The death of Artax still haunts The NeverEnding Story, including in the urban legend it spawned.
It was the scene I could never watch again while growing up.
Yet I did, every time, through cracked fingers and squinted eyes.
But I also never fully looked away.
Like Artax, we were drawn toward staring at the abyss and feeling it looking back.
The gaze would intensify, too, as the beautiful steed descended further into the murk.
Artax, like, Atreyu begs into the animals ear.
Youre letting the sadness of the swamps get to you.
You have to try.
You have to care.
The echo of ARRRTAX!
reverberates again and again in the ear of the animal, and the watery eyes of bawling children.
Finally, the film fades away from the horses panicked face and into black.
With the next shot, all thats left is a weeping child holding a rein to nothing.
Anecdotally, I recall the whispers on an elementary schools basketball court about how they killed Artax for real.
And in the case of movies, they made the pictures seem larger and more mythical than really were.
First of all, we had two identical horses that played Artax.
They were so beautiful.
It did not go over their head, no horse would ever do that.
Hathaway also vividly recalled filming that tug of war toEW.
I feel like I sent people to therapy over that scene with Artax, the actor said.
Thats something unfamiliar for them.
When it got to its chin area, wed cut the scene.
I got hurt a hell of a lot more.
The horse was definitely looked after well.
Yet its enduring quality speaks to a few things both lost and gained by our collective culture today.
Ironically, the same might be said of the scenes ability to spawn an urban legend.
