is there more to the ending of Event Horizon?

April 17, 2009 12:29 PM

is there more to the ending of Event Horizon?

In Event Horizon, Stark, Cooper, and Justin are rescued at the end of the film and as Stark wakes up from a nightmare about Weir, she's calmed down, the camera backs up and the outer doors to the ship slowly close. Is that alluding to the fact that the Rescue team and the three survivors are all going to eventually die, since, earlier in the movie they make mention of the ship "being alive"? Or do you think since the ships "core" was destroyed the evil went with it? And yes I'm a nerd and I know this is a ridiculous question

posted by matt755811 to media & arts (5 answers total)

I'm fairly certain that they're toast. "Alive" is probably not a perfect description, nor is "haunted." My interpretation was that, due to its time over there it was not quite infested so much as altered and infused with some sort of 18th century vitalistic fluid, some special essence of aliveness which was also tainted with evil. While the ship functioned as a whole, even parts of it were contaminated with hostility and a kind of low-level awareness.

I imagine that if you made a particularly large coffeetable out of a bulkhead, glasses placed on it would occasionally shatter, you'd end up barking your shins on it quite often, but the blood would have gone missing.

A good literary model for this would be the hotel Overlook from The Shining, which, while it might contain haints, was certainly bad from the get-go.
posted by adipocere at 12:38 PM on April 17, 2009

The movie itself provides no answer to your question so you are free to interpret it as you wish. It could be that Stark, Cooper, and Justin are physically safe but that the psychological toll (as evidenced by her nightmare) will be with them for a long time. Or it could be that there is no escape from the ship and everyone is going to die. Whatever you think makes sense.

My own feeling is that now that they are off the ship it has no more power over them and the only remaining toll is, as I said, psychological. To believe otherwise is to posit that whatever force was affecting the ship is all-powerful and can reach them anywhere. If it can reach them anywhere, it could reach anyone anywhere. Which isn't my reading (watching?) of the film.
posted by Justinian at 2:03 PM on April 17, 2009

The film is a pastiche of references to other films and literary works -- Solaris, The Shining, Hellraiser, Lovecraft books. In that light, think of the ending as an homage to the ending of the film version of Carrie, in that, it's a final "gotcha" moment, and a nod to the idea that, while the physical threat is gone, the emotional and psychological damage will always linger on.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:03 PM on April 17, 2009

I had interpreted the ending as, they're safe. But now you've got me reconsidering.

If I'm remembering correctly: The initial impression is that they're safe, as they've separated from the bulk of the ship and begun their trip home. Then there's a twist: They've been 'rescued' by demons (or whatever), and actually they're not safe. Then there's a second (re)twist: She wakes up, as the 'demons' were just a dream and they are safe.

But then the doors close.

If you're David Mamet, you insist that everything in a film ought to have a purpose, or else leave it out. So after she wakes up, if you're the director and you intend the film to end on that note, then there's no reason to have the doors close. The only reason to add that shot is to create a third twist. But...not everybody is David Mamet (including him, sometimes). Lots of films have unnecessary shots. Closing the doors is good punctuation, since you need to "fade to black" anyway.

I'm sticking with, "They're safe." As Justinian notes, you can interpret it however you like, as art. But as craft, well, from glancing at IMDB, neither the writer nor the director have done anything else that impressed me, so I'm inclined not to think that it was written with Match Point-like precision. I read the doors closing as a convenient stop, not a Tony Soprano black-out.
posted by cribcage at 3:24 PM on April 17, 2009

i always viewed the doors closing as implying that they were not "free" at all. that maybe they blew up the ship and everyone else is safe now, but once you've gone in there you're done. "you can't leave, she wont let you"
posted by swbarrett at 9:11 PM on April 18, 2009