the material to not leave the audience in the dark but leave them bored either. There's rarely a boring scene in the sphere
Never heard of this movie until I picked up as part of a sci-fi movie bundle It was a good buy. I doubt the Sphere is made by humans. Could've been made by other aliens or maybe it evolved on its own. I don't know. What I believe happened is that the future humans found the Sphere while exploring, tried to bring it home, hit the black hole, ended up in the ocean, the events of the movie happened and then the Sphere returned to where it was originally found to repeat the cycle again. I do believe the Sphere does have a level of consciousness. Because of this, I wonder how the hell it's coping with reliving the same series of events again and again as it's caught in a time loop.
If you pay attention to when Norman explaines his theory on what happened to the spaceship crew. You find that the crew were affected by the sphere like the scientist were. They manifested their worst fears. possibly attempted or killed one another an manifested a black holes an were pulled into it.
@@j10betty What if that’s a Defensive Mechanism, these things keep trying to move you around or have taken you elsewhere. All you can do either ‘Talk’ or Psychic them out hoping to leave you alone.
Why should It have to cope with reliving? Maybe It isn't aware that there is a time loop... Must admit that I remember little of the movie after 30 years, and I never read the novel. I intend to do that now. Especially because commentator Shaine White posted that WarnerBrothers screwed up the movie.
I believe this movie is sorely underrated. Maybe because of the age I was when I first saw it, there was something immensely disturbing about the team’s interaction with “Jerry”. I’ll never forget how much it scared me and left me wondering what it would be like. Now I need to find this movie and watch it again.
Crichton was a master storyteller. I haven't read all of his books (yet). The film is good imo. Sure, it does not live up to the novel but I think that's the point. Maybe the author wrote it in a way that it wouldn't. Sort of like Lovecraft's adaptations (no matter how good, enjoyable or passable some of them are) can live up to the unspeakable cosmic horror that he wanted to convey. Ironically the mystery of the sphere as something that can't be properly translated or defined cannot be properly adapted to the screen. I do not think even as a series it can. That's the beauty of it.
YES!! Saw this movie in theaters and it freaked me out! I even read the novel after I watched this film, and it was a lot different as we do see the giant squid attacking and killing some of the characters, while the creature itself ends up getting killed with a spear gun. This was an awesome action sequence that sadly never made the final cut of the movie. The novel is left ambiguous as Beth, one of the main characters, might have the power of the sphere and is not going to give up that power, either she will use it do good or evil is unknown. An alternative ending was filmed but was cut as Norman, Harry, and Beth pretend that they know nothing about the sphere or what really happened to the spacecraft. The sphere can be seen lying at the bottom of the ocean, as the 3 main characters fly away in a helicopter back to the mainland.
It's funny you say it freaked you out. I remember being young and wanting to go see this. So my dad said sure, I invited my next door neighbor friend who didn't wanna go because it looked scary. We leave the film and I am SHOOK and my friend was like "man that was AWESOME!" 😂
@@brettcloud8550 imagine your fantasizing about the perfect girl go into the sphere and she appears to you just like you imagined no scaryness for you just good times🤣
My perception of the sphere as a kid was that the sphere was the subconscious of the main character, he had after all written the report that brought them all there, in the book it implies a deeper connection between Jerry and him, that it was him that was dragging the subconscious thoughts of his fellow crewmates into reality and the sphere was simply an object of fixation to direct all of this through.
you gotta love that line (what worries me is that it's reflecting everything but us. common guys. I hate to be the one non scientist that figures this out)
Michael Crichton was an excellent author. Sphere and Prey were my introduction to more thought out sci-fi when I was a kid and I've been a lifelong "the books were better" nerd about Jurassic Park. Thank you for reminding me that some of his books were made into movies, I'll have to go rewatch some of them
Moral of the Story is "mankind are our own worst quality" had everybody been happy, it would reflect that. No the ship is not a time traveled ship. It reflects what THEY personally want, think and fear.
Micheal Crichton is my all time favorite writer. He took a novice interest in highly scientific studies in which to create an entry-canvas for one's own personal exploration. That's the purpose of writing - open your reader to new worlds, thoughts, ideals. Sphere sparked my interest into Jung psych-analyzation techniques and they changed my life for the better.
I was a huge Crichton fan as a kid. I loved the way he wove the scientific theories into his narratives. I've read a lot of hard science fiction, but never read anything quite like his style.
"What happens if Jerry gets mad?" That's a scary thought, knowing that you're at the bottom of the ocean with an alien entity that might pose a threat to your very existence.
Harry's comments about how they'd handle a species that doesn't experience death like we do was also pretty chilling. Such a creature is beyond our experience and thus in my mind approaches some Lovecraftian level of unknowable being.
"We die down here, Norman. As a matter of deductive logic." Always sends chills down my spine. You don't know what's going to happen, but you know you're not going to survive. Mad spook.
@@erikmckoul2478 A la "I have no mouth and I must scream"? I am personally glad they didn't go that route, but only because I prefer psychological horror to body horror. (Personal preference, ofc. Nothin wrong with it if that's your thing.)
0:49 “what worries me is that it’s reflecting everything but us.” Actually, that *is* a deeply worrying observation, if you really think about it. It means 1: there is some mechanism controlling the physical properties of the sphere. 2: that mechanism has some degree of intelligence, and can react to it’s surroundings. 3: It identifies humans, specifically.
Thank you for reminding me of this semi-forgotten gem. The idea of reality warping seemed profound to me when I was a child and still is when I have grown up.
Thanks. I read the book years ago [still have it]. The sphere's power reminds me of C.S. Lewis' story "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader". In it, they come across a single swimmer who's escaped from a nearby island. He's pale, gaunt, and terrified. The island turns out to be a place where dreams come true. Also: "Forbidden Planet". tavi.
Happy to hear I wasn't the only one who's mind couldn't comprehend this movie at 10 years old. It was scary enough with the sea creatures but I felt sick for a long time trying to comprehend what was going on at 10 years old so I put it out of my mind for mental health.
At the end they choose to forget/lose the power and experience about the sphere, fearing what would happen if they dreamt nightmares into existence with their thoughts but i wonder i thy could have just all wished to know how to control their power and not let it bring any unwanted effects until they wilfully chose to use it. Still one of the movies that gives me goosebumps, especially the squid eggs scene.
@@randyallen1965 Because our minds are capable to create marvelous wonders and unspeakable horrors in a whim, we're not in control especially during sleep and in that time reality we know could end in most frightening way.
Michael Crichton was a master of imaginative, horrifying yet plausible science fiction. Each of his novels and adaptations were realistic takes on various science fiction tropes
According to Crichton, one of the most interesting and counter-intuitive possible "purposes" of the Sphere, is that the Sphere does not have any "purpose" that the protagonists attribute to it at all. Imagine a Transmitter, for example. Now imagine that some insects somehow got inside the Waveguide or Magnetron and was killed by a standing wave arc. Would the insects say "My God! This thing was built to kill us", or "This is a Test intended for us". In fact, ofc, the Transmitter wasn't built for anything of the like. Different Perspectives imprint different projections of one's values onto the world and objects around them. Barnes, Norman, Harry, Ted, etc, all posit different purposes and motivations for the Sphere depending on their own Military, Mathematic, Psychologist, etc, backgrounds. But the Sphere might simply be just a Sphere, something with an unrelated purpose, or a purpose so prosaic and banal that you could roll your eyes at it, or have no purpose fit for human utility and comprehension at all. It could be the ball of an Alien's Cat-action toy that got tossed away and randomly acquired these "Powers", taking on a life of its own, like ocean garbage becoming a colony for marine life and coral.
