MovieChat Forums > Event Horizon (1997) Discussion > Dr Weir - what an idiot (spoilers)

Dr Weir - what an idiot (spoilers)

posted 10 years ago by fearless2003
11 replies | jump to latest

Ok. I'm just watching this movie... but this is such an idiotic scene. Cooper is telling Weir and the captain what he saw. Dr. Weir is moronically insisting what Cooper saw cannot happen, because the gravity drive cannot start up by itself.

Event horizon disappears for 7 years. Crew is all dead. Their current ship is damaged in a shockwave... all this happens... and the Dr. is insisting what Cooper saw was impossible. Cooper just "imagined" the liquid which just happens to be what happens when the gravity drive is activated... god whatever... such a moronic scene.

Later Weir insists the drive is safe. I mean come on... why do we have to have such stupidity... is it just to create conflict between the characters? bad writing.

[–] zamise 10 years ago

Weir does leave his old fashioned razor laying around so his depressed wife could kill herself with it too, what a total dumb ass.

[–] HellboundHero 8 years ago

She's an adult, I'm sure she wouldn't have much trouble coming into possession of a straight razor. And how do we even know that he knew she was suicidal?

[–] Milkyway123 10 years ago

How about DJ leaving out hallucinating/experiencing Justin waking up and saying "the dark one is coming" when two of his teammates are sharing their stories and wonder if they are alone in this?

Btw, how weird that Miller "hallucinates" the burning man for the first time and then cuts to them all being safe and discussing it. So the thing showed itself and then went away?

One more thing: Starck's theory about the ship being alive was laughable! It comes out of nowhere.

[–] fatalframe80 8 years ago

I get what you mean by DJ not speaking up when the others do. That's a pet peeve of mine in horror movies.

But Starck's suggestion that the so I'd alive doesn't come from nowhere. When they first arrive she scans the ship for signs of life. And finds them all over the ship. This is before the Event Horizon's core had been activated. So she could be going by that.

[–] the_la_baker 10 years ago

Cooper is telling Weir and the captain what he saw. Dr. Weir is moronically insisting what Cooper saw cannot happen, because the gravity drive cannot start up by itself.

Event horizon disappears for 7 years. Crew is all dead. Their current ship is damaged in a shockwave... all this happens... and the Dr. is insisting what Cooper saw was impossible. Cooper just "imagined" the liquid which just happens to be what happens when the gravity drive is activated... god whatever... such a moronic scene.

Later Weir insists the drive is safe. I mean come on... why do we have to have such stupidity... is it just to create conflict between the characters? bad writing.

To better understand Weir's bizarre actions, I recommend a previous post.

Dr. Weir dedicated his life to science. He could not take care of both his wife Claire and his scientific research to create the ships portal. He only realized how important Claire was for him after she had killed herself. When she committed suicide, he was not there for her, obviously working on the portal for the Event Horizon.
Her death was now of course irreversible, so as a form of mental self protection he became more dedicated to the portal. There was nothing else left for him and he wanted it to be a justified engagement because the work on it was even "paid" with the life of Claire.
When the Event Horizon disappeared Weir lost even that surrogate. But unlike his dead wife, the ship came back and his life got a meaning again, which of course he pursued with even more obsession.
Then the ship, which brought back life from the other dimension ("hell"), used his already highly imbalanced dedication to the ships portal by bringing back Claire in his dreams and hallucinations, as if the portal was not only an emotional replacement for his wife but indeed the factual possibility to reunite with her. As a result his obsession with the portal as a gateway to the other dimension went far beyond insane. Now the ship could possess him completely.

As a matter of fact, Dr. Weir was the most unstable guy in the crew, and as we see in his inability to connect to the other team members he was also a loner; the perfect candidate for the evil force to take control over.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119081/board/thread/222552042?d=225950021 #225950021

[–] HellboundHero 8 years ago

I thought Weir might have already been under the influence of the ship.

[–] beierfilms 8 years ago

Yeah, it's one of those annoying tropes in films in which an otherwise smart character is deliberately dense for the sake of the plot (see David Caruso in Session 9).

[–] vilafire (624) 2 years ago

No, it’s the trope where a character is borderline possessed.

[–] redban (5383) 4 years ago

That was the intent, to show how much Dr Weir values the ship, the portal, and the gravity drive.

Laurence Fishburne was more reasonable, as he made clear to seal off the room and not let anyone go near the portal. So the movie wanted you to feel that the Dr.’s explanation wasn’t credible.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 2 years ago

Agreed. I don't think this was a plot device at all. Dr Weir was arrogant, obsessive, and mentally unstable from the get go.

[–] MikeCable (1703) a month ago

Perhaps easily influenced by whatever was behind it all, so insisted his drive wasn't the cause. And maybe a degree of self preservation, to protect himself / his reputation by desperately saying it isn't the drive.