In 2015, the first permanent colony was established on the Moon. In 2032 Commercial mining began on the planet Mars. In 2040 the research vessel “Event Horizon” was launched to explore the recesses of the space. Beyond the planet Neptune, the vessel disappeared without a trace. In 2047 it came back.
The “U.S. Aerospace Command” sends the “Lewis and Clark” rescue vehicle, commanded by Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne), to rendezvous with the “Event Horizon”. On board is Dr. Weir (Sam Neil), the designer and builder of the “Event Horizon”. The crew members of the ship are Executive Officer Starch (Joely Richardson), Engineering Officer Ensign Justin (Jack Noseworthy), Rescue Technician Cooper (Richard T. Jones), Medical Technician Peters (Kathleen Quinlan), Medical Doctor D.J. (Jason Isaacs) and Pilot Smith (Sean Pertwee).
The point of the “Event Horizon” was to create a ship that could travel faster than the speed of light. To do that the ship is capable of creating a dimensional doorway that will allow the ship to go through the doorway and come out at another point in the universe light years away. The ship can fold space time. Now that the ship has reappeared in our solar system, the “Lewis and Clark” has been sent to find out where it went, and why it has returned.
After awakening from stasis, the crew finds and boards the “Event Horizon”. The ship is in a state of disrepair, and the crew is all dead. While trying to make repairs Justin gets sucked into a portal. He is rescued by Cooper, but a power surge causes damage to The Lewis and Clark. The crew is now stranded on the “Event Horizon”. Strange things begin to happen. The members of the crew start having hallucinations. Some believe something alien is on the ship. They begin to believe that the ship brought back something evil from another dimension, something deadly.
“Event Horizon” was released in 1997 and was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. It is an American and British science fiction horror story. The film didn’t do well when it was released but has garnered a very stable cult following.
Originally the film was about 130 minutes long and got an NC-17 rating for its violence. Cuts were made to bring the film down to about 96 minutes and cutting out a lot of the violent scenes. Many of those scenes were from the ship’s video log and modeled after the visions of hell as seen in the works of painter Hieronymus Bosch. The film didn’t rise to fame until it was released on video. Director Anderson wanted to restore the film’s missing footage, both deleted scenes and violent scenes, that had been cut; however, the footage that was cut from the film seems to have been lost over the years. Supposedly there is a VHS tape floating around that has the deleted scenes on it, but nothing has been released yet.
The movie has a lot of good special effects and a really creepy atmosphere, but there are far more jump scares than necessary. Often it goes from quiet conversation to some loud noise accompanying a sudden event designed to scare you. Mission accomplished, but not in a good way.
Sean Pertwee, who plays Smith the pilot of the Lewis and Clark, is the son of Jon Pertwee, who played the third Dr. Who.