The Boy in the Plastic Bubble

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) is a TV drama directed by Randal Kleiser — watch it online on iFILM. Tod Lubitch is born without a functioning immune system. His world is a sealed, sterile room: every meal, every breath, every hour of growing up happens behind a hermetic barrier while the outside world carries on a few feet away.

John Travolta plays Tod in a performance made two years before Saturday Night Fever — quieter, more inward, and worth watching on its own terms. As Tod hits his teenage years, he falls for the girl next door, Glynis, played by Glynnis O'Connor, and starts pushing against the limits of a life that was designed to keep him safe, not necessarily to keep him alive in any way that matters. Robert Reed and Diana Hyland play his parents. Stream The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) on iFILM.