Event Horizon (film)

Event Horizon
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Paul W. S. Anderson
Written by	Philip Eisner Andrew Kevin Walker (uncredited)
Produced by	Jeremy Bolt Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin
Starring	Laurence Fishburne Sam Neill Kathleen Quinlan Joely Richardson
Cinematography	Adrian Biddle
Edited by	Martin Hunter
Music by	Michael Kamen Orbital (uncredited)
Production companies	Paramount Pictures Golar Productions Impact Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	August 15, 1997 (1997-08-15) (United States) August 22, 1997 (1997-08-22) (United Kingdom)
Running time	95 minutes
Countries	Template:Film UK Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$26,673,242

Event Horizon is a 1997 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 #1 at the box office in the UK.

Plot

In 2047, the rescue vessel Lewis and Clark is dispatched to answer a distress signal received from the Event Horizon, a starship that disappeared during its maiden voyage to Proxima Centauri seven years prior. Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) and his crew —Lieutenant Starck (Joely Richardson), pilot Smith (Sean Pertwee), Medical Technician Peters (Kathleen Quinlan), Engineer Ensign Justin (Jack Noseworthy), Rescue Technician Cooper (Richard T. Jones), and Trauma Doctor D.J. (Jason Isaacs) —are joined for the mission by the Event Horizon's designer Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill). Dr. Weir briefs the crew that the Event Horizon was built to test an experimental gravity drive which generates an artificial black hole to use the immense gravitational power to bridge two points in spacetime, greatly reducing travel time over astronomical distances.

Upon arriving at the ship's decaying orbit around Neptune and boarding the Event Horizon to search for survivors, the crew finds evidence of a massacre. During the search, the ship's gravity drive activates automatically. Justin is pulled into the resulting portal, returning in a catatonic state. He is later placed in stasis after a failed suicide attempt in apprehension over the events he witnessed during his crossover. The activation of the gravity drive causes a massive shockwave which critically damages the Lewis and Clark and forces the entire crew to board the Event Horizon. The crew then begins experiencing 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 with his legs covered in bloody lesions; and Dr. Weir, a widower, sees his wife Claire with missing eyes, urging him to join her.

After deciphering a warning from a video log of the Event Horizon's crew going insane and mutilating each other, Miller and D.J. deduce that while the ship's gravity drive did successfully open a gateway in spacetime, it leapt outside the known universe and into another dimension, described later on by Dr. Weir as "a dimension of pure chaos, pure evil" (and implied to be Hell). The Event Horizon has since then gained an evil sentience and telekinetic abilities, tormenting its occupants with the aim of compelling them to return to Hell.

Miller decides to destroy the Event Horizon despite objections from Dr. Weir, who is seduced and eventually possessed by the evil presence and uses an explosive device from the Event Horizon to destroy the Lewis and Clark. Smith is killed in the explosion which also launches Cooper out of the ship and into space. Peters dies from a long fall after being lured into the engineering section by an apparition of her son. Dr. Weir kills D.J. by vivisecting him and corners Starck on the bridge. Miller tries to rescue Starck but is caught by Dr. Weir, who activates the ship's gravity drive, initiating a ten minute countdown after which the Event Horizon and its passengers will return to the other dimension. Cooper, having used his space suit's oxygen to propel him back to the ship, tries to contact those inside, and Dr. Weir retaliates by shooting out the bridge window. Dr. Weir is blown out into space by the ensuing decompression while Miller, Starck, and Cooper survive and manage to seal off the bridge area of the ship.

Miller then resolves to detonate the explosives installed on the Event Horizon to split the ship in two and use the forward section of the ship as a lifeboat. He is attacked by a manifestation of the scarred and burned comrade he was forced to abandon in his past, who shows Miller horrifying visions of the Lewis and Clark's crew being tortured and mutilated from once they return to Hell. Miller fights off the manifestation and manages to detonate the explosives, sacrificing himself so Justin, Cooper, and Starck can escape. The gravity drive activates, pulling the rear of the ship into a wormhole. Starck and Cooper join Justin in stasis and wait to be rescued.

72 days later, the Event Horizon is located by a rescue party, who discover the remaining crew still in stasis. Starck has a nightmare of the scarred Dr. Weir being one of the rescuers and is awakened in a distraught state by a rescue team. Cooper restrains Starck and one of the rescuers calls for a sedative as the doors to the stasis room ominously seem to close by themselves.

Cast

• Laurence Fishburne as Capt. Miller
• Sam Neill as Dr. William Weir
• Kathleen Quinlan as Lt. Peters
• Joely Richardson as Lt. Starck
• Richard T. Jones as Lt. Cooper
• Jack Noseworthy as Ensign Justin
• Jason Isaacs as Lt. Cmdr. D.J.
• Sean Pertwee as Lt. Smith
• Peter Marinker as Captain John Kilpack
• Holley Chant as Claire Weir
• Barclay Wright as Denny Peters
• Noah Huntley as Burning Man / Edward Corrick
• Robert Jezek as Rescue Technician
• Emily Booth as Girl on Monitor (uncredited)
• Teresa May as Vanessa (uncredited)

Production

To get back into work after a family tragedy, Philip Eisner pitched the idea for Event Horizon to Paramount Pictures; he had no plot, he just pitched it as "The Shining in space," which gained a positive reception from the executives.

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.

In the commentary Anderson mentions the wish he had to direct an R rated picture after the PG-13 rated Mortal Kombat and also mentions that he turned down the opportunity to direct X-Men in order to make Event Horizon.

In Eisner's original script, it was tentacular alien beings who were the cause behind the hauntings of the ship. Anderson felt it was too much like the 1979 film Alien and wanted to go more into the style of The Haunting and The Shining, so he hired Andrew Kevin Walker to do an uncredited revision to the script into more of a classic haunted house movie rather than a monster movie, incorporating a number of elements of Hell in the story.

Anderson said 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 thirty 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.

Reception

The film received negative reviews, only receiving a 23% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes. It was a box office flop, only recouping $26.6 million of its estimated $60 million budget. The movie went on to find a second life on VHS and DVD, and has since become a cult film.

In media

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 the South Park episode "Woodland Critter Christmas".

External links

• Event Horizon at IMDb
• Event Horizon at AllMovie
• Event Horizon at Rotten Tomatoes
• Event Horizon at Box Office Mojo
• Event Horizon at The Numbers
• Event Horizon at the Cinematic Intelligence Agency (thecia.com.au)
• Event Horizon at Planet Origo