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“ | Where we're going... we won't need eyes to see. | „ |
~ Dr. William Weir when asked about what happened to his eyes - his most famous quote. |
Dr. William Christian "Billy" Weir is the secondary antagonist of the 1997 sci-fi horror film Event Horizon, and the secondary antagonist of its official novelization by Steven E. McDonald.
He is a scientist and the builder of the spaceship known as Event Horizon. Because of his self-loathing regarding Claire's suicide, Weir succumbed to the ship's evil temptations and became completely insane, wanting to send the rescue crew with him to the same hellish dimension that gave life to the ship.
He was portrayed by Sam Neill, who also played Damien Thorn in Omen III: The Final Conflict, Charles Bromley in Daybreakers, John MacArthur in And Then There Were None, Chief Inspector Campbell in Peaky Blinders, Allomere in Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, and Mr. McGregor in Peter Rabbit.
Biography[]
William was born in Canberra, Australia, in 2003, where he spent most of his childhood before attending college at Sydney University of Technology and Engineering. After graduating, Dr. Weir obtained a job at DARPA in the space vehicle division, where he engineered some of the reactor components used in the Ares Mining Site on Mars. Hearing of his work, several officials on Project New Horizon managed to get Dr. Weir on their team, which would lead him into designing and building the Event Horizon, a ship that was capable of faster-than-light travel using an artificial black hole to open a portal from one part of the universe to another.
In 2039, while working on the ship, Claire, whom he was married to since 2034, killed herself, causing him great distress because no one had any idea as to why she did it in the first place, leading Dr. Weir to become more secretive and less charismatic, choosing to devote all his time into finishing the Event Horizon.
In 2040, the Event Horizon was finally completed, and it was sent on its maiden voyage. When it activated it's gravity drive near neptune, but didn't return as expected, ship was thought to be lost. But in reality, it used its faster than light engine to travel beyond the boundaries of our dimension to another dimension; one of pure chaos and evil. Some refer to it as Hell itself. The crew was killed on the ship, in very horrifying ways. In the year 2047, the Event Horizon returned to our galaxy, now a self-aware, living, and malevolent ship. A crew was ordered to go to the Event Horizon with Dr. Weir and find out what happened, find the crew, and bring the ship back to Earth. What happened instead was the ship used its telepathic abilities to use the crew's fears and secrets against them. It used the form of Weir's dead wife to seduce him into assisting it.
He blew up the Lewis and Clark, killing Smith. Then, he gruesomely vivisected D.J. alive, much to Captain Miller's horror. Miller became more horrified when Weir's eyes were gouged out. He activated the gravity drive, determined to send the new crew to the dimension. He was blown out of the window when he fired at Cooper. He was eventually saved by the ship and is now scarred and deranged, but with his eyes restored. After a fight with Miller, the Event Horizon was partially destroyed, sending the drive section of the ship back to the hellish dimension with Weir and Miller, leaving only three survivors in the lifeboat part of the ship. It's unknown if Weir and Miller were killed when the explosives were detonated or if they survived and were instead sucked through the black hole into the dimension.
72 days later, Weir comes onboard of the ship to capture Starck, Cooper and Justin, much to the former's horror. However, it's revealed to just be a nightmare.
Personality[]
In the past, Dr. Weir was an intelligent and brilliant physician even if he was a bit too technical toward those who are unfamiliar with physics. He also had a lovely wife, but she committed suicide for unknown reasons, and it's shown in his dreams that he feels guilty of it, giving him a tragic side.
Unfortunately, the Event Horizon took advantage of it and tormented by the hallucinations, causing Weir to help the living ship by blocking the way to the soldiers who wanted to leave it or destroy it. After his revival, Dr. Weir acts completely under the psychic control of the Event Horizon, becoming a sadistic monster willing to send all of his crew into what is implied to be Hell.
Quotes[]
“ | You can't leave. She won't let you. | „ |
~ Dr. Weir when the rescue crew planned to leave the ship. |
“ | Weir: I created the Event Horizon to reach the stars, but she's gone much, much farther than that; she tore a hole in our universe, a gateway to another dimension. A dimension of pure chaos. Pure... evil. When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was alive! Look at her, Miller. Isn't she beautiful? Miller: Your "beautiful" ship killed its crew, Doctor. Weir: Well... now she has another crew. Now she has us. [sets the coordinates to the dimension that gave life to the ship] Miller: What do you think you're doing, Doctor? Weir: You wanted to know where the ship has been... so now you'll find out. |
„ |
~ William Weir about the Event Horizon to Miller. |
“ | What makes you think I'll miss? | „ |
~ Dr. William Weir holding Miller at gunpoint. |
“ | Weir: [chuckles] The ship brought me back. I told you she won't let me leave. She won't let anyone leave. Did you really think you could destroy this ship? She's defied space and time. She's been to a place you couldn't possibly imagine. And now... it is time to go back. Miller: I know, to Hell. Weir: You know nothing. "Hell" is only a word, the reality is much, much worse. [blocks a punch from Miller before grabbing his head so that the Event Horizon can show him visions of the dimension that gave it life] Now let me show you!!! Miller: NO!!! [Weir lets go of him once the visions end so he can cough in pain and agony] Weir: You see? Miller: No... They're not... dead! They're not dead! Weir: Not yet. |
„ |
~ William upon being revived. |
“ | They're not your crew anymore, they belong to the ship! | „ |
~ Dr. Weir after Miller demanded him not to take his crew. |
“ | Weir: No. There is no escape. The Gateway is open, and you are all coming with me! Do you see? Do you see?!!! DO YOU SEE?!!! Miller: Yes. [shows the detonator] I see. [presses the detonator to activate the bombs] Weir: NOOOOO!!! |
„ |
~ Dr. William Weir gloating about his plan to take the Lewis and Clark crew to the dimension that gave life to the Event Horizon, also his final words before his presumed death. |
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Trivia[]
- In one of the original drafts, Weir had a small role.
- One of the deleted scenes that almost made to the final cut involved Weir descending the ladder to chase down Starch and Cooper after the blood torrent in a spider-like naked crawling. It was removed because it was deemed too gory for the R-rating.
- It was originally believed that Weir's scarred form was not Weir himself as he was pulled out into space, but most likely the embodiment of the Event Horizon itself using his form as a proxy. The novelization, which was based on earlier versions of the script, utilizes this interpretation as well. However, it is later confirmed that the blood filling the ceiling panels of the ship as well as the gravity couches (which later explodes into a deluge of blood) was Weir's body being reconstituted by the Event Horizon, but this scene was cut.
- In the original version of the script, which wasn't used for the novelization, Weir truly died when he was pulled into space, and Miller was supposed to face the ship itself while it took on the form of Eddie Corrick. It was changed because the test audience didn't like it.