Sundance review: 'Spaceship Earth' makes the case for Biosphere 2 as America's first climate change experiment

‘Spaceship Earth’

★★★

Playing in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Running time: 115 minutes.

Screens again: Tuesday, Jan. 28, 12:15 p.m., The Ray (Park City); Wednesday, Jan. 29, 3 p.m., Park Avenue (Park City); Thursday, Jan. 30, SLC Library (Salt Lake City); Friday, Jan. 31, 6 p.m., Redstone 7 (Park City).

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Whether it was a visionary experiment or a stunt to draw sight-seers, Biosphere 2 was all the rage in 1991 — and in his fast-paced documentary “Spaceship Earth,” director Matt Wolf chronicles that crazy moment in American history and aims to explain while it still matters.

The idea was hatched by John Allen, the charismatic leader of a theater troupe and communal group that formed in the heart of the San Francisco counter-culture. The notion was to create an enclosed space with every form of habitat — ocean, desert, jungle, and more — to act as an accelerated version of Earth, to show the rest of us how to fix our environmental problems and figure out how to colonize other planets.

Wolf chronicles how the idea for Biosphere 2 developed into a real, functioning laboratory project. As the physical structure was being built in the Arizona desert, Allen and his cohorts started training candidates to be the first eight “Biospherians” who would live in this oversized terrarium for two years.

In 1991, those eight walked into Biosphere 2, and the hatch was sealed behind them. The copious footage — this was an experiment, and someone wanted it documented — shows how the crew had highs and lows, and dealt with challenges such as the build-up of carbon dioxide in the dome. Meanwhile, Allen and his staff fielded journalists’ questions about the scientific value of the project, and the credentials of Allen and the Biospherians.

Though it’s clear Wolf sides with the Biospherians, whom he sees as the first people to illustrate the dangers of climate change, the director is smart enough to present the facts and let viewers draw their own conclusion. One might wish for interviews with more skeptics, beyond archival footage of the “that thing will never fly, Orville” variety. However, the story Wolf tells remains a fascinating tale of idealism smacking into harsh reality and surviving, bloodied but unbowed.