Behind the Curve (2018) User Reviews

Very interesting capture of the psychology behind this phenomenon

[Harhaluulo54 · 5/10 · 27 July 2019]

Basically flat earthers are just bunch of people who want to feel important and feel like they are part of something, something that unites them with other people. It's unfortunate that such biased and unaware people have to question factual information and challenge science with their fanfiction just to find a hobby and feel unalone, but it also shows us how raw humans function in this society where anything might as well be a conspiracy due to us living in an illogical clown world where more things are wrong than right. It's very important to note that all of this exists due to the faults of our societies where nihilism is the new way because old ways have left so many people down.

Overall, important documentary to watch and I specifically recommend this to religious people and other herd-mentality supporters who have yet to discover any layers of nihilism and become self-aware of their own faults. Watch this and start questioning your own beliefs because they might as well be even more problematic than flat-earthers'. Don't judge them, many people are exactly like this whole bunch without even realizing it, without being criticized and getting spit on because your "beliefs" are mainstream and supported by consensus. That's one thing these flat earthers got right. Just because majority believe in something doesn't mean it's true.

Interesting and Sad

[ngc104 · 6/10 · 17 February 2019]

I have mixed feelings about his documentary. On the one hand, it is pretty clear that these folks are being presented as what they are - well meaning but maladjusted individuals who have bought into a down the rabbit hole idea with zero scientific support.

OTOH, it is also unfortunate to give exposure to such utterly bogus ideas. That is probably a disservice to the the rest of humanity.

As for me, I have been an amateur astronomer for over 30 years and can think of at least a half dozen simple tests that prove that the earth is indeed very round. Of course, presenting these to flat earthers would be a wast of time - if they cared about evidence, they would not be what they are.

In the end, the whole idea that such folks with such ideas even exist just made me sad.

It's not actually about the shape of the Earth

[benembry-66286 · 5/10 · 3 March 2019]

Flat Earthers seem to be more attracted to belonging to a group of nonconformists than actually proving the world is flat.

My favorite part was near the end when Mark was in his room at the conference talking about the Truman Show. He contrasted Truman, who could escape because by the end he had nothing else to lose, and the town's mayor, who was sort of tied down by the trappings of life. And the director says "Aren't you like the mayor of Flat Earth?" And Mark, who has an answer for everything, was speechless.

Mark actually is trapped in Flat Earth. The notoriety is something he'd never allow himself to give up. If one day he was confronted with irrefutable proof of the planet's curvature, he wouldn't be able to accept it because he cannot walk away from this fame.

Therefore Mark ultimately doesn't want to know the truth. He has no interest in it because his life isn't about that anymore on a fundamental level.

Documentary is centered around the cult, not the theory

[tommy_tt · 25 February 2019]

Came into this hoping to hear rational perspectives on flat-earth theory. What we get instead is an inside view of how cultists think and behave.

They believe they have discovered some grand truth that nobody else can see. Then they prescribe to the idea with such reckless conviction that they either outright reject any evidence that disproves their theory, or they contort it until it fits into their distorted view of reality. They then point at the rest of society and say that the truth will be revealed to us as long as we adopt their view of reality. And anyone who refuses to believe them suddenly becomes the enemy. At one point, they even go so far as to claim "it is a battle between good and evil." This all shares stark similarities with other cults, like Scientology.

This film makes it easy to see why some people fall prey to cults, it's a mechanism by which they can cope with their crushing feelings of insignificance in the world. Suddenly they belong to something "exclusive," something that brings them closer to other human beings (which is a struggle that many people face.) This is especially effective with flat-earthers since, by adopting this view, we all become the center of the universe.

I applaud Netflix for not outright ignoring or censoring pieces centered around pseudoscience. But at the same time I'm disappointed because, as is evident in this film, these folks feed off publicity like vultures and use it as a weapon to trap others into their cultist views. Notice how satisfied their "leader" gets when he realizes the media is actually giving attention to one of their conventions; and the way his eyes light up when he sees that a couple brought their kid to said convention was just downright disturbing.

