Event Horizon is a 1997 science fiction horror film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and written by Philip Eisner. It stars Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan and Joely Richardson. Set in 2047, it follows a crew of astronauts sent on a rescue mission after a missing spaceship, the Event Horizon, spontaneously appears in orbit around Neptune. Searching the ship for signs of life, the rescue crew learns that the Event Horizon was a test bed for an experimental engine that opened a rift in the space time continuum and left our universe entirely, allowing a malevolent entity to possess the ship.
The film had a troubled production history, with filming and editing rushed by Paramount when it became clear that Titanic would not meet its projected release date. The original 130-minute cut of the film was heavily edited by demand of the studio, to the consternation of director Paul W. S. Anderson.
Upon release, the film was a commercial and critical failure, grossing $26.7 million on a $60 million production budget. Even so, it began to sell well on home video; its initial DVD release sold so well that Paramount contacted Anderson shortly after its release to begin working on a restoration of the deleted footage. However, it turned out that the footage had either been lost or destroyed. In the years since, the film has slowly built a cult following and is often referenced and parodied in other works of popular culture.
Cast
Laurence Fishburne as Captain Miller, Commanding Officer of the Lewis and Clark
Sam Neill as Dr. William 'Billy' Weir, designer of the Event Horizon
Kathleen Quinlan as Peters, Medical Technician of the Lewis and Clark
Joely Richardson as Lieutenant Starck, Executive Officer of the Lewis and Clark
Richard T. Jones as Cooper, Rescue Technician of the Lewis and Clark
Jason Isaacs as D.J., Medical Doctor of the Lewis and Clark
Sean Pertwee as Smith 'Smitty', Pilot of the Lewis and Clark
Jack Noseworthy as Ensign Justin, Chief Engineer of the Lewis and Clark
Noah Huntley as Edmund Corrick, Miller's former shipmate from the Goliath
Peter Marinker as Captain John Kilpack, Commanding Officer of the Event Horizon
Holley Chant as Claire Weir, Dr. Weir's wife
Barclay Wright as Denny Peters, son of Technician Peters
Robert Jezek as Rescue Technician, rescues the survivors of the Lewis and Clark
Plot
In 2047, a distress signal is received from the Event Horizon, a starship that disappeared during its maiden voyage to Proxima Centauri seven years previously that has mysteriously reappeared in a decaying orbit around Neptune. The rescue vessel Lewis and Clark is dispatched. Its crew – Captain Miller, second-in-command Lieutenant Starck, pilot Smith, medical technician Peters, engineer Ensign Justin, Doctor D.J. and rescue technician Cooper – is joined by Dr. William Weir, who designed the Event Horizon. He briefs the crew on the ship's experimental gravity drive, which generates an artificial black hole and uses it to bridge two points in spacetime, reducing travel time over astronomical distances. The distress signal seems to consist of a series of screams and howls but D.J. believes he can discern the Latin phrase "Liberatis me" ("Save me") being spoken.
Upon boarding the Event Horizon, the crew finds evidence of a massacre. As they search for survivors, the ship's gravity drive activates, briefly pulling Justin into the resulting portal and causing a shock wave that damages the Lewis and Clark, forcing the entire crew to board the Event Horizon. Justin emerges in a catatonic state, terrified by what he saw on the other side. He attempts suicide by decompression, but is saved by Miller, forcing the crew to place him in stasis.
The team begins to experience apparitions of individuals from their past that only they can see,[9] hallucinations corresponding to their fears and regrets: Miller sees Corrick, a subordinate he was forced to abandon to his death, Peters sees her son with his legs covered in bloody lesions and Weir sees an eyeless vision of his late wife, who committed suicide, urging him to join her. The crew soon discover a video log of the Event Horizon's crew going insane and mutilating each other shortly after first engaging the gravity drive. The video log ends with a shot of the Event Horizon's captain speaking the complete Latin phrase from the earlier distress call, which D.J. translates "Liberatis tutemet ex infera" ("Save yourself from hell").
Deducing that the ship's gravity drive opened a gateway to a dimension outside the known universe and that the Event Horizon has somehow attained sentience, Miller decides to destroy the Event Horizon and orders an evacuation. Peters is lured to her death by a hallucination of her son. Weir, who has gouged his own eyes out and is now possessed by the evil presence, uses an explosive device to destroy the Lewis and Clark. The explosion kills Smith and blasts Cooper off into space. Weir kills D.J. by vivisecting him and corners Starck on the bridge. Miller confronts Weir, who overpowers him and initiates a 10-minute countdown until the Event Horizon will return to the other dimension.
Cooper, having used his space suit's oxygen supply to propel himself back to the ship, appears at the bridge window. Weir shoots at him and is blown into space by the ensuing decompression. Miller, Starck, and Cooper survive and manage to seal off the ship's bridge. With their own ship destroyed, Miller plans to split the Event Horizon in two and use the forward section of the ship as a lifeboat. He is attacked by manifestations of Corrick and a resurrected Weir. Miller fights them off and detonates the explosives, sacrificing himself.
The gravity drive activates, pulling the ship's stern section into a black hole. Starck and Cooper enter stasis, beside a comatose Justin, and wait to be rescued. Seventy-two days later, the wreckage Event Horizon is boarded by a rescue party, who discover the remaining crew still in stasis. Starck sees Weir posing as one of the rescuers and screams in terror; this is revealed to be a nightmare with Starck waking up moments later. However, as Cooper and the rescue team comfort the newly-awakened and terrified Starck, the doors unexpectedly close.
Categories:
1997 films,English-Hindi language films,1997 horror films,1990s science fiction horror films,British films,British horror films,British science fiction films,American films,American science fiction horror films,Films scored by Michael Kamen,Films scored by Orbital (band),Films about astronauts,Films directed by Paul W. S. Anderson,Films set in 2047,Films set in the future,Films shot at Pinewood Studios,Wormholes in fiction,Neptune in film,Films about parallel universes,Proxima Centauri in fiction,Paramount Pictures films