Sphere (1998)

A spaceship is discovered under three hundred years' worth of coral growth at the bottom of the ocean.

Director:

Barry Levinson

Writers:

Michael Crichton (novel), Kurt Wimmer (adaptation)

Stars:

Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson

3 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dustin Hoffman	...	Norman
Sharon Stone	...	Beth
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Harry
Peter Coyote	...	Barnes
Liev Schreiber	...	Ted
Queen Latifah	...	Fletcher
Marga Gómez	...	Jane Edmunds
Huey Lewis	...	Helicopter Pilot
Bernard Hocke	...	Seaman
James Pickens Jr.	...	O.S.S.A. Instructor
Michael Keys Hall	...	O.S.S.A. Official
Ralph Tabakin	...	O.S.S.A. Official

Storyline

1000 feet below the ocean, navy divers discover an object half-a-mile long. A crack team of scientists are deployed to the site in Deepsea Habitats. What they find boggles the mind as they discover a perfect metal sphere. What is the secret behind the sphere? Will they survive the mysterious 'manifestations'? Who or what is creating these? They may never live to find out.

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Plot Keywords:

imagination | bottom of the ocean | hallucination | biologist | marine biologist | 

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Taglines:

From the bestselling author of 'Jurassic Park' and 'The Lost World'

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Genres:

Action | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action including some startling images

Did You Know?

Trivia

Characters make reference to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Disney film starred Kirk Douglas; father of Disclosure star Michael Douglas; and James Mason; former mentor of Jurassic Park star Sam Neill.

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Goofs

(at around 1h 28 mins) After Harry saves Norman when he has a valve leak and is attacked by a sea snake, there is a sky shot of Harry telling Norman to breathe normally. In the last few seconds of the scene you can clearly see in the lower left hand corner the leg of a crew member wearing shorts with black and white sneakers.

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Quotes

Harry: Whatever it is, it was inside the Sphere. Now it's out, free to act.

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits are cast over an invisible sphere.

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Alternate Versions

SPOILER ALERT: An alternate television edit has been shown with a simplified and more ambiguous ending that follows the shooting script; Harry warns them that the authorities are on their way to debrief them, and they will demand answers. The three survivors ready themselves to forget about their mission and the power they possess. Outside, a helicopter sets down. Subsequently, we see the three survivors being interviewed in a debriefing room after decompression, each shot individually against the same background. They react as if they're oblivious to anything going wrong in the Habitat, unaware of anything that happened to Ted, Barnes or the Sphere. The helicopter leaves, and the camera pans down to the ocean, where the Sphere supposedly still remains.

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Connections

Featured in Starfilm (2017)

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Soundtracks

Only a Lonely Heart Sees
Written by Felix Cavaliere and Jay Tran
Performed by Felix Cavaliere
Courtesy of Epic Records
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Disappointing, sadly miscast

I have written about this film in the past under another moniker, and decided to give it another go under my current name. "Sphere," which tanked at the box office, is an adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel about a mysterious object found in a spaceship at the bottom of the ocean. Dustin Hoffman plays a shrink who is enlisted by the government, in the form of Peter Coyote, to lead a team to examine the spaceship. Once inside, they find the stranger artifact, a simple sphere. What they find in time is that the thing allows those who come into contact with it to manifest their thoughts into reality. Nuff said about the plot. The first half of the movie is pretty entertaining, as we only know what the shrink and his team know. The second half is an utter dog. Looks like they rushed production, scrimped on the special effects, and generally made a mess of what might been another "2001." Hoffman is all wrong for his role, and Sharon Stone as his ex-wife and fellow explorer is also miscast. A better movie on a similar theme is Anderson's "Event Horizon," which unfortunately also suffers from a weak second half. I'd even recommend Cameron's "The Abyss" over this, as long as you don't mind sitting through a movie that is longer than necessary.

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros.

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 February 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sphere

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$80,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$14,433,957, 15 February 1998

Gross USA:

$37,020,277

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$37,020,277

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Baltimore Pictures, Constant c Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

134 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1