I always thought about 100 people would watch a video like this. So thanks for checking it out and leaving a comment. I have enjoyed reading your thoughts on The Black Hole. It is fun to find other people that enjoyed the same things you did when you were younger, which is what this channel is all about.

Its fatal flaw was that it was two different films. One was a kids version of Star Wars, with those goofy floating robots, and the other was a fairly disturbing horror film.

This movie was NOT a disaster. It is a masterpiece!

I loved this movie as a kid and Maximillian absolutely freaked me out as a kid. Bob's death was so heartbreaking.

This is actually one of my favourite films, mostly because of the visual effects. Some of the best miniature and matte work ever done, especially considering the time it was done.

The John Barry score is fantastic. And the design is gorgeous

I saw The Black Hole when I was 9, during its theatrical run. It was amazing. I bought two of the models based on the movie - the Cygnus and V.I.N.C.E.N.T

I saw this in theaters as an 8 year old. I was awed by the black hole depiction. The murder robot scared the hell out of me.

The Black Hole is from a period I call "Dark Disney", in which The Disney Corp. explored more somber, adult oriented themes. Another product of this era I can recommend is the movie "Dragonslayer" from 1981.

Along with Tron, this film is so damn underrated. I saw this in the theaters, and there has been rumors for decades that The Black Hole was going to get a sequel, but then Disney released Tomorrowland and bought Marvel.

I know a black hole doesn't really look like it does in this movie but this whirlpool effect is just far more terrifying and majestic to look at.

I loved the movie when it came out. I was just a kid and it opened up my mind while also scaring me. Saw it again a couple of years ago, and though some of it is dated, it's still a damn good film, so stunning and beautiful.

Saw his movie upon its release at Christmastime 1979 with my fellow 8th grade friends after school as we were going into our holiday break. You know that feeling of excitement you get when you are on your first afternoon of your school vacations, and we were all together watching this cool movie. I loved it and even have the paperback.

1979 was a great year at the movies. Two years after Star Wars, we got The Black Hole, Alien, Star Trek The Motion Picture, and Moonraker.

This movie scared the shit out of me as a 5-year-old. Maximilian the robot ripping that guys insides apart using his machine hands. The entire movie was dark and haunting, especially that ending. This came out the same year as Star Trek the Motion Picture, and their tones were very similar. This is back before PG-13, which Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom introduced I believe, so one could really pack a lot of adult content into PG. This is 3 years before Tron, another completely original Disney sci-fi story that is of course much better remembered.

Thanks for resurrecting this! Great movie. My dad was a motion picture projectionist and he got lots of free movie merch for me and my sister. Even years after 1979, we used to have our meatloaf and mashed potatoes dinner plates served on The Black Hole themed plastic placements that our dad scored for us. Yoghurt from Spaceballs was right - it's all about merchandising!

Absolutely one of my childhood favourites. The musical score was thrilling and haunting. It scared the hell out of me, but mesmerized me at the same time.

This movie deserves so much more love and acknowledgement than it gets. I think I'm still scarred by the scene where Kate takes the mirrored mask off of one of the 'crew'.

The Black Hole is the unsung hero of Disney movies.

The Black Hole was and is an underrated masterpiece. I loved it when it came out, have watched it numerous times still and I watched this and the original Tron when I first got Disney + before watching anything else on it. Please, let's have more disasters like this!

interesting trivia: You mentioned TRON as an equally brave attempt at a different type of film and for TRON's initial test shots of frisbee action, they used Black Hole crew robot costumes for those test shots.

I saw this in the theater. It was freaking scary. That last scene where the villain and the robot merge really traumatized me as a child.

This movie is amazing. What's strange as an adult now the movie is vastly entertaining. As a child, it just scared the crap out of me. The Moby Dick references, the redemption at the end, all of it, it really hits home. Things you miss as a child. Thanks for talking about this movie.

The mystery hook of the Black Hole (1979) was later echoed in Event Horizon (1997) nearly 20 years later. I always enjoy scenarios where people especially trained for tough situations are thrown into situations much tougher than what they were trained for. Aliens (1979), Aliens 2 (1986) and Dog Soldiers (2002) followed this same scenario. All these creative endeavors were highly original and very creative.

I showed this movie to a friend of mine and he made a pretty good comparison to another movie called Event Horizon. I thought about it and saw a lot of similarities between the two movies. I would definitely want to see a modern version of the Black Hole.

I saw it in the theater back then and to me, Even all these years later, Disney's Black hole is one of those cult classics that I still love to watch every once and a while.

