Man, the last thing I remember I was on a search and rescue mission in space, and then a portal to hell opened up, and a demon popped out and bopped me on the head! Now I can’t remember anything that happened to me. Do you remember what happened in Event Horizon?
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
1) We start the film with Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill) being assigned to a search and rescue mission led by Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne). Towards what planet are they headed?
2) Once arriving they discover the long-missing deep space explorer vessel Event Horizon. What was the Event Horizon’s mission that it got lost on?
3) To the best of your ability explain how the Event Horizon operates.
4) Ultimately where was the Event Horizon all of these years?
5) Let’s get a quick body count. There were eight people on the mission to start. How many survive, and how do the others perish.
Answers
1) They are headed towards Neptune, which given traditional propulsion mechanisms takes like fifty days of travel. If the Event Horizon had anything to say about it that trip would have been a whole lot shorter …
2) The Event Horizon was going to test faster-than-light space travel. During their first mission though they were lost, never to be heard from again, and all presumed dead in some deep space accident … until now!
3) The Event Horizon produces a small black hole in the back portion of the ship. This black hole creates a wormhole anywhere in space that the ship desires, and then the ship travels through it. Travel even between stars would be nearly instantaneous. If it worked … which it doesn’t. I’m done with these hanging ellipses now by the way.
4) It was in HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL. Like, I’m not joking, the film is explicitly a haunted house film in space, and so there is no need to think beyond that the ship created a wormhole, but Weir didn’t anticipate what was between our dimension and the next that the ship would have to travel. Turns out what was in between was hell, and the crew was doomed, and so will Miller’s search and rescue team if they don’t get out of there ASAP.
5) Well, we can work backwards. Three survived, Starck the communications officer, Cooper the rescue technician, and, although grievously injured, Justin the engineer. So that means five were killed. Weir went insane, tore out his eyes, and was blown out into space. Peters the medical technician sees a hallucination of her crippled son and dies in a fall while chasing him. D.J., the medical officer, is disemboweled by Weir. The captain, Smith, is killed when Weir destroys the salvage ship. And Captain Miller sacrifices himself in order to separate the engine and cockpit of the Event Horizon and save the three other members of his crew.
Ahhhhhh right, yeah, these spooky demons almost got us, but then we ejected the eeeeeeeeevil scientist who had clawed out his eyes, and got away. Unfortunately, now I have a ton of spooooooky dream about said scientist … welp, what are you going to do? C’est la vie.
Bad Movie Twins 