Heaven's Gate, the San Diego-based cult that committed mass suicide in 1997 in hopes of hitching a ride on a UFO trailing a passing comet, were in many ways a surprisingly traditional Gnostic cult. But at the same time they were ultimately a product of Hollywood, particularly Hollywood science fiction franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars.
So it's no surprise they showed up in a number of Hollywood productions, some openly acknowledged, and in one particular instance, not so much.
Before we get into it, I'll be talking about saucer cults, star cults, secret societies, ritual sacrifices and quite a lot more in a Secret Sun Institute livestream, this Saturday night at 10 PM EDT.
This presentation will be available to all patrons, so come on over to the SSI and join us. Secret Sun livestreams are a friggin' blast for one and all, and you can hang out and meet the Others in the live chat.
You can join up for as little as $3 a month and access reams of information that will entertain, enlighten and fortify your spirit.
There are numerous examples of Heaven's Gate-like TV cults, but the examples that most come to mind when dealing with the Gate are The Mysterious Two TV movie (based on the the cult's well-publicized 1975 disappearances in Oregon) and a 1994 episode of The X-Files ("Red Museum") that seems to have created a terminal feedback loop with the cult.
Specifically, Heaven's Gate became convinced that a "Walk-in" cult - the Church of the Red Museum - were in fact themselves, and that X-Files creator Chris Carter was signaling to Marshall Applewhite and his followers that they were aliens in human form. In truth, the Church of the Red Museum was more probably modeled on the Order of the Solar Temple, who made the news in '94 for their first wave of suicides.
And then there is the incredibly strange episode of The Outer Limits (written by a future executive producer of Stargate SG-1) that didn't mention the Gate or a cult, but instead presented a fantasia of the Gate that Marshall Applewhite couldn't have bettered: a professor that literally evolves above human and discovers a spaceship that allows his students to leave earth before a planetary catastrophe.
A geneticist, Dr Martin Nodel, is a researcher looking into introns, mysterious sections of DNA that he believes hold the secret to future evolutions. He develops a formula that he believes will activate them, and tests it on himself. After developing the liquid that acts on the intron (genetic material in DNA that acts as spacers and does not code for protein) he tests the liquid on himself. He begins experiencing strange symptoms, including a sort of map that grows on his back and a pattern that grows on his hand.Shortly after he begins looking for students that are suitable candidates. They have to have a high IQ, never had surgery, and are free from imperfections such as tattoos or glasses. They also have to be in a certain age, weight, and height range. After finding the needed candidates, he reveals the map. The area is discovered to be a hidden military area not on any normal map and, along with Nodel's son and his girlfriend, the group travels to the area.Inside that area, is a spaceship-type device, with symbols matching the ones on the Doctor's hands. It activates, and a message from an apparent alien race is played back. The Doctor, and the students, decide to enter the ship on a journey to the home planet. Despite his son and son's girlfriend not qualifying, the Doctor says that they'd need someone like the two of them. The ship takes off.
All this aired two days after Applewhite's death. Explain that one to me.
And then there's Galaxy Quest, one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time.
And then there's Galaxy Quest, one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time.
Before we get to that particular Heaven's Gate wetdream, let me offer proof that Hollywood was indeed fascinated by the Gate, with this April 1997 LA Times story, "Hollywood Pitches Suicide Cult as 'Flavor of the Day'".
The Times story then focuses on a producer who does the next dumbest thing to posting your movie treatment on the Internet; he blabs all about it in Hollywood's paper of record.
Movies: Producers are scrambling to come up with deals, some using dead members' own scripts.
One version features the reptilians and the orbs duking it out for control of Pluto. Another has a lucky few humans morphing into bald, dome-headed aliens as they drift off into cosmic bliss.
As inevitable as the crowds at "Star Wars," as predictable as Hale-Bopp's orbit, proposals for movies, documentaries and television series inspired by the strange saga of the Heaven's Gate cult are popping up everywhere.
To be sure, most of the projects have little chance of making it to the screen...(s)till, several producers are having a go at it. They're betting on an unusual pitch: They can literally tell the Heaven's Gate story in the disciples' own words.
Heaven's Gate "Away Team"
Seeing that said producer, Alex Papas, was lucky enough to rent property to the Total Overcomers, he really should have quit while he was ahead.
Years before they swallowed sedatives and tugged plastic bags over their heads in Rancho Santa Fe, members of the cult were etching a remarkable record of their lives on paper, video and computer disk. They completed one full-length screenplay and sketched an outline for another movie.
"The Mother of Holy Wars," they called it in one Internet communique.Alex Papas, head of the aptly named Way Out Pictures, chooses slightly less apocalyptic terms. But he's still hot on the idea. "Are you kidding?" he asked. "It's the flavor of the day."
Papas' prize is the fat, meandering screenplay that several Heaven's Gate members wrote while they were renting his house on Mummy Mountain, in the upscale Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley. When the cult members learned he was a producer, they turned the script over to him along with their monthly $3,400 in rent.
And here is where Papas gave Hollywood the keys to Heaven's Gate's candy store, as well as spilled the beans on the Gate's deepest wishes, which was to be zapped into space by benevolent aliens, like exactly what happens to the fictional TV cast in Galaxy Quest:
“It’s a very Shakespearean type of story,” Papas said. “Good versus evil, a big battle.” Without giving away the ending, he promised that the script would be perfect for Hollywood. “Good,” he said, “wins out in the end.”Titled “Beyond Human: Return of the Next Level,” the screenplay came in a bit wordy, what with all the talk of aliens tromping around Earth trying to find humans suitable to zap up to the Orion nebula.
