With Amazon Prime’s new Event Horizon series, the television show can finally confirm theories that have persisted ever since the movie’s release in 1997. Starring Laurence Fishburne as Captain Miller, Paul Anderson’s thriller involves a rescue team aboard the Lewis and Clark retrieving the Event Horizon, a ship that disappeared seven years prior and reappeared just as suddenly. Only Sam Neill’s Dr. Weir seems to have any idea what could have happened to it given that he designed its high-tech Gravity Drive, but none of the crew are prepared for the incredible journey the ship has been on, or the terrifying one that they’re about to be a part of.
The Event Horizon show can answer mysteries that have been present since the movie premiered 26 years ago, including what happened to Captain Miller after he sacrificed himself to destroy the ship, and where it was headed to next. Many of the movie’s plot lines were introduced only to be forgotten about later on, including missing footage and deleted scenes of intense horror as each member of the crew becomes psychologically unstable. As a sci-fi horror classic decades later, Event Horizon deserves a substantial deep dive into the enigmatic premise on which its cult status has been built.
6 What Actually Happens In Event Horizon’s Hell Dimension
When the Event Horizon mysteriously vanishes, it travels through a dimension that’s unidentifiable on any astrological map. The dimension has been compared to a hellscape, full of nightmarish scenes featuring torture, sexual violation, and all manner of depravity, the aftermath of which can be seen in certain parts of the ship, particularly centered around Dr. Weir’s Gravity Drive. There’s a chance that the Event Horizon television series will illuminate exactly what the dimension looks like and the atrocities inside.
Fans have speculated about what the dimension contains ever since the movie released, their imaginations running wild with the most gristly scenarios based on Dr. Weir’s descriptions. For fans of the Hellraiser franchise, which focuses specifically on a similar hellscape, it could have some resemblance, particularly given Event Horizon’s emphasis on pleasure and pain. Glimpses inside the dimension, promised in Event Horizon’s “bloody orgy” original uncut version, would be a chance to give fans what they’ve been wanting for decades.
5 The Lost Footage Of The First Crew Could Be Finally Seen
When the Lewis and Clark tries to retrieve logs of the Event Horizon’s crew, there’s some damage to the information and the footage of the first crew is grainy, if not lost altogether. It alluded to the goriest sections of the movie which couldn’t be included because they were considered too intense for viewers to handle, neither of Event Horizon’s two alternate endings includes a trace of it. Depending on the plot of the series, the lost footage could be found by another crew and analyzed to find out what happened to the Event Horizon, and how the ship started to fall apart in the first place.
A streaming service provides the opportunity to show more explicit content, so something like Event Horizon could be explored in ways that it couldn’t be through the traditional studio system. Fans have been speculating about what the full lost footage entails since the movie’s initial release, and now the series finally has the chance to present them with one of the IP’s biggest mysteries outside what the hell dimension looks like. It will also help connect the events of the first movie to the new series, even if they don’t take place in the same exact timeline.
4 Doctor Weir And Other Character Backstory Theories
Doctor Weir is part of a crew of scientists and researchers led by Captain Miller searching for the Event Horizon, and as the Lewis and Clark’s mission continues, he becomes more obsessive and erratic. His character development is one of the more intriguing in the movie, but doesn’t get completely explored before he turns into its villain. So far, his development has consisted of a science-fiction archetype wherein a scientist wants to examine the ultimate mystery being pursued at the expense of all life involved, corrupted by the same otherworldly forces he investigated.
A streaming series is a perfect medium for character development because of its long story format, and considering that the crew of the Lewis and Clark wasn’t fully developed – and the crew of the Event Horizon was never developed – each member could be explored further and crafted into a fully realized person. Dr. Weir, particularly towards the end, has the chance to become one of horror’s most iconic villains, and knowing more about him would make that more likely, especially given that audiences has long speculated about the point at which he officially turned into an antagonistic force.
3 If The Event Horizon Ship Returns To Earth
In the Event Horizon ending, the ship heads further into space, with Dr. Weir cryptically saying, “Where we’re going we don’t need eyes,” implying that it’s going back into the dimension from whence it came. While the ending of the movie lets Starck and Cooper escape, there’s a chance that the remnants of the ship that went to the other dimension could exit again and head to Earth and bring with it all sorts of demonic entities onboard. One popular theory also states it could bring other ships to Earth with it and be part of an inter-dimensional fleet that attacks the planet without warning, preying upon its inhabitants’ worst psychological fears.
While it’s assumed that the Gravity Drive helped Event Horizon reach places it couldn’t have otherwise visited, it’s possible that there are other ships out there that have encountered the hell dimension. It could be perceived as the galactic equivalent of a Bermuda Triangle, in which ships get trapped during voyages through space. Since the movie hinted at temporal anomalies, it’s also possible that the series can confirm not only whether the rest of the ship returns to Earth, but when it returns, and how long it’s been perceived to have been gone.
2 If Another Ship Encounters The Event Horizon
Given what happened after the Lewis and Clark encountered the Event Horizon, it’s possible that the ship encountered other ships in the past and will do so in the future. Much like a ghost ship luring ships to their death during the Golden Age of sail, it’s possible that the Event Horizon has tricked other rescue ships with distress signals. It might have to refine its technique each time, but someone specifically like Dr. Weir, or a supernatural entity, has been contacting other ships and manipulating them into sending their crews on board to investigate.
If the series is episodic, then it could confirm the Event Horizon’s methods, and what drives it to find new victims. It will also clarify what the ship’s end goal is, and whether its very existence is dependent on trapping humans inside and feeding off of their fears and anxieties. If the ship does need to feed on human souls, then it will inevitably do whatever it takes to get its fill, including creating a means to attack unsuspecting ships either drawn to in on purpose or on errant paths.
1 Event Horizon World-Building
The movie undergoes a lot of world-building with its particular focus on space exploration and the hell dimension, and has since given rise to theories that Event Horizon is a Warhammer prequel and part of lore setting up one of the most massive sci-fi IPs of recent decades. A future with a Gravity Drive that allows for deep interstellar travel is something that opens up a wealth of possibilities, not unlike being able to use warp speed like Star Trek or travel through hyperspace in Star Wars. An Event Horizon series can show what other things are possible in this future that is built on existing technological advancements of the real world.
If movies like Alien or Blade Runner have been successful in presenting sci-fi worlds based on reality with just enough innovation to make fans curious, then Event Horizon should have the same opportunity. With the movie dedicating so much time to the titular ship and the nightmarish events that occur within it, the show can go an alternate route and provide a look into what the rest of the world looks like – if only to make the horrors of the series feel that much worse. Sci-fi series like The Expanse provide the ideal template for wedding hard sci-fi with fantasy innovation, and since its premature end, there’s a void that can be filled with Event Horizon.
This content was originally published here.
