Based on true events, “The Mothman Prophecies" examines a series of inexplicable
occurrences through the eyes - and mind - of one man. Richard Gere, Laura
Linney, Will
Patton and Debra Messing star in this suspense-filled thriller about a man driven to
extremes to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding his wife’s death - and
how they might be connected to the strange phenomena in a town four hundred miles away.
When is life truly at its best? John Klein (Richard Gere,) a respected Washington Post
journalist at the top of his game, recognizes that moment. It comes the day he and his
wife Mary (Debra Messing) are house hunting and find the place of their dreams. It’s a
little too big, possibly a little more than he wanted to spend, but one look from Mary
tells him this is it.
Then on their joyful ride home, with a gust of wind and a passing shadow, the dream is
shattered. The accident should have been avoidable. When Mary slammed on the brakes…
there was nothing there. For Mary, the incident was a premonition. John puts everything on hold to be with her, but his love isn’t enough to keep her alive.
While removing Mary’s possessions from the hospital, John remembers her last words: “You
didn’t see it, did you?" Then he discovers a sketchpad covered with odd drawings,
variations of the same eerie apparition (for those of you interested in apparitions, be
sure to visit the newsgroup alt.religion.apparitions). John can’t understand the
significance of the drawings but is haunted by the unsettling images.
A couple of years later, John’s grief has settled somewhat but he is clearly a man
altered by tragedy. He lives his life and performs his job in a fog, an unexplainable
presence always with him. While driving one night from Washington to Richmond for an
assignment, he loses his way and ends up on a deserted country highway. When his car
inexplicably breaks down, he walks to a nearby farmhouse. The homeowner not only
threatens John but tells him he has been waiting for him. John is baffled.
Sgt. Connie Parker (Laura Linney) arrives on the scene and apologizes for the rude
reception, but divulges that the entire county is on edge due to a recent series of odd
disturbances. It is only now that John realizes that he is in Point Pleasant, West
Virginia -- four hundred miles from where he thought he was. It is not logically
possible. But here he is. How?
His curiosity piqued, John decides to stay in Point Pleasant to explore the
reports of unexplained phenomena in the town. He soon realizes that they may all be
related – not just to each other, but also to the strange sketches Mary had been
obsessively drawing just hours before her death. But what exactly is the connection? The
events defy simple explanation and, even more disturbing, seem to predict impending
disasters. Plane crashes, earthquakes… surely it must be a gruesome coincidence? The
more he unravels, the more John begins to question his own sanity. Are there unknown
forces behind the strange sightings? What terrible thing awaits the people of Point
Pleasant? For John, it’s a race against time to figure it out – and try to prevent
something terrible from happening.
Mark Pellington, director, was not interested in making a ‘creature’ movie, “I was not
interested in making a sci-fi movie or even a supernatural movie. I describe it as a
psychological mystery with naturally surreal overtones."
After a long search for the right area to shoot the film, the production team found
exactly what they needed in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where principal photography commenced on January 24, 2001. As Richard Wright explains, “The movie came to
Pittsburgh largely for three reasons. It had the terrain to pass for West Virginia; it
had a good crew base and the necessary services that a film shoot requires; and it was
near a small town with a bridge that could be shut down for filming." In addition, the
area also had neighborhoods that served as both Georgetown and Chicago.
On February 28, 2001, the film crew moved from Pittsburgh to the borough of Kittanning,
Pennsylvania, where they virtually took over the entire town for the month that followed.
Gere had a particular fondness for the location. “When I first saw the town I was
delighted," he said. Reminding him of a small Pennsylvania town of his youth he said,
“These towns just haven’t changed much in the last hundred years. You see the old
architecture, some of it not well kept up but a minimum of new things and it still has a
downtown. The strip malls and the malls outside have not really taken over yet."
Richard Hoover, production designer, describes the transformation, subtle as it was, made
to the town. “This is a story about a man in control that loses control. That’s just the
physical fact, he doesn’t have control, mentally or physically of his world, when he comes
in to this town. So we decided to make the town strange, up to a certain point, because
it’s John’s headspace that we are exploring. That’s why we did the color agenda, kind of
reduced the pallet, used black, made it more generic, and got rid of all the signs except
the few that we wanted to look at. There is a generic nature that we are exploring and
actually America is filled with it and film allows us to focus on it. There’s a lost
feeling and I think that’s part of that headspace."
One of the most important and difficult elements in the look of the film is the bridge
leading across the river into town. The bridge that once crossed the Ohio River between
Point Pleasant and Gallipolis, Ohio was an I-bar suspension bridge, a type that no longer
exists. “The bridge sequence is to me like the unknown attack on the Trojan walls that
you never knew was in the story" says Hoover, “but it is so huge that focally it will be
symphonic in a sense. There’s a psychological crescendo in the story but this is an
actual physical event."
