Sphere
Short description
A spacecraft has been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, apparently submerged for centuries. The US Navy assembles a team of specialists to examine the wreck: psychologist Norman Goodman, biochemist Beth Halperin, mathematician Harry Adams, astrophysicist Ted Fielding and others, led by Captain Harold Barnes. Working from an underwater habitat near the site, the group discovers a large, perfectly smooth sphere inside the vessel. It has no visible opening, yet the scientists manage to get inside, and from that point their time on the ocean floor turns dangerous.
Sphere is a science fiction thriller directed by Barry Levinson, the fifteenth of the twenty-eight films he has directed in chronological order, arriving between Wag the Dog and Liberty Heights. Paul Attanasio and Stephen Hauser wrote the screenplay, and Michael Crichton produced alongside Levinson and Andrew Wald. Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson lead the cast, with Peter Coyote, Liev Schreiber and Queen Latifah in supporting roles.
Released in February 1998, the film carried a budget of 80 million US dollars and returned 37 million worldwide, a substantial shortfall. On IMDb it holds 6.1 out of 10 from about 118,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1 out of 10 from roughly 1,900 votes. A critics' rating of 4.4 out of 10 from 57 reviews places it well below those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- At the 60th minute of the film, we see errors in the numerical sequence of the message: 1) the first word in the first line is “0032125[26]2632” (resulting in “HELOO.”) which should be “00032125[25]2632”; 2) the third word of the second line is “290330[5]” (an odd number of characters), and should be “290330[05]” (“WHAT”); 3) the last word of the third line is “0330[3]13130432” (an extra character) instead of “033013130432” (“HARRY.”)
- In this project, Samuel L. Jackson worked on weekdays, and on weekends he filmed with Quentin Tarantino in the thriller "Jackie Brown" (1997).
- Many scenes, including the conversation between Samuel L. Jackson and Dustin Hoffman about writing a report and what to do with Ted, played by Liev Schreiber, were entirely improvised.
- In the jellyfish attack scene, images of prop jellyfish were used in combination with computer graphics and footage of real jellyfish filmed in an aquarium nearby. To show the aggressiveness of the jellyfish, footage of real jellyfish was played at a speed 3-5 times faster than normal.
- The film's ending had to be rewritten and reshot because audiences at preview screenings refused to believe that the characters could survive without spending several weeks in a decompression chamber.
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