Another sci-fi film that is criminally underrated is Silent Running, from 1972 and starring the excellent Bruce Dern. Like 'The Black Hole', it has robots, a giant ship, great special effects, and an 'unusual' ending. The story is apocryphal, heart warming and incredibly sad at the same time. It left a huge impression on me.

I had the audio book version of this as a kid (the one that had book with a cassette tape that beeped when you were supposed to turn the page). I was absolutely hooked on it! I don't think I saw the movie until many years after that. In fact, I might not have ever actually seen the movie, and only recognize it from the book!

This is probably one of my absolute favorite bad movies of all time - I celebrate it every chance I get, because so much of it fits together. I can't call it a GOOD movie because the parts that don't fit are pretty glaring, but you're right. This is a puzzle that ALMOST fit together perfectly. Not to mention the best robot death scene ever. "Carry on the tradition -- we'll never be obsolete."

After R2D2 my favorite robot is V.I.N.C.E.N.T... oh and i cried when B.O.B died :(

One of my all time favorite movies...still fun to watch today! I really respect how they took a chance with the ending.

I'm still watching it every now and then. It's still a good movie. It's mysterious and dark in some ways but a movie about a interstellar black hole is just captivating. The effects were very good at the time as well. The visuals of the Cygnus just gave the viewers the illusion of how titanic in size the ship was. The rail car added depth to its colossal size. But overall Disney did something special with this one and it show despite the strange ending.

I’m so glad to have found this. I always liked this movie, but sort of accepted the poor reviews as authoritative. But I’m older and wiser now, and have learned to trust and accept my own opinions and judgments. I will rewatch this again soon with a more objective eye, and not one influenced by outside opinions.

This film (like Tron) was underappreciated at the time. I remember seeing this in the theater and the ending weirded me out a little as a 9 year old kid. I wondered how Dr. Rinehart could breath as he floated in space. The ending was a symbolic inferred message of the afterlife that wasn't as clean and simple as the Death Star blowing up.

Both this and Tron are incredible sci fi movies.

One of my favorite films of all time. Saw it in the theater way back when. Still love it today.

Disney doesn't swing for the fences anymore. They swing wildly at "low and away" and strike out time and time again.

My parents took me to see this at the drive-in theater when I was about 8, I absolutely loved it…from that opening haunting music with the flat plane green grid that took a dive into the black hole….to that crazy ending….I still love this movie to this day, and revisit every so often. Wish I still had those action figures of Vincent and Maximilian!

This was one of the first times I ever saw a 'Cathedral Starship' 😁 Also, Disney may hot have intended it, but this was their first 'Horror Movie': A Mad Scientist obsessed with traveling through a Black Hole (something everyone else thinks is impossible); He transforms his entire crew into 'Undead' beings/acolytes; his one servant is a almost demonic robot that kills someone by Sawing Through Their Chest!! 😬(and strangely enough, an actor best known for portraying a Killer himself 😄). In the end, he tries to go through the Black Hole, but ends up merged with his Demonic Robot in what appears to be Literal Hell.....damn, this was "Event Horizon" before 'Event Horizon' 😅

These movies were the one thing that kept Disney on my radar. I was in my 20's and beyond the warm fuzzy years of the 60's Wonderful World of Disney. They were one of the few studios making some real experimental movies like this and TRON. The fact I went to and enjoyed these type movies while most did not always told me something about people like me - we were not sheep. The only thing I can say about the movie itself after reading the book first was they changed the ending. The book suggests that after passing through the black hole our protagonists became 'more', perhaps evolving as they now had a form of telepathy which they use lightly while travelling towards some bright 'future', while the film goes religious on us - in essence the Black Hole killed everyone and they 'got what they deserved'. Bit of a cop out but the general public never was too bright.

As a kid, when that ship flew through hell, I was shaken to my core. I hid behind the couch

The Black Hole was a great movie! I saw it in the theater when it came out. It was Disney's first PG movie and it had a great cast. I re-watched it recently and, IMHO, it still holds up. I wished they made a sequel to show what happens after they go through the black hole.

Maximilian should be in the Top 5 of scariest things ever

The toy license for the movie The Black Hole nearly destroyed the Mego toy company. Mego got the Black Hole toy license on a promise to pay Disney a large sum later. The toy sales were horrible, they lost money making them, then ended up owingmoney on the license as well! Mego ended up selling the trademark on the toy name Tron (which they had patented for Micronauts) to Disney to cover the debt. Disney wanted it for their upcoming sci-fi movie Tron.

