The Black Hole
![The Black Hole](https://prod-images.tcm.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i476/BlackHole1979_68882_1201x784_08142018093931.jpg)
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Gary Nelson
Maximilian Schell
Anthony Perkins
Robert Forster
Roddy Mcdowall
Ernest Borgnine
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Near the end of their five-year mission through space in search of alien life, the crew of the Palomino comes upon the largest black hole ever discovered, with the long-missing starship Cygnus at its edge. The only human onboard, reknowned scientist Dr. Hans Reinhardt, does not want to be rescued, but plans to enter the black hole and take the Palomino's crew with him.
Director
Gary Nelson
Cast
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/MaximilianSchell.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Maximilian Schell
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/AnthonyPerkins.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Anthony Perkins
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/RobertForster.64184.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Robert Forster
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/RoddyMcDowall.127070.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Roddy Mcdowall
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/ErnestBorgnine.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Ernest Borgnine
Tom Mcloughlin
Joseph Bottoms
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/YvetteMimieux.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Yvette Mimieux
Crew
Lloyd Ahern
Wayne Allwine
Nick Alphin
Robert Ayres
Bob Barbash
John Barry
John Bloss
Robert Broughton
Don Capel
Bill Couch
Art Cruickshank
Howard Curtis
Gerry Day
Art Dudley
Harrison Ellenshaw
Peter Ellenshaw
Peter Ellenshaw
Peter Ellenshaw
George Fredrick
Dominic Fulford
Len Glascow
Joe Hale
Leon R Harris
Bob Hathaway
Ben F Hendricks
Robert Herron
Billy Jackson
Gene Johnson
John Joliffe
Melvin Jones
Stephen Katz
Chuck Keehne
Ted Kierscey
William Kilduff
Nicholas Vincent Korda
Richard H. Landau
Dorse A Lanpher
Danny Lee
Fred Lucky
Eustace Lycett
James Macdonald
Henry A Maffett
John Mansbridge
Robert Mccall
Katee Mcclure
Thomas B Mccrory
Steve Mceveety
Steve Mceveety
George F Mcginnis
Frank R. Mckelvy
Gregg Mclaughlin
Tommy Mcloughlin
Arthur Miller
Christopher D Miller
Ron Miller
Gloria Montemayer
Joe Moore
Stevie Myers
Sandra K Nelson
Terry Nichols
Alan Oliney
Ronald Oliney
Conrad Palmisano
Joseph A Parker
Regina Parton
Frank Phillips
Frank C Regula
Al Roelofs
Jeb Rosebrook
Jeb Rosebrook
Wilbur Russell
Bobby Sargent
Terry Saunders
Robert J. Schiffer
Christopher Seiter
Ed Sekac
Roger M Shook
Herb Taylor
Louis Terrusa
Bill Thomas
John Van Frey
Robert R Wilson
Al Woodbury
William J Wylie
Photo Collections
Videos
Movie Clip
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i480/blackhole79_unscheduledcoursecorrection_FC_470x264_100920180651.jpg?w=400)
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i480/blackhole79_imalittleconcerned_FC_470x264_100920180652.jpg?w=400)
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i70/blackholeusscignus_vd_188x141_091120080937.jpg?w=400)
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i70/blackholecicero_vd_188x141_091120080927.jpg?w=400)
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Cinematography
Best Visual Effects
Articles
The Black Hole
A space probe captained by the quietly authoritative Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, 1997) stumbles across the black hole and finds a seemingly derelict ship floating on the fringes of the gravitational well. The massive haunted house of a spaceship suddenly lights up into a stunning vision of glass and latticework, glowing like an ember in the night. The crew finds the long-lost Dr. Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell in a wild-man beard), a quite literally mad scientist who has created an army of robots to run the otherwise abandoned craft and now plans to ride it into the black hole. Anything for science.
The impressive production is hampered by a clumsy story, a murky metaphysical ending, and some of the most stilted dialogue ever to emerge from a film screen. The script suggests a space-age 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with Schell (Judgment at Nuremberg, 1961) as an interstellar Captain Nemo with a Hitler complex. In keeping with the Disney references, his robot bodyguard, Maximilian, a satanic-looking behemoth in crimson and black, was modeled after the devil in the final segment of the animated classic Fantasia (1940).
