‘Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults’ Adds Humanity to The Tragedy

Heaven’s Gate is one of those rare national tragedies that’s never treated as such. Shortly after the UFO cult first made headlines, it was mocked. Even when that same cult led to the deaths of a believed 39 victims, the organization and its members have been the center of snarky one-liners and ridiculous sketches. It’s that history of ridicule that Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults dissects the most. The four-part docuseries serves as a thorough dive into this doomed religious movement, but more than that it corrects the notion that the members of this cult deserve mockery.

In March of 1997, Marshall Applewhite and his followers systematically killed themselves by taking phenobarbital mixed with apple sauce or pudding. It’s believed that the deaths happened in three waves, with the second group cleaning up after the first and the third group cleaning up after the second. Yet it’s not this meaningless loss of life that’s often discussed but Heaven’s Gate’s belief system. Applewhite, also known to his followers as Do, convinced those around him that it was possible for their consciousness to live beyond their mortal body. By killing themselves, Do taught that they could ascend to a higher level. It was believed that an object behind the Hale-Bopp comet was actually a UFO and that ascending to the spacecraft before it passed was the only way to reach the higher level before the Earth was destroyed.

When you look at the teachings of Heaven’s Gate on a surface level, it’s easy to understand where the public’s mass mockery comes from. Not only is killing yourself for aliens inherently ridiculous, there are also the names and the uniforms to consider. Members of Heaven’s Gate wore their hair in a short androgynous cut, preferred shirts buttoned up to their necks, and changed their names to end with the suffix “-ody.” All of these details are absurd. Yet they’re also the symptoms of group of people who were manipulated out of their individuality and abused to the point of causing their own deaths.

That’s what Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults reminds viewers of, time and time again. The members of this organization weren’t unhinged individuals. They were smart men and women from good families. Many of them wanted to make the world a better place. It was their intelligence, curious natures, and interest in New Age remedies that led them to Do and Ti, Bonnie Nettles. Once they were in the grasps of Applewhite and Nettles, it wasn’t long before they were slowly stripped of their individuality and ability to think for themselves. Heaven’s Gate emphasized the importance of its members following rules to the letter with no personal embellishment. The cult even had a specific recipe and size requirement for morning pancakes. It was a system that excelled at removing people from themselves and from questioning the cult all under the guise that this was for the greater good.

That’s the dark, disturbing truth of Heaven’s Gate. This cult wasn’t composed of society’s fringes. It was made up of normal, everyday people who fell for the hope that there may be something bigger than themselves.

Whether you’re a true crime junkie or a casual viewer there’s plenty in Heaven’s Gate to interest you. Robert Balch and David Taylor’s accounts of going undercover into the organization are especially compelling. Likewise the stories from former members’ families will leave you both depressed and horrified as they chronicle going months without hearing from their loved ones. But where Heaven’s Gate excels is in its humanity. The Heaven’s Gate cult wasn’t a punchline. It was a tragedy and a dark cautionary tale.

All four episodes of Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults premiere on HBO Max on Thursday, December 3 starting at 3/2c a.m.

Watch Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults on HBO Max