In the original concept art for Vincent actually had a humanoid form he could change into. Arms and legs would extend from his torso. They retracted when he was flying. In the final film they kept him in flying mode all the time.

I love the intro sequence with the green spacetime frame. As I´ve heard this was the most complex CGI to this date. And then John Barry´s score - it felt like the Black Hole was singing a siren´s song, luring the space traveler into its´ deadly gravitational embrace.

As an adult of 54 now, I remember watching this when it came out and I loved it but was terrified of it. The evil robot was so cool. Late last year, I started watching it again but had to stop part way through when it got to the crew scenes-It still scares me. I'm plucking up the courage now to finish watching it. Imagine that. Great film with a great and atmospheric music score.

It's a very underrated movie. If anything the weakest element is what a lot of people remember most fondly - Vincent and Bob. Without them it's pretty hard sci-fi, right up until the very end, when the black hole ostensibly leads Reinhardt and Maximillian to Hell and the surviving crew to Heaven. Throws a lot of people, but it's a very interesting movie.

I am a huge fan of this film. It doesn’t get much love though. Now I am going to have to go rewatch it. 😂

Seen this on TV as kid in the late 80´s. Never remembered the title. Thanks a lot! I loved that one.

One of my favorite childhood sci fi movies, i actually had a kids book version with screen shots from the movie...a few years ago I was trying to remember the name of the movie just to try and find it to show my kids. Brought back memories for sure

Like you, I watched this as a child, I'd be around 11 years old, and I fell in love with the film. The huge ships, cute robot VinCent, the awesome, but evil robot, Maximilian, the special effects and the music too. All set a round the mysterious phenomenon we call a black hole. I was hooked. I haven't watched it for many years, but I still remember it fondly. Sadly, many of the cast have now left us, but they were a talented bunch.

I’ve always loved this movie. I saw it at the cinema when it came out and loved it then, and still love it when I rewatch it now. The robot Maximilian is one of the scariest robots in movie history in my view.

I loved that movie ! I didn't know back then that it was made by Disney. Never thought they had it in them to create such a movie.

Decades later and this movie still scares the shit out of me. Not exactly sure why but it does. Honestly I've seen straight up horror movies that have scared me less than this movie.

This was one of two movies that gave me nightmares as a child. (the other being "Time Bandits.") Today, I love both movies. As for the Black Hole, just look up the theme song and tell me that's not the creepiest theme you've ever heard...

Love this movie. Watched as a child in the cinema and still rewatch every few years. I even won a contest with Nestle for a copy of the soundtrack on vinyl, which I treasured (I still have the vinyl and the letter that came with it)

Thanks for mentioning it. Never heard of it until today, giving it a watch.

Thanks for the video - I love "The Black Hole", too. It had a deep impact on me watching it as a child. Being a film professional these days, I still admire the density of the atmosphere … as you pointed out. While it certainly tried to ride the "Star Wars" wave to get green light in the first place, it is so different, so "classic"… you might even say "backwards" in comparison. First, it is Sci Fi and not (like Star Wars") a phantasy movie… but foremost it is a ghost ship story. It mixes themes from Kubricks 2001 and classic stories like "The Flying Dutchman" (a cursed crew on a never ending journey). And it does it It so very well. I think that "The Black Hole" was an inspiration for the underrated "Event Horizon" that puts almost all themes in a modern setting, with similar critical acclaim - undeserved in my opinion. If you missed that one… it would be a "must see". Of course, some things didn't age well (robots are very cheesy… even for it's own time… except for Max of course). You didn't mention the iconic soundtrack composed by "John Barry" (James Bond), that is a major part of the haunting atmosphere. The Intro is still one of my all time favourites as it uses a simple concept that does it all. Fun facts: At the time of its release, the movie featured the longest computer graphics sequence (the grid in the intro).

I loved this movie as a kid, though I was too young when it was released (3yo). I later read the comic-book adaption in the Donald Duck magazine and saw the movie a million time on VHS. Absolutely loved it, esp. the droids and their human-like behavior

I love this film. Saw it with my dad as a kid in the theater and I have a DVD copy.

I was in love with this movie when it came out and it's stuck with me through all these years. This was back when Disney was a safe place for kids. This movie is from an era that is long past.

I saw the film back in the day, when I was 12 (I was already a huge fan of SF and still am), and I had completely forgotten about it. That you for bringing the memories back!

Loved The Black Hole. Still one of my favorite movies. Great FX, acting, and story! And the music is fantastic!

I loved the black hole when it came out, rewatched it a year or so ago. Still loved it.

