Under the Eightball

Filmmakers Timothy Grey and Breanne Russell explore the disturbing prospect that the government is secretly using the public as guinea pigs for clandestine medical experiments in this incendiary documentary. They called it the eight ball — a massive hollow metal sphere where humans and animals could “safely” be exposed to infectious aerosols without fear of contamination. It was constructed at Fort Detrick, MD, in 1951. Over 50 years later, a healthy adult named Lori suddenly lost the use of her leg. Desperate, her family took her to the hospital, where she received a battery of tests to determine what exactly was wrong with her. The tests came back inconclusive, and Lori’s condition continued to deteriorate. Though Lori had raised suspicions of Lyme disease when she told her doctor about a strange bite bearing the telltale “bulls-eye” rash that commonly accompanies the treatable disease, she was never put on the regiment of antibiotics that could prevent it from worsening. Why? Later, by chance, Lori met an old friend who had just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Realizing, to their horror, that Lori knew a handful of people from her neighborhood who were later diagnosed with similar diseases, the filmmakers dismiss the possibility of this being a coincidence, and set out in search of answers.