Bio-Dome
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| Bio-Dome | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jason Bloom |
| Produced by | Bradley Jenkel Brad Krevoy Steven Stabler |
| Written by | Adam Leff Mitchell Peck |
| Starring | Pauly Shore Stephen Baldwin William Atherton Joey Lauren Adams Kylie Minogue |
| Music by | Andrew Gross |
| Cinematography | Phedon Papamichael |
| Editing by | Christopher Greenbury |
| Release date(s) | January 12, 1996 |
| Running time | 88 min. |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Bio-Dome is a 1996 movie starring Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin and directed by Jason Bloom. The story centers on two men named Bud (Shore) and Doyle (Baldwin) and their experience inside a "bio-dome", a form of a closed ecological system. The film is based upon true events, a scientific project that began operation in 1991 in the Arizona desert.
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[edit] Plot
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The movie begins with a commercial style advertisement about the purpose of the Bio-dome, to artificially sustain life and maintain homeostasis within the ecosystem. To conduct the experiment, 5 scientists were chosen to live inside for one year, Earth Day to Earth Day, and live off of the ecosystem.
Bud Macintosh and Doyle Johnson are best friends that live in Tucson, AZ. The scene with them opens on the two pulling a stunt to get out of Earth Day activities with their Earth conscious girlfriends, Monique (Joey Lauren Adams) and Jen. When the girls find out about it, they decide to get even by pretending to have met two men at the event and gave Bud and Doyle a red herring location. The two leave to go after them but soon realize they were fooled. On the way home, Doyle finds he needs to urinate. They pull off the road at the Bio-dome, which they mistake for a mall, and are turned away by a security guard at the entrance. They get around this by using firecrackers as a distraction and by the time they are ready to leave, they find they have been sealed inside.
The scientists and chief investor Mr. Leaky discuss what to do about the situation. Mr. Leaky wants the two out immediately. The scientist in chief, Dr. Noah Faulkner, decides since the experiment depends on the time of one year, they must stay and the system will have to adapt to 7, not 5 people. This soon proves to be a mistake as Bud and Doyle aren't the most environment friendly guests. Things aren't helped by the fact two of the scientists are rather attractive looking and given the fact that they won't be able to have a physical relationship with their girlfriends, they hit on them at every opportunity. This gets out to Monique and Jen and they decide to go to an environmental party. By this time, Bud and Doyle have caused so much trouble, they have been banished to the desert part of the dome and left for dead. While Petra and Mimi object after some time, Faulkner stand firm that nature must take it's course and they be left there.
While suffering in the heat, Doyle discovers a key that unlocks a hidden door and the two are out. Given that they've been left for dead, the first thing they do is order a ton of pizza and drinks. The driver tips them off about their girlfriends and the party they are at and they decide to undercut them by throwing a bigger, wilder party. The clincher was they decided to hold it within the dome. As hundreds of people show up, Bud and Doyle admit them through the door they escaped through. The scientist team get caught up in the party against their will with Faulkner being handcuffed to a light post. While Bud and Doyle are being treated like royalty, Monique and Jen confront Bud and Doyle in total shock at the destruction and littering. The next morning, Monique and Jen begin cleaning up the mess caused by the party, making Bud and Doyle feel worse. They realize not only have they made them mad, but they've caused a huge amount of damage to the dome. Mr. Leaky confronts the team with insurance lawyers to assess the damage. Faulkner isn't present, though the handcuffs are as they had been chewed through. As the scientists are sent home, they see Bud and Doyle, who interject and plead for their help to undo the damage. As an ultimatum, Doyle locks the door and swallows the key.
The team immediately gets to work in restoring homeostasis with chores around the dome. Word gets out and a crowd begins to form at the dome supporting the teams efforts. Meanwhile, Faulkner, still inside as well, has gone insane and wants to get rid of his failure by rigging coconuts as explosives and having them set to detonate at the exact moment the dome is to open again. The team finds he raided a storeroom, leaving a message on the floor. Late one night, Bud and Doyle hear him working on his devices and loosely try to get him back on board. They don't realize they are helping him rig the coconuts. When they are on their own, they play football with one when Doyle trips and the coconut lands and explodes. Realizing the danger, they plead for an early exit, which is unsuccessful. Leaving only one option, they go back into the dome to confront Faulkner and disable the charges. After some chasing they are able to catch up with him, knock him unconscious, and deactivate the coconuts. As the team heads for the door, Faulkner shows up with one more coconut, but is tripped and the coconut explodes in the entryway. The team emerges from the smoke unharmed and Bud and Doyle and Monique and Jen are reunited. The four drive off having learned their lesson, when Doyle needs to urinate again and the four are last seen driving into a power plant with sirens going off. The movie closes with Faulkner escaping the police in the desert laughing.
[edit] Reaction
Shore won a Golden Raspberry Award as worst actor for his performance in the 1996 Golden Raspberry Awards. It has also been made fun of in other media, such as the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Albuquerque", when Al's list of complaints about his plane trip includes "And the in-flight movie was Bio-Dome with Pauly Shore" (shortly before the plane explodes)[1], in the Family Guy episode "Screwed the Pooch", Brian the Dog admitted in court that he had rented out Bio-Dome and Son in Law, both films starring Shore; at this point, various people in the courtroom collectively gasp, one muttering: "He's terrible.", and "The Cryonic Woman" episode of Futurama, Pauly Shore is cryogenically frozen (in a cryo-tank next to "Weird Al" Yankovic), and on awakening, remarks about Bio-Dome and in reply to Fry's statement "You sure caused trouble in that bubble," "If it rhymes, I can cause trouble in it." In Mystery Science Theater 3000's episode featuring the Canadian film "The Final Sacrifice" (Experiment #910), near the end of the movie when Satoris grins, Crow T. Robot quips, "I'm just rememberin' a scene from Bio-Dome."
According to the internet site metacritic.com which compiles and averages reviews from major newspaper and other sources, the film is the worst reviewed film of all time, although it was given a higher score from the website's users.[2]