I went to see this as a youngling and I can tell you that I have never forgotten this Cult Classic. Thank you

Thanks 👍 This video about the movie The Black Hole... truly comes out of nowhere! The "universe" and the setup of characters made for an interesting backdrop...that I feel is still interesting today.

I don’t think I’d like a remake. As you’ve said, the set design and artistic sensibilities of the film are amazing and unique, and we’re simply not gonna get that in a modern film. Also, the movie had a once-in-a-lifetime cast that you’re never gonna equal. The music is wonderful. The old-school effects really service the plot better than more realistic ones would, and honestly, what ending do you think they’d choose for the movie? Certainly they’re not gonna go to hell and get rescued by an angel, certainly they’re not gonna pull a nebulous 2001 style ending. I think it’s a deeply flawed film, but it’s a unique film, too, and it’d be a shame to lose that, or trade it in for Generic Grimdark Space Adventure #17b

Loved this movie as a child! I recall it was the first movie my family and I watched when we got this exciting, new-fangled thing called "cable" 🙂

I just streamed this not to long ago . No one else in the house wanted to watch it and all thought dad was being weird. It just brought back great memories. Man, was I scared of that robot as a kid. I was 7 when that came out. I saw that thing in my dreams (nightmares). But as scary as it was it also intrigued me. When we got a VCR some time later, I watched the movie over and over just to see Maximilian.

For a FSL unit (one of the curricular themes for that grade was robots), I included BOB, VINCENT, and Maximillian to our list of movie robots. I showed them just enough stills and clips from the movie for them to get a sense of who's who. At the end of the year (very last day), we were permitted to have a movie session. The kids agreed (with more enthusiasm than I expected) to see The Black Hole. :) You should have heard the gasps and the whispered "Maximillian!"s when he appeared on screen in all his glory. What a crew. :)

Having recently watched The Black Hole, I can see how Event Horizon was influenced by it.

Saw it in the theater as a little kid and I loved it - especially the shots of the black hole and the external spaceship panoramas. I also really liked the music, it created a pretty creepy atmosphere. Recently watched it again and still quite enjoyed it.

The opening minutes of this are just STUNNING! Just how dark space looks.

I saw this in the theater as a kid, absolutely loved it., In fact your reminder just made me order the DVD to add to my collection.

Love this movie. I’ve seen this at least 50 times…wish I had a Blu-ray of it.

Saw this first run in 1979 several times. I was blown away. I didn’t quite *get* it at the time, but I loved it. Having watched it a few times since, I think I understand it now: in the first half of the movie, we’re pelted with offhand religious references, such as Harry Booth saying the Black Hole is like something straight out of Dante’s Inferno, and Alex talking about how traveling through the whole would be “A sacred pilgrimage to what may be the mind of God,” and various other odds and ends (Like he endless abandoned crew quarters looking very much like monk’s cells, or the Cygnus itself being essentially a gothic cathedral in space. Reinhard is going on and on about how different physical laws apply on the other side, and while it’s not clearly stated, it’s pretty obvious that he wants to become God or at least a god on the other side. So I *think* this was probably supposed to be a bit more straightforward, with Reinhardt being a mad scientist babbling about God and stuff, and we’re not supposed to take it seriously because he’s obviously crazy, but then when they fall into the black hole we’re supposed to be shocked to discover that he was actually right: black holes are the back door into the supernatural realms. They go to hell - which, I mean, where else would you send people who trespassed in the afterlife? And Reinhardt gets to rule in hell, basically, but then an angel shows up and guides the survivors through because they didn’t do anything wrong. They didn’t intend to come there, so they’re not punished. Instead an angel guides them out and drops them back in real space. the planet they’re approaching at the end is earth. Assuming that’s the case, I would imagine that rewrites and edits made it a bit more ambiguous, because I can’t imagine Disney would be comfortable with that. However the fingerprints are still there, if you’re willing to sit through it like 20 times to find them. :) Or, conversely, I’m forcing sense on an inherently senseless thing, which is entirely possible, but either way: I like my read on the film.

Gotta love how, during the early scene of the ship rotating, VINCENT starts rotating (from the crew's point of view) inside. That's brilliant... VINCENT is "staying upright...." in *space...!*

That film made a huge impression on me as a kid. It was visually stunning, quite different to anything else I'd seen; deeply mysterious, REALLY dark, and just went completely nuts at the end. Love the music too. It never felt like a Disney film at all.

This to me is still one of those great sleeper sci movies that was pretty good for its time with special effects. I saw it when it came out and was more terrified by Maximilian than Darth Vader!