The only thing I gained by watching this film was a stronger distaste for cults.

This was NOT made by a flat-earther!

[the_headspace · 7/10 · 30 October 2021]

A lot of commentators here criticise the film for not providing evidence that the earth is flat, as if it were created as flat earth propaganda. It isn't. The film focuses on those people who spread the idea that the earth is flat, in a more sociological sense. Attempts are made to explain why reasonably intelligent people might believe something that is patently nonsensical. The point is that there is no proof that the earth is flat, because the earth isn't flat. But people believe it, anyway. Who are these people, what exactly do they believe, and what motivates them? These are the questions the film asks. It has a wider theme of the increasing rejection of science and scientific expertise that Trump has made much more acceptable with large sections of society nowadays, and which social media facilitates. So no, don't expect this film to provide pro flat-earth evidence. There isn't any (the last 5 minutes are hilarious). The film wasn't made to do that.

Interesting, but drags a lot.

[AristarchosTheArchivist · 6/10 · 16 February 2019]

Spoiler: the Earth is not flat :)

Some people don't seem to get it - in the middle (gyroscope) and at the end (laser) it is shown how by scientific method, the Flat Earthers disprove their hypothesis themselves, but then - unscientifically - distrust their experiment for the sake of dogma.

The documentary itself is not uninteresting, as you can see various Flat Earthers in their habitat.

If you read between the lines, a different story unfolds: My two cents on it: Some way off person does some youtube videos about Flat Earth - this is taken over by some CIA operation which hides in plain sight ("Patri-cia Steer"), to lure in anti-government but gullible people with lack of purpose, isolating the originator of the youtube flat earth movement in the process (whose ramblings about it are probably true, but who would believe this guy, he still thinks the earth is flat!). Pure genius, if true. I can't prove it, but if I were CIA, I'd do it exactly like that. This serves to ridicule actual criticism on other topics - who can take those people seriously who think that the Earth is flat?

Only watch it if you really are interested in conspiracy theories.

I came to see how people could believe in this and the film help shed some light on that.

[Mcduff3601 · 7/10 · 13 April 2021]

Overall I would give this one a 6.5 instead of a 7 but that's the rating system we have.

This told mostly around the leaders of the flat earth movement and shows their lives as they navigate the world and their agenda. It delves into the world of flat earth which is a lot more organized than I had thought. It really centers around Mark sargent and his role in the flat earth society. Which isn't what I was hoping for.

What was well done I thought was how they just let the flat earth people talk and tell their side of things with a little bit of nudging through some questions but nothing that was overtly judgemental.

I found the most useful information in the interviews they did with the doctors and scientists. There is a segment that has a guy saying that these are failed scientists etc and we should be working with them to learn together instead of dismissing them as crazy people. I found this part of the doc well done and the reason I watched it. It had me thinking a little differently about these people by the end. Would recommend to anyone interested in the people behind flat earth.

Interesting

[Foutainoflife · 6/10 · 15 May 2019]

This is about the people who believe the earth is flat. It doesn't really lay out a lot of evidence to prove the theory. It is about the people not the theory.

I am not a flat earther. i believe the earth is round. I would never imply that these folks are nuts simply because their perspective differs from my own. I watched this because I wanted to hear them out. Looking at the lives of these people proved to be interesting. This is something that they really do believe and who am I to question that. No one wants their belief questioned and looked down on from someone who thinks differently than them. Everyone is entitled to have their own ideas.

If you are interested in this, check it out and come to your own conclusions.

Hilarious look at the conspiracy theorist community

[Nebz · 10/10 · 22 February 2019]

I loved this documentary. It let's the conspiracy theorists speak for themselves and present their own views. It shows how the flat earth community turns on each other and claim each other are CIA operatives or reptilian disguised as humans in order to fool them.

Like all conspiracy theorists, these self described smart people make sure the only people they associate with all hold the same viewpoints to make sure they don't have people disagreeing with them and pointing out their errors.

Funny moments include one conspiracy theorist giving an interview from his trailer park talking about how people think conspiracy theorists are losers who live in their moms basement. The video cuts to the flat earth leader who lives with his mom.