Great video, man. Might want to upgrade that mic, but that’s a minor thing. I really loved this book and movie, along with The 13th Warrior, The Andromeda Strain, and many other Crichton works. The man was great at synthesizing history, science, and speculation and I believe he never got the recognition he deserved, even though he made millions off of Jurassic Park, ER, and so on. Of course, he made some turds too, like Timeline and Congo. But he inspired the wonder of seeing the big picture and speculating on where it might lead us in a way the best minds before him - Shelley, Verne, Welles, Asimov - famously did, and perhaps some (King, Tyson, others) still do. During the 90s he was the MAN, and I think I’m still waiting for someone like him to reappear on the scene to make me love reading *thinking-persons’ thrillers* again.
I have a grudge about how they handled Norman and when and how he entered the sphere. The book has him going in after they figured things out and doing it knowingly, so he has higher control because he understands the human mind as a psychologist. The movie had him going in earlier, and thus not in control.
@@TheMimiSard And this changes the entire fundamental nature of the story so I don't know how this dude is saying the movie was "pretty faithful". I think they did a very poor job with the movie, it all seemed phoned in just to take advantage of Crighton's name recognition at the time being that Jurassic Park had come out relatively recently. It's a shame because this could have been a good movie. Solaris already tackled the almost exact same concept but in a much more philosophical/psychological way, this could have been a more reality-based version of Solaris if they did it right. Instead, it's just a throwaway late '90's generic sci-fi film.
@@nojuanatall3281 What? You got that backward buddy... and even then, not really. If you think that movie is "absolute gold" compared to anything during any time you have a very distorted perception of what gold really is. Sphere the movie was one of the most disappointing adaptations of a Michael Crichton novel out there. It's a movie with a solid first half but a disaster of a second half. If you think this movie does the book justice I have to question whether you are being honest when you say you read the book.
@@jennyanydots2389 You missed his point. His point was that no matter how bad you think it was, movies today do even worse. Hence the "Compared to media these days..." or did you just completely skip over that to the end?
That's the loop. Humans from the future find the sphere, they go through a black hole, crash in the ocean on earth 100's of year in the past. They die from the sphere manifestations. Then this crew show up, go through what they did and send it back, to once again be found by the crew in the future, who then go through a black hole, and crash on earth 100's of years in the past... lol. Only problem with this is that in the book one of the crew keep the power. So idk.
@@WobblesandBean In the book, she definitely keeps the power. They even comment that she looks unusually lovely, as if she had used the power of the sphere to turn back the clock on her age.
My head canon is that the future American crew found it and decided to take it back, didn't know what it was or what it was capable of, and one of them was worried or curious about black holes, accidentally creating one using the sphere that sucked them all in and killed the crew when they crashed, leaving the sphere stuck. Which also makes me lean towards it having been created by another species, if it was its own entity it wouldn't make sense that it's clearly so dependent on input from others to do actually do anything. I think it's some sort of highly advanced and powerful AI.
I have to wonder when people say that 'this or that' is impossible or unlikely when space itself is impossible! As a 12 year old during astronomy lessons at school I asked what was at the end of space and my teacher, surprised, answered more space, infinite space. I went home and felt very troubled by this sitting up nights trying to fathom a void that went on forever, no beginning, no end , no 'edge' just infinite nothing full of spheres hurtling through it at vaste speeds with our peopled by such little beings. I would go outside my village at dark and lie on the topmost tomb in the cemetry and look at the milky way as we turned and wondered how many more of us there were out there. For years it troubles me that people just shrugged of this concept, imagine such an endless void and what it contains !
C'mon bro! It's almost 5am here in the UK! Man needs his sleep, and you drop one of your bangers!! Ah well, who needs sleep anyway?! It's SPHERE'ing time! 😂
In the book that ship and the sphere is actually the source of all life on earth, the next part is that the origin of the sphere isn't important to the grand scheme of what happened. Then the next part is that yes it absolutely allows people to manifest their dreams and fears but it has a bit of a certain amount of interesting interaction in that even though it manifests the thoughts it seems to do so in a way that results personal understanding and beliefs being the most solid. Then the sphere itself allows the manifestation to become more solid the more people see it and furthermore if those without the power see it the manifestation becomes completely real. The sphere is sent both forward and back in time at different points in time. The actual origin isn't important because it doesn't matter there is a time loop AKA a bootstrap paradox in place that doesn't have any important information or features to it.
And suddenly I understand where the inspiration for Annihilation came from! I haven't seen this one, I was a wee baby when it came out and had managed to never hear of it until I saw your video in my feed. A book for the list :)
Okay I have this theory about the book. I think the ship crashed immediately or soon after picking up the sphere, because of the sphere. If you are taking on interstellar travel what would be one of your worst fears. Falling into a black hole and traveling back in time maybe?
or maybe they realized they cannot control it and made the decision to destroy it by send it into a black hole. (and maybe at / in the black hole the instinct for survival kicked in and a passenger thought he would like to go back to more "primitive" times so the sphere made that happen ) plans within plans
Imagine this is just a common household item in a perfect future, where human can control their thought, and this item can do whatever a person want with the ship, from recreation activities to traveling the universe, and someone sent it back to help accelerate the human civilization but didn't expect the human mind was still too unpredictable
I very much enjoyed both the novel and the movie. I liked how logical the characters were in illogical situations. I really enjoyed how it was written as it left things to speculation that it had slowly led you to. I think I now need to watch it again.
The funny part about the ending, if they did get rid of the sphere, is that they probably sent it back to the future creating a loop that leads back to what Harry said about them dying down there and not alerting the future about the sphere. He wasn’t right but he wasn’t wrong either. The reason the future never knew was because they assumed they got rid of it and probably figured it wouldn’t be worth it to try and explain what doesn’t exist. Only problem is, it still exists. It is in the future affecting that first crew, creating a groundhogs day loop where the sphere will exist solely within those time periods 1. Future crew goes out into space, runs into sphere, experiences an unknown event and goes into a black hole 2. Spaceship and sphere end up in past 3. Past crew explores ship and either die or escape to surface and wish sphere away 4. Sphere goes back into future, someone subconsciously probably thought about it 5. Crew goes on with their lives never speaking about what happened, causing the sphere’s powers to remain an unknown event 6. Rinse and repeat
The Sphere is an interesting inversion of an old pen and paper RPG I played back in the day, Mage The Ascension. In that game, you basically had to have strength of will to override the consensus and make your will reality. This is the opposite--you need to have strength of will to keep shit normal and not let your thoughts run wild. Some Jedi-like discipline would be required, but being able to reshape reality by thought alone would allow you to construct spacecraft capable of faster-than-light travel, simply by believing it to be possible. Sort of like the biology of those jellyfish, the science and technology might make no sense at all, yet they would work anyway as long as you didn't somehow become convinced that it didn't.
This kind of story would lend itself really well to the streaming service model of a three to six episode limited series of about an hour each. They could then take the time to include character backgrounds and not rush as much. Also, they could draw out the feeling of dread and how it grows amongst the group throughout the series. And personally, I'd love if the cast were relatively unknown so that you can get lost in the story better
im reading the book about 20 years ago when i still in middle school. i was trapped in our school library because of rains and decided to read this novel. i found about the movie just yesterday and thanks to your video i refreshed my memory once again
This is one of my favorite Crichton books, right up there with Jurassic Park. The way it set up the mystery of the ship even before they find the sphere just really grabbed me. The movie could have been better, but I still enjoyed it a lot! Really my only criticism was that they made the sphere all rippling and weird instead of perfectly mirror-smooth.
