Heaven’s Gate: HBO unveils disturbing first trailer for new docuseries about notorious UFO cult

Nineties cult culminated in the largest suicide event to take place on American soil

HBO Max has released the first trailer for their forthcoming documentary about the Nineties cult Heaven’s Gate.

Titled Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, the four-part documentary will be a comprehensive investigation into the infamous UFO cult. 

In 1997, Heaven’s Gate culminated in the largest suicide event to take place in America, when the bodies of 39 members were found in a house in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Sante Fe.  

The haunting new trailer  gives viewers a look at what to expect from the highly anticipated docuseries.

It promises to feature never before seen footage and first-person accounts from former members of the cult, as well as from people who lost loved ones to Heaven’s Gate.

The trailer describes how the cult’s members – led by their leader Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr (popularly known as Do) – believed they could chemically and biologically transform their bodies into a “next-level alien” before physically boarding a UFO which would “sail off into heaven”.  

When the bodies were found, they were all wearing the same black-and-white Nike Decade sneakers (HBO Max)

In one particularly shocking scene, a person can be overhead saying: “Do said we’re going to proceed doing the castration. Who’s going to go first?”

The cult existed for just over two decades after being founded by Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles in 1974.

Shortly before the mass suicide in 1997, the Heaven’s Gate website was updated with the message: “Our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion— 'graduation' from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave 'this world' and go with Ti's crew.”

When the bodies of the cult members were found, they were all wearing black-and-white Nike Decade sneakers. The sports brand has since discontinued the model due to the macabre associations. 

Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults will begin streaming on HBO Max on 3 December.

The original docuseries is the latest in a string commissioned by the network. Recently, Class Action Park – HBO’s investigation into the “world’s most dangerous amusement park” – was well-received by audiences and critics.