Is Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ Tech Inspired by an Olympic Moment?

If you haven’t already watched the 3 Body Problem on Netflix, which was released on March 21, then you’ve probably at least been bombarded with teaser clips and images for it, depending on the whims of your particular algorithm. Most likely, those promotional images included pictures of a futuristic-looking headset.

Netflix

The device plays a central role in the story (which I won’t spoil). It appears fully metallic, smooth, and exceptionally thin, wrapping around character’s heads in a way that makes even the bleeding-edge Apple Vision Pro look chonky by comparison. 

Conceptually, it’s an intriguing take on what hyper-advanced and immersive face computers might look like far in the future.

A plausible source of design inspiration debuted over 24 years ago

As futuristic as the headset seems, the world was exposed to at least a similar aesthetic in dramatic fashion nearly 24 years earlier.

If you haven’t guessed it already, I’m referring to Oakley’s OVERTHETOP (OTT) sunglasses. These insane-looking specs were introduced to the planet on National TV by Olympic track and field sprinters Nicconer Alexander and Ato Bolden during the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney. The glasses were the brainchild of legendary eyewear designer Peter Yee, whose other notable and more mainstream Oakley designs include the Eye Jacket Sunglasses of late 90s / early 2000s fame.

Oakley

Instead of using temples or arms like most glasses to stay put, the OTTs featured two curved metallic, hook-like claws that wrapped snugly over the wearer’s head. 

In the following years, the unmistakable eyewear appeared on celebrities like Flavor Flav and Andre 3000 of Outkast, and a Swedish golfer, Jarmo Sandelin.  They camoed too in middling movies like Spy Kids 3 and Blade II, and even on a few randos in Sam Rami’s Spider-Man (2002).

Oakley even decided to revive the sunglasses from the original mold it used in 2020. The new edition, dubbed precious mettle OVERTHETOP, was updated with a color that changed from gold to silver and bronze in a nod to Olympic medals. Oakley made just 20 pairs for an astounding $2,000 each, which, along with the original release, you can still hunt down on eBay. After the revival in 2020, Oakley stated it would be destroying the OVERTHETOP mold for good. 

While the facemask portion of the 3 Body Problem’s headset may look more like an X-Wing pilot helmet, the smooth arch that stretches over the wearer’s head, presumably to distribute the weight of the headset better, seems similar to Yee’s OVERTHETOP design, at least to me. 

Oakley

More broadly, the prop also seems imbued with the aesthetic ideal Yee strived to achieve in all of his work for Oakley, which he describes as “accelerating curves.” As Sabukaru notes in their retrospective on his work, Yee focused on “creating a continuous, dynamic flow throughout all his designs” which helped shift Oakley’s brand identity to one of “futurism and hyper functionality.”

What the 3 Body Problem’s production designer says she was inspired by

To be clear, I’m not accusing the production designer of 3 Body Problem, Deborah Riley, of creative theft, or anyone else on the show’s production design team. Creative inspiration can come from all manner of directions and isn’t always a conscious process.

But I find it interesting that in a recent Variety interview, the story mentions Riley looking “at the history of headsets, particularly at NASA and how their designs had evolved” as a key source of reference.

NASA’s headsets of the past just – seem – very – different from the final prop in the show. But chosen design does exude the sense that it’s far beyond even NASA’s technology for anyone not named Daft Punk.

Maybe Yee’s work with Oakley managed to seep into the show’s creative concepts from elsewhere.

In the same Variety story, Riley mentions that the show’s creators, David Benioff, D.B. Weiss (co-creators of Game of Thrones), and Alexander Woo, wanted something “very seamless.” In their eyes, “It had to be so technologically advanced that we would never be able to understand how it was made.”

The final prop delivers on that front, and while Yee’s earlier glasses lack the pure, uninterrupted polish of the 3 Three Body Problem headset, the OTT’s finely molded curves somehow even more remarkable now given they were designed over two decades later.

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