Audiences Think Sam Neill's Sci-Fi Horror Movie Is Secretly Connected To Warhammer 40K

On July 13, 2026, Sir Nigel John Dermot Neill, better known simply as Sam Neill, passed away. He was best known for his role as Dr. Alan Grant in "Jurassic Park," but he starred in plenty of other films everyone needs to watch at least once, including "Event Horizon," a sci-fi horror movie so disturbing you will only want to watch it once. Unless you noticed similarities between it and "Warhammer 40K" and want to see how deep the wormhole goes.

"Event Horizon" revolves around the titular ship and its "Gravity Drive," which folds space to travel vast distances. During the first test, the ship vanished and is found several years later. After the main characters of the film find it, they learn that it traveled through another dimension that is essentially Hell but worse. This space between space is full of undefinable monsters, drove its crew into a self-mutilating orgy, and bestowed a malicious sentience upon the Event Horizon itself. What does this have to do with "Warhammer 40K?" That is word-for-word how most species venture the cosmos in that fictional universe.

"Warhammer 40K's" grim darkness, most armies travel through space by taking a quick jaunt through the Warp, a dimension of pure psychic energy home to malicious entities known as Chaos Daemons that slaughter and possess everyone they encounter. Daemons can even control machines. The only way to "safely" enter the Warp is to use a bubble of real space known as a "Gellar Field," but it's far from a guarantee, especially since daemons use cultists and other means to sabotage the field generators in order to invade ships.

In all fairness, many sci-fi and fantasy universes share similarities without being related. Just because two properties feature a dimension of pure madness doesn't mean they take place in the same universe, though some theorists enjoy this thought experiment. Many "Warhammer 40K" fans believe that "Event Horizon" is a prequel of sorts to "Warhammer 40K."

The theory goes that the technology in the film, taking place in 2047, behaves similarly to, if not identical to, technology from what "Warhammer 40K" calls the "Dark Age of Technology." Like devices from that lost era, the Gravity Drive was one of humanity's first steps venturing beyond Earth. In fact, one of the hallmarks of the Dark Age of Technology was learning to use Warp travel safely through a bloody process of trial and error. Many early attempts failed either because the ships never rematerialized in real space or because their crews were slaughtered — just like the people onboard the Event Horizon.

Granted, before humans used the Warp in "Warhammer 40K," they utilized generation ships that took centuries to reach their destinations, but otherwise the pieces mostly fit. Plus, "Warhammer 40k's" lore is infamous for contradicting itself, which is fitting since its main human religion is built on half-truths, misremembered events, and self-dealing lies (but don't tell the Inquisitors). Even the screenwriter of "Event Horizon," Philip Eisner, once said (in a now deleted Twitter post) that "Warhammer 40K" definitely had an influence on the plot. So, "Event Horizon" could be Eisner's fan theory on how humans first encountered Chaos in "Warhammer 40K."