Making a film, any film, is a long, arduous process. In the instance of Jeffrey Morris’s The Eagle Obsession, praise alone is insufficient. The Eagle Obsession is an example where passion meets form. It expertly sits somewhere between “foundational” and “necessary,” representing events and peoples of the past while connecting to modern times, projecting into the future.
From the opening frame, through the closing, The Eagle Obsession is a message obsessed with a desire to share a common thread modern society didn’t know it needed: hope.
That hope fueled Morris’s journey as he and his team strongly advocate for collaborative work with luminaries throughout multiple industries, who were once touched by a magnificent show, “Space: 1999.” At its center is the spaceship that fueled Morris’s imagination as a young child in Tempe, Arizona: the multi-modular Eagle spaceship, The Eagle Obsession’s centrifuge, which is as synonymous with another famed starship featured within.
Morris’s first-person perspective treats the audience to interviews with author Kevin J. Anderson set against the spectacular Colorado landscape, and with special effects master, Bill George (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock), set within San Francisco’s Presidio, with the Golden Gate Bridge serving as a backdrop. These early participants serve as the foundations for Morris’s journey in the same context as his reverence for his parents’ influences in his childhood years.
“Space:1999” stars Nick Tate and Barbara Bain each fill the screen with a reverent, mutual respect for the legacies they created in their characters, Alan Carter and Helena Russell, respectively. At the same time, Morris conveys the importance of their influences on his creative endeavors. Especially important to Morris was rebuilding the Eagle’s command cockpit on the famed Pinewood Studios lot with the aid of famed British special effects legend Brian Johnson (Alien). Seeing Tate within the recreated cockpit, his eyes wide and gleaming like a kid in a candy store, was evocative.
(L) “Space: 1999” actor, Nick Tate, and The Eagle Obsession’s director, Jeffrey Morris, relish the past in a recreation of the Eagle spacecraft. Photo courtesy of Future Dude Entertainment.
Equally as important to Morris is the sphere of influence that “Space: 1999” had on other pop culture, namely through an interview with William Shatner on the recreated U.S.S. Enterprise bridge in upstate New York.
All the elements in The Eagle Obsession come full circle as its message of hope for a brighter future for humanity lies in the importance of ongoing education, influenced through an observational lens. Morris is thoughtful in his introspection, speaking with Dr. Sian Proctor and Anna Barab, both of whom were influenced by the messages within “Space: 1999,” and both of whom continue to educate the next generation.
Morris takes the baton on educating the future generation in a segment set in his home state of Minnesota, enunciating the need to adapt to changing conditions, to keep our minds sharp while respecting the boundaries within which we learn, communicate and collaborate – it was humbling to see Morris’s own respect for what threads connected him in each of us within the bonds of the past, the present and certainly, the future, a full circle.
Photo courtesy of Future Dude Entertainment
The Eagle Obsession itself is a brilliant meditative study on the power pop culture has to shape our interests, reinforces our shared values through continued education, our need to remain connected, carrying the legacy to the future, and the importance of the foundational wisdom that, within infinite diversity in infinite combinations, the future exists. The Eagle Obsession’s gravity cements my own journey, visually depicting my value sets. Jeffrey Morris crystallized them in one word, hope, through our shared experiences.
The Eagle Obsession had its world premiere on October 18, 2025, at the Twin Cities Film Festival and has already received multiple awards recognizing its celebration of the human condition.