Cocoon: The Sci-Fi Classic That Turned St. Petersburg Into a Fountain of Youth

Ron Howard filmed an entire sci-fi movie about aliens and eternal youth in St. Petersburg, Florida, and somehow it became one of the most heartfelt films of the 1980s.

Cocoon (1985) follows a group of retirees at a Florida rest home who stumble into a swimming pool charged with alien energy and start feeling decades younger. Don Ameche won an Oscar for his role, and the film picked up a second Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Nearly every frame was shot on location in St. Pete over 12 weeks in 1984: the retirement home was Westminster Shores on Little Bayou, the alien pool belonged to a private waterfront estate on Boca Ciega Bay, and Steve Guttenberg’s charter boat scenes were filmed at John’s Pass. The seniors cut loose at the Coliseum Ballroom on Fourth Avenue North, a 1924 Mediterranean Revival landmark that still hosts events today. Wilford Brimley was only 49 during filming, playing a man decades older.

Check current streaming availability for Cocoon on JustWatch.