I saw the black hole what I was About 8 and I really enjoyed it. It has a lot of atmosphere and sense of space both in the ship and outside the ship. I know a lot of people will hate it for hardly any action but I find it to be wonderful experience just visually and sound and everything is so good.

I really liked this movie as a kid as well… Watching it now as an adult, it’s not great…but like you said, there is a core of a good story here…and the effects were AMAZING for the time.

Thank you for covering this, I completely agree with every point of your analysis. The ending is almost a video in itself as a topic in terms of how you could analyze it, and the movie's Hell/Heaven metaphor (or is it real????) does an excellent, if sometimes very direct, job of summarizing the movie plot and theme, as well as the duality of the Captain's character. Such a great movie, and such an odd choice of story and plot, for the better, I think. This movie is a treasured "What did I just watch? Deep thinking time" movie of my childhood.

I totally agree with you!!! I saw this movie when I was 8-9 years old and was fascinated by the scary undertone of it! I still think it has,after all these years, some great special effects...and I loved the soundtrack! I was born in 1979,just saying,and these days I listened to a lot of radio play cassettes,this was one of my all-time favourites... 🙂🤘

I don't remember how young I was when I saw it air on TV, but I thought it was incredible. And the ending scenes were more of an artful expression, meaning it didn't have to make sense. Food for thought, it was. Still haunts me to this day, but for some odd reason, it's fine.

Great analysis! This film gripped me as a kid and I rewatched recently and despite shortcomings, it does have a pretty creepy vibe and ofc the completely out of the blue evisceration which did kind of scar me. The robots look like Henry the hoover (look it up if you don't have them over there) drags it down a bit ..

One of the most underrated sci fi films of all time, I love it!

Love that movie but how could you not mention the epically beautiful score by John Barry?

“Should?” I do love it. It hit when I was at the perfect age to enjoy it and helped me on my path to my love for all things sci-fi.

I loved your tone for this. Great job.

Thanks for this little nostalgia hit - amazing how much I remember from it, as I was about 7 when I saw it at the cinema here in the UK. Definitely remember loving it at the time. Still totally holds up cinematically I think. Better looking than I remember, and usually the opposite is true with these things, I find. Nice.

This film has always had a soft spot for me and I Love The Black Hole as one of my absolute favorite films along with A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, Star Wars 1977, The Shining, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Scarface, The Terminator, and Full Metal Jacket. The Black Hole is a very underappreciated and great sci-fi Disney film, the John Barry music score was brilliant, and The Black Hole had great characters like Dr. Hans Reinhardt, Maximilian, V.I.N.CENT, and Old Bob. Gary Nelson's direction for the film was stellar, the target practice scene with V.I.N.CENT, Old B.O.B, and S.T.A.R was awesome, and Dr. Hans Reinhardt as well as Maximilian the Robot were both excellent villains. The Black Hole along with Star Wars 1977 and Raiders of the Lost Ark are one of my most re-watched films, Gary Nelson and Stanley Kubrick are both one of my all time favorite film directors, and I loved Stanley Kubrick's work on A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket.

I remember watching this at a drive-thru, and a little later at a theater. Loved it, I was all of 10 years old at that time.

This and Silent Running struck me as a young kid in theaters before there was so much content available. Back them there were so few films we all knew of most of them.

I was there in the theaters and absolutely loved this movie. I still have a soft spot for the robots in my heart.

I remember this movie very well because I was 9 years old when it came out and my dad took me to see it in the theaters. I absolutely loved the way they made space look as well as the black hole itself. And I really loved the way the Cygnus looked all spooky and dark as they flew by and then it suddenly lit up with that eerie yellow glow. Very cool! But despite all that, even as a 9 year old, I still noticed the wannabe Star Wars feel with the R2-D2 look of VINCENT and BOB and the stormtrooper look of the sentries (even though if I remember correctly they were androids). But I keep meaning to look on Disney+ to see if it’s on there.

This movie blew my mind as a kid. It was magical.

Back when I first saw this as a kid, the graphics then felt as awesome as the ones from Avatar did to me today.The ending scene where the meteor rolls down stuck with me through the years. I would love to see a remake of this with Avatar level graphics.

Maximilian floating into the black hole at the end sticks with me to this day. Haunting. That scene scared me for the rest of my life. I saw this the year it came out.

I agree with most of this. Seeing this as a kid in the '80's the rolling meteor shot was really amazing and Maximilian was even scarier than Vader to me (he freakin guts a guy on camera!) I've thought for decades it should be remade but with Interstellar portraying a black hole so well this movie maybe missed its window.