To create the event, production had to utilize four basic elements. Special effects
supervisor Peter Chesney designed and oversaw the construction and operation of an actual
section of bridge that would match perfectly the actual cantilever bridge that crosses the
river into Kittanning. This section, dubbed the “stunt" bridge was built in Los Angeles
then shipped to Pennsylvania where it could be loaded up with cars and actually tipped to
an angle of about 40 degrees, for close-ups of vehicles sliding across the deck. A
computer-generated component of the suspension towers and I-bar chains was then added to
the actual bridge but as Richard Hoover noted, “The thing I am learning is - reality is
better. The visual computers and models can accentuate that but in a sequence like this
you really have to have reality." The final element for the master shots of the bridge is
a model built near Los Angeles. The model was 128 feet long, 28 feet high and had a deck
five feet wide. It was a structure about which Hoover can say simply, “It’s huge!" then
more seriously, “We’re doing maps of Point Pleasant so that everyone knows where every
thing is in relationship to the bridge. Once we all agree on that, and have it all on
paper the four big elements are one bridge."
Here’s the story about the bridge and why it’s so significant to the movie. It’s some
nice reading:
On May 30, 1928 the Ohio River Bridge, as it was officially named, was dedicated. The
1,750-foot span was in many ways a gateway to the southeast. It crossed over the Ohio
River for the primary north / south corridor at that time, joining the town of Point
Pleasant, West Virginia with its neighbor across the river, Gallipolis, Ohio. It was
quickly dubbed the “Silver" bridge because of a new type of aluminum paint used to cover
the elegantly curved structure. The name stuck and the bridge was never called anything
else. Originally planned as a suspension bridge constructed with spun steel bridge cable,
the designers instead opted to use an innovative new design utilizing heat-treated I-bar
chain suspension. The bridge was supported by a chain of I-bars, each one connected to
the next with the use of a pin. In 1928 the design was called unique and revolutionary,
but almost 40 years later it could only be called tragic.
Shortly before 5:00 PM on December 15, 1967, a stoplight on the Ohio side of the bridge
wasn’t working properly. It was allowing traffic to move from Ohio to West Virginia but
not in the other direction. Traffic was bumper to bumper on the bridge as it swayed and
bounced in the chill of the winter evening but these were motions the locals had come to
expect from the two-lane span. More than 60 people huddled in their cars against the
28-degree weather outside. It is hard to imagine that the timing could have been worse;
holiday traffic combined with commuters from area industrial plants, truckers hauling
goods from the south and dump trucks loaded with gravel.
Those who survived the next few moments remember their conversations turning to the bridge
as it started to make an eerie sound, like a creaking door, very loud, and the shaking
became more violent. They knew the bridge always shook - but not like this. Without
warning, one of the steel links in the suspension chain, I-bar joint C-13, failed. Forty
years of traffic, the elements, and neglect had taken their toll. The eyelet snapped and
the rest was a chain reaction. Witnesses said the bridge swayed violently to one side,
then the other, then the entire structure began to slowly self-destruct. The anchorage at
the Ohio side of the bridge pulled free and the bridge, still partially suspended by the
remaining I-Bar chain, flipped the flooring upside down, spilling vehicles and passengers
100 feet to the icy water below. As cars began to sink in 40 feet of water, the steel
superstructure disintegrated. Falling first on the Ohio side, the 90-foot high Ohio tower
tumbled into the water working back toward West Virginia, bringing down tons of steel and
concrete on top of the cars below. In a mere 45 seconds the structure that had been a key
landmark for Point Pleasant and the Ohio River Valley had completely vanished beneath the
water.
In the hours, days and weeks that followed a massive recovery effort was under way. A
command center was set up at the Mason County courthouse. The county’s 49-member civil
defense unit set up communications and had the capability to set up a 200-bed hospital
complete with x-ray equipment and 2 operating rooms to treat the injured, but it wasn’t
necessary. Meanwhile, out on the river, divers went about the grim task of locating cars
and tying buoys to mark the place where a crane could dredge. As each car was brought to
the surface the crane let out an eerie whistle that could be heard throughout the valley.
Morgues were set up at National Guard armory in Pt. Pleasant and Grace United Methodist
church in Gallipolis. The last of the 44 bodies recovered was brought up a full six
months after the disaster; two of the victim’s bodies have never been recovered.
Today, 46 bricks, each engraved the name of one of the victims, pave the ground
overlooking the river where the bridge once stood. People at the time speculated that the
bridge collapse was caused by damage the bridge received when several barges, which had
broken loose, struck the bridge abutments. A four-year investigation found the source of
the failure was metal fatigue.
There is scarcely a resident in Point Pleasant who wasn’t profoundly affected by the
Silver bridge disaster which forever changed their town. On February 8, 1968 President
Lyndon Johnson promised a new bridge which was constructed on an accelerated schedule a
few miles south of Point Pleasant. The Silver Memorial Bridge was dedicated on December
15, 1969 - exactly two years to the day after the tragedy. Though the losses were painful
many residents try and console themselves with the numerous and widespread after-effects
of the disaster, from international news coverage to the development of a revamped federal
bridge inspection program.
So, if you’re in the mood for some terror and lightly-laced sci-fi, be sure to check out
this movie, due out January, 2002.
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"The Mothman Prophecies"
