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I am looking for a movie I saw the beginning of when I was a kid. I remember astronauts boarding what seemed to be an abandoned spaceship (I think it had the NASA sign on it) but when they board the ship they find both English and some kind of alien writing in the ship. I think they show a shot of a trashcan with the word 'trash' and then the alien word for it...

That is all I remember, it seemed a very cool beginning, anybody have any idea?

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    How long is is since you were a child? Was the film American/British/other? Colour/BW? Any other details you can remember may help identify it.
    – Ian Thompson
    Jun 11, 2015 at 13:58
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    The "alien" word is basura, which is Spanish for garbage.
    – user46846
    Jun 11, 2015 at 16:00
  • @Aaron The trash bin found in the spacecraft with the translation "basura" is an actual translated word for trash/garbage in Filipino language (Tagalog). But since it's a loanword from Spanish in Tagalog, and since Spanish is used more widely as of the film's release, it's more probable that the shot of the garbage can was meant to reference Spanish rather than Tagalog. imdb.com/title/tt0120184/trivia?item=tr1650786
    – Jack B Nimble
    Jun 11, 2015 at 16:59
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    As a general principle, with such questions it would be useful to give a rough idea what years "when I was a kid" might cover, since some of us were kids in the 60s and earlier, some in the 70s, some in the 80s, some in the 90s, and some well into the 2000's.
    – Glen_b
    Jun 11, 2015 at 23:28

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You are probably looking for Sphere.

A spaceship is discovered under three hundred years' worth of coral growth at the bottom of the ocean.

  • As mentioned by @thanby, they aren't astronauts, but their diving suits sure give this feeling.
  • The NASA isn't directly involved, there is just the character of captain Barnes (played by Peter Coyote) working for them.
  • The exploration team first thinks this is an alien spaceship, until they find the trashcan with the sign in English. As mentioned by @Aaron and @JackBNimble, the other word ("BASURA") is probably Spanish.

Images of the sign of the trashcan

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    That's immediately what I thought of too, +1. They weren't astronauts but definitely had diving suits that looked similar, and I specifically remember the trash can scene.
    – thanby
    Jun 11, 2015 at 17:42
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    On rewatch, the sign actually says "TRASH - BASURA". I didn't understand it back then and assumed it was just some kind of neologism, but Aaron and Jack B Nimble are probably right. Meant for a multi-cultural crew I guess.
    – Reyssor
    Jun 11, 2015 at 18:07
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    Basura means garbage in Spanish: spanishcentral.com/translate/basura
    – DCShannon
    Feb 26, 2016 at 2:49

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