[00:00:00] Clip: As you'll recollect from your briefing lectures, this is an earth type planet. 20 years ago, the spacecraft Balerophon landed here with a prospecting party of scientists. Our mission is to search for survivors monsters from the Id. [00:00:31] Matthew: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the IMMP podcast from the Inter Millennium Media Project. My name is Matthew Porter. And I'm Ian Porter. I'm his dad. He's my son. And it's a brand new year. [00:00:47] Ian: Yes. [00:00:48] Matthew: It's all full of opportunity and excitement. We're done with our holiday road trip and exploring new frontiers. [00:00:55] Ian: It's new exploration time. Absolutely. And my goodness, what a way to start a year. I should've known this was on its way at some point in this show. [00:01:04] Matthew: This is another one of those movies we could probably point to as an origin for this podcast, even though it took us a long time to get to it for the podcast itself. Because I knew, I know that I showed this to you at least a couple of times when you were a kid. [00:01:18] Ian: Oh, yes. [00:01:20] Matthew: And [00:01:21] Ian: I've actually got a story about my, about one of them. [00:01:24] Matthew: Oh, cool. We're watching it now because of course we had to eventually watch it. It's such an important movie for the podcast and in general, but also it is part of a little celebration that we're have having, to honor a great Canadian American actor. That is Yes, Leslie Nielsen. Because, next month will be the centenary of his birth. He was born on February 11th, 1926. [00:01:55] Ian: Talk about someone who has an impact on all of cinema in a unique way [00:02:01] Matthew: in, in such a variety of ways too. And we're, we'll certainly be getting to that variety in the next few episodes of the podcast [00:02:09] Ian: And we've seen him before on the podcast. [00:02:11] Matthew: We have, haven't we? [00:02:13] Ian: Yes. 'cause he was in the Poseidon Adventure. [00:02:16] Matthew: Yes, he was. He was playing the, the captain. He didn't stick around very long. [00:02:21] Ian: Not very long. [00:02:22] Matthew: But it was a great example of the kind of role that he was so good at, even when he. Was no longer playing the leading man, and he hadn't yet gone to the phase of his career that a lot of people know him for best. He, you could instantly say, oh, this is the, the trained stalwart captain of a ship or of a crew, and we immediately invest him with a certain kind of authority in presence. [00:02:49] Ian: He's a man with main character energy no matter what. [00:02:52] Matthew: Very, very much. And this movie is, is one of the movies that, for me at least, created and solidified that view of Leslie Nielsen. And that is the 1956 science fiction drama Forbidden Planet. [00:03:12] Ian: Editing question. You did just add the wa sound that happens when the title shows up. Right. I'll see what I can do. Do. This is so iconic. [00:03:23] Matthew: I like any movie in which the credits include, those responsible for electronic tonalities. Yeah. Yes. And you've gotta give props to anybody doing electronic music in the 1950s, because this was not digital. This was not, oh, let's just describe to, to my software suite what waveforms I need. This was circuit building. Yeah. [00:03:48] Ian: The idea of, I need to do a synthesizer soundtrack is, oh my goodness, I have to construct a synthesizer. Right. Such a different leap in task. [00:03:59] Matthew: This is a movie that in addition to, its place in Leslie Nielsen's career. It is such an influential science fiction movie because there were so many science fiction movies and in the 1950s, science fiction generally meant a certain subset of horror. Most science fiction movies were about science going terribly wrong and something threatening the earth. Yeah. Not, not all, but, but many, [00:04:23] Ian: but many. Yeah. It's got a unique take to the whole system. science is danger, but that means that either the people doing it are foolish or valiant explorers and there's not a lot of mid-ground. [00:04:38] Matthew: And there were, exceptions like Destination Moon from 1950 that were about the promise of space exploration, but they were, exceptions to that rule. And here we get a, a far future story, a relatively far future story, which is full of drama and conflict, but also a pretty optimistic view of the future of human history. [00:05:05] Ian: Our perspective in this comes from the people discovering the situation alongside us. And they are coming from a society of, science for the betterment of all humanity. [00:05:18] Matthew: I am generally, or I, I have for a long time been, dismissive or critical of voiceovers in movies, especially, introductory voiceovers or prologue voiceovers in that, just show me what's happening. Don't spend a lot of time telling me. But I've softened on that a bit, a bit, especially for this kind of science fiction because this kind of science fiction is at a handicap compared to other genres of movie. If you are setting something in the present day, all you need are is an establishing shot or two, and you can tell people what city it's in. It's this current, the the present day, and you're ready to go in a lot of historical periods. All you have to do is have an establishing shot with a certain kind of place, people in a certain kind of, , wardrobe. And you've established where and when you are science fiction futurist. Science fiction, can't do that. 