Conspiracy theorists spend $20,000 on a fancy gyroscope to prove the earth doesn't rotate 15 degrees an hour. Spend even more time trying to figure out why the gyroscope keeps saying the earth is rotating 15 degrees an hour. They forget they are mic'ed for the documentary and privately tell each other not to bring up the gyro anymore since it shows 15 degree rotation.

Conspiracy theorists shoot a laser a fair distance to show when aimed level it hits the target at the same elevation. Unfortunately for them, the light goes 15 feet above the mark. They make up an excuse that there must have been weeds or something in the way.

Overall, the video does a great job showing the lengths these people go to in order to reinforce and hold on tight to their beliefs, while not making fun of them but simply letting them shoot themselves in the foot over and over.

Lol

[doomedmac · 6/10 · 22 September 2021]

This documentary is absolutely preposterous. I laughed out loud multiple times. It's pretty bad.

About 30 minutes too long given it's format

[brianjohnson-20043 · 5/10 · 24 February 2019]

This documentary was fun for me to watch. It seemed to be from the perspective of the skeptics. But it gives the flat-earthers a lot more of the spotlight than the scientists. I was most impressed by the scientist who pointed out that there is a major issue today where people don't help people who don't get it when they're wrong. Instead they are made-fun-of or neglected. It takes a community to raise a child, and it also takes a community to abuse a child's sense of fundamental facts.

I'm surprised they never mentioned the string and globe measurements a person can make to confirm the earth is sphere-like. I remember doing them in my geography class. All you need Is a sting, tape, a globe and a ruler. Taping the string to one point in the globe and stretching it to another point, one can determine the approximate most direct route from one point on the globe to another. This route should be a segment of a great circle. Great circles split the earth perfectly in half, just like the equator.

There should be a scale on the globe describing how many miles there for every centimeter or inch on the globe. Next, if one just measures the distance of the string from one point to the other on the globe one can determine approximately how many miles it is between one point to another. One can check the flight speeds and distances from one point to another, and see if the plane flights correspond to these findings. FYI: They do. But go ahead and check yourself.

One could even go on a flight with a GPS and measure the speed and distance covered, and route taken on the plane. It should approximately match the findings one can get with the string experiment. Meanwhile one could take the string and a flat earth "model" and try to measure the distance and necessary speed to travel from one point to the other. Next, go ahead and see if the data better supports all the potential trips on a flat earth or sphere-like earth.

No one has to accept the earth is globe-like on faith. I'm glad the movie shows a few flat-earthers testing their beleif to problematic results at the very end. But I wish they had had more of stuff like that.

LOOK AT ME I'M IMPORTANT!!

[My-Two-Cent · 8/10 · 25 February 2019]

It's a really good documentary about the insanity or in my view the self loving promotion of the main characters who seem to only jump onboard this "flat earth" belief because they couldn't find another way to promote how important they want to believe they are and it's shameful that these so-called leaders of this cultish flat earth movement use this platform to make themselves feel relevant which leads people who are looking for acceptance to latch on to something that they can relate to and feel included.. At one point in the documentary a guy has someone purchase a $20,000.00 laser gyroscope so he can prove the earth is flat which totally backfires when the test that he runs proves that the earth has the exact curvature it should have if the earth is indeed round and once he sees the results he wasn't expecting he refuses to share his results with his fellow flat earthers at this conference that was put together but if that's not enough another guy runs a test trying to use lasers but it fails because the laser wouldn't shoot narrow enough to record the measurement needed but he tries again and uses a light and that experiment blows up in his face when the curvature of the earth doesn't allow him to see the light needed to prove the earth is flat.. So I guess it's back to the drawing board to find some other way to debunk the FACT that the earth is a huge ball... Also these flat earthers believe NASA has been lying this whole time and that we've never been to the moon nor have we ever put anyone into space and that other private space exploration companies are actually government backed to help sell the lie.. My neck hurts from shaking my head so much at the idiocies that these poor souls wanna believe in.. All I can say is stop it your embarrassing your mother!!

