Event Horizon is a 1997 British science fiction horror film. The screenplay was written by Philip Eisner (with an uncredited rewrite by Andrew Kevin Walker) and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. The film stars Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill. It was initially considered a box office failure, despite being #1 in its native U.K., but the film developed a cult following which resulted in the 2006 release of a two-disc special edition DVD and the 2008 release of a Blu-ray Disc edition.
Plot
In the year 2047, a signal from the starship Event Horizon is received on Earth. The ship disappeared beyond Neptune in 2040; her loss was considered the worst recorded space disaster. The ship has reappeared in a decaying orbit around Neptune, and the rescue ship Lewis and Clark (named after the Lewis and Clark Expedition) is dispatched. The ship is commanded by Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) and carries the Event Horizon's designer, Doctor William Weir (Sam Neill).
When the Lewis and Clark arrives, Dr. Weir informs the crew that the Event Horizon was built to test an experimental gravity drive. The drive would create an artificial black hole, bridging two points in space to reduce journey time. The ship was on its initial test flight, intended to reach Proxima Centauri; it subsequently vanished. Weir plays the only signal received since the ship's reappearance, spoken by Captain Kilpack; a series of confusing screams and shouts embedded in which is thought to be the Latin phrase liberate me ("save me").
Approaching the drifting vessel, no definitive trace of human life is found; inconclusive sensor readings lead the Lewis and Clark's crew to enter the Event Horizon to search for survivors. The crew split up and Medical Tech Peters (Kathleen Quinlan) discovers a frozen human corpse floating on the bridge, with both eyes gouged out. Engineer Justin (Jack Noseworthy) enters the ship's core and sees a black, liquid-like mirror within its drive; it sucks him inside and emits a shockwave, damaging the Lewis and Clark. Rescue Tech Cooper (Richard T. Jones) pulls Justin from the core by his tether, but he is catatonic.
With the Lewis and Clark damaged, the crew transfer to the Event Horizon, which contains twenty hours of oxygen. Justin emerges from his catatonia and attempts to commit suicide by ejecting himself from an airlock, to escape the memory of what he saw inside the ship's core. Although Justin is rescued, he is seriously injured and placed in stasis.
The rescuers begin to experience hallucinations of their fears and regrets. Miller sees a subordinate he was forced to abandon in a fire; Peters sees images of her son Denny (Barclay Wright), with his legs covered in bloody lesions; and widower Dr. Weir sees his wife Claire (Holley Chant), missing her eyes and urging him to join her.
The crew discovers that although the ship's drive successfully opened a gateway in space-time, it led outside the known universe and into another dimension, described as "pure chaos, pure evil". The Event Horizon's log shows the original crew activating the gravity drive and, moments later, engaging in a frenzy of torture, self-mutilation, cannibalism, murder and rape. The ship's captain, who has torn out his own eyes, leaves the Latin message which actually says liberate tutame ex inferis ("save yourself from Hell").
It appears the Event Horizon has returned with a supernatural presence which is using its occupants' personal torments against them, with the aim of compelling them to return to the "chaos" dimension. With the Lewis and Clark now repaired, Miller decides to destroy the Event Horizon despite Weir's objections. While preparing to evacuate, Peters is led to her death by a manifestation of her son. Weir, having abandoned the crew and arrived at the core, discovers her body. He sees a vision of his wife's suicide, and is compelled by her reanimated form to tear out his eyes.
Weir uses bombs fitted to the Event Horizon to destroy the Lewis and Clark, killing its pilot Smith (Sean Pertwee) and causing Cooper, on the ship's hull, to be thrown into space. Weir goes on to kill D.J. (Jason Isaacs) by vivisection.
Weir threatens Miller and Executive Officer Starck (Joely Richardson) with a nail gun, saying the ship is "alive" and will not allow anyone to leave. He activates the ship's gravity drive, beginning a ten-minute countdown, after which the Event Horizon will return to the chaos dimension. Cooper, having used his space suit's oxygen to propel him back to the ship, causes Weir to shoot the bridge window and be blown into space. Miller attempts to detonate the explosives installed on the Event Horizon to split the ship in two; after arming the explosives and recovering the detonator, he is trapped by a burning manifestation of his former comrade and forced to escape to the ship's core.