Oh man I remember my dad reading the book to me in elementary school, we were both really stoked when the movie came out. lol I always tacitly assumed it was an accident and the thing just got stuck in their ship going through the black hole like a birdbath impacted on the hood of a car that careened through somebody's yard. And then some hyperdimensional godlike alien who lives in that exotic spacetime it leads to is all "...Hey, where's my lucky ontology wrench?! I only turned my back for like 2 eons...! Ah, yep, looks like some bugs got in here through the hole again and it stuck to 'em. Oh well, it's just your basic manifester, it's not like you can cause any _real_ trouble with it..." But I'm liking these other explanations as well.
the sphere being a morality test to prevent sociopathic species from achieving star flight, and only allow those who have the good sense to resist the temptation of the power of the sphere to live is a satisfying explanation for its existence, but reveals little about those who made it (are the compassionate, or jealous?) which i like.. great movie imo
There's also the possibility that the sphere just exists with no beginning or end in a stable time loop. When they all forget, the sphere flies off into space, confusing the crews of the military ships on the surface. In the future, humanity has the technology to build a ship to find what flew out of the ocean centuries ago. One of the crew starts thinking about black holes and boom, now the sphere is back in the ocean waiting to be discovered, forgotten, and launched into space again.
Your breakdowns are nothing short of incredible. Thank you so much for making these videos, they are THE BEST. I absolutely loved this movie when I was a kid. Scared the shit out of me (Still kind of does) I hate deep sea-anything and this movie left a lot to your imagination and I definitely imagined the worst.
My theory is that the sphere is the endgame of psychotherapy and meditative solace. Basically, an OP therapist/guru helping you to overcome your deepest fears. Perhaps it was meant to be paired with some sort of safety mechanism that got lost in shipping. Maybe a second sphere that was the ying to its yang?
Except it also makes one of the crew prettier (symbolised in the movie by the pink eye shadow she's suddenly wearing) - so it's not just fears, it's everything. The real question is why they didn't choose to will the sphere to make them understand how to properly use the sphere.
I’m reminded of the Krell from ’Forbidden Planet’, where those beings created a device to grant any desire, consciously or unconsciously. Unfortunately they weren’t ready for that kind of power, and every secret devil came and destroy their civilization overnight. Perhaps the sphere is a similar device from other race that also died off?
The purpose of interstellar travel is to reduce existential threat to a species. A craft travel interstellar distances carrying the sphere, meaning the sphere was created at least in conjuction with interstellar travel. Should the technology for the sphere lead to an extinction event, then it's not very likely the species that developed it would be hurtling through the universe with ir onboard a ship.
I read this book when I was in third grade. It was fantastic. And back then this was the only movie that vaguely resembled the book. Excellent soundtrack too. Its fits the movie perfectly.
Boy had I forgotten that jellyfish scene. Man, I remember that. As someone who was also terrified of jellyfish as a kid, I really remember that scene. The mask bit just looks painful to me. Anyway, great summary and review (or overview rather) of the movie!
Oh boy, I loved this movie. Yes, it differs from the novel in some big ways, but I feel like they couldn't really do the novel justice in a 2 hour movie (and with CGI at the time, nowadays maybe) and it nailed all the major plot points of the novel (well other than explaining the sphere itself I suppose). The cast is AMAZING and some of the sequences are literally terrifying - especially since it takes place at the bottom of the ocean, which I'm sure scares most people with just the thought of that scenario. The music is also great. And Queen Latifah doesn't get enough credit for this role, I feel like her "segment" and death (sorry, spoilers) is one of the creepiest, nastiest things I've seen in movies up to that point in time. And since I was going to theaters since 1978 or so, that's pretty incredible in and of itself. As for the ending, I didn't find it bad or not explaining things enough, I think it made perfect sense. But I can understand how some found it underwhelming or confusing.
Went and watched the movie first so I could watch this video, damn it was a good movie thanks for revealing it to me. P.S we aren't a type 1 civilization yet we are at 0.72
One of my favorite bands has based multiple albums off theories such as the Drake equation, the Fermi Paradox, the Great Filter and Zoo hypothesis. Songs like wheres the robot, impress your creators, habitat, Numbers and without you all touch on themes of being in an alien ant farm, AI, Singularity, mathematics, dreams and more. If you like heavy and multi genre experimental music the ideas should be heard. Tub Ring is the band.
One of the most underrated sci-fi movies ever. The cast are all A-listers and the story is better than The Abyss or any similar movie. I never understood why it was rated so low on IMDb. I've been a fan ever since I saw it at age 24 when it came out.
00:10 Sphere is obviously rippling significantly. "I bet this is a perfect sphere within a thousandth of an inch." Uhm, each ripple is more than an inch.
Loved this video! One thing that would be great though is if you could do captions! They're not exactly picking up what you're saying and I missed pieces of it because of that. Please consider doing captions on future videos! :)
I saw this movie on daytime broadcast television ~15 years ago while home sick from high school. I was running an awfully high fever, so for *over a decade* I’ve thought about this movie about once a month, not knowing if it was a fever dream fantasy. Today, it’s real. Floored.
Jesus Christ in Heaven. I saw this movie when I was like 9 or 10 years old and it freaked me the fuck out. It didn't help that I caught it mid movie, but the jellyfish scene and the fact that Samuel L Jackson's character kept reading that book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, with him sleeping and dreaming those creatures scared the shite outta me. This was way before I ever heard of Lovecraft. The psychological aspect is refreshing, yet it takes real creative talent to pull it off. Michael Crichton is a rare genius who did used his knowledge to influence his work. The man is a badass writer.
My theory was that the sphere was a portion of the ship's experimental spacedrive that allowed it to travel through time-space continuum. But its presence tended to warp reality, leading to unforseen consequences.
Alice's Jellyfish demise is right up there with other hilarious marine life-related deaths, such as Franklin being gobbled by the shark in Deep Blue Sea 🦈💀😭
16:21 You either misread or what you read was wrong. We're only a Type 0.7 civilization. We're close to a Type 1. Having the tech to be one is probably only less than 100 years away. Implementing it will probably take much longer.
I like how the novel addresses the question of what the Sphere was designed for. When one of the characters guesses it was designed to test us or punish us, another explains that an ant crawling into a telecom satellite would be killed, and might think the whole thing was some kind of alien device designed to test it.
Possibly a reference to an old science fiction short story about slug-like beings, where one of them discovers a NASA rocket in it's feeding path, and finds the fuel delicious, so ends up stuck inside of the fuel tank when the rocket takes off again. The creature's last thoughts are of how this rocket must have been some sort of cleaver trap.
So the idea is that they assume it was meant for humans because it did affect them but, in all likelihood, it had nothing to do with humans and they just happened to find it. I do like that idea.
So, like an underwater version of Roadside Picnic then?
@@Cascadejackal That's a great comparison
I think the actual example was a hyper-intelligent space bacteria and ends with the conclusion why would we design a test for hyper-intelligent bacteria? We don't even know that they exist.
I read this book in 8th grade and that's still stuck with me 25 years later. Ultimately, it doesn't _matter_ where the sphere came from. It's just there.
I will always hold this movie, Event Horizon, and Sunshine as absolute sci-fi classics worth going back to again and again 👌
Some of my favourite films. They have such similar themes that you could almost picture the three in a shared universe :)
The only one i haven't seen is Sunshine. I'm going to have to give it a watch bc i live the other 2.
@@gothgirl4evr414 Oh man, you will NOT be disappointed by Sunshine! I think it’s actually my favourite of the 3!
@@filmcomicsexplained Absolutely!
I feel like Sphere and Event Horizon together could have been a pretty awesome series...make the third film a trilogy wrap-up?
"what worries me is its reflecting everything but us" that's such a great line
really highlights something so simple being so wrong
I like the joke after as well, "I hate to be the only non-scientist to notice this, guys. you know what I mean?" shows how, while each member of the team is an expert on their own right, they all are limited by their perspectives. Norman, in the end, solves problem after problem by looking through someone else's perspective, which is what the sphere manifests.
I read the book before the movie came out and enjoyed both. I wish people would stop complaining about the lack of character development in a 2 hour movie adaption verses the novel it is based on. You will always lose out when trying to adapt a novel to a limited medium such as a movie. We all know that the movie will never be as good as the book. Constantly bringing up this point does not make you seem smarter as a reviewer or critic. It would be different if we were talking about an adaption turned into a mini series or multi-movie saga, then the lack of character development would be a valid criticism.
