Half-Life (1998 film)

**Half-Life** is a 1998 American science fiction film written, directed, and produced by George Johnson as his last film project before his death. His widow, Emily Matthews, decided to finish his unfinished movie project along with her son, Daniel Johnson.

## Plot

Theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman arrives late for work at the Black Mesa Research Facility. As part of an experiment, he pushes an unusual crystal of alien origin into a machine, called the anti-mass spectrometer, for analysis. The spectrometer explodes, creating a "resonance cascade" that severely damages the facility and opens a portal to another dimension, Xen. Surviving scientists urge Gordon to head to the surface, where he defends himself against hostile Xen creatures and the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (HECU), a special unit of United States Marine Corps sent to cover up the incident by killing all of the aliens and any Black Mesa personnel they find.

Heading to the surface, Gordon learns that scientists from the Lambda Complex may have found a way to close the portal. Gordon travels to the other end of the facility to assist them. Along the way, he activates a rocket engine test facility to destroy a giant betentacled creature and uses a disused railway system to reach and launch a satellite rocket, with the purpose of attempting to close the portal via satellite, which ultimately fails. After he is captured by the marines and left for dead in a garbage compactor, he escapes and makes his way to an older part of the facility. There, he discovers Xen specimens collected before the incident. Overwhelmed by the alien forces, the HECU Marines pull out of Black Mesa and begin airstrikes. Scaling cliffs, navigating destroyed buildings, and traversing through underground water channels, Gordon arrives at the Lambda Complex, where scientists learn the portal is being forced open on the other side by a mighty entity. They have developed teleportation technology that allows Gordon to travel to Xen, where he is tasked with stopping the entity.

In Xen, Gordon encounters the remains of researchers who ventured there before him, and Gordon defeats the Gonarch, a huge egg-laying headcrab. At an alien factory manufacturing alien soldiers, he enters a portal that sends him to a vast cave. There, Gordon confronts the Nihilanth, the entity maintaining the rift, and destroys it. Gordon is summoned by the mysterious G-Man, who has been watching his progress in Black Mesa. The G-Man commends him and explains his "employers" wish to employ Gordon. When Gordon accepts, the G-Man congratulates him and places him into stasis to await his next assignment.

## Cast

* Stephen Baldwin as Gordon Freeman
* Gary Oldman as G-Man
* Amanda Pays as Gina Cross
* George Johnson as Black Mesa Scientist #1
* John Travolta as Black Mesa Scientist #2

## Production

### Development

In late 1996, George Johnson began to make plans for his first sci-fi movie. He watched many sci-fi movies for research. The idea is a sci-fi film about a man who doesn't speak in a futuristic hazmat suit, killing the creatures who kill scientists.

### Filming

In mid-August 1997, filming of Half-Life began. It was shot in Los Angeles. On September 23, 1997, one of the extra actors who played the scientist was about to go to the inside air vent and falls when he suffered a lower back injury on the set while filming the scene. The moment when the actor broke his lower back was captured in the footage that was used in the movie.

On the morning of November 14, 1997, the filming of Half-Life was completed. But later that evening, George Johnson suffered from heart problems after dinner with his family. He quickly moved to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he died a few hours later at age 59.

After Johnson's death, his company, George Johnson Entertainment, was owned by his widow, Emily Matthews. They were ready to shelve the Half-Life movie. Because there's no way to release the film that Johnson stars in, writes, produces, and directs. Eventually, Matthews decided, rather than shelve Johnson's last film project, to continue working on it. She also decided to film a new ending for Half-Life in July 1998, four months before the November release date.

### Post-production

Emily Matthews, along with her son, Daniel Johnson, worked on the post-production of the film. They had to re-edit some scenes and add some special effects. They also had to re-shoot some scenes and add some new footage. After months of hard work and dedication, Half-Life was finally completed.

## Release

Half-Life was released on November 19, 1998, and it was attended by Emily Matthews, Hailey Matthews, Rick Pine, Alan Matthews, Daniel Johnson, and Derby Georgy Johnson. All of them celebrated the release of Johnson's last major film project, in respect of his memory. When the movie was released, it enjoyed much success, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, a posthumous recognition for Johnson. The movie grossed $30 million against a $10 million budget in the US, proving it to be a major success.