PANTHEON
ExploreBuild My Library
© 2026 Pantheon — an atlas of the ideas that shaped how we think.
film1983

Eureka

Disciplines:
drama
cinema/art cinema

Summary

A 1983 film by Nicolas Roeg starring Gene Hackman as a gold prospector who strikes it rich and loses himself in the meaninglessness of achieved wealth.

Core Contribution

An extreme example of Roeg's fragmented temporal editing applied to a story of hollow triumph — the attainment of the dream destroying the dreamer — a theme Nolan revisits in 'The Prestige' and 'Inception'.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Triumph as annihilation (the gold strike that should be the film's happy ending is its true catastrophe — getting what you want destroys the self that wanted it)

Historical Influences

No recorded historical influences.

Intellectual Lineage

British art cinemaNicolas Roeg aesthetic

Allied Works

Performance The Man Who Fell to Earth Bad Timing

Contemporaries & Peers

Performance Don't Look Now Bad Timing

Minds Influenced

No recorded minds influenced.

Intellectual Posterity

No conceptual posterity found.

Discussing

Eureka

Ask anything about Eureka — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

Sign in to start a conversation.