Film

Sam Neill Admits He Snuck The Indigenous Flag Onto His Costume For Sci-Fi Epic ‘Event Horizon’

Neill admits it was an effort to be more inclusive.

by Joseph Earp  3 September 2020
Sam Neill in 'Event Horizon'

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Some 20 years ago, beloved New Zealand actor Sam Neill starred in a sci-fi horror film called Event Horizon.

The film is excellent. Directed by noted auteur Paul W.S. Anderson, he of Resident Evil and Shopping fame, it combines Lovecraftian horror with the dark magnitude of space. It’s also extremely violent, depicting one crew’s slow descent into insanity while amping up the blood and guts.

In essence, it’s not the kind of film that you’d ever say was necessarily “forward-thinking” or socially engaged. For the most part, it’s not trying to be — it’s a good old violent time at the cinema.

But as a recent viral Tweet has pointed out, the film is prescient in precisely one way: a costume choice made by Sam Neill himself.

See, Neill has the Australian flag sewn onto his outfit in the film. Or, a version of it. The actor requested that the Australian flag remove the Union Jack, and instead be replaced with the Aboriginal flag. That, Neill thought, was the way things might look in 2047.

In the hours since the Tweet went viral, Neill himself has confirmed that was what was on his mind.

Anderson, the director of Event Horizon presumably also endorsed the message, given that he has been spotted at Black Lives Matter rallies across America, accompanied by his wife Milla Jovovich.

It’s worth noting that Neill’s act need not be considered a necessarily perfect message of solidarity. “Harold Thomas, designer of the Aboriginal Flag has stated he does not want the Aboriginal flag to represent all Australians,” writer Claire G. Coleman has pointed out on Twitter. “He sees it as a protest flag.”