Five Hundred episodes and we’ve landed on Altair IV, the Forbidden Planet.
For our Big 500, Simon and Eugene discuss the impact this ground-breaking film had on things to come and talk about some of the things that have not aged so well.
Surely, you’re not going to bring up the overt sexism?
Yes, we are, and don’t call us Shirley.
Movie Synopsis
In the 22nd century, the United Planet’s Cruiser C-57D under the command of JJ Adams comes out of hyperspace drive near the star Altair after one year in flight. The are checking on the planet Altair IV and the scientific colony ship Bellerophon which travelled to Altair IV 20 years earlier.
Their arrival is greeted coldly by Professor Morbius, one of the Bellerophon crew. He warns them of danger, but when they persist he invites them to lunch. He reveals that he is the sole survivor of the Bellerophon. The others either died when some mysterious planetary force ripped them apart, when their spaceship vaporized when they attempted to leave or, in the case of his wife, died of natural causes. Morbius claims to be immune, but he warns that it will come back for them is they stay.
They are interrupted by by Morbius’ little white lie: While he is the only survivor of the crew, he’s not alone on the planet. He has a beautiful, teenage daughter, Altaira, (also know as Alta) who was born on the planet. She’s never seen young men before and she likes what she sees. The men of the C-57D like what they see, too. They are 18, hyper-competitive, 24 year old perfect physical specimens of manhood, and they’ve been cooped up on a spaceship for a year.
Morbius also has an amazing robot, Robby, which he built as a hyper-capable servant. Only the ship’s cook seems hard up enough to take a shine to Robby.
In light of the news about the Bellerophon, Adams needs to contact Earth, that will require setting up communications equipment and partially dismantling the ship. They’re going to be on the planet a few days, at least.
Executive Officer Lt. Jerry Farman sees this as an opportunity to teach Alta all about the important physical benefits of hugging and kissing. Adams breaks this up and is furious… with Alta for dressing so provocatively and being a willing participant… or being unwittingly taken advantage of. They fight over this and Alta is just all hot and bothered and doesn’t understand why.
That night, something invisible enters the ship and sabotages some of the equipment.
The next day, Adams returns to the Morbius residence to ask questions. Alta is there and she and Adams begin to realize that they’ve fallen madly in lust. It must be lust, right, since they’ve only actually known been in each other’s presence for about an hour.
The thought Morbius was in his study, but he wasn’t. When Morbius emerges from a secret passage he catches Adams and Doc snooping through his papers. He takes them on a tour. Beneath them is a 20 square mile underground city, left behind 200,000 years ago. This was the planet of the Krell, a civilization advanced a million years beyond mankind. Overnight, their civilization died. Their cities crumbled to dust. All that remains is the underground machine. Quietly working at its unknown purpose, and maintaining and repairing itself for 200,000 years. Morbius has spent his life on Altair IV studying what he can of the Krell.
All he really knows is that the Krell were working on the ultimate advancement of their civilization. Complete mastery of creation without instrumentation. He has been able to get as far as he has because, while experimenting with one of the Krell machines, his brain capacity was permanently expanded.
Adams argues that this discovery must be reported back to the United Planets. Morbius doesn’t want that. He doesn’t believe mankind can deal with the technology and wants to oversee it himself.
Back at the ship, the crew have erected a force barrier around the ship. Despite that, an invisible creature gets through the barrier, past the guards and kills Quinn, the communications officer. Adams and Doc were with Morbius and Alta, and cook was getting drunk with Robby when Quinn was killed, so they all have an alibi.
The next night, the ship have the big guns setup, and something approaches. Their weapons slow it down a bit, but are effectively worthless against the invisible creature. It begins killing the crew, including Lt. Farman and then, suddenly, it disappears.
Back at the residence, Morbius awake from a fitful sleep at this desk. Alta is screaming, having experienced a dream that seems to reflect the events at the ship.
Adams decides to evacuate the planet and heads to collect Alta and Morbius, even if it is against his will. He and Doc also want to get a crack at the Krell brain enhancement machine.
While Adams tries to convince Alta to leave, Doc sneaks off and has a go at the machine. It kills him, but not before expanding his brain and giving him clarity of what happened to the Krell. The Krell machine translates pure thought into anything, anywhere. The machine works, but what the Krell didn’t realize is that they still had a primitive Id in their subconscious. The subconscious monsters wiped out their entire race overnight.
Morbius didn’t understand that, nor did he realize that, while his brain isn’t strong enough to use the machine directly, his subscious is strong enough to manifest the monster. He is the unwitting murderer of the crew of the Bellerophon and the C-57D. Confronted with the accusation by Adams and the fact that Alta has decided to leave with Adams, the monster is coming to kill them both.
Realizing the truth of the situation, Morbius throws himself between the monster and Alta and is killed ending the monster, too. As his last act, he instructs Adams to put the Krell machine, and the planet itself, on self-destruct.
24 hours later, and a 100 million miles away, Adams, Alta, Robby and the remaining crew watch from the C-57D as the planet explodes like a supernova.
","author_name":"Fusion Patrol"}