The Black Hole
The Black Hole is a 1979 science fiction movie directed for Walt Disney Productions by Gary Nelson. It stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, and Ernest Borgnine. The voices of the main robot characters in the film are provided by Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens. The music for the movie was composed by John Barry. The plot was derived from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Alan Dean Foster novelized the screenplay.
Apparently Disney's answer to Star Wars (though work on the film was already underway as early as 1975), at $20 million it was the most expensive picture produced by the company to date and the first to be given a PG rating, which caused a minor controversy. It was not well received by critics, although the special effects and matte work were praised. The movie earned $25 million at the U.S. box office, making it the 13th highest grossing film of the year. The film was nominated for cinematography and visual effects Academy Awards.
This first PG-rated Disney film led the company towards experimenting with more adult-oriented films, which would eventually lead to the creation of its Touchstone Pictures arm to handle films considered too mature in nature to carry the Walt Disney label.
The Black Hole has a small cult following, and it has been released several times in VHS and DVD.
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Plot
An Earth exploratory ship, the USS Palomino, discovers a black hole with a lost ship, the USS Cygnus, on its event horizon. To solve the mystery of the Cygnus, Palomino captain Dan Holland (Forster), his first officer Charlie Pizer (Bottoms), journalist Harry Booth (Borgnine), scientist and ESP-sensitive Kate McCrae (Mimieux), whose father was one of the ship's officers, Dr. Alex Durant (Perkins), and the robot V.I.N.CENT board the ship where they meet its captain, Dr. Hans Reinhardt (Schell), a prominent scientist last seen twenty years ago, and his army of robot troopers, headed by the ominous, mute Maximillian.
Reinhardt reveals to the Palomino crew his most ambitious project, which he has prepared for 20 years: to steer the Cygnus into the black hole and explore its beyond. While most of the crew react with incredulity and scepticism upon this announcement, Durant comes to hero-worship Reinhardt and is even willing to accompany him into the black hole.
Reinhardt claims he is the only human aboard the vessel. But the Palomino crew's suspicion are raised as Booth observes one humanoid robot (who walks with a limp) tending an enormous vegetable garden large enough to feed thousands, and Holland observes a "space burial" being conducted by the humanoids. An older robot model similar to V.I.N.CENT, named Old B.O.B., reveals that the crew of the Cygnus mutinied against Reinhardt when he chose to keep the Cygnus in proximity to the black hole. After killing the ringleaders of the rebellion (particularly Frank McCrae, Kate's father), he used the fully automated robots aboard the ship, particularly Maximillian, to lobotomize the remainder of his crew and make them the humanoid robots on the Cygnus bridge.
Durant and Kate have meanwhile accompanied Reinhardt to the Cygnus' bridge. Via her implanted ESP module, McCrae learns about Reinhardt's crimes and informs Durand, who immediately checks the bridge personnel and is shocked to find the accusations true. When he confronts Reinhardt, he is killed by Maximillian, and McCrae is sent to be lobotomized. While the rest of the crew goes to rescue Kate, journalist Harry Booth attempts to escape alone in the Palomino, but Reinhardt shoots the ship down. The resulting collision of the Palomino destroys parts of the ship. In a twist of fate, an asteroid storm occurs and starts destroying the ship, especially the anti-gravity generator holding the Cygnus in place.
The forces caused by the black hole cause the ship to fall into ruin. When Maximillian and Reinhardt plan to escape the Cygnus in a probe ship which they have used to scan the black hole, the large video screen on the bridge falls on Reinhardt and pins him down to the control panel. When Reinhardt calls for help from Maximillian, he does not come to his master's aid and goes after the Palomino Crew.
The fight between V.I.N.CENT, the Palomino Crew (who escape the fight thanks to V.I.N.CENT) and Maximillian (who is defeated) leaves Old B.O.B. damaged beyond repair, and he parts ways with V.I.N.CENT. Holland, Pizer, McCrae, and V.I.N.CENT escape aboard the Cygnus's probe ship, which Reinhardt had preset to enter the black hole itself.
As the Palomino survivors reach the bottom of the Black Hole after a harrowing flight, they discover that they have crossed over into an alternate dimension in which exists Heaven and Hell. As Reinhardt is condemned to eternal imprisonment in the metal body of Maximillian in Hell, the crew of the Palomino passes through Heaven, encountering an angel along the way, and then are released from the black hole into a new universe.
(An alternate interpretation of the ending is: Dr. Reinhardt has been put inside Maximillian because he had created that robot by stealing the mind of Frank McCrae, the first officer that Old B.O.B. tells us Reinhardt had killed. Therefore he is condemned to hell in Frank McCrae's place, and the figure flying through the heavenly passageway is the escaping soul of McCrae. The fact that Reinhardt asks Kate to help him control Maximillian seems to suggest this.)
Story Holes
The Black Hole contained a number of factual errors relating to space, and at least one major mistake in dialogue. During the (re)discovery of the Cygnus, Kate McCrae states that it held the same mission as the Palomino: to search for "habitable life" in the universe. Other issues included glowing-red meteors (which are, in reality, cold rocks) and the appearance of the crew in the vacuum of space without space suits, yet without asphyxiating from a lack of oxygen, or exploding from a lack of pressure. (It has been rumored that suits were designed but refused by the cast because of their appearance.) Also, since the "robot funeral" scene used a matte painting for its sloping side walls, a robot's head at the left can be seen to disappear and reappear from under it. (The Black Hole at The Internet Movie Database) It is worth noting that the producers of the film addressed these issues in various magazine articles prior to the release of the film. It was stated in Starlog magazine that the black hole had accumulated an atmosphere, in addition to all the debries that was continually showed spiraling into it in the film, and that this atmosphere was - by stunning coincidence - breathable by humans, at least for short periods. The glowing meteors were said to be glowing because of friction they encountered while flying through that atmosphere. Neither of these are terribly likely in the real world, but are plausible enough in a B-film like this, and do not really detract from what is, at root, an action/adventure story.
Trivia
- The robot name "V.I.N.CENT" is supposed to be an acronym of "Vital Information Necessary CENTralized". B.O.B.'s name stands for "BiO-sanitation Battalion."
- The robot Maximillian was already named before the filmmakers selected actor Maximilian Schell to play Dr. Hans Reinhardt.
- An alternate ending was conceived but never shot. The final scene would have involved a slow panning out from what would be revealed to be the Sistine Chapel painting of Michelangelo's The Creation. Kate's face would be recognizable in the background of the painting suggesting that the crew experienced the beginning of time. The scene would end showing Kate looking up at the painting, suggesting that the Palomino crew did eventually return safely to Earth.
- The name of Dr. Reinhardt's ship comes from the first black hole that was discovered, which was found in the constellation Cygnus.
- Disney's first PG-rated movie.
- In his last-ever interview (Transcribed in the book, "What if our world is their heaven?"), Philip K. Dick refered to this movie as "Crap." There is nothing to suggest that he actually saw the film, however - he didn't go out much - as that portion of the interview contains a lot of Mr. Dick's being aimlessly derisive.
