The Cast
•Lawrence Fishburne as Captain Joe Miller
•Sam Neill as Dr. William Wier
•Joely Richardson as Streck
•Kathleen Quinlan as Peters and
Directed by Paul Anderson
The Plot:
The ship that was going to explore the reaches of space beyond our own solar system. But something went wrong. It went missing. It was the greatest space disaster man had known. Seven years later, a rescue transmission is broadcast from a ship orbiting Neptune. It is identified as the Event Horizon. A crew is called of shore leave to go and and discover what has happened to the ship and where has it been for the last seven years. The crew take with them Dr. William Wier who designed and created the Event Horizon. They all set off in their ship the Lois & Clark. Upon the way Wier explains that IASA (the future version of NASA) told everyone that the Event Horizon’s reactor core went critical and exploded. This was not the truth. The Event Horizon actually contained a new secret experimental drive. It worked by creating a small black hole and then folding space. So it could travel any distance instantly. (Don’t worry its explained a lot better in the film). Upon arrival at the Event Horizon they go onboard an start up the ship. They find what’s left of the crew splattered against the bulkheads in the command room. Then different crew members start experiencing shocking and disturbing things. Where has the ship been for the past years seven years and more importantly what has it bought back.
This is a damn fine film. It can be best described as a cross between Hellraiser and the Black Hole. A haunted house movie in space. The acting is good and everyone behaves realistically. Even the women are tough. They don’t just run around screaming looking for the men for protection. There is one crew member who is the comedy element. He helps to break up the tension now and again and it does work. He also has one of the best lines in the film. The crew are all waking up from their long sleep in gravity capsules and the guy is handing out coffee (PS this character is black). He offers coffee to one of the female crew and says, ’’Hey! Would you like something hot and black inside you?’’ The effects are excellent with a seamless blend of CGI and model work. The look of the film is also excellent.
The Event Horizon looks technical with the lights on. But in the dark the ship looks like a medieval torture chamber. Paul Anderson has done well and made another great movie, his previous work was Mortal Kombat. What is interesting is that the film has had forty minutes cut by the director. Paul said this was mostly characterisation and stuff. I’m hoping for a directors cut when it is released on DVD. This is an excellent film which is well worth seeing, It can be a bit hard to understand at times but this just keeps you entertained.