It's tricky to adapt a film from a novel. Part of the problem with Sphere is that the psychology of each character is so important to the story and that's hard to put to screen especially with an ensemble cast. Crichton was also such a technical, scientifically literate writer, which works on page, but not on screen. You can add a lot of subtle details in the film to reflect some of these things, but you can't linger on any of these details like you would in a book. That said there are some film adaptations that I think work better or just as well as their novels because the film is able to highlight certain aspects of the story that novels can't; Jurassic Park is arguably one of them.
I agree. They’re totally different, apples and oranges, I think of movies as time sped up, everything happens very quickly when normally it would take weeks or months.
Well said.
In a review of the film not ever reaching the book I want to hear the differences
@@vampricramenTV is the only way to go. Hope Mike Flanagan hurries up and gets started with the Dark Tower. What they did to that series with that movie was criminal….
This is one of my favorite movies! It sucks that the whole idea/message of this novel/movie flew way over most people's heads. Watching this as a child and imagining the horrors that would come into reality if people could make whatever they knew or unknowingly thought of come into existence was truly frightening!
The difference between the manifestation of the sphere and reality is how long it takes. The truth is the world is shaped by the will of groups of people.
All is mind. Mind is all.
No, it didn't. We actually used our brains and figured out that if you have infinite power, you can do anything, including wishing for the knowledge to use that power properly.
This is on the level of "you have 3 wishes, so I'm wishing for infinite wishes" type of logic.
The movie is practically made for the masses. Any intelligent person can see a bunch of characters with an IQ lower than a child, subconsciously killing each other, while they ACTUALLY HAVE INFINITE POWER!
JUST DEACTIVATE THE BOMB! JUST WISH FOR ALL THE KNOWLEDGE! JUST DO SOMETHING...
IF YOU KNOW YOU ARE BEING MOVED OR ATTACKED BY SOMEBODY, SUBCONSCIOUSLY WISH TO BE IMMUNE TO THIS ATTACK.
IT'S THAT SIMPLE!
BAD WRITING...
@Zargabaathlol 👍😁u tell em
Did nobody watch Ghostbusters staypuff
Damn, what Samuel L. J said at 5:50 was so on point. I mean really, why *would* a being who’s never known or was even capable of death have any concept of morality regarding death (or causing it). In its eyes it may not even perceive someone dying or having been killed as something negative, but as a simple part of our life cycles.
Reminds me of that junji ito story hellstar something or other, with the giant nom-nomming planet that didn’t realize it was actually destroying things.. it was just hungry.
This is my issue with a creator god
@@mak3yasmiil3huh?
@@Midnightv how could a creator god understand our pain and condition if he has never felt our pain or condition
he can't empathize with us
@@f1uc1k1y1o1u in Christianity this is solved by having Jesus live a human life. I think there are other religions who have god come down in some human form to live as their creation lives.
Also, if a creator god is omniscient, wouldn’t it be able to fully conceptualize all possibilities?
Michael Crichton wrote some truly terrifying novels. Jurassic Park and Sphere are two of the most recognizable adaptations. His books incorporated enough accurate real world science to introduce fear that his fictional scenarios could potentially become realities.
I would love to see a movie or tv series based on Michael Crichton's "Prey"
I loved Crichton's Congo
Crichton truly was a brilliant writer. It's just sad though that he was harassed and shamelessly lambasted by "critics" almost to the level of John Carpenter.
My favorite kind of sci-fi horror is the plausible kind
Didn’t he also author Westworld and follow ups?
This movie reminded me of the 'Roadside Picnic" trope, where unknowable aliens leave their trash just laying around, not understanding how lesser civilizations could potentially abuse it
Russians made movie based on that novel. Movie was called "Stalker". Had read that novel many , many moons ago.
@@greywolf88 I haven't seen the movie but I plan to someday! I find that premise so fascinating!
Exactly! Grisham borrowed a little from Roadside Picnic. In the novel, stalkers talked about an object that makes any wish a reality, but, the trick was the object made a reality from unconscious thoughts too. One of the team members that joined the search for that object wanted to destroy that object, fearing that unfathomable horrors that human mind might produce.
And the “isolated science crew, making first contact and going insane while trying, due to contactee reading minds and constructing manifestations” personally reminded me of Lem’s _Solaris_
@@FrankFrankly711 There a lot of philosophical questions in the book
Personally, I always loved the "Toy" theory. The idea that this horrific, unimaginably powerful sphere, so amazing we can only guess at its creation. Is just a toy to a higher being. Like a thing with flashing lights to keep the baby entertained.
I saw this movie so many times as a kid. It has everything, science fiction, psychological horror and nautical exploration. And touches on several thought provoking themes.
Read the book. It's even better.
Same with me, this was one of those movies that i rented more then once at Blockbuster on a friday night for the weekend. It had Sharon Stone, who triggered my puberty lol, Samuel L Jackson, Dustin Hoffman. It was scary, tense and a mystery at the same time. I forgot about this movie completely until this popped in my feed. I might go buy it digitally and watch it tonight.
random question, do you like trains?
Dustin Hoffman said in an interview that there was an hour of footage that was filmed but cut from the movie, and how he was very disappointed to learn that Warner Bros butchered the final cut of Barry Levinson's movie.
Learning this i want an extended cut released.
Dustin Hoffman is also said to be an unregistered sex offender. So just pump the brakes on making any insane assumptions based on Mr Hoffman's incredible statements, okay Shaine?
WB stay butchering movies.
@@andymcfly Is that code for some kind of sex crime son?
WB cutting room floor is a treasure trove of lost media
I come back to this movie every once in a while. Although the critics took poorly to it, there’s something that just screams “classic psychological horror/thriller” about it that keeps me coming back to enjoy the story.
The effects hold up surprisingly well, and the suspense is really well done.
Love Sphere!
The idea is not at all "classic". The concept of an alien presence making a person's subconscious imagination become reality was actually kind of a rip-off from Stanislaw Lem's 1961 novel and movie Solaris. The book Sphere was good because it could take the time to really flesh out an interesting approach to the concept, the movie was awful because it just presented the idea in a rushed screenplay format. You could tell it was just slapped together to profit off of Crighton's name recognition at the time from Jurassic Park being relatively recent on people's minds. The actors really phoned it in.
I come back to this movie everytime after I get to hammered and sleep with my step sister again. I've gotten her prego 3 times already. 3 drunk semi incestuous imprego's = 3 sober abortions every single time son.
@@jennyanydots2389 Wow, y’all are just experts at what people’s opinions should be, aren’t ya? 🤦♂️
@@brando3342 And you must be an expert on how people should comment on other people's opinions.... do you see how your logic is circular and nonsensical? If I had agreed with your publicly posted opinion you would have no problem, but since I didn't agree with your publicly posted opinion you get offended. It's like trying to reason with an emotionally unstable child.
@@jennyanydots2389 I never suggested I wanted to reason with you. Post all you want, my only point was this is my opinion. You can have your own if you want, but it doesn’t make mine “invalid” or whatever you were implying.
I always thought of the sphere as a cosmic "swiss army knife"... a useful and possibly even common tool for an advanced race. If I remember properly, this was even mentioned in the book.
I picture it as having been misplaced by accident where some kids (humans) could find it. The kids get cut by the blades, and assume it is a test when in reality, they just do not know how to use it safely.
Yeah lost like rtg, those super dangerous things are sooo easy to loose
I always assumed it was like a fabrication device and was one of many spread throughout the universe like gas stations by some ancient race to resupply their ships and colonies and one of them was found by the American spaceship and was brought back to earth
@@vipvip-tf9rw I will give you an example that it could happen. A loaded gun found by a child.
