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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, only to discover that a sinister force has come back with it. The film had a troubled production, with filming and editing rushed by Paramount when it became clear that Titanic would not meet its projected release. The original 130-minute cut of the film was heavily edited by the studio's demand, to Anderson's consternation. On release, the film was a commercial and critical failure, grossing $42 million on a $60 million production budget. However, it began to sell well on home video; its initial DVD release sold so well that Paramount contacted Anderson to begin working on a restoration of the deleted footage, but it had been either lost or destroyed. In the years since, the film has developed a cult following and is referenced in other works of popular culture. 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 earlier. The ship mysteriously reappears in orbit around Neptune, and the rescue vessel Lewis and Clark is dispatched to investigate. 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, the Event Horizon's designer. He briefs them on the ship's experimental gravity drive with a simple visualization of how it folds space-time. The distress signal consists of a series of screams and howls, but D.J. believes he hears the Latin phrase "Liberate me" ("Save me"). Upon boarding the Event Horizon, the crew finds evidence of a massacre. As they search for survivors, the ship's gravity drive activates and briefly pulls Justin into a portal while also causing a shock wave that damages the Lewis and Clark. The crew are forced to board the Event Horizon while Justin emerges in a catatonic state. Smith and Cooper are sent on a spacewalk to repair the hull of the Lewis and Clark. The crew begins experiencing hallucinations corresponding to their fears and regrets. Miller sees a subordinate he was forced to abandon to his death; Peters sees her son with his legs covered in bloody lesions; Weir sees an eyeless vision of his late wife urging him to join her. Justin attempts suicide by decompression, but he is saved by Miller. The crew places Justin in stasis. They discover a video log of the Event Horizon's crew fornicating and mutilating each other shortly after first engaging the gravity drive. The log ends with a shot of the Event Horizon's captain, holding his own eyes gouged from their sockets and speaking the Latin phrase from the earlier distress call. D.J. translates the complete phrase as "Libera te tutemet ex inferis" ("Save yourself from hell"). Weir explains that the ship's drive opened a gateway to a hellish dimension (implied to be Hell) outside the known universe, and that the Event Horizon has attained sentience. Miller decides to destroy it. He orders an evacuation while Peters is lured to her death by a hallucination of her son. Weir, who has gouged out his own eyes and is possessed by the evil presence, uses an explosive device to destroy the Lewis and Clark which kills Smith and blasts Cooper 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 to activate the gravity drive and return to the other dimension. Cooper uses his space suit's oxygen supply to propel himself back to the ship and appears at the bridge window. Weir shoots at him, shattering the window, causing Weir to be blown into space by the 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 with explosives and use its forward section as a lifeboat. He is attacked by hallucinations which turn out to be the resurrected and further mutilated Weir. Miller fights him 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 of the Event Horizon is boarded by a rescue party who discover the survivors in stasis. Starck sees Weir posing as one of the rescuers and screams in terror, but she awakens and realizes that it was a nightmare. Cooper and the rescue team try to calm the terrified Starck as the doors close. Cast Production Development After Mortal Kombat (1995) was a commercial success in the United States, English director Paul W. S. Anderson was inundated with screenplay offers, as well as the opportunity to direct the Mortal Kombat sequel Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997) and the upcoming X-Men (2000). He turned down the offers in favor of making an R-rated horror film, wanting to shift away from making another PG-13 film. Paramount Pictures sent him Philip Eisner's original script for Event Horizon, which they had been trying to develop with producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin. According to Eisner, he first pitched its concept to Gordon as a "haunted house story in space", which the producer thought had potential: "Luckily", said Eisner, "he liked the idea enough to trust me to do it." Anderson's initial reaction to the script, which involved the cruiseship Event Horizon experiencing a series of hauntings by "tentacular" aliens, it having crossed the threshold of their planet or "dimension", was that it bore striking resemblance to Alien (1979). Producer and longtime collaborator Jeremy Bolt felt it was a "terrific concept" but was "very dense" in terms of length and the storyline was "a bit lost." Anderson did not want to direct a mimicry of Alien, so he gave the script a major rewrite, picturing a "classic haunted house movie." He incorporated significant influences of moderately successful horror films such as Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963) and Kubrick's The Shining (1980), because they created suspense from the unknown—the evil presence was hidden from the viewer—and their endings induced ambiguities of perception in the audience. He said he was also interested in the concept of Hell, and of "the ship itself being possessed rather than going 'Oh, it's an alien consciousness that is doing this,'" and added these to the script. Anderson also said that the science fiction film Solaris (1972) was the inspiration for Event Horizon. Screenwriter Philip Eisner acknowledged that Warhammer 40,000 influenced the story. In the setting of Warhammer 40,000, spaceships travel the ga.... Discover the Gordon Lloyd popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Gordon Lloyd books.