![]() It turns out to be an alien spacecraft, and its occupants viciously kill three men who approach the craft in friendly greeting. Clayton Forrester, a famous scientist, rushes to the scene after a molten hot meteor-like object lands in the California countryside. READ MORE: The 5 Most Credible Modern UFO Sightingsĭr. As the 1953 film opens, the narrator intones that with their own natural resources being exhausted, the inhabitants of Mars–the Red Planet–are looking to Earth to continue their civilization. A radio dramatization of the novel by Orson Welles, beginning with a series of news bulletins that suggested an actual Martian invasion was in progress, caused mass hysteria when it was broadcast on Halloween of 1938. Wells’s novel, which took a more sinister view of invaders from another planet. Red Scare-era America also embraced the classic Oscar-winning movie The War of the Worlds, based on H.G. ![]() In the end, the film stands up not only as an interesting milestone in the development of ufology, but as a monumental science fiction film in its own right. Some saw the film’s peace-loving message as political propaganda, pointing to the participation of one of the actors, Sam Jaffe, who was accused of Communist sympathies and later placed on Hollywood’s infamous blacklist. The Day the Earth Stood Still and its rather pessimistic ending–according to Klaatu, the Earth has only two choices: live in peace, but under constant supervision from another civilization, or choose conflict, and be obliterated–can only be fully understood against the backdrop of the Cold War-era United States, when anti-Communist hysteria was sweeping the country, stirred up by Senator Joseph McCarthy and his House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAAC). The depiction of the media’s coverage of Klaatu’s arrival and stay on Earth in the film reflected coverage of the Communist threat in the popular media at the time, as the polite, erudite Klaatu is characterized as a “monster” and a “menace” that “must be tracked down like a wild animal…and destroyed.” READ MORE: When UFOs Buzzed the White House and the Air Force Blamed the Weather The mighty Gort will serve as a planetary policeman, with the authority to destroy the world if things get out of hand. Alive again, Klaatu is finally able to deliver his message to mankind: The development of atomic weapons on Earth has been noted by the Galactic Federation, which will not stand for their misuse. ![]() When Klaatu is shot and killed by the military, only Helen is able to give a key order to Klaatu’s faithful robot servant, Gort, in order to resurrect his master. authorities, Klaatu befriends Helen and her young son, who introduce him to a prominent scientist, Professor Barnhardt. ![]() ![]() Touching down outside the White House, a British-accented alien named Klaatu emerges and asserts that he means only goodwill towards humankind he wants to gather the world’s leaders together to deliver an important message. One of the first notable examples of Hollywood’s depiction of the UFO phenomenon is The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), adapted from Harry Bates’ 1940 short story “Farewell to the Master.” In the film, a flying saucer causes utter chaos when it appears in the skies over Washington, DC. ![]()
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