When you know what it is and how to use it safely it can be a tool. When you don't know what it is or what is does it can be dangerous.
@@georgemartinez9084 a gun is more weapon than tool.
I'd like to think it just like one of doraemon gadget. but without doraemon to explain it, or a manual to read from.
Imagine stumbling upon doraemon shrinking ray. You dont know what it is, how it works, then accidently shrink one of your colleague. One could think that was dangerous weapon.
I also wonder if Crichton originally meant for the Spaceship members to have tried to destroy the sphere with the black hole, but one(or more) of them didn't want to die but instead get back to Earth and that's what caused the time travel instead of gravity squishing.
I remember feeling tension watching this movie, but I don't remember it being horror. It wasn't dread that I felt. It was more like despondency, because I was shown my limitations. Even geniuses couldn't fathom it, what hope does anyone else have?
The "good end" was them simply escaping it. It didn't love them. It didn't hate them. It wasn't even apathetic. They were irrelevant and could do nothing but avoid it.
I felt that tension too...I think its s noise frequency th!t they use in horror films to keep you on edge.
Psychological horror Suspense can also be in horror. Body horror as well comes from this sub genre. Cosmic horror is also another thing jsuk.
The score for this movie was composed by Elliot Goldenthal and it’s just fantastic. He did a lot of sci fi movies around this era like Aliens 3 and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Weird to think that the guy who does all of Julie Taymore’s film scores and won an oscar for Frida had a brooding sci fi phase.
Yah it's good
I was so excited to be working on this film. Had only been in the industry for a few years, mainly working on TV. This was a big budget feature film. Shot on location in the Bay Area. Great director. Great cast. Based on a Crichton novel. It was science fiction which I loved. I'm building all these amazing sets. Sphere was going to be a science fiction masterpiece and I'd be able to say I had a small part in making it happen. Wha wha whaaah...horrible reviews, bombs at the box office, now long forgotten.
Just to let you know. This is one of my favorite science fiction films ever. The acting is amazing the concept was different and in the end, the biggest villains are just the people's violent impulses and fears. This is an amazing movie and you should be so proud to have worked on it
This film and your work will be appreciated by people like me for decades to come. This has been one of my sci-fi favorites since watching it in the theater. It’s an underrated classic.
Sure you did and i directed avatar 2
Sure you did and i directed avatar 2
@@Nob911 I was IATSE Local 44 propmaker for 13 years. I was a carpenter. Wearing heavy toolbags on a filthy soundstage. Working my ass off 80 hours a week. Trust me, if I was going to lie about working in the industry I'd pick something more glamorous.
Finally, someone bringing this movie to light.
The movie was terribly made though. The book was okay but... even then, the concept is pretty much just a modernized version of 1961's Solaris. This is one of Crighton's books that most think he put out just for the money, there are not a lot of original ideas. The entire foundation of an alien presence making a person's imagination become or seem to become real is directly lifted from Solaris which came out in 1961. Solaris was more psychological/philosophical while Sphere was more scientific and "real world" based.
Don't pay attention to Jenny. She is full of sh*t and offering her opinion as fact all over these comments.
@@jennyanydots2389 Sorta but there was the whole slightly hidden implication that the whole thing is a timeloop. With a few characters stating that the amazon in the hibernation chamber looked kinda like Beth and with it heavily implied that Beth choose not to forget at the end. But yeah outside of that the Sphere is just one big badly used Mcguffin, its never explained in the book what so ever.
Michael Crichton is one of my absolute favorite authors, I've read almost all of his Sci-fi stories of not all of them some more then a couple times. Sphere has always been one of my favorite. Although the movie did leave a lot out of book it was still a great movie that i haven't seen in several years so i just might have to watch it tonight.
I always found this film to be an underrated gem of sci-fi perfection. The director really pushed the stakes in this film and yes we don't get much back story but then again it's hard to get an entire book into a movie without making it too long. I thought the film did enough with the material to not leave the audience in the dark but leave them bored either. There's rarely a boring scene in the sphere
1) The Abyss
2) Sphere
3) Event Horizon
My favorite sci-fi classics from when I was young!
Never heard of this movie until I picked up as part of a sci-fi movie bundle It was a good buy. I doubt the Sphere is made by humans. Could've been made by other aliens or maybe it evolved on its own. I don't know. What I believe happened is that the future humans found the Sphere while exploring, tried to bring it home, hit the black hole, ended up in the ocean, the events of the movie happened and then the Sphere returned to where it was originally found to repeat the cycle again. I do believe the Sphere does have a level of consciousness. Because of this, I wonder how the hell it's coping with reliving the same series of events again and again as it's caught in a time loop.
If you pay attention to when Norman explaines his theory on what happened to the spaceship crew. You find that the crew were affected by the sphere like the scientist were. They manifested their worst fears. possibly attempted or killed one another an manifested a black holes an were pulled into it.
In the novel, it actually goes into detail of what happens to them when they enter the sphere. Not gonna spoil it, though x)
It's probably bored out of its mind and trying to mess with the crew for funsies.
@@j10betty What if that’s a Defensive Mechanism, these things keep trying to move you around or have taken you elsewhere. All you can do either ‘Talk’ or Psychic them out hoping to leave you alone.
Why should It have to cope with reliving? Maybe It isn't aware that there is a time loop...
Must admit that I remember little of the movie after 30 years, and I never read the novel. I intend to do that now. Especially because commentator Shaine White posted that WarnerBrothers screwed up the movie.
I believe this movie is sorely underrated.
Maybe because of the age I was when I first saw it, there was something immensely disturbing about the team’s interaction with “Jerry”. I’ll never forget how much it scared me and left me wondering what it would be like.
Now I need to find this movie and watch it again.
I have been trying to find this movie since I was 8 years old!!!! I thought it was a fever dream. Thank you for providing me with peace 😌
You were meant to forget about the sphere.
Lol
The mind of Michael Crichton was a treasure.
Crichton was a master storyteller. I haven't read all of his books (yet). The film is good imo. Sure, it does not live up to the novel but I think that's the point. Maybe the author wrote it in a way that it wouldn't. Sort of like Lovecraft's adaptations (no matter how good, enjoyable or passable some of them are) can live up to the unspeakable cosmic horror that he wanted to convey. Ironically the mystery of the sphere as something that can't be properly translated or defined cannot be properly adapted to the screen. I do not think even as a series it can. That's the beauty of it.
Read State of Fear. It was so ahead of its time
YES!!
Saw this movie in theaters and it freaked me out! I even read the novel after I watched this film, and it was a lot different as we do see the giant squid attacking and killing some of the characters, while the creature itself ends up getting killed with a spear gun. This was an awesome action sequence that sadly never made the final cut of the movie. The novel is left ambiguous as Beth, one of the main characters, might have the power of the sphere and is not going to give up that power, either she will use it do good or evil is unknown. An alternative ending was filmed but was cut as Norman, Harry, and Beth pretend that they know nothing about the sphere or what really happened to the spacecraft. The sphere can be seen lying at the bottom of the ocean, as the 3 main characters fly away in a helicopter back to the mainland.
yes it is a gold ball worth trillions of dollar baby you know you want it🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It's funny you say it freaked you out. I remember being young and wanting to go see this. So my dad said sure, I invited my next door neighbor friend who didn't wanna go because it looked scary. We leave the film and I am SHOOK and my friend was like "man that was AWESOME!" 😂
@@brettcloud8550 imagine your fantasizing about the perfect girl go into the sphere and she appears to you just like you imagined no scaryness for you just good times🤣
My perception of the sphere as a kid was that the sphere was the subconscious of the main character, he had after all written the report that brought them all there, in the book it implies a deeper connection between Jerry and him, that it was him that was dragging the subconscious thoughts of his fellow crewmates into reality and the sphere was simply an object of fixation to direct all of this through.
you gotta love that line (what worries me is that it's reflecting everything but us. common guys. I hate to be the one non scientist that figures this out)
Michael Crichton was an excellent author. Sphere and Prey were my introduction to more thought out sci-fi when I was a kid and I've been a lifelong "the books were better" nerd about Jurassic Park. Thank you for reminding me that some of his books were made into movies, I'll have to go rewatch some of them
The pacing failures are key. Thanks for highlighting this. It should have been paced like The Thing, instead they wanted it fast and flowing.