Fascinating documentary

[nottelmann · 7/10 · 20 February 2019]

The key virtue of this fim is showing us flat-earthers as fairly normal people going about their daily life. Surely, we also get briefly to see some stereotypical conspiracy nuts screaming absurd rants into a web cam or practising weird habits like juggling pingpong balls with sledge hammers while reciting the periodic table. But those are not the characters carrying the film. Rather we follow a couple of close friends, that seem fairly normal and likeable apart from their weird cosmological theories. As we get into their daily habits, their characters, their hopes and their lifestory, the real drama of this film is their ostentatious normality. Sure enough they seem blind to obvious counter-evidence and are inclined to motivated reasoning. But those are merely standard vices in exaggerated form, They are not vicious, unintelligent, or very pathological in their reasoning patterns. Rather they show great affection for each other and considerable kindness and social skill in maneuvering the unruly flatearth community. They are self-reflective and engaged individuals. Their possible tragic backgrounds, sexual problems, and religious obsessions are hinted at, but never allowed to take center stage. The viewer is left to wonder how the belief systems of such fairly ordinary people could pervert on such a drastic scale. This is the engaging mystery presented by their normalcy. The reviewers protesting that following those people around is merely a bore seemingly miss the key point of this film. It would be so easy to vilify flatearthers en masse, having scientific authorities point out their fallacies and blaming their ignorance. Then all we normal people could safely go back to sleep, convinced that nobody near us is vulnerable to such mental corruption. After this film we can't! If those people could become flatearthers, perhaps our friendly neighbours also could? perhaps they already are?

The film also has its moments of absurd and dark humor. The main protagonists trust heliocentric cosmology enough to drive hundreds of miles to witness a solar eclipse predicted by it. But once at the correct location, they use the opportunity to spread flatearth geocentric propaganda. Also, while distrusting the heliocentric account of the eclipse on complex (pseudo)-scientific grounds, they happily offer in its stead the childish alternative that the Sun simply hides itself, because it sure looks that way! And any purported counter-evidence produced by directing binoculars at the sky is explained away is either a hoax or simply part of The Great Presentation. In another laughable scene the main character refuses to recognize any direct flight routes on the Southern Hemisphere, despite the fact that e.g. several flights leave Cape Town for Sydney every day. The directors wisely choose to let this absurdity play out without interference or raised fingers, thus recogmizing that for someone so deeply distrustful, such blame is ineffecutal anyway.

In a funny way, some of the portrayed flatearthers to al arge degree exhibit the very virtues that led to modern science: Rather than accepting anything on blunt authority they hanker for explanations they can understand and evaluate by their own mental powers. Also they are willing to sacrifice anything else in pursuit of such understanding. But without any sufficient education, with no outside checks, and left to the ruthless social dynamics of modern internet life, however, such virtues are quickly eclipsed by the vices of narrowness, paranoid suspicion and confirmation bias. This holds a crucial lesson to anyone interested in scientific education policy, and the sociology of belief.

The real scientists were the only interesting thing.

[gazzalodi · 4/10 · 23 February 2019]

It's too bad they didn't spend more time going back and forth and letting the guys from NASA, Caltech, etc... explain in more detail the errors in the subjects ideas. I was hoping for more than just soundbites from them.

I have to admit I turned it off before halfway though, so it might have came later.

The forty year old guy living with his mom, the dude with the 'brain coach' and the cat lady were just too pathetic to keep dealing with. When the cat lady and mom's roommate got together I checked out.

Now I need to go watch Cosmos to rinse them out of my brain.

Is it flat?

[almir_hucic · 13 March 2019]

No it's not... LMAO. I thought it was documentary but after half an hour I realised that this is actually comedy!

One of the funniest things I've ever seen!

[richyjwill · 7/10 · 26 February 2019]

I laughed.. oh man.. I laughed so much! I'm not sure if it was meant to be funny or not. But it's one of the best "stand ups" on Netflix. Amy Schumer TAKE NOTES!

I rated it a 7 because I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a comedy. If it was labelled a comedy I would rate it a solid 9.

