Scene from a movie in the early 90s: interrogation inside a large sphere

Question

This is a long shot, but I’m wondering if anyone might recognise this scene I saw as a child but have been unable to ever find.

The scene in question is some kind of interrogation or torture scene (at least, that is how I perceived it), in which the “interrogee” is secured to some kind of frame that holds them Vitruvian man style, possibly gimballed or otherwise able to rotate.

The “interrogator” I remember as being unnaturally thin or having a long neck, possibly similar to spider-smith from the '90s Lost in Space, or Fode and Beed from Star Wars.

And lastly, the space the “interrogation” took place in was like the interior of a large sphere with some kind of repeating pattern or technology in the walls. It was yellowish and the effect was sort of like the scene with Neo and the Architect with all the screens in the Matrix Reloaded.

I remember the scene from walking into my living room when I was 8, and being ushered out because it was too scary for an 8 year old, but I’ve often thought of it since, but my Mum doesn’t remember it.

The only clue about timeframe is that I distinctly remember that my parents got this movie and Jurassic Park from the video store at the same time, and we moved to a different place at the beginning of 1995, so it could only have been late 1994, and the movie was on VHS.

Answer 1

A partial match could be Sam (Jonathan Pryce) being interrogated/tortured by Jack (Michael Palin) inside a gasometer in Terry Gilliam's dystopian 1985 movie Brazil.

It's not a perfect match:

• The interior of the gasometer is grey rather than yellowish.
• It's cylindrical rather than spherical.
• The interrogator is not unnaturally thin.

But it roughly matches many points:

• The interior is very large and round.
• It has a regular (rectangular) pattern.
• He is strapped into a large medical-style chair that can rotate, with a frame for the head.
• The interrogator is quite thin, and wears a long white coat and has a fat babyface mask, so his body and neck might look even thinner in comparison. And much of the scene is shot from very close, which distorts the perspective.
• The movie was released in 1985, so plenty of time to be on VHS by 1994.

The scene is quite short (about 3 minutes), and is shot in a very disorientating manner, making it pretty scary for all ages. (And even more so once you've seen the rest of the movie…)

IMDB has some relevant stills, including:

• the interrogator, with Sam and the rest of the interior in wide shot
• wide shot of the interior
• Sam strapped into the chair

(Despite being quirky, disturbing, and suffering from insufficient budget, IMHO it still richly deserves its flattering comparisons with Orwell and its 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes!)

Answer 2

This may be from near the end of The Lawnmower Man (1992), which features one of its main characters (played by Jeff Fahey) positioned with limbs outstretched in a gimbal and electricity connected to his brain while he is experiencing a virtual reality encounter.

The surrounding area is not as described in the question, but the virtual conflict and crucifiction/torture that takes place is located in a large area with curved walls carrying the repeating pattern. However, the honeycomb of the walls is blue and red, not yellow.

The antagonist's avatar in the virtual domain does have a lot of yellow though. It also sometimes stretches out into particularly inhuman proportions, like its head in the above image.

It's easy to find a (purported) "director's cut" of the film online, but the original was significantly different. If this was on television in the 1990s, it would have probably been the original cut, which has a somewhat different ending.