Good morning! I hope the world is being good to you and you’re being good to it.

Grab your coffee or beverage of choice and share a thought with me.

It’s been several days since Sam Neill passed away. While I didn’t know Sam and he certainly did not know me, our paths never having any odds of crossing, his death is one of those that gives pause. Despite being from different worlds, he still had a significant presence in my life, and while he’s immortalized in the forms I know him best, there is good reason to pause and reflect on why a world with Sam Neill is better than a world without.

I don’t say this to cheapen his time, but his value to me originates with Jurassic Park, as I’m sure it does for many. Dr. Alan Grant was the steady and confident protagonist swept up in a transformative movie that released during a key time in my childhood. Like a newly hatched velociraptor, the immersion of Jurassic Park, coupled with a young boy’s imagination, created a kind of imprinted bond. Dr. Grant spoke to the dinosaur fanatic in all of us, and he was cool in the process. While I recognize Sam Neill the person, my initial reaction was always to think of him first as Dr. Alan Grant. He made young movie viewer me believe everything was going to be okay while he was on screen. In Jurassic Park III, despite new terrors and other characters falling prey left and right, he had the plan and confidence to make sure the “good guys” got home safely. And in Jurassic World: Dominion (sigh), well, it was just good to see him and Dr. Sadler back together.

Fast forward several years from Jurassic Park, and I got to see a different side of Sam in Event Horizon. I didn’t see EH when it first released. Horror movies and such were not my jam at that point. That experience didn’t come until the early 2000’s, when I was introduced to the band Zao and the samples from Event Horizon they used on their album Liberate Te Ex Inferis. It’s about as heavy a sound as I’ve ever listened to, and coupled with the line samples, the album created a certain aura around Event Horizon that prompted me to finally check it out.

My initial reaction was the expected, “Oh hey, it’s Dr. Grant,” and Neill starts off playing not too dissimilar a character. Before long, however, the layers to Neill’s character (Weir) start getting pulled back, and we end with a vastly different perspective of the kind of characters Sam Neill can play. I discovered the darker line samples on Liberate Te Ex Inferis, lines I thought had to be said by other devilish characters, were from Weir. The whole experience established another keystone highlight from my early years of which Sam Neill played a large part.

I only know Sam Neill through film and screen, which doesn’t count as knowing him at all. Yet, his craft left a lasting impact on me and created experiences that helped shape my interests today. All those memories I can point back to with him being a part of, even tangentially, made his passing feel worthy of some extra reflection if, for no other reason, to not take those moments for granted. There are certainly others in my life who’ve made, and are making, a greater impact, so this serves as that little reminder to take it all in and appreciate even the smallest moments.