The Black Hole: Re-Imagining As A Sci-Fi Mystery
Recently, I’d been pondering about ways in which Disney’s The Black Hole (1979) could’ve been saved as a common topic is the idea of a reboot/remake. In retrospect, it’s easy to see how the movie went wrong in a variety of ways as I have done myself. However, usually those involve particular instances such as the embarrassing “habitable life” line. Instead, I wanted to examine the movie in a slightly different context that could have corrected the movie in a major “what-if” type of pivot where I examine the genre as being the core fault of the movie. Here, I argue that the mixing of several genres ended up confusing the possible strengths of this movie, leading to an overall weakened structure that has ended up causing many people to compare this movie to the far superior and successful Star Wars. My thesis though is that the movie should have focused itself as a sci-fi mystery rather than incorporate elements of space opera as well as the originally planned disaster movie and the typical kid hook from Disney that prevented this movie from becoming a true classic (as opposed to a cult classic).
I think the movie itself has an abundance of positive elements in terms of cast, appearance and atmosphere. I’ve mentioned that The Black Hole ought to be incorporated in a big top 4 sci fi movies around that late 70s/early 80s period, which includes Star Wars (of course), Star Trek and Alien. However, the two weakest elements are in fact the science (or lack thereof) and the general dumbing down of an otherwise thriller for the sake of attempting inclusion for children (i.e. merchandising). These two aspects inherently disrupt the movie in addition to the bizarre religious overtones that would get incorporated into a near incoherent movie that barely gets by.
The movie really feels like three movies spliced together where you start off with a mystery/space gothic almost horror type of show that instantly swaps genres into space opera followed by a bizarre disaster movie (which was the original theme). Because the movie attempts to accomplish too much, it ends up having a very poor sense of pacing where almost 3/4ths of the movie is a slog to get through but ends up racing once Alex is killed off and Kate is taken to the hospital. You get this narrative whiplash that doesn’t work too well given the build and expectations leading up towards the second half.
I think that part of the problem is how the movie went through some serious revisions. Originally conceived as a disaster movie, which was popular in the mid to late 70s, The Black Hole was originally going to center around the Cygnus craft (I believe the working title was Space Probe I). Once Star Wars demonstrated the monstrous success as a genre and merchandising monster, it became clear others wanted to copy that formula or format to get their piece of the pie, Disney not withstanding. In turn, Disney’s executives stuck their head into the revisions and added their prerequisites, which I think show why you shouldn’t dictate a story inside a boardroom.
But one thing that I came to realize as I thought about this situation is how the actual black hole in the movie is almost a non-entity but honestly gets in the way of the story and destroys a good chunk of credibility both in the science and plot. One problem I had previously identified was how it made no sense that the black hole itself was not known ahead of time by the Palomino crew, especially if they had the capability of reaching far distances in the universe.
Yet if you remove the black hole element itself, a large number of problems disappear. You remove the slog of Palomino dealing with the gravity, the visual issues of the black hole manifesting as a giant, randomly appearing whirlpool in space as well as any the nonsensical religious iconography and metaphysical implications of going through for the ending. In eliminating all those aspects, you probably can save yourself a good 30 minutes of film to focus on what people have claimed has been the best aspect of the movie: the Cygnus.
If there’s been one universal agreement about this movie, it’s that the Cygnus itself is a gorgeous ship. The Cygnus evokes both a majestic craft that is boding and highly advanced without really requiring much explanation. Also, the ship itself seems to have more personality and description than the black hole ever could. Given that the movie was meant to be about the ship and an impending disaster, I think the movie should have stayed course because you really didn’t need the black hole itself to create intrigue.
Another major aspect I’d eliminate is leaning too hard on the space opera aspects. Meaning the high paced action laser shoot outs. I heavily disliked these because they weren’t really memorable and half the time looked bad. Whenever the sentries were employed against the Palomino crew in force, they were outgunned and outclassed which made no sense given Reinhardt was capable of using them to subdue the entire Cygnus crew. I would keep Maximilian gutting Alex in some format just because that was highly memorable and fits more with the grim, gothic mysterious portion of the movie. Also, I would keep most of the hospital scenes except for the shoot out part. I think there was some unique things in that which were memorable but the shoot out and Vincent’s presence made the scene utterly frustrating to me.
