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There was a scene from a sci-fi horror video, not animated, don't know if it's a movie or TV series, where there was this black goo in a glass container and some scientists were looking at it under a microscope.

The pitch black goo grew and grew so fast, eventually breaking out of the inner box and the scientists that were inside the "inner lab" were begging to get out but the scientists outside that inner lab refused to open the door. The black goo was spiky (had spikes).

It's not any of the "Alien" movies, "The Blob", "Life", or "The Thing". It's not vintage. It was made after 1990, I'm pretty sure.

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  • There's a movie called Splinter which has spikey black goo, but from the Wikipedia summary I don't see scientists. On the other hand, the trailer has some kind of "goo makes glass explode" scene although the editing is a tad bit unclear... – Jenayah Nov 4 '18 at 20:52
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    "Spiky black goo" sounds like they might have used a ferrofluid for the special effect. Did it look like that? If so that might narrow it down. – Nathaniel Nov 4 '18 at 23:57
  • 'Agent Carter' S02? – Martin James Nov 5 '18 at 4:20
  • @Nathaniel, yes but it turns out I got this goo mixed up with my memory of the actual scene, which was from species. lol – toddmo Nov 5 '18 at 17:00
  • @MartinJames Isn't that the same gravitonium McGuffin that Agents of SHIELD used? – Graham Nov 5 '18 at 19:19
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This sounds like Species. About 35 minutes into the movie, there is a scene quite similar to what you have described.

The alien substance in the Species scene I am thinking of is not really spiky. I would have described it as more goo-like or visceral. However, maybe you have misremembered slightly.

Species is a 1995 movie, so slightly earlier than what you have in mind. However, I am not convinced there is a large difference in special effects used in mid-90s movies compared to early 2000s, so it seems close enough to the right timeframe.

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    Just watched the scene and that seems like a pretty good match indeed. Good catch! Here it is on YouTube – Jenayah Nov 4 '18 at 21:34
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    Thanks for the youtube link @Jenayah I tried to find one but came up blank, you have good youtube-fu :) – cryptarch Nov 5 '18 at 7:48
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    I just rewatched Species last night and this was indeed it. I did misremember the goo, and also that the scientists died, which they did not. And boy! Was that a hilariously bad movie! I laughed off and on for two hours! – toddmo Nov 5 '18 at 16:55
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The end section of Lucy seems to describe some parts of what you're looking for. As she is sat in the lead scientist's personal lab, shiny black tendril-goo erupts from her fingertips to tie her into the world's computer systems. It is missing the part where it emerges from a box though.

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    This may be what over-wrote my memory of the Species goo. So in part, this is what I was remembering, that got mixed up with the lab scene from Species. Funny how the mind works. Upvoting for "the right goo". – toddmo Nov 5 '18 at 16:57
  • @toddmo Cool, glad it helped. Lucy was at least a bad-in-interesting-ways film, whereas Species was a straight-up waste of all the talent they hired. – Graham Nov 5 '18 at 19:21
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The movie Splinter? I remember it being very similar to what you describe.

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  • The appearance of the alien goo is about right, but there's no scene with scientists that I remember. It's all centered around the gas station with a short intro involving the protagonists losing a tire to the alien. – FuzzyBoots Nov 5 '18 at 13:17
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    No but I'll check it out! I don't think I've seen that one! – toddmo Nov 5 '18 at 16:59
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Honorable mention for ferro fluids.

I wonder if you might be misremembering documentary or popular video clips of ferro fluid, which is a real life and actually spiky, black goo that grows out of lab containers?

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  • This question already has an accepted answer. Adding more answers will not help. – Bjorn Eriksson Feb 7 at 13:44
  • @BjornEriksson Honorable mentions are welcome additional answers on SFF.SE. I make that more explicit in an edit. – Lexible Feb 7 at 18:03
  • @Lexible - This has been discussed on Meta. Adding a new answer is fine if you have some reason to believe that the accepted answer is lacking or that OP might be mis-remembering. In this case, your answer is so weak (not a film, no scientists begging for help, no sense of danger, etc) that there's no real possibility of either being true. – Valorum Feb 7 at 18:32
  • Note also that another user already posed this idea as a comment; scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/197931/… – Valorum Feb 7 at 18:52
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Not black goo, but it sounds a lot like the trailer to “Life” which is the movie I was trying to find when I had the same details in my mind that you listed.

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  • Hi, welcome to SF&F. Note that this question already has an accepted answer, so it doesn't help to post something you know doesn't match. – DavidW Feb 7 at 2:16

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