Moral of the Story is "mankind are our own worst quality" had everybody been happy, it would reflect that. No the ship is not a time traveled ship. It reflects what THEY personally want, think and fear.
This, Dark City, The Matrix... 1998 was an amazing year for scifi in hindsight
Matrix was 1999
I’m a big sci fi person but never seen dark city
@@ROVA00 do it. now.
You should. Great sci fi film told in a detective film noir aesthetic.
Most of the 90s was great for scifi. Alien sequels, starship troopers, x files, godzilla, etc
Micheal Crichton is my all time favorite writer. He took a novice interest in highly scientific studies in which to create an entry-canvas for one's own personal exploration. That's the purpose of writing - open your reader to new worlds, thoughts, ideals. Sphere sparked my interest into Jung psych-analyzation techniques and they changed my life for the better.
Shakespeare is going to blow your socks off buddy trust me .
I was a huge Crichton fan as a kid. I loved the way he wove the scientific theories into his narratives. I've read a lot of hard science fiction, but never read anything quite like his style.
Creighton's writing style is simple.
Find a sci-fi calamity.
Then design the perfect flawed human(s) to fuck it up spectacularly.
"What happens if Jerry gets mad?" That's a scary thought, knowing that you're at the bottom of the ocean with an alien entity that might pose a threat to your very existence.
Harry's comments about how they'd handle a species that doesn't experience death like we do was also pretty chilling. Such a creature is beyond our experience and thus in my mind approaches some Lovecraftian level of unknowable being.
@@lordtrinen2249 what if said creature knows more about our life cycle than we do ? Or specifically our "after-life" cycle ?
"We die down here, Norman. As a matter of deductive logic." Always sends chills down my spine. You don't know what's going to happen, but you know you're not going to survive. Mad spook.
Well if it gets mad you probably don't get to die no matter what it does to you.
@@erikmckoul2478 A la "I have no mouth and I must scream"? I am personally glad they didn't go that route, but only because I prefer psychological horror to body horror. (Personal preference, ofc. Nothin wrong with it if that's your thing.)
0:49 “what worries me is that it’s reflecting everything but us.”
Actually, that *is* a deeply worrying observation, if you really think about it.
It means
1: there is some mechanism controlling the physical properties of the sphere.
2: that mechanism has some degree of intelligence, and can react to it’s surroundings.
3: It identifies humans, specifically.
Thank you for reminding me of this semi-forgotten gem. The idea of reality warping seemed profound to me when I was a child and still is when I have grown up.
This, Leviathan and The Abyss were my favorite aquatic horror movies back in the day.
Leviathan is amazing, unless you mean the work by Hobbes, which was also amazing
Nothing beats abyss
Did you see Deep Rising? It is campy/corny, but it is also self-aware and a blast to watch.
@@f1uc1k1y1o1u Leviathan, the movie. It was actually on a few weeks ago.
@@HarryBalzak Yes! Just the right amount of camp. It was interesting seeing Famke in her earlier roles.
Finally, a TH-camr video discussing this underrated gem!
Thanks. I read the book years ago [still have it]. The sphere's power reminds me of C.S. Lewis' story "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader". In it, they come across a single swimmer who's escaped from a nearby island. He's pale, gaunt, and terrified. The island turns out to be a place where dreams come true. Also: "Forbidden Planet". tavi.
The movie would be 6 hours long if the story wasnt condensed. The sphere would make a great season long TV/movie.
Happy to hear I wasn't the only one who's mind couldn't comprehend this movie at 10 years old. It was scary enough with the sea creatures but I felt sick for a long time trying to comprehend what was going on at 10 years old so I put it out of my mind for mental health.
Oh my God!! Thank you for FINALLY covering this! I've been asking for yearssss. One of my favorite Sci fi movies of all time
At the end they choose to forget/lose the power and experience about the sphere, fearing what would happen if they dreamt nightmares into existence with their thoughts but i wonder i thy could have just all wished to know how to control their power and not let it bring any unwanted effects until they wilfully chose to use it. Still one of the movies that gives me goosebumps, especially the squid eggs scene.
Or wished all of their dead friends back to life...
@@thethirdchimpanzee That's how you get zombie apocalypse.
Power of making thoughts into reality can be double edged, even if controlled.
@@SpecialProjectYhow
@@randyallen1965 Because our minds are capable to create marvelous wonders and unspeakable horrors in a whim, we're not in control especially during sleep and in that time reality we know could end in most frightening way.
Human: I bet this sphere is perfect down to a thousandth of an inch
Sphere: Ripples clearly on it's surface
Finally TH-cam reccomended a movie recap video Where The Title is Mentioned!!! :D In the Title and the Description!!! I'M ALL IN, subbed
I've always liked that a different group of people could have a dramatically different outcome. The story is basically a super-hero origin
Michael Crichton was a master of imaginative, horrifying yet plausible science fiction. Each of his novels and adaptations were realistic takes on various science fiction tropes
Very engaging video and smooth narration, as always 👍
Thank you kindly!
Your videos are rad. . Great work dude 😎
Glad you like them!
According to Crichton, one of the most interesting and counter-intuitive possible "purposes" of the Sphere, is that the Sphere does not have any "purpose" that the protagonists attribute to it at all. Imagine a Transmitter, for example. Now imagine that some insects somehow got inside the Waveguide or Magnetron and was killed by a standing wave arc. Would the insects say "My God! This thing was built to kill us", or "This is a Test intended for us". In fact, ofc, the Transmitter wasn't built for anything of the like.
Different Perspectives imprint different projections of one's values onto the world and objects around them. Barnes, Norman, Harry, Ted, etc, all posit different purposes and motivations for the Sphere depending on their own Military, Mathematic, Psychologist, etc, backgrounds.
But the Sphere might simply be just a Sphere, something with an unrelated purpose, or a purpose so prosaic and banal that you could roll your eyes at it, or have no purpose fit for human utility and comprehension at all. It could be the ball of an Alien's Cat-action toy that got tossed away and randomly acquired these "Powers", taking on a life of its own, like ocean garbage becoming a colony for marine life and coral.
Great video, man. Might want to upgrade that mic, but that’s a minor thing. I really loved this book and movie, along with The 13th Warrior, The Andromeda Strain, and many other Crichton works. The man was great at synthesizing history, science, and speculation and I believe he never got the recognition he deserved, even though he made millions off of Jurassic Park, ER, and so on. Of course, he made some turds too, like Timeline and Congo. But he inspired the wonder of seeing the big picture and speculating on where it might lead us in a way the best minds before him - Shelley, Verne, Welles, Asimov - famously did, and perhaps some (King, Tyson, others) still do. During the 90s he was the MAN, and I think I’m still waiting for someone like him to reappear on the scene to make me love reading *thinking-persons’ thrillers* again.
I did like the book more but the movie was pretty faithful so I can’t complain too much. Thanks for covering some of these older works.
I have a grudge about how they handled Norman and when and how he entered the sphere. The book has him going in after they figured things out and doing it knowingly, so he has higher control because he understands the human mind as a psychologist. The movie had him going in earlier, and thus not in control.
@@TheMimiSard And this changes the entire fundamental nature of the story so I don't know how this dude is saying the movie was "pretty faithful". I think they did a very poor job with the movie, it all seemed phoned in just to take advantage of Crighton's name recognition at the time being that Jurassic Park had come out relatively recently. It's a shame because this could have been a good movie. Solaris already tackled the almost exact same concept but in a much more philosophical/psychological way, this could have been a more reality-based version of Solaris if they did it right. Instead, it's just a throwaway late '90's generic sci-fi film.