The cutesy robots would have to go no matter what though. They simply don’t belong and corrupt the otherwise dark atmosphere. If you need a robot or two for the Palomino crew, I would make it expendable as well as non-verbal. I think the dialog and attempt at humanizing the two robots played against the movie badly where they became annoying. And even though Vincent and to a lesser degree Bob helped move the plot forward, they also took several steps back because of how much wasted cellulite they occupied in doing absolutely nothing essential to the script.
Without these elements, I think you could’ve done more to fill in the backstory of how Reinhardt took over the ship. A hidden digital video archive could be discovered by the Palomino crew, which show how the failed mutiny went down. In particular, I think if Kate could have witnessed her father perishing under Reinhardt’s mandate, it would’ve increased her animosity towards him.
In converting the genre to a sci fi mystery, you could learn more into the atmospheric elements in treating the Cygnus as a ghost ship. Obviously, the Palomino crew, once they discover the truth behind the Cygnus, would do everything they can to escape. But I think like Alien, you could’ve played into the idea of a “little Indians” type of elimination story where the crew members are slowly eliminated and consumed by artifacts of the ship. I have to go back to the line from Reinhardt where he asks Kate to “save me from Maximilian.” There’s something that could’ve been done with the idea that Maximilian was the one that took over and has this plan for the crew of converting everyone into his humanoid cyborg minions. It’s kinda like an outer space version of Burnt Offerings where the ship claims the souls of those that board it.
Like one of my most frustrating parts is the whole hospital sequence. It simply fails because of the way it was shot and the nonsense with Holland’s “just in the nick of time” rescue. I’ve argued that the movie completely falls apart once that scene takes place. I think a far more interesting version would’ve had Holland faced with an obstacle course of sentries that he had to evade to get to Kate. Instead of rescuing her, I would’ve made his efforts too late. Imagine the shock in seeing Kate being completely converted into a humanoid when Holland removes a face plate. Perhaps, Kate becomes that silver humanoid from the space probe.
Similarly, I would’ve made Pizer more significant in the movie rather than a 5th wheel. He’s supposed to be the Luke Skywalker of the movie but having a terrible hair cut, rotten lines and a garbage can incessantly brow beating him, Pizer ends up becoming ineffectual. But what if he’s the one that manages to survive? Perhaps, Dan sacrifices himself on the ship in an attempt to prevent Maximilian from destroying humanity and Pizer escapes to warn Earth. Instead of getting the Alien “the Cygnus blows up” deal, we don’t receive a visual confirmation. You could show under Maximilian this cyborg type of creature like a Hector that has been infused with Reinhardt, Frank McCrae and Dan steering the Cygnus towards Earth. Now, wouldn’t that be a haunting lasting image more so than the stupid hell/heaven sequence we received?
The reason I’m for this idea of changing the genre or rather re-dedicating the genre into the mystery aspect is that Disney could’ve claimed a wide open spot back in the late 70s if they had been more focused. One of the faint praises people give Disney for this movie is their attempt at pivoting by moving towards a darker version of movie making. Alien hadn’t been in theaters yet, which effectively defined the whole sci fi horror genre while Star Trek: The Motion Picture probably was the purest of the sci fi movies around. The movie would’ve been very anti-Disney in eliminating kid friendly tropes but I think thematically the movie would’ve been tighter and paced better. Also, I think the movie would’ve given the actors more opportunities to actually act rather than run around and cluelessly fire off lasers (which they did apparently) while the effects department could’ve focused more on the interior of the ship and fleshed more of that out. Then there’s the improvement of the science aspect itself by simply eliminating any reason to force scientific jargon in the movie. Even the hospital scene could’ve been better justified (there’s other movies like Logan’s Run which did a far better job in handling similar scenes)
Some people might direct my attention to Event Horizon or even Interstellar, which probably is the best spiritual successor/remake possible for The Black Hole. I think Event Horizon is just too gory for me even though the plot might have similarities. Interstellar was better science fiction but the plot became a major mess once Matt Damon shows up (as per my original review). The thing is that I still want to retain the major elements of The Black Hole but make it more in line with other movies like Time Bandits or Dragonslayer in terms of pushing the envelope without completely alienating the audience. I mean if Disney insisted on doing an Anthony Perkins bowel removal treatment, they probably would’ve needed to spin off a separate studio to put this movie out under.
Either way, that’s just some thoughts on the subject for which I’ve always had a great number of thoughts on.