Miller again sees the vision of his comrade, which then changes into a scarred Dr. Weir (eyes restored) who shows Miller scenes of the Lewis and Clark's remaining crew being tortured and mutilated. The two fight, but Miller reaches the detonator, triggering it and turning the Event Horizon's bridge into a lifeboat.
The ship splits in two. The gravity drive then activates, pulling the rear of the ship into a wormhole. Starck and Cooper place themselves in stasis with Justin. Starck has a nightmare of the scarred Dr. Weir rescuing her and is awakened in a distraught state by a rescue team. Cooper restrains Starck, as one of the rescuers calls for a sedative, then the doors to the stasis room seem to close by themselves.
Production
The first draft of Philip Eisner’s screenplay was written in 1992. The film borrows elements from others in the science fiction and horror genres, such as Stanisław Lem’s Solaris, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Aliens, The Haunting, Disney's The Black Hole, Don't Look Now, The Shining, Flatliners, Sphere, and Hellraiser. For instance, the interior of Lewis and Clark was inspired by the starship Nostromo from Alien. The film is thematically similar to The Haunting and The Shining, complete with the added homage of a tidal wave of blood.
In keeping with the naturalistic science fiction setting of the film, costumes are based upon present day flight suits complete with shoulder patches and modified United States Coast Guard officer rank insignia. The sailing ship in the center of the Lewis and Clark’s mission patch is a United States Coast Guard Cutter in reference to the ship’s search and rescue role.
Crewmembers have modified flags on their uniforms to suggest political change prior to 2047. Characters played by American actors wear a modified flag of the United States with fifty-five stars, while characters played by British actors wear the European flag with an extra circle of stars within the original one. Weir (played by New Zealander Sam Neill) wears a modified version of the Australian flag, in which the Aboriginal Flag replaces the Union Jack.
After releasing the highly successful Mortal Kombat in 1995 Anderson was offered the movie. The release-date had already been set and Anderson agreed to do the film, despite that the deadline meant that the post-production period was severely reduced. On the commentary Anderson cited this as the main-cause for the many troubles faced during production and especially when Anderson was to make decisions on the final cut.
On the commentary Anderson mentioned his wish to direct an R rated picture after the PG-13 rated Mortal Kombat and mentioned he turned down the opportunity to direct X-Men in order to make Event Horizon.
Anderson claims that his initial cut of the film, before the visual effects had been completed, ran to about 130 minutes in length. The film was even more graphic in this incarnation, and both test audiences and the studio were unnerved by the gore. Paramount ordered Anderson to cut the film by 30 minutes and delete some of the violence, a decision that he regrets. Some of the lost scenes were offered as special features on the 2006 DVD but were taken from poor-quality video tape, the only format in which the scenes now exist; the studio had little interest in keeping unused footage and the film has since been lost.[3]
Cast
Soundtrack
The score of the film was written and performed by Orbital and Michael Kamen. The end credit theme was the song “Funky Shit” by The Prodigy. The movie has been extensively sampled by many bands, notably on Zao's 1999 album, Liberate Te Ex Inferis. Finnish black metal band Flauros has also used that dialog on their song "Monuments of Weakness." Several samples also appear in the song “The Technogoat” and other songs from The Codex Necro album by Anaal Nathrakh as well as on The Ichneumon Method album by The Axis of Perdition, the song “Fun with Knives” (from the album of the same name) and “The Dark Inside Me” by Velvet Acid Christ and on the song “Age of Suffering” by Norwegian death metal band Bloodthorn from the album Under the Reign of Terror. Popular trance producer John Graham under the alias Space Manoeuvres created the track “Stage One” which took samples from the theatrical trailer of the film. Industrial band Front Line Assembly also made liberal use of such samples on its Implode album, most notably on the track "Synthetic Forms," which samples Laurence Fishburne's character saying "This place is a tomb.", over and over again. Infected Mushroom has also taken samples from the movie and included them in their tracks.
In media
In the episode "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" from Family Guy, Chris discusses the movie with his manager. [4]
Trey Parker and Matt Stone cite this movie as an inspiration for their Satan-worshipping woodland critters who engage in gory acts and orgies in South Park episode 814, "Woodland Critter Christmas".[5]
The seventh generation console game Dead Space is said to borrow elements from Event Horizon, as well as other films such as Aliens.[6]
References
External links
