![]() Our first indication that all is not well aboard the Event Horizon comes when the Clarke scans the wreckage for signs of life. Hmm… What else do we know that’s connected to an ‘umbilicus’ and is often threatened with destruction? Does one detect a comment on a certain social issue? To cross over, they deploy this jetway-type tunnel which Miller calls an ‘umbilicus.’ It attaches the tiny Lewis and Clarke onto the much larger Event Horizon – the mothership, if you will.Īnderson later has the Event Horizon – which, it will transpire, is possessed of a malevolent will – hijack Weir’s mind and send the doctor back through this ‘umbilicus’ to blow the Lewis and Clarke to pieces. And so, the team prepares to board the forlorn vessel and search for clues. Weir describes how the Event Horizon is supposed to work: “What it does is it creates a dimensional gateway, that allows it to jump instantaneously from one point of the universe to another light years away.” But was it in the crew’s power to choose what awaited them on the far side? It sure hasn’t been chillaxing poolside on a deckchair in Marrakesh. What Weir can’t answer, and it’s a big oversight, is whether that’s really where the Event Horizon has been all this time. The ship’s objective was to reach Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. Weir, who was the Event Horizon’s designer-in-chief, takes questions about his creation from the crew. The craft has reappeared after that inexplicable seven-year disappearance and it’s orbiting Neptune.ĥ56 days later, the Clarke homes in on the Event Horizon. Weir and the Clarke’s Captain Miller, the crew load themselves into statis tanks and set off on a journey to the Event Horizon. After a testy first encounter between Dr. Billy Weir, an astrophysicist summoned to join the crew stationed on search and rescue vehicle, the Lewis and Clarke. Pirates of the Caribbean, of course, propelled this ghostly galleon into the 21st Century with Davy Jones at its helm.Ĭrosscut from the Event Horizon over to Dr. My favorite YouTuber, the Critical Drinker, describes the Event Horizon thus: ‘It’s like a haunted house crossed with the Mary Celeste in space.’ Anderson gives us a sci-fi take on the classic folklore trope of such legendary vessels as the Flying Dutchman. Appropriately, then, the final ghastly spectacle in the sequence – as we move, now, to the ship’s foredeck – is a hollow shriek and a corpse hovering in zero gravity. It’s as tame as a great white shark with a pair of tattered speedos caught in its teeth. The cross, remember, for all its redemptive Christian symbolism, is a torture device. We could speculate about why seven years exactly, given this number appears all over the Bible, but you’ll be happy to know that we won’t.Īn establishing shot roams over the craft, drinking in the Event Horizon’s cruciform shape from the poster. In 2040, a deep space exploration vessel called the Event Horizon went missing. Ominously, though, it’s an inverted cross…Īfter the opening titles, we read some exposition – à la Star Wars, only not as lengthy. Infinite terror,” against a vast blue planet: Neptune. And in the theatrical release poster, the ship’s cruciform – or crosslike – shape stands out under the caption, “Infinite space. ![]() The film’s title – where better to start our analysis? – is also the name of a spacecraft aboard which the plot largely takes place. His movie wonders, What if our scientific endeavors may one day land us not in a metaphorical hell but in the literal Hell – the one with a capital ‘H’ – of religious tradition? All will soon become clear. It isn’t, however, what Anderson explores in Event Horizon. ![]() We’re familiar with science going too far and landing us in a hell of our own making. Below, let’s flesh out a little more those initial thoughts. I decided afterwards that a mere sixty words wouldn’t do to capture Event Horizon’s impact as a theological meditation a longer piece was required. This was my spot reaction to the film on Facebook late at night. Hence why Jesus Christ, as the Apostles’ Creed says, descended into Hell – to rip it apart like Sampson did the Philistine temple, toppling its mighty pillars. Paul Anderson’s Event Horizon is a hard movie to watch, but from a Christian perspective it reminds us that Hell can only be defeated when someone goes there and shatters its power from inside.
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