It was also crowded with characters; the original draft featured more than 100 speaking parts. But the authors were willing to modify their script, and Papas said he helped them cull it down to a more manageable scope.
And of course, Galaxy Quest gave us aliens tromping around Earth trying to find humans to zap up to the Orion Nebula, only they renamed it "the Klaatu Nebula.
Continuing:“Put in the hands of professional rewriters,” he said, “this could be something very, very valid.”The allure, of course, is that while most viewers would regard the film as snazzy science fiction, the authors swore it was the straight-up truth. They died believing they were the chosen few hitching that spaceship ride to the “next level” of evolution.They even included sketches to make sure set designers would get the details right, Papas said. They drew their transport as a “Star Trek"-inspired saucer with lots of portals and high-tech monitors.
The higher-level aliens they envisioned as leading them to astral glory were the same ones that beckon from their Web site: androgynous creatures with big bald heads and smiling faces,
That is, "androgynous creatures with big bald heads and smiling faces" which became androgynous creatures with Heaven's Gate bowl haircuts and smiling faces in Galaxy Quest, appropriately.
More:
More:
"Reptilians", you say?
While the Heaven’s Gate members apparently poured most of their creative energy into the screenplay they gave Papas, they also drafted the outline for another movie--this one a sweeping history of Earth’s encounters with alien beings, as observed by wise and mysterious orbs.“It’s very bizarre,” said publicist Danielle Forlano, who has read the eight-page treatment. “They’ll talk about the reptilians, the grays and the orbs all arguing about ownership rights to Pluto. It’s very Trekkie.”It’s also very far out. And some Earth-bound entrepreneurs are betting that human viewers will prefer a more accessible story on Heaven’s Gate.
Marshallsar and crew
So let's be clear as to what we're looking at here; Heaven's Gate - in many important ways, a Star Trek fan club run amok - wrote a story about aliens zapping up humans to their nebula to help them battle a race of Reptilians, and went heavy on the Trekisms. You don't need to get your decoder ring out or look for any trenchcoat-wearing informants: the producer let the cat out of the bag right there in the pages of The LA Times.
Add in some nerdy-but-cheerful, socially-awkward-yet-technologically-savvy "Galaxy Quest"-obsessed aliens (who were inarguably an evolutionary level above human) with Heaven's Gate haircuts and it's not hard to see where this is all birthing from.
Add in some nerdy-but-cheerful, socially-awkward-yet-technologically-savvy "Galaxy Quest"-obsessed aliens (who were inarguably an evolutionary level above human) with Heaven's Gate haircuts and it's not hard to see where this is all birthing from.
But there's a surprisingly dark tell in the mix, one that makes it impossible to see Galaxy Quest as anything but a clandestine tribute and/0r parody to Heaven's Gate.
The giveaway here is in the climax: the evil Reptilian overlord chooses to asphyxiate the benevolent, evolutionary-level-above-human aliens to death in their sleeping quarters, which was the exact cause and venue of death for the Heaven's Gate cultists.
Let me repeat: we see what is essentially a Hollywood dramatization of the Heaven's Gate suicides depicted in a climatic scene in Galaxy Quest. One too many coincidences for me there. Without all that I'd be tempted to think Galaxy Quest was satirizing/knocking off The Last Starfighter.
Which, truth be told, it probably is as well.
The paper trail on Galaxy Quest itself is a bit thin, being itself based on a premise from a screenplay that underwent significant revisions before reaching the screen (including a title change).
Again, we're left to ask ourselves why? What fascinated Hollywood writers so much about this cult that so many stories would be inspired by them? One possible answer is that the Gate were totally committed to their sci-fi gnosis (again, which owed a huge debt to Hollywood to begin with), so much so that they were willing to die for these visions.
Maybe it's why you still see hipsters wearing Joy Division t-shirts. Being willing to die for your vision is often a ticket to immortality. It's the ultimate badge of commitment, all the more so in a world where any kind of commitment is a thoughtcrime.
No one seriously argues that the Gate didn't "exit their vehicles" quite voluntarily. But there was another, darker, more disturbing cult (the aforementioned Solar Temple) that was remarkably similar in many ways and starkly different in many others that also was called a suicide cult. However, serious questions persist to this day as to whether they killed themselves or were in fact the victims of horrific mass murders.
There are also a number of strange examples of stories that appear to be about Heaven's Gate but are in fact about this dangerous and disturbing chapter in the ongoing story of esoteric cults and intelligence operatives. Something we may very well be on the cusp of a new wave of as society continues to crumble apart.
Maybe it's why you still see hipsters wearing Joy Division t-shirts. Being willing to die for your vision is often a ticket to immortality. It's the ultimate badge of commitment, all the more so in a world where any kind of commitment is a thoughtcrime.
No one seriously argues that the Gate didn't "exit their vehicles" quite voluntarily. But there was another, darker, more disturbing cult (the aforementioned Solar Temple) that was remarkably similar in many ways and starkly different in many others that also was called a suicide cult. However, serious questions persist to this day as to whether they killed themselves or were in fact the victims of horrific mass murders.
There are also a number of strange examples of stories that appear to be about Heaven's Gate but are in fact about this dangerous and disturbing chapter in the ongoing story of esoteric cults and intelligence operatives. Something we may very well be on the cusp of a new wave of as society continues to crumble apart.
But that's a story for another time.
NOTE: An earlier version of this article was published in 2015. This expanded revision includes several pieces of information not included in the original.