Trivia / Bio-Dome

• Box Office Bomb: Budget: $8.5 million ($18.5 with marketing costs); Gross: $13.4 million.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Kylie Minogue claims this is the only thing she's done that her father ridicules her for.
  • Subverted with Stephen Baldwin. After he became born again after 9/11, he said Bio-Dome was a lesson by God. Whatever that lesson was, however, didn't stop him from trying to get Bio-Dome 2 made.
• Creator Killer: For newcomer director Jason Bloom, who has not done much in the movie business since then.
• Executive Meddling: According to some sources, Bio-Dome was a serious movie about survival in a bio-dome. Then executives decided for the film to make money, it had to become Totally Radical.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: The original script was a more serious story about two slackers who accidentally get caught in a bio dome, and learn to cope and help the scientists. Then it was turned into... a 90's comedy.
• Money, Dear Boy: Stephen Baldwin said this was almost entirely the reason he said yes to this film.
• Not Screened for Critics: With a 4% Rotten Tomatoes rating, completely understandable.
• Recycled Set: The Biodome compound is the same set as "Dante Pharmaceuticals" in Dead Heat.
• Star-Derailing Role: Both Pauly Shore's and Stephen Baldwin's movie careers were permanently stagnated by this film.
  • Following a successful stint as a standup comic and MTV VJ in the early 90s, as well as co-starring in the modestly-received Encino Man, Shore's popularity was already beginning to wane after three back-to-back star vehicles produced between 1992 and 1995, all of which received extremely tepid reception and contributed to the public opinion that his "weasel" schtick was starting to get old. This film officially brought his 15 Minutes of Fame to an end and cemented his status as a has-been. While he's continued to do standup, most of his projects since have been either self-produced (such as the 2003 mockumentary Pauly Shore Is Dead and his YouTube podcast) or have been cameos in TV shows, with the occasional Direct to Video schlock.^note Apparently, he was a huge star in the eyes of Philip J. Fry.
  • Baldwin had previously received praise for his performance in The Usual Suspects and was seen as following in the footsteps of his brothers Alec, Daniel, and Billy. Since Bio-Dome, he has generally been regarded as a joke in terms of acting abilities, and has been more famous for appearing in reality shows and for his conversion to evangelical Christianity than for his acting work (most of which is composed of Christian films and Z-grade Syfy monster/disaster movies).
    Instead of playing by the rules I agreed to be in a movie called Bio-Dome with Pauly Shore. Some of the people representing me told me to hold off on the picture even though the studio was offering me a ton of money. Instead of listening to them I read the script and nearly wet myself laughing over what I could do with the part. At the time Pauly Shore was hot, he was funny and I thought we would work well together.
  • After becoming born-again, he stated that it was God's will that he took the part and destroyed his career, so as to get him out of his prior lifestyle.
    I can honestly say that part of God's plan for my life was for me to ignore the advice of my managers and make a movie that was universally panned by the critics. Yes, God wanted me to star in a film about two brainless slackers who spend their days watching television, making out with their girlfriends, and drinking large quantities of various substances… The film was brainless and pointless and hilarious and God wanted me to make it. I didn't think like that at the time. Making Bio-Dome played right into my usual, let's have a good time attitude. God had other plans, I just didn't know it at the time.
• What Could Have Been: Harland Williams and Dana Gould auditioned for the lead roles.

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