Werner Herzog’s “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” has turned into an unexpected 2011 box-office hit. That’s pretty good for a contemplative documentary that rarely ventures outside a prehistoric cave.
Another documentary — also contemplative, also regarding a cave of forgotten dreams — deserves to
catch on, too. It’s called “Into Eternity,” and by peering into the far-distant future, it creates a mind-blowing portrait of how we think about the unthinkable.
“Into Eternity” examines what to do with nuclear waste. This is a subject most of us have done an excellent job of not thinking about, partly because nuclear power is efficient, relatively inexpensive, and a way to elude the sticky grip of oil.
And it’s safe, too, as proponents are fond of pointing out. You’d practically have to have an earthquake followed by a tsunami for something serious to happen, and what are the chances of that?
One other nagging issue: the shelf life of radioactive waste. It’s going to be around, and hugely dangerous, for a long, long time. In “Into Eternity,” the underground caverns being built to house Finland’s nuclear waste are meant to last for 100,000 years.
Here is the genius of filmmaker Michael Madsen’s movie. For about 75 minutes, he forces you to think about 100,000 years, and what that means. Because that’s how long our Frankenstein’s monster is going to be alive on the Earth, ready to fry whoever comes along.
Madsen (no relation to the actor of the same name) calmly, even poetically, begins to play with this vast timespan, in part by directly addressing the people of 100,000 years from now. He reminds us that Jesus was born about 2,000 years before the atomic era, and the oldest pyramids date back no more than 5,000 years.
Seems like a long time, but it’s an eye-blink compared to radioactivity. Who knows what the Earth will be like in 100,000 years? That’s why this repository is built underground: as more than one expert interviewed for the film says, the surface is unstable.
Some interviewees think we should place warning markers all around the site, with pictograms and different languages. But there were warnings placed at the entrances to the pyramids, too, and we blithely opened them up anyway.
Other experts think the location of the waste site should be intentionally forgotten, so no one is tempted to explore it. An eerie thought. But will there be humans 100,000 years from now? Could they read a warning marker anyway?
These questions come up throughout “Into Eternity,” making it a true mindbender. Madsen also shows us shots of the construction of Onkalo (it means “hiding place”), the Finnish site, which looks like the biggest science-fiction set ever constructed.
But this is science fact, and “Into Eternity” makes it all seem too, too real.
“Into Eternity”
A mindbending film about the construction of an underground facility in Finland to hold that country’s nuclear waste. In its poetic way, the movie forces you to think about how long 100,000 years is — that’s how long the waste will be lethally radioactive — and what the Earth will be like in that time.
Rated: Not rated; probably PG for subject matter.
Showing: Northwest Film Forum.
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