An explosion in imagination and technology meant a whole strand of warmer, family-oriented sci-fis pushed the boundaries of wonder and brought in a whole new army of fans, with the likes of E.T., Flight of the Navigator, and The Last Starfighter consciously courting the younger audience unlocked by the advent of the blockbuster era.
Alongside that, of course, the genre expanded outwards with darker action fare like Predator and The Terminator, and high-concept hard sci-fi like Blade Runner met horror-infused brilliance like The Thing and Aliens. But the true winner of the decade was Back To The Future, which has a near-mythical pull on audiences still to this day. It’s quintessential pop culture magic, and one of the most rewatchable movies ever made.
But what if I told you another 1985 sci-fi also deserves to be praised as another part of that year’s incredible line-up of culture-setting movies and you can’t even watch it today? What if, in 1985, Ron Howard made a heartwarming, charming sci-fi that won two Oscars and is now effectively the best lost masterpiece of the most important era of sci-fi filmmaking? Step forward, Cocoon.
Cocoon Was One Of The 1980s Best Sci-Fis
Showered with critical acclaim on its release, Cocoon is now more known with younger audiences as the source of the meme about Wilford Brimley only being 50 years old at the time it came out. That, frankly, is a tragedy, because Howard’s sweet elegy for lost youth is a triumphant example of peak 1980s Spielbergian storytelling.
The idea of benevolent aliens coming to Earth not to conquer or destroy as so many grim sci-fis have warned, but to grant renewed youth to elderly residents of a Florida retirement home doesn’t sound like the dream formula for stirring up youthful audiences but it was like lightning in a bottle. Sometimes accused of over-sentimentality in a way E.T. avoided, Cocoon’s treatment of the elder characters (including Brimley and Don Ameche) was beautiful, and the younger cast led by Steve Gutenberg and Jessica Tandy was just as brilliant. Ironically, this alien sci-fi movie absolutely nails its commitment to humanity.
For pure science-fiction fans there’s also great alien designs and effects work, including assistance from the great Ralph McQuarrie, and all-in-all it’s a brilliant bit of sci-fi storytelling that, unthinkably, you’re currently forbidden from enjoying.
Why You Can't Watch Cocoon Now
Despite its box office success and award-winning pedigree, if you go looking for Cocoon on streaming, you’ll come up short. It simply does not exist on modern digital formats, meaning you can’t revisit it today unless you bought it on physical media before it went out of print. Even the Blu-ray is now difficult to get hold of.
Sadly, it all apparently comes down to rights issues. The rights to James Horner’s incredible soundtrack were reportedly never updated to include modern new media distribution, and Disney’s acquisition of Fox, the movie’s original rights owners, has left it lost in limbo. It doesn’t appear that Disney is particularly motivated to sort that issue out, given the movie’s 40th anniversary passed without resolution last year.
It’s a tragedy: the idea that one of the best overlooked sci-fis that Disney literally owns is not sitting on Disney+ (nor its sequel, which can be bought or rented on VOD but doesn’t make much sense without the original) is almost criminal. Let’s hope it’s here by the time it gets to the 50th anniversary…
Release Date
June 21, 1985
Runtime
117 minutes
Writers
Tom Benedek, David Saperstein
English (US) ·