The Happy Science Filmography Ranked
2. The Golden Laws (2003)
The longest ripoff of Back to the Future ever, this film begins in the 25th century. A time traveler from the 30th century arrives, and tries to take the protagonist to 21st century Japan to meet El Cantare. Instead, the time machine malfunctions, and the two travel from one period of history to another trying to get back to the 25th century.
In case you were wondering, time travel works by taking you to the spiritual realm of the fourth dimension. They see Hermes fight a sea monster, they help Moses get the Jews out of Egypt, they visit Buddha, watch Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection and help Hermes defeat Prometheus. Random alien sightings throughout history, like the Nazca Lines and Ezekiel 1:16, are shown to be these time travellers. There’s a monk that tries to kill Buddha with Wile E. Coyote Acme devices.
Throughout the film, the protagonist is reading El Cantare’s book, The Golden Laws. When asked if it mentions time travel, the answer is “yes”. In fact, the book mentions this exact story, and spoils the ending (which is different from what happens, somehow). There are constant allusions to the “mysteries” of the film – like why the time traveler came to visit the protagonist, or why they’re going to 21st century Japan (hint: El Cantare) – that are brushed aside in favor of techno babble or some plot interrupting the exposition. The idea that this story is actually foretelling a future event written within a book that exists in our reality is amazing. The way so many different religions are incorporated is wild. This convoluted time travel film would be the most entertaining, if not for the movie that followed it in the canon.
1. The Laws of Eternity (2006)
I’m sure you were wondering how Thomas Edison factors into this mythology, right? Don’t worry, this film answers that question.
This is by far the most fun of these movies. Imagine Ayn Rand wrote a sci-fi story during a DMT trip, or L. Ron Hubbard wrote the Divine Comedy, you’d have The Laws of Eternity. It’s the story of four friends that invent a spirit phone, leading to an adventure in the spiritual realm that delves into the dimensions of reality beyond the third.
The protagonists are guided by the Incan shaman God Eagle through the fourth dimension (posthumous realm), fifth dimension (realm of the good), sixth dimension (realm of light), seventh dimension (businessman angel realm), eighth dimension (the realm of cosmic beings that don’t comport to the laws of reality), ninth dimension (realm of super gods), and hell (where evil spirits go). You attain each level by being an “advanced soul”, having high goals in fields like science or business and achieving them, caring for sick people in the spirit world, and being super enlightened. People like Thomas Edison, Sakichi Toyoda, Henry Ford and Konosuke Matsushita exist in the higher heavenly dimensions. Nietzsche is a leader in hell, and fights El Cantare and a robot before it’s over.
There’s so much in this movie, and it moves really quickly. We learn a lot of the religion’s details and processes within the afterlife. You must separate yourself from your earthly possessions, you watch a movie of your life in a theater (wonder if Edison is getting a kickback in the eighth dimension) that shows all of your actions and thoughts, and then you use your mental state to choose where you go. Good people advance to the fifth dimension, bad people go to one of the hells depending on your sins. There’s also a crazy discrepancy between the dub and subtitles, which makes everything harder to understand. If you watch nothing else from Happy Science, check out this one.
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