No evidence

[tmhughes768 · 6/10 · 21 February 2019]

There is no evidence presented for Flat Earth and none against, so it is a promotional video for certain YouTubers and podcasters. I would have like a 15 minute presentation outlining the pros and cons of the Flat Earth Theory.

The Dangers of Ignorance

[DanielLowery96 · 7/10 · 25 September 2019]

This documentary even though it's not very well made, serves a great purpose: to implicitily prove how ignorance and dogma are very real in our age. Some people believe what they want to believe, and there's not much that can be done about it. When people abandon science, method and common sense, this is what happens. The earth is a globe, that's not an opinion, it's a fact, yet these people go to extreme lenghts to try and prove otherwise.

For the comedy factor alone, this is a 7/10.

This gave me mixed feelings

[naveennbhat · 6/10 · 3 January 2021]

First things first, questioning, understanding, and then accepting statements/facts - that is the logical sequence. It's unfortunate that so many people lose their way between steps 1 and 2. What makes it worse is their inner narcissist takes over, and they start to believe the majority of the people in the world are too stupid to see what they can see. Flat-earthers, anti-vaxxers, pro-guns, anti-abortion, 9/11 conspiracy theorists, moon landing disbelievers... I'm not surprised if I'm told there is significant overlap in these groups. Freedom of speech is just like religion - if enough people begin to misuse it, chaos ensues.

I am not your Flat Earth guru! Ok maybe I am..

[braincandle1979 · 8/10 · 16 February 2019]

I was thoroughly entertained, this doc allowed the Flat Earth folks to completely explain away their theories and let you decide just how MISLED they are. Getting Scott Kelly to add his two cents was icing on the cake. Seeing flat earthers prove themselves wrong then still deny the truth was an amazing thing to watch, which was also expertly explained by actual psychiatrists of why it happens. Anything without sufficient proof (FE, religion, ghosts, etc) there has to be some true mental gymnastics performed for these things to stay true to believers, and that is also expertly explained in a "loving" way. Highly recommend

Which side is this doco on?

[death-rocker · 7/10 · 15 March 2019]

I went into this not knowing whose side of the argument this doco would support. With such access to the Flat Earthers early on I assumed it would be their story and they would be discussing theories behind their beliefs. But it quickly turned into a mini love story and a doco about the personalities in the FE movement. I gave it a 7 as the subject matter is ludicrous but it did expose the FE movement for what it actually is.... A group created by misfits for misfits (with no science behind their beliefs, which they prove in many of their own expensive failed experiments).

And Patricia is definitely a reptilian 🤣

SPOT THE CATS PEOPLE !!!

[ronin1138 · 1/10 · 26 February 2019]

Omg omg omg, how many of the flat earthers in this film have a cat or cats, and how often are they in shot seemingly directing their owners! Its them I tell you, these furry little agents of Satan are behind it, Nasa's lies, the CIA and apparently control every, single, scientist in the free thinking logical world, ever!!! But the real question is why... a conspiracy m'thinks Honestly though, just what the hell. I wish Bill Hicks was still around to put these fools into perspective.

Deserves a 10 fore the last minutes

[the_real_smile · 10/10 · 26 December 2020]

Well, this was great, the pro flat earth community people and their believes, the scientists that are now aware that they are guilty for letting people believe the earth is flat cause of their pompous attitude, and dropping mostt of blame at NASA for manipulating pictures, because if they lie about that, what else do they lie about? The absolute most fantastic scene in this documentary is the ending, where a pro flat earth promoter does the final experiment to show the earth is flat, but the result is far from what he thought it to be and you can see his brain short-circuiting.

Charlatans or science gone wrong

[figueroa_j · 6/10 · 15 March 2019]

I think the movie lacked more details of how the wrong belief has come to almost real truth. Very little science is shown.

Idiots should not be given so much attention

[dragomir_goranov · 1/10 · 1 November 2019]

Wow, I didn't know so many people are in desperate need of professional psychiatric treatment. Save your time and do not watch those idiots talking confidently about things they clearly do not understand.