Directed by Matt Wolf
Featuring John Allen, Tony Burgess and Jane Goodall
Running time: 1 hour and 53 minutes

by Emily Maesar

“Any idea that can be conceived in our time, can be executed in our time.”

Matt Wolf’s shockingly relevant documentary, Spaceship Earth, is a fascinating look at the cult of personality, self-isolating from the world and building community. It’s a film that starts with a scientific hope, flies through the hardships of having your monkeysphere drop down to seven other people and lands on corporate greed over scientific advancement. 

In 1991, eight scientists went into a giant building known as Biosphere 2, which was touted as being a completely closed system. Their intention was to live in the building for two years, completely isolated from the outside world, in hopes of discovering if a) it was even possible and b) what life would look like if we were to colonize other planets using this as a baseline. 

And in 1993, exactly 24 months later, the eight scientists (dubbed “biospherians”) came out of the biodome, following a triumphant speech from Jane Goodall. But the world they stepped back into had oscillated so hard for and against them over the two years they’d been locked away. Some thought it was the great experiment to save humanity, while others believed John Allen had created a cult and was showing how charismatic its leader could really be.

So, let’s talk about John Allen. The film has a lot to say about him, and Wolf is somehow able to be both emotionally removed and intricately connected in equal measures to the answer to the question of Allen’s cult status. Part of that is showing how the group of people who would go on to create Biosphere 2 joined together in the first place. And trust me when I say that it’s exactly the image you imagine when I say the words: hippy theatre commune. Except without drugs. 

They built Synergia Ranch to act as their base, a boat that nearly capsized, and numerous other projects around the world that they still operate and take care of today. And it’s at that ranch that John Allen started spouting his ideas for Biosphere 2. It’s a move that seems kind of chaotic, that it would jump straight from theatre to the science for living on other planets, but it’s one that Wolf’s done expertly, using modern interviews and footage from the time period.

In fact, there’s a point after the experiment ends, where the financial backer (Ed Bass) kicks a bunch of people out of the Biosphere 2 company, including John Allen. In my opinion, this sequence is where Matt Wolf shows off his abilities as a documentarian the best. It’s then, after a hostile takeover of the company to make it into a money making machine, that he drops the piano right onto the viewers head - or at least right on this viewer’s head.

The man who became the CEO of Biosphere 2 after John Allen? Steve Bannon. Yes, that Steve Bannon. 

But even with that utterly depressing thought, that a man who denies climate change currently, was once the CEO of a company that was working to fight it (for profit, sure, but that was still one of its aims, regardless)... Wolf takes us out on a hopeful note.

We end at Synergia Ranch, with all the players we’ve been following since the start. Still working, still creating a community, still trying to help. And for a story that essentially ends in the 90s, notoriously one of the most brutal time periods for hope (by my estimation), Wolf takes us out on now. 

It’s a powerful film that's beyond applicable to the current state of the world, in a way that Matt Wolf couldn’t have imagined. But this film makes me hopeful about the outcome of what we’re facing now. That for every company trying to make nothing but profit off the lives of human beings, there are those who are dedicated to helping their communities and to building them up for the future. 

Available on demand May 8th.