The movie was a good introduction to get you to read the book. Compared to media these days the movie is absolute gold.
@@nojuanatall3281 What? You got that backward buddy... and even then, not really. If you think that movie is "absolute gold" compared to anything during any time you have a very distorted perception of what gold really is. Sphere the movie was one of the most disappointing adaptations of a Michael Crichton novel out there. It's a movie with a solid first half but a disaster of a second half. If you think this movie does the book justice I have to question whether you are being honest when you say you read the book.
@@jennyanydots2389 You missed his point. His point was that no matter how bad you think it was, movies today do even worse. Hence the "Compared to media these days..." or did you just completely skip over that to the end?
But wouldn't that mean they might have created a loop now? By sending it to space only for it be discovered by crew many years into the future?
That's the loop. Humans from the future find the sphere, they go through a black hole, crash in the ocean on earth 100's of year in the past. They die from the sphere manifestations. Then this crew show up, go through what they did and send it back, to once again be found by the crew in the future, who then go through a black hole, and crash on earth 100's of years in the past... lol.
Only problem with this is that in the book one of the crew keep the power. So idk.
@@joshbuxton8249 It's not confirmed she still has the power, just hinted that she _might_ have.
@@WobblesandBean In the book, she definitely keeps the power. They even comment that she looks unusually lovely, as if she had used the power of the sphere to turn back the clock on her age.
How come they didn't tell everyone about the events?
@@bananian - They chose to forget…using the power to erase their own memories.
My head canon is that the future American crew found it and decided to take it back, didn't know what it was or what it was capable of, and one of them was worried or curious about black holes, accidentally creating one using the sphere that sucked them all in and killed the crew when they crashed, leaving the sphere stuck. Which also makes me lean towards it having been created by another species, if it was its own entity it wouldn't make sense that it's clearly so dependent on input from others to do actually do anything. I think it's some sort of highly advanced and powerful AI.
One of the best sci-fi stories in modern history. Still holds up even in 2023. We need more sci-fi movies, Hollywood!!!
I have to wonder when people say that 'this or that' is impossible or unlikely when space itself is impossible! As a 12 year old during astronomy lessons at school I asked what was at the end of space and my teacher, surprised, answered more space, infinite space. I went home and felt very troubled by this sitting up nights trying to fathom a void that went on forever, no beginning, no end , no 'edge' just infinite nothing full of spheres hurtling through it at vaste speeds with our peopled by such little beings. I would go outside my village at dark and lie on the topmost tomb in the cemetry and look at the milky way as we turned and wondered how many more of us there were out there. For years it troubles me that people just shrugged of this concept, imagine such an endless void and what it contains !
It's quite horrifying to imagine or dream anything to reality, good or bad. That's what I realized after watching this movie. Thanks for this!
C'mon bro! It's almost 5am here in the UK! Man needs his sleep, and you drop one of your bangers!!
Ah well, who needs sleep anyway?! It's SPHERE'ing time! 😂
Lets goooooo!
In the book that ship and the sphere is actually the source of all life on earth, the next part is that the origin of the sphere isn't important to the grand scheme of what happened. Then the next part is that yes it absolutely allows people to manifest their dreams and fears but it has a bit of a certain amount of interesting interaction in that even though it manifests the thoughts it seems to do so in a way that results personal understanding and beliefs being the most solid. Then the sphere itself allows the manifestation to become more solid the more people see it and furthermore if those without the power see it the manifestation becomes completely real. The sphere is sent both forward and back in time at different points in time. The actual origin isn't important because it doesn't matter there is a time loop AKA a bootstrap paradox in place that doesn't have any important information or features to it.
And suddenly I understand where the inspiration for Annihilation came from! I haven't seen this one, I was a wee baby when it came out and had managed to never hear of it until I saw your video in my feed. A book for the list :)
Okay I have this theory about the book. I think the ship crashed immediately or soon after picking up the sphere, because of the sphere.
If you are taking on interstellar travel what would be one of your worst fears. Falling into a black hole and traveling back in time maybe?
Good theory!
That fits so well that it's canon for me now.
or maybe they realized they cannot control it and made the decision to destroy it by send it into a black hole. (and maybe at / in the black hole the instinct for survival kicked in and a passenger thought he would like to go back to more "primitive" times so the sphere made that happen ) plans within plans
Doesn't the murdered crew member Beth finds kind of kill this theory?
Imagine this is just a common household item in a perfect future, where human can control their thought, and this item can do whatever a person want with the ship, from recreation activities to traveling the universe, and someone sent it back to help accelerate the human civilization but didn't expect the human mind was still too unpredictable
I love this video! This movie terrified me as a kid.
1 small note: 16:35 we are not a type 1 society, we will likely be 0.80 in the next few decades.
I very much enjoyed both the novel and the movie. I liked how logical the characters were in illogical situations. I really enjoyed how it was written as it left things to speculation that it had slowly led you to. I think I now need to watch it again.
Dustin Hoffman 😤🙏🏼 such a good actor he always elevates movies
The funny part about the ending, if they did get rid of the sphere, is that they probably sent it back to the future creating a loop that leads back to what Harry said about them dying down there and not alerting the future about the sphere. He wasn’t right but he wasn’t wrong either. The reason the future never knew was because they assumed they got rid of it and probably figured it wouldn’t be worth it to try and explain what doesn’t exist. Only problem is, it still exists. It is in the future affecting that first crew, creating a groundhogs day loop where the sphere will exist solely within those time periods
1. Future crew goes out into space, runs into sphere, experiences an unknown event and goes into a black hole
2. Spaceship and sphere end up in past
3. Past crew explores ship and either die or escape to surface and wish sphere away
4. Sphere goes back into future, someone subconsciously probably thought about it
5. Crew goes on with their lives never speaking about what happened, causing the sphere’s powers to remain an unknown event
6. Rinse and repeat
The Sphere is an interesting inversion of an old pen and paper RPG I played back in the day, Mage The Ascension. In that game, you basically had to have strength of will to override the consensus and make your will reality. This is the opposite--you need to have strength of will to keep shit normal and not let your thoughts run wild. Some Jedi-like discipline would be required, but being able to reshape reality by thought alone would allow you to construct spacecraft capable of faster-than-light travel, simply by believing it to be possible. Sort of like the biology of those jellyfish, the science and technology might make no sense at all, yet they would work anyway as long as you didn't somehow become convinced that it didn't.
All hail the technocracy!
This kind of story would lend itself really well to the streaming service model of a three to six episode limited series of about an hour each. They could then take the time to include character backgrounds and not rush as much. Also, they could draw out the feeling of dread and how it grows amongst the group throughout the series. And personally, I'd love if the cast were relatively unknown so that you can get lost in the story better
3 to 6 are you insane?
id like at least 20 hours or more
Shut up lmao who even asked ?
im reading the book about 20 years ago when i still in middle school. i was trapped in our school library because of rains and decided to read this novel. i found about the movie just yesterday and thanks to your video i refreshed my memory once again
This is one of my favorite Crichton books, right up there with Jurassic Park. The way it set up the mystery of the ship even before they find the sphere just really grabbed me.
The movie could have been better, but I still enjoyed it a lot! Really my only criticism was that they made the sphere all rippling and weird instead of perfectly mirror-smooth.
Oh man I remember my dad reading the book to me in elementary school, we were both really stoked when the movie came out.
lol I always tacitly assumed it was an accident and the thing just got stuck in their ship going through the black hole like a birdbath impacted on the hood of a car that careened through somebody's yard. And then some hyperdimensional godlike alien who lives in that exotic spacetime it leads to is all "...Hey, where's my lucky ontology wrench?! I only turned my back for like 2 eons...! Ah, yep, looks like some bugs got in here through the hole again and it stuck to 'em. Oh well, it's just your basic manifester, it's not like you can cause any _real_ trouble with it..."
