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The most frequent fact cited about Ron Howard’s 1985 sci-fi film “Cocoon” is that star Wilford Brimley was only 50 years old when he appeared in it. One might have heard the statistic that Tom Cruise was the same age when he made “Jack Reacher” and “Oblivion.” This was said to be notable because Brimley plays an aged retiree in “Cocoon,” and his advanced age is part of the film’s plot, while Cruise was still leading action franchises. Many young people can’t wrap their heads around the fact that two 50-year-old men should look so different in age.
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Another fun fact: Did you know that pretty much only people around Wilford Brimley’s age in “Cocoon” remember the movie “Cocoon?” Ron Howard’s film was a notable hit at the time, making over $85 million on a $17 million budget (those numbers translate to $252 million and $50 million in modern dollars). Critics more or less loved it, although some said that it was too sentimental for its own good. It also won two Academy Awards, one for Best Visual Effects, and one for Best Supporting Actor (for Don Ameche). The film was a big enough hit to warrant a sequel, “Cocoon: The Return,” in 1988, which starred much of the same cast and was directed by Daniel Petrie. It wasn’t as big a hit.
Frustratingly, “Cocoon” isn’t available on streaming or for rental or purchase digitally. It was distributed on DVD, but as physical media manufacturers shrink, such films can go out of print rapidly. As a result, “Cocoon” has become somewhat obscure in recent years. This is an odd thing to have to say about an Oscar-winning blockbuster. When a film isn’t available on streaming, there’s no chance that a modern audience will stumble across it by chance, and no chance it will find new fans. “Cocoon” is effectively gone from the public consciousness (its memes about Tom Cruise and Wilford Brimley notwithstanding).
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Cocoon is one of many hit films not available on streaming
For the people younger than 50, “Cocoon” is about a clutch of 20 centuries-old alien eggs, left behind on Earth when Atlantis sank. A group of glowing aliens called Antareans, disguised as humans, have now returned to Earth to retrieve them, and their cocoons are salvaged from the ocean floor by a semi-scrupulous ship captain named Jack (Steve Guttenberg). When Jack becomes savvy to the aliens’ plans, he decides to help. The aliens are played by Brian Dennehy and Tahnee Welch.
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The Antareans have rented a local swimming pool and infused the water with some kind of magical alien life force, intending to store the cocoons in the water until their ship can arrive and take them away. The pool happens to be next door to a retirement community, and when the elderly denizens (Ameche, Brimley, Hume Cronyn) sneak over for a surreptitious dip, the alien life energies infuse their bodies, and they become youthful and energetic again. The bulk of “Cocoon” is devoted to the three men rediscovering life and sex again. The film also stars Gwen Verson, Jessica Tandy, and Maureen Stapleton.
Steven Spielberg had nothing to do with the making of “Cocoon,” but its beatific tone and sentimental themes of recapturing lost youth feel like something Spielberg inspired. Recall that “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” came out only three years earlier. The world was ready for the kind of huggable sci-fi warmth that “Cocoon” offered in spades. It’s no wonder that a bleak film like “The Thing” (from 1982) wasn’t a hit: The public wasn’t in the mood for slimy alien horror. They wanted glowing alien cocoons that made Don Ameche randy.
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The importance of owning physical media
In order to see “Cocoon,” though, one will have to go out of their way to purchase a DVD from the second-hand market, or find a bootleg. Its lack of immediate availability further cements the importance of owning physical media. Streaming services operate by ineffable caprices, offering and removing films from their channels without rhyme or reason. Yes, the current amount of video content in the world is overwhelming, but the landscape is peppered with dead zones. The absences of certain classics, or even well-regarded blockbusters, is noticeable.
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One might immediately think of Ken Russell’s “The Devils,” a notable Catholic horror freakout that moves in and out of the streaming world. As of this writing, there are no streaming services that offer access to David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” or Todd Solondz’s “Happiness” or Kevin Smith’s “Dogma,” all striking and important films. The 2001 Bollywood epic “Lagaan” isn’t on streaming in North America, despite having been nominated for an Academy Award. And what an injustice that the world doesn’t have instant access to Julie Taymor’s “Titus,” a super-stylized adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus.”
Streaming could offer the world a bottomless archive of its own art, but studios would rather not pay for the bandwidth such an archive would require. Instead, films like “Cocoon” are shunted off to the side, actively kept out of the consciousness. Only long-running, still-sellable I.P. (like, say, “Star Wars”) gets to live on streaming in perpetuity.
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In the meantime, you’ll have to buy “Cocoon” and own it if you want to watch it. We had video libraries before. We can do it again.
