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As many of us continue to pass our days in quarantine, we’re all starting to wonder when we’ll be able to return to the outside world again—to wandering through the mall and having lunch with friends. But thirty years ago, eight people willingly closed themselves off from the world in a massive dome. And the documentary Spaceship Earth explores the experiment—and how it came about.
Spaceship Earth tells the story of Biosphere 2, the three-acre dome built to recreate Earth’s ecosystems as a precursor to possible colonies on other planets. In 1991, eight people walked through the doors with the intention of maintaining a self-sustaining environment for two years. But even more than just the story of what happened during the two years of Biosphere 2 and the eight people who lived and worked in the dome, it’s also the unlikely story of the group of people who dreamed up the idea and made it happen.
After setting the stage for this massive scientific undertaking, the film skips back to the 1960s—to a group of misfits who moved in together and formed an experimental theater troupe. It’s a strange story—one that will definitely make you wonder what these two things have in common. And though it does take a while for the story to unfold, what eventually plays out is definitely a stranger-than-fiction kind of tale.
You might expect a documentary about an ecological experiment like this one to be dry and scientific. But Spaceship Earth will surprise you. The characters are unexpectedly eccentric—a motley crew of wandering artists who traveled the globe together, working on a wide variety of projects. And their story is meandering but ultimately fascinating: how a group of hippies who lived in a kind of traveling commune became connected to this high-tech creation.
Admittedly, it may take some time to connect with these characters and their experiences—but what starts out as a leisurely documentary about a group of quirky characters eventually builds up to a scientific spectacle that stirred up drama and controversy and a media frenzy as it builds to creation of the Biosphere. And the archive footage of life on the inside alone makes it an intriguing doc.
Spaceship Earth isn’t the film that you might be expecting—because of the unusual back story. But you won’t soon forget the story of these quirky characters and their biggest, grandest performance.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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