Spaceship Earth

I remember this in the news when I was a kid and thought it was intriguing, but I only vaguely remember the controversy. I didn't understand the problems with what they did (it was an experiment after all, not a dare or a bet) and still don't. At the end, they had a better idea of what was needed before they began. That's what you get from an experiment, generally.

It started slow but it picked up nicely. I wish there could have been interviews with all eight of the Biospherians and maybe a little more about what they learned, but this documentary is about the people behind the experiment, not the experiment itself. And that's OK. Not what I was hoping for but I was pleased with what I got. I'm glad they showed that these people weren't part of what most people would consider a commune. I would have enjoyed having been part of a group like that, especially once they left San Francisco. It would have been absolutely fascinating.

Totally worth a watch.

I remember as a kid the whole idea of the biosphere 2, but I was too young to pay attention at what was going on around it.

At first I was excited to watch this documentary, I thought this would narrate the whole idea of the project, construction, challenges and results. How wrong was I ?

First 45min is a hippie review on the lives of each of the biosphereans. Zero science. When they finally go to the biosphere they show very little of their routine, challenges, etc. They keep focusing on some drama and again no science.

Finally the project is over. The documentary mention not a single scientific finding, and enters the final stage showing some financial drama.

Such a potential topic and such a lazy approach to do a documentary.

Welcome to the fantastic future of 1991 as the human petri dish project BIOSPHERE 2 is underway! What looks like a kooky SciFi piece of last century fiction, turns out to be a bizarre true life experiment, sequestering idealistic science nerds in their self-sustaining eco bubble.

Rife with cult overtones and extraordinary characters, "Spaceship Earth" documents a group of giddy dreamers as they pave the way for future planet colonizations by creating their own pressure cooker mini earth. What could go wrong?

Well, much does indeed go wrong, but unfortunately, nothing of the sensational variety. There is no physical rebellion. There are no monsters spawned. There are no lives lost. Yet it is damn fascinating: the spectre of a tight army of red uniformed humans scurrying about their self made ant hill aquarium, whilst the world literally looked on.

There is a "Truman Show" aspect at play here, as organizer, impresario, Grand Poobah and owner of a wacky combover, John P. Allen (aka Johnny Dolphin) dictates the inner proceedings from an outside control room. That is, until there is a power struggle featuring, wait for it, Steve Bannon. Yep, you can't make this stuff up.

Strangely the BIOSPHERE 2 phenomena, which at the time was a world wide sensation that predicted genius nutbars like Elon Musk, is relatively forgotten.

That mistake has now been remedied. Enjoy.

• hipCRANK

This was nothing but another hippie commune that failed.

It was exposed back then as being a bogus scam, that they weren't sealed off from the world, at all!

Water and air were piped in regularly, and they had a huge food stockpile inside that they depleted.

I watched ~twenty minutes, then gave it up as just another eco extremist propaganda film.

Greetings again from the darkness. Most all of us built a terrarium for science class when we were in junior high. Did you ever fantasize about living in it? Well that's basically what happened in 1991 when 8 scientists were sealed up in Biosphere 2, a giant terrarium built in Oracle, Arizona. Their mission was to live a self-sustained existence for two years, and this was done in the name of scientific research that might one day lead to humans living in space. It was known as Biosphere 2 since they considered Earth to be number one, and filmmaker Matt Wolf kicks off the documentary with actual news clips from that day in 1991 when the door was shut behind the eight biospherians.

After running those initial clips, Mr. Wolf immediately takes us back 25 years prior, and introduces us to The Synergists - a group of resourceful, very smart, free-thinkers who assembled in San Francisco under the charismatic leadership of John Allen. At first, it's a little confusing why we are watching these old 'home movies' from what appears to be a commune, and listening to these people, now 50 years older, talking about the good old days. Of course, the backstory of these folks with nicknames like Johnny Dolphin, Flash, Salty, and Firefly turns out to be the foundation of Biosphere 2 ... but not before they form Synergia Ranch in 1969 New Mexico, and then build a ship in Oakland from scrap metal in 1974. Their ship was named Heraclitus, after the Greek philosopher, and their inspiration was derived from writers Buckminster Fuller ("Spaceship Earth"), Rene Damaul ("Mount Analogue"), and William S Burroughs.

It's understandable if your thoughts drift towards 'cult' or 'commune', but as one of them states, they were "a corporation, not a commune." With international interests in a hotel, an art gallery, and a theatrical group, amongst other enterprises, they were able to sustain their creative pursuits ... unlike the many hippies of the era numbed by drug use. Inspired by the 1972 movie SILENT RUNNING, Mr. Allen and their in-house architect Phil Hawes began working on the idea of a self-contained space colony. By 1986, design work for Biosphere 2 had begun and Ft Worth oil billionaire Ed Bass was bankrolling the project. It was a massive undertaking both from planning and construction, plus the training and selection of biospherians began in 1990.

Given today's 'social distancing' due to COVID-19, it's a bit ironic that we are looking back at a 28 year ago small group isolation in a self-contained environment. Filmmaker Wolf doesn't shy away from the science world skeptics who, with a smidge of jealousy labeled the venture "trendy ecological entertainment." Whatever you call it, this was an international event and drew interest from all walks of life, right up until 1993 when the biospherians walked out of the dome. In another sign of remarkable symmetry to today's world, in 1994 Mr. Bass fired most of the original group, and put Steve Bannon (yes THE Steve Bannon) in charge of Biosphere 2. It might not surprise you that most of the scientific data and research soon disappeared.

Wolf takes us 25 years after the mission to catch up with Mr. Allen and other Synergists. The Synergia Ranch still exists and John Allen remains as energetic and idealistic as he was in the 1960's. Biosphere 2 is now open to the public and being managed by the University of Arizona, and we still aren't sure whether a pre-fab paradise will work in space. Wolf's film is filled with interesting tidbits from 3 different eras, and though the early days are quite entertaining, it seems entirely too much time is devoted to the time prior to the Biosphere. And because of that, many of our questions remain unanswered as to whether the two years advanced research, or whether the effort was nothing more than a glorified publicity stunt. Either way, capturing this in documentary form allows the 1991 Biosphere 2 project to be explained to future generations ... some we hope will be as innovative, and dream as big as the Synergists.