Cocoon

"It is everything you've dreamed of. It is nothing you expect."

1985 1h 57m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

🍅

82%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.7

IMDB

★6.6TMDB · 1,465🍅82%Rotten Tomatoes●65Metacritic★6.7IMDB · 72,076

ComedyScience FictionMysteryDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When a group of trespassing seniors swim in a pool containing alien cocoons, they find themselves energized with youthful vigor.

“It is everything you've dreamed of. It is nothing you expect.”

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Cast

Steve Guttenberg
Jack Bonner
Tahnee Welch
Kitty
Brian Dennehy
Walter
Don Ameche
Arthur Selwyn
Wilford Brimley
Benjamin Luckett
Hume Cronyn
Joseph Finley
Maureen Stapleton
Mary Luckett
Jack Gilford
Bernie Lefkowitz

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ron Howard
Writers: Tom Benedek, David Saperstein
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.9× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

41 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Cocoon Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ron Howard, shot by Donald Peterman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Daniel P. Hanley shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Steve Guttenberg and Tahnee Welch and Brian Dennehy carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "It is everything you've dreamed of. It is nothing you expect.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ron Howard directs. Donald Peterman behind the camera. James Horner scores. Daniel P. Hanley cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 4.9× over at the box office.
241 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Part of the "Cocoon Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Ron Howard, shot by Donald Peterman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Daniel P. Hanley shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Steve Guttenberg and Tahnee Welch and Brian Dennehy carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "It is everything you've dreamed of. It is nothing you expect.".
9IMDB entry: tt0088933 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 23 themes, including "florida", "swimming pool", "alien", "mahjong".

The technical file

Cinematography: Donald Peterman
Original score: James Horner
Editing: Daniel P. Hanley
Production design: Jack T. Collis
Costume design: Aggie Guerard Rodgers
Makeup / hair: Robert Norin
VFX supervisor: Ken Ralston
Sound: Gary Summers
Runtime: 117 min · 1h 57m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $17,500,000
Box office: $85,300,000
Return: 487% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Cocoon (1985)
Rotten Tomatoes: 82% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 65/100
IMDB rating: 6.7/10 · 72,076 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

Won 2 Oscars. 7 wins & 11 nominations total

Academy Award for Best Visual Effects
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Saturn Award for Best Director

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

Cocoon Collection

Cocoon is a 1985 American science fiction fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Ron Howard about a group of elderly people rejuvenated by aliens. The movie stars Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Jack Gilford, Steve Guttenberg, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon, Herta Ware, Tahnee Welch, and Linda Harrison. The film is loosely based on the novel of the same name by David Saperstein. A sequel, Cocoon: The Return, was released in 1988 in which almost all of the original cast reprised their roles.

Also by

Ron Howard

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2020-07-20
★ 8/10
Discovering the "fountain of youth" On the surface "Cocoon" (1985) is about elderly folks at a retirement home in Florida unknowingly finding the "fountain of youth" via a pool on an adjacent property. A peculiar group of people rent the property to store boulder-like objects they take from the bottom of the ocean. As such, the pool acquires healing powers and restore's the old folk's youthful vigor. Steve Guttenberg stars as the likable protagonist, the boat owner/operator who helps the people get to the objects in the ocean, but he has no idea what's really going on. The stunning Tahnee Welch, Raquel's daughter, plays one of the members of the peculiar group to whom Guttenberg's character takes a liking. Unlike Raquel, who's known for being a bit biyatchy, Tahnee shines with a winsome disposition. Brian Dennehy is also on hand as the leader of the odd group, and he does very well. Most great movies have a deeper subtext, and so it is with "Cocoon." The story is a commentary on aging, death, grieving and the yearning for eternal life. The people of the peculiar group are types of angels or, better yet, the redeemed in glorified bodies. What they offer is the gospel, the key to eternal life in the "new heavens and new earth, the home of righteousness" (2 Peter 3:13). By "the redeemed in glorified bodies" I'm referring to the glorious bodies that are promised to believers at the time of their bodily resurrection (1 Cor. 15:42-44); these bodies will be imperishable, powerful and spiritual (not carnal) in nature. Believers will be able to defy gravity with these new bodies, walk through doors and teleport from one place to another, all of which can be observed in Jesus Christ after his resurrection. Needless to say, "Cocoon" has an incredible subtext. But it's not necessary to get so deep. This is just an entertaining movie with a good heart. More than that, it's inspiring. On the downside, the final act is overextended and should've been trimmed down. The film runs 1 hour, 57 minutes, and was shot in the Clearwater/St. Petersburg area of Florida with the underwater scenes done in the Bahamas. GRADE: A-
Filipe Manuel Neto2023-02-14
★ 6/10
It deserves to be remembered nowadays. I think the 80's were, maybe, the golden age of alien movies. Between comedies or horror films, the quality is quite satisfactory and there is plenty to choose from. This film is, however, one of the least known, perhaps due to the light way in which everything was approached, and it has even fallen into unfair oblivion today. For me, it was a movie that worked better precisely because of that, not least because I'm not a particularly big fan of alien movies. The film, in fact, is a very light and familiar comedy, pleasant and not made to think too much, nor to be an award-winning film. I really got the feeling that it was an unpretentious project that, at the time, gave very good results, having even won two Oscars, for Best Visual Effects and Best Supporting Actor (for veteran Don Ameche). The script is quite simple: a group of friendly old timers from a nursing home, who have the habit of visiting the pool of a neighboring abandoned mansion, have just discovered that their new owners have mysteriously changed the water with gigantic stones from the bottom of the sea: now, in addition to being warm, the water seems to have the ability to restore their youthful vitality and health. What they don't know is that the stones are, in fact, emergency pods left by an alien civilization that had an exploration base in the sea, nearby, which we learned to call Atlantis... and that the new owners of the abandoned house they are really aliens from a rescue team that came to collect the pods left behind thousands of years ago. The film has a great cast that includes venerable names such as Don Ameche, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Wilford Brimley and Jack Gilford. In fact, and despite the merits of younger actors like Steve Guttenberg and Brian Dennehy, it is a film made to allow veteran actors a good opportunity to shine and show that age is numbers. I think I won't be exaggerating if I say that everyone enjoyed the film well and showed that they are doing very well, and that talent doesn't fade with age. I especially liked Brimley and Stapleton. Guttenberg has done better in other films, and Tahnee Welch doesn't do very well here either. On a technical level, it's a very well-made film: the cinematography extracts the best of the sunny and seemingly paradisiacal environments of the places where the film was made, and the visual and special effects used fulfill their role in the film very well. We might even think that there are some cheap clichés, like the light on the boat, or the flying saucer, but as I said above, it's a light film, and we're only being unfair or overly demanding if we think about things like that. The soundtrack was in charge of James Horner, with whom Howard will make a series of films, and fulfills his role very well, without much fuss.