Sphere

- Good sleep? - Not bad.

So where are we?

Where you from?

San Diego. Left yesterday.

So you came Honolulu-Guam-Pago-here?

Yep. Long trip.

What do you do?

I'm a psychologist.

Hey, a shrink.

They've called in everything else.

How do you mean?

We've ferried people out of Guam for the last 2 days.

Physicists, biologists, mathematicians, you name it.

Everybody being flown to the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean.

What's going on?

They're not telling us anything, sir. What did they tell you?

There was a plane crash.

Do you get called in on crashes?

I'm on a list of psychologists the FAA brings in when a plane goes down.

So where exactly are we now?

That's where we're headed. Over there.

Here.

Take a look.

What is that?

All that for a plane crash?

I never mentioned a plane crash.

- Any other gear? Watch your step. - I'd like to call my family.

We'll get you settled in quarters first. Remain there till we send for you.

- I'd like to get started. - We'll send for you.

- It's critical I see them... - Who?

The survivors. If I don't get to them in the first 24 hours...

- What survivors? - The survivors of the plane crash.

Plane crash?

I deal in post-traumatic stress and survival guilt.

Maybe I should talk to someone who knows what's going on here.

- Talk to the ship's psychiatrist. - I'm a psychologist.

That's why I was sent here.

I told you people I need a phone.

Discuss that with Mr. Barnes.

That's fine. Give me a phone, I'll call him.

Why are you here?

Take your hands off me, please. Do you have any idea who I am?

Tell him the name of the book you wrote.

Astrophysics You Can Use. It was a Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection.

Never heard of it.

You really thought he read your book. You haven't changed.

It was written for the layman.

He's not impressed.

Is there a phone in here?

- I've been trying to call my wife. - Would you stop touching me?

Wait a minute.

Beth?

Flight quarters. All units make your flight quarters...

condition one stations for landing. Stay clear of the fantail...

Goodman, you been here long?

- I've been here 3 hours. - Welcome aboard.

This thing scares the hell out of me.

It's already too late. You might as well helicopter me back...

because the damage is done to the survivors already.

- Hold on. We'll get to that. - I don't even know who you are.

I know who you are.

Who are you? Navy? Military? What are you?

You ever hear of the OSSA?

They don't know who I am. That should reassure you.

You haven't talked to anyone about this?

- I talked to the helicopter pilot. - What'd you tell him?

I told him I was here to see the plane crash. That's my job.

Plane crash. Good.

There was no plane crash.

Spacecraft.

A spacecraft. I guess that explains a lot.

- NASA? - That doesn't surprise you?

At least it explains the secrecy.

The secrecy's critical, Norman. You made that explicit in your report.

What report?

ULF.

I wrote that for the Bush administration.

And that's our bible here.

But that was a report about a possible encounter with an alien being.

You want to come with me?

Oh, boy.

About 3 weeks ago...

a ship laying fiber-optic cable between Honolulu and Sydney...

hit an obstruction 1,000 feet underwater.

Cut this cable here clean as a shears.

The Navy got interested, sent out a search ship.

It turned out that what did it...

was this.

We took this with side-looking sonar.

This is an aerodynamic fin longer than a football field...

bigger than any known wingspan.

This is the fuselage.

This is ultrahigh-res SLS bottom scan. Came in a week ago.

There it is, buried under about 8 yards of coral.

Something's wrong with that measurement.

Pacific coral grows an inch a year. You can set your watch by it.

That's right.

So you're saying this spacecraft crashed in the year...

1709.

So you're saying this spacecraft crashed 300 years ago?

288.

That's impossible.

It's not impossible if this spacecraft came from an alien civilization.

Wait a minute.

You think this is an alien spacecraft?

It's not impossible. It's ridiculous.

We think there's an Unknown Life Form on the spacecraft. That's why you're here.

You are the contact team that was recommended in the Goodman Report.

We have a biochemist...

to assess the physiology of the Unknown Life Form.

A mathematician, because that'll probably be our common language.

And we have an astrophysicist to locate its place in the cosmos.

- Led by a psychologist. - Right.

Nowadays, the little green men say, "Take me to your therapist"?

Listen up.

"Contact teams meeting an Unknown Life Form or ULF..."

Must be prepared for severe psychological impact.

Stress reaction of confronting such life has not been sufficiently studied...

and cannot be entirely predicted in advance.

But the most likely consequence of contact is...

"absolute terror."

That's from Norman's report.

I'm sorry, are these parameters correct?

You're saying that you have a spacecraft over a half a mile long...

that crashed into the ocean 300 years ago and it's completely intact?

That's right.

And the kicker is, our sonar is picking up a low-level hum.

Something's still running inside.

There's no way this coral could've grown faster than an inch a year?

That's what we're going there to see.

What?

Who says?

Harry, that's a joke, right?

This is the greatest scientific discovery since Copernicus. Bigger!

The idea that we're not alone, it'll change everything.

Evidence of extraterrestrial life. You don't want to see that?

I got to say that I resent this briefing very much.

And how's that?

If Norman's report calls for a biologist, a mathematician...

an astrophysicist and a psychologist...

why are you here?

Physical protocols start in a half an hour.

You always wear glasses?

I just started wearing these.

Are the glasses a problem? I don't actually need them.

They're just for reading.

And they're more of a crutch. I see fine without them.

But they didn't anticipate I'd be going 1,000 feet under the water.

Do you take prescription medication?

No.

None at all?

Once in a while sometimes I might take like a...

a piece of Xanax or something if I'm nervous.

Something like that.

But not...

much.

Knee surgery. Complete reconstruction of ACL, right knee.

Still have steel pin here, steel pin here, little medial collateral damage.

I see that you have a scar on your neck.

Car accident.

- Were you drinking? - Yeah.

But I wasn't driving.

Wait, I just want to apologize for putting your name on the list.

Why?

When I made the report a few years ago, I picked names of people I knew.

And?

I know Ted because of his father.

- Yeah, so what? - Beth was a patient.

It's a bogus report.

What? Did you tell Barnes?

You can't do that. That's fraud.

They came to me, new administration, right? Political agenda.

They said, in case of an alien invasion, do's and don'ts.

Why didn't you just say no?

$35,000.

It paid the down payment on my house.

New administration wanted to prove they're doing something new.

How'd you come up with this team...

of a biologist, an astrophysicist and a mathematician?

Right.

- How? - I don't know.

It sounded good, right? Made them come to me.

I forgive you, Norman. I forgive you!

But I don't forgive you for Ted. He's a pain in the ass.

I'll talk to him.

We'll be there 2 hours. You don't have to be around him.

He idolizes you anyways, but I'll talk to him. I'll buy you dinner.

- I'm sorry. - Your secret's safe with me. Come on.

I can't believe this thing could... Like a dream.

Have you called your wife?

Why not?

This'll be a saturation dive.

You'll be going to a habitat in 1,000 feet of water.

A sub will take you to the Habitat and you'll transfer aboard.

At 1,000 feet, your body will be pressurized for that depth.

You could actually take a quick dip. The pressure wouldn't bother you.

Although I wouldn't recommend it because the water's so cold...

you'd freeze to death in less than 2 minutes.

That's the reason for the diving suits.

Your helmet has a rebreather for your air supply.