Sphere is a 1998 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed and produced by Barry Levinson, adapted by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson.

A team of experts, including marine biologist Dr. Beth Halperin, mathematician Dr. Harry Adams, astrophysicist Dr. Ted Fielding, psychologist Dr. Norman Goodman, and U.S. Navy Captain Harold Barnes, is assembled and taken to the Habitat, a state-of-the-art underwater living environment located near the spacecraft.

The ship's computer logs cryptically suggest a mission that originated either in the distant past or future, but the team deduces that the long-dead crew was tasked with collecting an item of scientific importance.

A holographic reenactment of the event reveals that hundreds of years in the future, the ship encountered a black hole, which apparently led to a crash landing in the ocean, back in the 1700s.

During that time, a series of tragedies strikes the crew, including attacks from aggressive jellyfish and a giant squid, and equipment failures in the base that kill Ted and the team's support staff.

Norman discovers that they had misinterpreted the initial messages from Jerry, and that the entity speaking to them through the computers is actually Harry himself, transmitted from his mind while he is asleep.

When rejoined by Harry, the three of them realize that the crew of the ship must have also entered the sphere, and they ended up killing each other after being driven mad by their fears.

Under the stress of the situation, Beth has suicidal thoughts, which causes the detonation mechanisms on a store of explosives to engage, threatening to destroy the base and the spacecraft.

The site's critical consensus states: "Sphere features an A-level cast working with B-grade material, with a story seen previously in superior science-fiction films.

[13] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: "While this is no quick-witted treat on a par with Mr. Levinson's Wag the Dog, it's a solid thriller with showy scientific overtones.

"[17] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, and stated: "Sphere feels rushed.

Barry Levinson said he had been inspired to write the basic plot line for his subsequent film, Liberty Heights, based on a review of Sphere for Entertainment Weekly.

Okay, so he's not officially Jewish; he's only Hoffman, who arrives at the floating habitat and immediately announces, noodgey and menschlike, 'I'd like to call my family.'

And that led to memories of a time when Jews were denied access to a swim club, and not allowed to live in certain parts of Baltimore, just as blacks were excluded.

Finally, there was a reason to revisit Baltimore once again, not to indulge nostalgia, but to examine race, religion and class distinction.