This is them most frightening movie I've ever seen.
No blood, no weapons, no little green men, no predictions, no explosions.
Thankfully, neither I nor the vast majority of those who see "Into Eternity" as part of the Webster Film Series this weekend, will be around, but still. . . .
In northern Finland, about 60 degrees north latitude, men are building a deep, deep underground burial site to store thousands of tons of nuclear material. The builders expect this grave to last at least 100,000 years, but they have a big problem, and they discuss it calmly. How do they inform whoever (or whatever) finds the site in, say, 85,000 years.
A sign saying "Dangerous! Keep Out!"? In what language? In how many languages?
A cartoon? A copy of Edvard Munch's "The Scream"? Does the last person out just turn off the lights and hope that everyone forgets about it?
The cave is called Orkalo, which is Finnish for "hiding place." The movie is directed, written and narrated by Michael Madsen, a Finn and not the American actor of the same name. It's simple. It's clear. And it's scary as hell. The people who discuss the problem are scientists, engineers, teachers, and while they drop the occasional black-humored line that they are "making decisions based on uncertainty" and are in a situation of "having to remember forever to forget."
And even if markers are used, with warnings in 100 languages, and cartoons, drawings and symbols, remember that the Egyptians had warnings on the Pyramids. But no one could read the hieroglyphics by the time the Pyramids were discovered — and the English explorers didn't care what they said and just broke into the tombs.
Into Eternity opens today and runs through Sunday at the Winifred Moore Auditorium at Webster University
—Joe