Event Horizon

Perhaps one of the best, and my favorite, space survival movies is Event Horizon. This movie undoubtedly follows in the footsteps of Alien, but that's just what it wants you to believe. I wouldn't call it a ripoff. It has a similar feel and it shares the same genre but it goes in a completely different direction. One movie critic said The Descent (2006) was a ripoff of Alien (wow!), so i'm sure some would easily consider Event Horizon a ripoff as well.

Synopsis: The year is 2047. Years earlier, the pioneering research vessel Event Horizon vanished without a trace orbiting near Neptune. Now a signal from it has been detected, and the US Aerospace Command responds. Hurtling toward the signal's source is a rescue crew including the lost ship's designer. Their mission: find and salvage the state-of-the-art spacecraft. What they find is a state-of-the-art interstellar terror. What they must salvage are their own lives, because someone or something is ready to ensnare them in a new dimension of unimaginable fear.

When I first saw this movie about 10 years ago, I thought it was the scariest movie I had ever seen. That might have been so, but now rewatching it years later I disagree with my first impression. It's dark, it's jumpy, it's suspenseful, it's bloody -yes, but overall it's more freaky than truly horrifying . On the plus side, it's one of those Survivor Movies where nobody is safe! There is no corny hero who falls in love and HAS to make it out alive so as not to upset the audience. I like that about hardcore Sci-Fi movies; they don't have to play by the rules.

Without totally spoiling the movie, but reader beware, I'll explain more of the plot. Aboard the lost Event Horizon ship was this powerful core generator thing that harnessed the ability to create black holes. They mention it would take a thousand years to travel to the closest star, but through a black hole it would only take a day. It turns out that the Event Horizon traveled through a black hole it created and returned with all of its crew mysteriously dead. The movie doesn't completely confirm this, but it's said that they literally traveled to Hell in some other dimension and back. Something spooky was brought back aboard the ship from "Hell" which made the crew and now the rescuers lose their minds.

Cast:

Miller (Laurence Fishburne) the fearless captain of the Lewis and Clark- the search and rescue ship. In a previous mission we learn that he had to leave one man behind in order to more likely save himself and others.


Dr Weir (Sam Neill) the designer of the Event Horizon. He's the guy who created the black hole generating thing and he likes to confuse everyone with scientific mumbo jumbo. His wife, Clare, is dead and she haunts his dreams.


Peters (Kathleen Quinlan) is the medical technician. At the last minute she was ordered to accompany this mission and had to leave her son, Danny, with her ex.



Cooper (Richard T. Jones) is the search and rescue technician. The crew jokes that he's useless but he serves the movie by being the stereotypical comic relief.



Mr. Justin (Jack Noseworthy) looks like the youngest aboard the crew and he's in charge of engineering. He's nicknamed "baby bear."



Lt. Starck (Joely Richardson) is the executive officer aboard the Lewis and Clark.



Smith (Sean Pertwee) is the pilot of the Lewis and Clark.




D.J. (Jason Isaacs) is the head of trauma. He's labeled as the strange, loner guy.




Movie Scene:


Click here for Spoilers

First Victim? Justin. Although he doesn't die, he travels through some sort of black hole into another dimension while scouting out the Event Horizon. He later returns all dazed and shaking. He attempts to commit suicide by ejecting himself from an airlock. The others save him but he's badly injured and put in a tank for the rest of the movie.

Second Victim: Peters. She thinks she sees her son running around the Event Horizon. She follows and winds up falling down a shaft.

Third Victim: Smith. The group decides to leave the Event Horizon, but Dr Weir does not want to leave. Weir takes an explosive device and triggers it aboard the Lewis and Clark, their rescue vessel. Only Smith is aboard the ship when she blows. Everyone else left is stuck on the Event Horizon.

Fourth Victim: DJ. At this point Weir has gone completely insane from seeing illusions of his dead wife aboard the Event Horizon. He's gouged out his eyes, blown up the rescue ship, and now murders DJ. Weir slices DJ open and hangs him from some wires like a marionette.

Fifth Victim: Dr Weir. During a showdown between Weir and Miller, Weir attempts to shoot at Cooper, who's outside the ship in a space suit. Weir is blind so I don't think he realizes that he shoots a hole in the ships window. This creates a huge suction that hurtles Weir out into space.

Sixth Victim: Captain Miller. They plan to blow off part of the Event Horizon and use the intact half as an escape shuttle. Miller goes back to trigger the explosives but is distracted by an illusion of the pissed-off man he left to die in his previous mission. The man turns out to be a haunting Weir playing mind games. Miller decides to end the craziness right then and there and just triggers the explosives sacrificing himself for the others.

Survivors: Cooper, Lt. Starck, and Justin.