Anthony Perkins has the designated Spock role as Dr. Alex Durant, an emotionally closed-off intellectual fascinated by Reinhardt's maverick ideas and impressed by his achievements. The rest of the probe's crew Yvette Mimieux's telepathic scientist and empathetic balance to Perkins' prickly logical character, Joseph Bottoms' junior pilot and impulsive young crewman, Ernest Borgnine's crusty reporter, and the roly-poly floating robot Vincent, resembling a Fisher-Price toy take on R2-D2 and voiced in decidedly C-3PO tones by Roddy McDowall is more suspicious, and rightly so. The rest of the film delves into the secret of the silent robot drones - viewed by Forster conducting a funeral in space in one haunting scene - and the real story behind the mutiny of Reinhardt's "abandoned" ship.
The science of this fiction is as hokey as the drama, but the imaginative art design and excellent special effects are magnificent. Peter Ellenshaw, the acclaimed matte artist and Disney effects veteran who won an Oscar® for his work on Mary Poppins (1964), was lured out of retirement to oversee the production. (His son and heir apparent, Harrison Ellenshaw, painted the amazing spacescapes and richly detailed mattes for the production). After failing to come to terms with Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic to use the Dykstraflex camera system used in Star Wars, Disney engineers created an even more technologically advanced computer controlled system, A.C.E.S. The film's crew rose to the challenge with special effects even more elaborate and richly complex (if not as visually dynamic) than the pioneering effects work of Star Wars. The science is pure fantasy but the scale and intensity of the imagery is breathtaking, from the ominous first sighting of the ghost ship eerily floating in space to the stunning image of a fiery meteor rolling through the ship's enormous hull while the human occupants flee to safety.
John Barry's gorgeous score, with the bass ominously carrying much of the melody, provides a lyricism missing from so many bombastic sci-fi scores and sets a tone of unease that the drama never manages to match. The cast loses the battle with the stilted dialogue and Nelson's direction is more successful in showing off the elaborate and lovingly detailed sets than in creating dramatic tension. Critics were not kind to The Black Hole and audiences failed to respond, giving Disney its most expensive commercial failure to date. Yet the imaginative production design and layered special effects have given the film a minor cult status among sci-fi movie fans. For all the advances in digital effects in the succeeding decades, the craft and care and creative ingenuity of the deep-space spectacle is still impressive.
Producer: Ron Miller
Director: Gary Nelson
Screenplay: Jeb Rosebrook, Bob Barbash, Richard Landau, Gerry Day
Cinematography: Frank Phillips
Film Editing: Gregg McLaughlin
Art Direction: John B. Mansbridge, Robert T. McCall, Al Roelofs
Music: John Barry
Cast: Maximilian Schell (Dr. Hans Reinhardt), Anthony Perkins (Dr. Alex Durant), Robert Forster (Capt. Dan Holland), Joseph Bottoms (Lt. Charles Pizer), Yvette Mimieux (Dr. Kate McCrae), Ernest Borgnine (Harry Booth).
C-98m. Letterboxed.
by Sean Axmaker
![The Black Hole](https://prod-images.tcm.com/img/film-participant-detail/Featured-Artilce_Placeholder.png)
The Black Hole
Quotes
Something caused all this. But what caused... that cause?- Dr. Hans Reinhardt
The word "impossible," Mr. Booth, is only found in the dictionary of fools.- Dr. Hans Reinhardt
There are three basic types, Mr. Pizer, the wills, the won'ts, and the can'ts. The wills accomplish everything, the won'ts oppose everything, and the can'ts won't try anything.- V.I.N.CENT
To quote Cicero: rashness is the characteristic of youth, prudence that of mellowed age, and discretion the better part of valor.- V.I.N.CENT
Vincent, were you programmed to bug me?- Lieutenant Charles Pizer
No sir, to educate you.- V.I.N.CENT
Trivia
Disney's first PG-rated movie.
To film the special effects for "The Black Hole", Disney originally wanted to rent the Dykstraflex camera system (the first computer controlled camera) from Industrial Light & Magic. However, the price and rental terms were unacceptable so Disney went to their acclaimed engineering division to come up with their own version. What resulted was Disney's A.C.E.S. (Automated Camera Effects System), which was radically superior to the Dykstraflex system, the "Mattescan" system, which enabled the camera to move on a matte painting (which was previously impossible), and a computer-controlled modeling stand. At the time, this put Disney technologically ahead of ILM.
Dr. Reinhardt's ship is called the "U.S.S. Cygnus." The first black hole was discovered in the constellation Cygnus.
The film contains over 550 visual effects shots, including over 150 matte paintings.
At the time of its release, the movie featured the longest computer graphics sequence that had ever appeared in a film.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States Winter December 1979
Released in United States Winter December 1979