The Gathering 2002

Cassie Grant Christina Ricci is a young American girl wandering through England on foot, headed toward Ashby Wake. On her way, she is hit by a car, and the driver, Mrs. Marion Kirkman Kerry Fox, immediately calls for help. At the local hospital, the doctor determines Cassie has only scratches and no concussion, but she has suffered memory loss due to the shock. She can recall only her name and her mother country; she cannot remember where she comes from, who her family is, or why she is in England. The doctor explains that the memory loss is a common response to trauma and it should fade with rest. Mrs. Kirkman, feeling guilty and responsible for the lonely girl, offers Cassie a place to stay at her home until her memories return.

During her recovery, Cassie is drawn into a deeper mystery that seems connected to her hosts and other townsfolk she keeps seeing. She becomes convinced she knows a man named Dan Blakely Ioan Gruffudd, even though she cannot place where they met. Cassie grows attached to the Kirkmans’ son, Michael [Harry Forrester], while her husband, Simon Kirkman [Stephen Dillane], an art historian, studies a church from Early Christianity that was unearthed in Glastonbury. The discovery is tied to a dramatic incident at a recent Glastonbury Festival, where two visitors died after falling through a hole in the open roof of a buried church. The church houses a striking relief in stone that depicts the crucifixion of Christ and a crowd of onlookers whose eyes seem to fixate on the gruesome scene.

As days pass, Cassie begins to have visions of the future lives of the people around her. She also notices certain individuals who appear to watch her from the shadows. Among them is the enigmatic auto mechanic, Frederick Michael Argyle [Peter McNamara], whose belongings include a scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings about allegations of child abuse at a local orphanage—an atrocity many townspeople chose to ignore. Cassie discovers Argyle was among the abused children and now intends to seek revenge on Ashby Wake’s cruel past. She senses an impending catastrophe but struggles to persuade others to see what she sees.

Cassie then uncovers the meaning behind the church relief: it shows a group called “The Gathering,” immortal beings who are doomed to watch catastrophes and murders for eternity, having paused at the crucifixion out of morbid curiosity—an idea that echoes the legend of the Wandering Jew. The revelation reaches the priest and the Bishop, who try to warn Mr. Kirkman. On the way to pass the warning along, the priest encounters The Gathering on a bridge and dies in a car accident. The Gathering simply watches, unmoved. Later, Cassie experiences visions in which Argyle drags a young boy into a room at the orphanage while three town leaders observe and laugh. The priest drags the boy into the same room where the abuse continues, and Cassie follows, only to wake and find Michael standing over photographs of the archaeological site, a detail that unsettles her deeply.

After the priest’s accident, the Bishop conveys the troubling news to Mr. Kirkman, who hurries home to protect his family. Cassie attends a local fair with the Kirkman children, but she senses the Gathering gathering around the grounds. She attempts to warn the police, but is confronted by Dan, who has killed the officer on duty. He reveals that he is one of The Gathering and that they have moved beyond passive observation to actively shaping events. Cassie manages to thwart Argyle’s plan to blow up festivalgoers, yet she cannot stop him from taking revenge on those who harmed him. After a perilous chase, Cassie sacrifices her life to save the Kirkman children. Mr. Kirkman arrives just in time to prevent Argyle from killing his family. In a final, quiet twist, Cassie is shown to belong to The Gathering as she stands among them after her death, weeping while the others watch Argyle die with a cold, indifferent gaze. Her compassionate act enables the long wandering life to end, and she tells the Kirkman son that night that she has found peace.