But I'm liking these other explanations as well.
when it is unknown, all the skills of scientists almost obsolete, the only thing they can do is guess with full minds in curiosity
Scientists attempt to make the unknown into the relatively known though.
the sphere being a morality test to prevent sociopathic species from achieving star flight, and only allow those who have the good sense to resist the temptation of the power of the sphere to live is a satisfying explanation for its existence, but reveals little about those who made it (are the compassionate, or jealous?) which i like.. great movie imo
Isn't that kind of like saying nukes are a morality test to test the temptation of using force on others when all they are, are nukes?
Watched this movie at least 3 times and it still has me on edge. Great movie!
There's also the possibility that the sphere just exists with no beginning or end in a stable time loop. When they all forget, the sphere flies off into space, confusing the crews of the military ships on the surface. In the future, humanity has the technology to build a ship to find what flew out of the ocean centuries ago. One of the crew starts thinking about black holes and boom, now the sphere is back in the ocean waiting to be discovered, forgotten, and launched into space again.
When I saw the sphere in this video I thought this was really the movie Event Horizon. My memory is telling me a sphere was in that movie, too.
Yep. There was a sphere in Event Horizon. It had something to do with their version of a warp drive.
Your breakdowns are nothing short of incredible. Thank you so much for making these videos, they are THE BEST. I absolutely loved this movie when I was a kid. Scared the shit out of me (Still kind of does) I hate deep sea-anything and this movie left a lot to your imagination and I definitely imagined the worst.
Didn’t know this existed. I stopped this video within a few seconds not to spoil anything. Going to watch it after the gym tonight 😮
Was not a well put together movie lol Started off interesting and falls apart about halfway through
Chuck Misslers Aliens & ufo's talk is very informative, insightful & offers an answer to the mysteries surrounding it.
My theory is that the sphere is the endgame of psychotherapy and meditative solace. Basically, an OP therapist/guru helping you to overcome your deepest fears. Perhaps it was meant to be paired with some sort of safety mechanism that got lost in shipping. Maybe a second sphere that was the ying to its yang?
Sphere- "Bro just face your fears" lol
Except it also makes one of the crew prettier (symbolised in the movie by the pink eye shadow she's suddenly wearing) - so it's not just fears, it's everything. The real question is why they didn't choose to will the sphere to make them understand how to properly use the sphere.
the English word "Happy" is TOOO CUTE!!! 😍😍😍😍🥰🥰🥰
I LOVE it as much as i love words like "people", "common", "baby" and "creature" 🥰
I’m reminded of the Krell from ’Forbidden Planet’, where those beings created a device to grant any desire, consciously or unconsciously.
Unfortunately they weren’t ready for that kind of power, and every secret devil came and destroy their civilization overnight.
Perhaps the sphere is a similar device from other race that also died off?
The purpose of interstellar travel is to reduce existential threat to a species. A craft travel interstellar distances carrying the sphere, meaning the sphere was created at least in conjuction with interstellar travel.
Should the technology for the sphere lead to an extinction event, then it's not very likely the species that developed it would be hurtling through the universe with ir onboard a ship.
I read this book when I was in third grade. It was fantastic. And back then this was the only movie that vaguely resembled the book. Excellent soundtrack too. Its fits the movie perfectly.
The Gift - Elliot Goldenthal is a great theme song for this film and I also suspect influenced the soundtrack of the amazing game Factorio.
Boy had I forgotten that jellyfish scene. Man, I remember that. As someone who was also terrified of jellyfish as a kid, I really remember that scene. The mask bit just looks painful to me. Anyway, great summary and review (or overview rather) of the movie!
I’m not first but I’m here 😬
Me, commenting on several-year-old videos
Oh boy, I loved this movie. Yes, it differs from the novel in some big ways, but I feel like they couldn't really do the novel justice in a 2 hour movie (and with CGI at the time, nowadays maybe) and it nailed all the major plot points of the novel (well other than explaining the sphere itself I suppose). The cast is AMAZING and some of the sequences are literally terrifying - especially since it takes place at the bottom of the ocean, which I'm sure scares most people with just the thought of that scenario. The music is also great. And Queen Latifah doesn't get enough credit for this role, I feel like her "segment" and death (sorry, spoilers) is one of the creepiest, nastiest things I've seen in movies up to that point in time. And since I was going to theaters since 1978 or so, that's pretty incredible in and of itself. As for the ending, I didn't find it bad or not explaining things enough, I think it made perfect sense. But I can understand how some found it underwhelming or confusing.
Went and watched the movie first so I could watch this video, damn it was a good movie thanks for revealing it to me.
P.S we aren't a type 1 civilization yet we are at 0.72
Came to the comments to say this. :)
Glad I combed through the comments. I was gonna say that too.
One of my favorite bands has based multiple albums off theories such as the Drake equation, the Fermi Paradox, the Great Filter and Zoo hypothesis.
Songs like wheres the robot, impress your creators, habitat, Numbers and without you all touch on themes of being in an alien ant farm, AI, Singularity, mathematics, dreams and more. If you like heavy and multi genre experimental music the ideas should be heard. Tub Ring is the band.
We'd be a Type 1 civ if liberalism and religion didn't ruin humanity and hold us back.
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Michael Crichton is my favourite American author. Thanx for the video.
Youve got two of the most prolific yellers in this movie. Dustin and Sam, Dustin's scream is nightmare fuel in and of itself.
One of the most underrated sci-fi movies ever. The cast are all A-listers and the story is better than The Abyss or any similar movie. I never understood why it was rated so low on IMDb. I've been a fan ever since I saw it at age 24 when it came out.
Where we're going we don't need eyes!
Nice reference!
00:10 Sphere is obviously rippling significantly.
"I bet this is a perfect sphere within a thousandth of an inch."
Uhm, each ripple is more than an inch.
But the edges are still perfectly flat. It's another illusion.
Loved this video! One thing that would be great though is if you could do captions! They're not exactly picking up what you're saying and I missed pieces of it because of that. Please consider doing captions on future videos! :)
I saw this movie on daytime broadcast television ~15 years ago while home sick from high school. I was running an awfully high fever, so for *over a decade* I’ve thought about this movie about once a month, not knowing if it was a fever dream fantasy. Today, it’s real. Floored.
Jesus Christ in Heaven. I saw this movie when I was like 9 or 10 years old and it freaked me the fuck out. It didn't help that I caught it mid movie, but the jellyfish scene and the fact that Samuel L Jackson's character kept reading that book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, with him sleeping and dreaming those creatures scared the shite outta me. This was way before I ever heard of Lovecraft. The psychological aspect is refreshing, yet it takes real creative talent to pull it off. Michael Crichton is a rare genius who did used his knowledge to influence his work. The man is a badass writer.
My theory was that the sphere was a portion of the ship's experimental spacedrive that allowed it to travel through time-space continuum. But its presence tended to warp reality, leading to unforseen consequences.
Poor Queen Latifah being killed by jelly fish. RIP 💀
Alice's Jellyfish demise is right up there with other hilarious marine life-related deaths, such as Franklin being gobbled by the shark in Deep Blue Sea 🦈💀😭
@@residentelect 😭🤣
16:21 You either misread or what you read was wrong. We're only a Type 0.7 civilization. We're close to a Type 1. Having the tech to be one is probably only less than 100 years away. Implementing it will probably take much longer.
Saw this as a child and it terrified me - my first R rated film. Still love it to this day.
This movie is so unheard of considering the names of the people who star in it, it actuall inspired me to read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Love the video can you do Horcruxes,Boggart,Salazar Slytherin,Herpo the Foul,Triwizard Tournament,Barty Crouch Jnr and Regulus Black from Harry Potter