Film or story with a giant white ball that is...menacing people?

June 8, 2021 11:17 AM

Hi, Back in 1997 we watched a film in school that had a sci Fi feel and I remember really loving. All I really remember about it is that there was a large white ball that was possibly threatening or menacing? Or maybe benign...but seemed to be possibly conscious? I'm very fuzzy on the details and tbh am not even certain if this was a film or a piece of writing. Due to my scant details, Google searches have been unsuccessful. Anyone have ideas of what this might have been? I've been wondering and wanting to rewatch/reread for years.
posted by EarnestDeer to Media & Arts (16 answers total)

The classic The Prisoner TV show?
posted by sagc at 11:19 AM on June 8, 2021 [42 favorites]

Yeah, also came to mention The Prisoner. The ball was called "Rover".
posted by jquinby at 11:20 AM on June 8, 2021 [9 favorites]

Dark Star has a sentient sort of beach ball?
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 11:46 AM on June 8, 2021 [5 favorites]

Could it have been an old episode of The Tomorrow People?
posted by Jess the Mess at 11:54 AM on June 8, 2021

It sounds like The Prisoner to me, but it could possibly be Phantasm
posted by wotsac at 11:58 AM on June 8, 2021 [3 favorites]

My money is on sagc having it in one: The Simpsons Season 12 Episode 6 "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" features a send-up of The Prisoner, including the roaring Rover menacing ball, and the star of The Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan) reprising his role as Number Six (before Homer steals his boat). But that would be too late by 3 years, since season 12 was 2000/2001.

And in 1998, Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, and Samuel L. Jackson were absorbed into the "Sphere." I know I watched this, but I'm afraid I can't offer any guidance. It's a weird ball underwater, and it... like steals your soul? And then blasts off into space? And no one remembers it? This would also require time travel to hit your recollection of 1997, but not nearly as much, and also the Sphere has powers. And they erased their memories with the powers? I ... still don't know, sorry.
posted by adekllny at 11:59 AM on June 8, 2021 [3 favorites]

It couldn't possibly be "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask," could it? Fun, silly Woody Allen rendition of the then-famous book by Dr. David Reuben of the same name. In Scene 6, there was a gigantic round sex organ that bounced after the characters and chased them down the street.
posted by Lynsey at 1:25 PM on June 8, 2021

If it was Sci-fi like in spaceship, sorta 70's hippies, and film school.... likely Dark Star. John Carpenter's like first movie before the horror started. Let there be LIGHT!
posted by zengargoyle at 1:46 PM on June 8, 2021

Before appearing as a shadowy figure with an echo-ey voice, The Cosmic Man (1959) manifests as a floating white sphere, but I can't imagine this being shown to school kids in 1997.
posted by Rash at 1:49 PM on June 8, 2021

Not too far off is the short story “The Balloon” by Donald Barthelme.
posted by mahorn at 5:01 PM on June 8, 2021

There's a 1984 children's TV series of 'Chocky' by John Wyndam - Chocky is some sort of alien ghost... thing and appears as a floating white circular swirl.
posted by BinaryApe at 9:27 PM on June 8, 2021

Heavy Metal has a menacing orb called the Loc-Nar, however that film has so much sexy sex and boobtastic fantasy violence, I can’t imagine it would be shown in school.
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 11:27 PM on June 8, 2021

Meh, Dark Star was a RED ball mostly. Dark Star movie (1974) from John Carpenter. Still, pretty sure it got menacing at some point.

Heavy Metal also sounds OK for reasons, it all depends on what is meant by "watched a film in school". These two might be cinema school standard material (coming from somebody who wasn't a cinema major but went to a university known for its cinema school and had a full and extra share of cinema major friends).

But I've also watched Alice in Wonderland in physics class so...

continue on with every possibly menacing white ball sci-fi please.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:24 AM on June 9, 2021

Not sure how old you were in 1997 but there was a kids series on PBS in the early to mid 90s called Ghostwriter that featured a “ghost” that usually looked like an orb or a comet flying around a room. It was plausibly educational so if you watched this at school, it seems like an option.
posted by castlebravo at 8:00 AM on June 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

My first thought was also Sphere, the only movie I've ever seen which ends with the surviving main characters holding hands and agreeing to forget that anything in the movie ever happened.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:07 AM on June 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

There's Solarbabies, (imdb) about teens rollerskating post-apocalyptically. There's like a friendly alien who's a white kickball-sized glowing sphere. I want your answer to be Dark Star, though, because I love that movie and no one else in my house does.
posted by turkeybrain at 11:27 AM on June 9, 2021