Pretty much same story as....
Forbidden Planet,isn't it?
Must add that i enjoyed Forbidden Planet more,that unstoppable manifestation scared the crap out of me :)
Yep , It hit me too , after seeing the FP.
But the movie itself is based on a book written by Michael Crichton , so he's the idea-thief.
I don't really think you can call him an idea thief. That's like saying every movie with a rocket ship in it is a copycat. It's just that the idea of something that can be used to manifest thoughts into reality has been used so little that it stands out more. The setting is different, the method is different (forbidden planet, ancient alien technology. Sphere, a giant golden ball that no one knows the origins of, whether it's artificial or natural, etc.). Sure, at it's core it's a movie about the bad subconscious parts of the human mind and it has space travel and "making-thought-happen" implicated in both, but I think that Crichton's version elaborates on the issue and is really full of a number of other issues as well. It's hard sf that deals with time travel, aliens (and whether or not we would know them when we see them), how the government might handle certain situations, etc.
I mean, how many movies have been made with robots getting mad and taking over? When you only have one other story using the same idea, you're still pretty much in the clear for originality. Especially if you elaborate and put your own spin on the idea.
Actually it's not that rare of an idea. Solaris is even closer to this than FP is.
shareIn a way, many of these films are just more expensive,dignified remakes of Roger Corman's old Galaxy of Terror rather than Forbidden Planet. -With the zaniness removed.
A motley crew finds an old space ship and are one by one killed off by their own worst fears.
Even though Sphere is based on a book, it's almost as if Even Horizon was a remake of Galaxy of Terror, and Sphere is a remake of Event Horizon.