Event Horizon

"if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell." (Matthew 5:30)

(warning: plot spoilers)

By the time 2040 rolls around, we will at long last be able to create artificial wormholes so we can travel instantly to other galaxies. The Event Horizon is the first spaceship equipped for this purpose. And the ship makes its first trans-galaxy jump successfully, only the artificial wormhole doesn't transport the crew to the galaxy they were expecting... it took them directly into hell (literally).

After seven years everyone is pretty sure they'll never hear from the Event Horizon again, that is, until someone picks up a distress signal from somewhere in the vicinity of Neptune. Enter the rescue vessel named "Lewis and Clark," led by Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne). Miller and his crew are assigned to look into this signal and take along the Event Horizon's designer, Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill), who will explain to the crew in the vaguest language possible what they are getting themselves into.

They find the ship without too much trouble. Everyone that was on the ship is now dead, of course. It turns out that the ship deliberately killed them after it was transformed by its sojourn in hell into a living/dead instrument for evil. This is bad news for the crew of the Lewis and Clark, as the ship proceeds to either kill or tear the eyes out of every one who boards her.

Luckily the ship is divided into two main compartments: the crew resides in the front section of the ship while the rear section, separated by a long stretch of corridors, contains the wormhole-jumping apparatus. This design is purposeful so that, in case the ship were to become a killing instrument of Satan, the crew would have the option of blowing apart the middle section, thereby making the living quarters a floating life-pod for another rescue vessel to find. The crew ends up using explosives to separate the front section from the rear, saving themselves from the possessed wormhole-drive. About half of them make it out alive.

This reminds me of the aforementioned quote, in which Jesus illustrates the drastic view we should have toward evil, or sin. It worked out that, about two thousand years later, in the dawn of the space age, Jesus' command saves half of the Lewis and Clark's crew.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is one of my favorite sci-fi flicks. I think I enjoy it more because of the spiritual implications. Good stuff.

Anonymous said...

I love The Event Horizon. Sam Neill is brilliant in this movie.

Anonymous said...

I have to admit - when I watched it the first time with my father when it was first out on DVD it freaked the snot outta me and gave me nightmares. Probably helps that we watched it at 2am and was excessively tired. It was a well done movie and I never thought I would see Sam Neil in such a creepy part. But he did well.

Interesting news: Zao (metal band) used sound bites in their CD 'Save Yourself from Hell'.

rantravereflect/ jane said...

i love biblical connotations.. infact, the bible is fulla fulfilled prophesies..

makin a sci-fi pic on that basis is intersting indeed!

brings me2 tat inevitable question: is everthing in life referential and pre-empted???

Anonymous said...

i remember being scared while watching this movie (my cousin wanted to see this film badly and she couldn't drag anyone else) because i had absolutely no idea how it would turn out. i got freaked out by the implications of this flick. i never really fully trusted my cousin after that :)

Anonymous said...

I heard they were going to be remaking this movie already.