A spacecraft presumed to be of alien origin is discovered on the floor of the
Pacific Ocean, estimated to have been there for nearly 300 years. A team of experts, including
marine biologist Dr. Beth Halperin,
mathematician Dr. Harry Adams,
astrophysicist Dr. Ted Fielding,
psychologist Dr. Norman Goodman, and
U.S. Navy Captain Harold Barnes, is assembled and taken to the Habitat, a state-of-the-art underwater living environment located near the spacecraft. Examining the spacecraft, they are perplexed to learn it is not alien at all, but rather American in origin. However, its technology far surpasses any in the present day. The ship's computer logs cryptically suggest a mission that originated either in the distant past or future, but the team deduces that the long-dead crew was tasked with collecting an item of scientific importance. Norman and Beth discover the ship's logs, with the last entry noting an "unknown event". A holographic reenactment of the event reveals that hundreds of years in the future, the ship encountered a
black hole, which apparently led to a crash landing in the ocean, back in the 1700s. Soon after, Norman and the others stumble on a large, yet perfect sphere hovering in the cargo bay. They cannot find any way to probe the inside of the sphere, as the fluid surface seems to be impenetrable. On observation, Norman ominously notes that the sphere reflects everything in the room, except them. When they return to the Habitat, Harry hypothesizes that everyone on this team is fated to die. Harry notes that the black hole is referred to as an "unknown event" in the future logs. However, here in the present, they have knowledge of the historic event, yet it is unable to be explained later on. During the night, Harry returns to the spacecraft and is able to enter the sphere. Norman follows Harry, where he finds him unconscious next to the sphere, and returns him to the Habitat. The next day, the crew discovers a series of numerically encoded messages appearing on the computer screens. The crew is able to decipher them, and comes to believe they are speaking to "Jerry", an alien intelligence from the sphere. They find that Jerry is able to see and hear everything that happens on the Habitat. A powerful
typhoon strikes the surface, and the Habitat crew is forced to stay in the Habitat several more days. During that time, a series of tragedies strikes the crew, including attacks from aggressive
jellyfish and a
giant squid, and equipment failures in the base that kill Ted, Barnes and the team's support staff. The survivors, Beth, Harry and Norman, believe Jerry is responsible. Norman discovers that they had misinterpreted the initial messages from Jerry, and that the entity speaking to them through the computers is actually Harry himself, transmitted from his mind while he is asleep. Norman and Beth eventually realize that when Harry entered the sphere, he gained the ability to make anything he imagines a reality, and they conclude that all the horrors that have befallen the Habitat were manifestations of Harry's fears. Norman and Beth sedate Harry with enough sleeping drugs to put him into a dreamless sleep, to prevent him from doing any further damage. However, when Norman is attacked by a snake, Beth realizes that Harry alone could not have been responsible for everything that had happened on the Habitat, and she confronts Norman, accusing him of entering the sphere when he went to retrieve Harry. Beth's suspicions prove to be correct, but after experiencing her own nightmarish vision, she confesses to Norman that she too entered the sphere. When rejoined by Harry, the three of them realize that the crew of the ship must have also entered the sphere, and they ended up killing each other after being driven mad by their fears. Under the stress of the situation, Beth has suicidal thoughts, which causes the detonation mechanisms on a store of explosives to engage, threatening to destroy the base and the spacecraft. They race to the Habitat's mini-sub, but their combined fears cause them to reappear back in the spacecraft. As a psychologist, Norman is able to see through the illusion. He triggers the mini-sub's undocking process, and overrides the others' fears that they will not escape the destruction of the Habitat and spacecraft. The sphere is untouched by the explosions. The mini-sub makes it to the surface as the surface ships return. As Beth, Harry and Norman begin safe
decompression, they realize that they will be debriefed and their newfound powers discovered. Fearing humans are not ready for this ability they agree to erase their memories of the event using their powers, to ensure the "unknown event" paradox is resolved. The sphere then rises from the ocean and accelerates away into distant space. == Cast ==