'cause there's no reference. It has to set you up. And this movie does that very economically and in a very straightforward way. Yes. Almost in a, an academic sort of way. But it works. And they give us a very brief history of the near future for humanity, which compared to some science fiction of the time wasn't overly ambitious or wasn't overly optimistic because it starts out that in the last decade of the 21st century, men landed on the moon. What? Yeah. That is well over a century. After it actually happened, this was in 1956 and it was, you know, less than a decade later that Kennedy announced, now we're gonna do this before the end of the 1960s. And we did. [00:06:57] Ian: We did. I appreciate though. Giving buffer. There's a lot of science fiction stories. They're like, this hasn't happened yet, let's put it nearby. And the moment you cross that line, it's like, oh, now it seems silly. Exactly. They gave me some, this one hedged their bet so far. It's really nice. [00:07:19] Matthew: I could definitely see, uh uh, a movie being made in 1955 saying, you know, well in 1961 when we reached Mars, and then you're watching it on TV in 1962, and it's really, guys good try. Really? So they pushed it out far enough? Yeah. [00:07:35] Ian: Oh yeah. [00:07:36] Matthew: So the end of the 21st century men landed on the moon shortly after that. A new kind. And they also, they, they get into the nuts and bolts. They talk about chemical rockets are what mm-hmm. Brought people to the moon. Then another kind of drive allowed mankind to explore the whole solar system. Yes. And then a hyper drive. Allowed people to match, or then greatly exceed the speed of light. And suddenly we were out among the stars. And that's about all we get in terms of the opening. And that's really all we need. And we get the fact that we're now following a particular crew on a particular ship, on a particular mission, but it sets the, the, the world in which they live so cleanly at the beginning. [00:08:21] Ian: That is something that could be mimicked by other films. Like give us a car movie that starts out with, uh, horses and bicycles and early automobiles, and then cuts to our guy in a sports car. It's like you could do that intro now with other things. Even for a modern setting, they're using that same progression of technology to just launch us into this future. [00:08:49] Matthew: Oh, interesting. I'm thinking about how we, we, we talked about the movie war games. Uh, long ago on the podcast, and now Ima imagining a remake or something like that where you start essentially with the history of computers, you start with Yeah. The basic computers get to the present day, and then maybe it's a near future story. So you extrapolate from there and tell us where we are now. Hmm. [00:09:14] Ian: Even in doing so, though it uses a lot of pre-established formats and styles in order to give us our setting and our characters and everything else, we're given this little boost into the future of science and we get this ship that our crew is on and their mission going to, a planet to check for survivors of an incident. [00:09:37] Matthew: Yes. And you're right about them using existing forms to convey who we're dealing with. We're following the crew of the United Planets, Starship. So yeah, this, we're also assuming that humanity is not warring among themselves in tiny countries on the planet. We've got United Planets doing things like this, and we're on the Starship, uh, C 57 d on this survey and Rescue mission. But once you see the crew aboard this, star cruiser, this is a naval vessel. [00:10:10] Ian: This is a submarine film. [00:10:11] Matthew: Yes, it is so, so clearly recognizable. And remember this is in the mid fifties. A lot of the people watching this movie were, were in the service barely 10 years ago. Yeah. And, you know, my dad served in the Navy. He would've recognized the way that this crew operates, at least a Hollywood version of what he knew. [00:10:32] Ian: And it's got. its crew of scientists, operations officers, captains. It's the hierarchy you expect, [00:10:41] Matthew: right? [00:10:41] Ian: That system hasn't gone away. [00:10:43] Matthew: And the, the combination of formality and familiarity, I just love the way that they portray that. Again, not having served, I don't know how accurate that might be, but it seems believable in terms of human nature. There is a clear hierarchy, there are clear people who are responsible for making decisions. As long as that is understood, we're also people and we're working together and we need to cooperate. [00:11:05] Ian: It is also fun though that, you see this ship and it is the classic science fiction flying saucer, and yet the people inside are the humans. [00:11:15] Matthew: Yes. Isn't that interesting? [00:11:16] Ian: This isn't aliens land on earth. This is people arrive in the thing. You expect to deliver things from beyond, which makes them simultaneously relatable. And strange, [00:11:30] Matthew: and it's, maybe you caught this more than I did, but it seems a little bit ambiguous as to whether, humans have encountered alien life. I get the impression that they encountered ecosystems, but not intelligent, sentient life that they could communicate with. Mm-hmm. There are some suggestions of that. I think there might be a mention of, you know, maybe the, the ship that they're coming to check on had in it for their first encounter with hostile alien intelligences. [00:12:00] Ian: Yeah. That's the thing. It's, it's, it's never intelligence, but it's like, oh, we have run into planets with forests full of whatever this planet's version of a bear is. And we've had to fight off a bear, but not never like, oh, we met a, a civilization of bear people. Uh. It's a, it's a different kind of thing, but they're still going around and exploring. We've got our, our crew finding new places and doing missions. There's an element of they're not just going around randomly. They are sent out to check this expedition that already happened, and [00:12:37] Matthew: the expedition they're checking on is apparently a colonization, ship. It was sent out 20 years before it was the Balerphonon. And it's another aspect of what we're seeing in this, United planets. This is not a warship. The, the star cruiser that we're following is not a warship. , it's got a military command structure. They are armed. They are ready for, for defense if necessary. I don't know that the ship has shipboard armament, but there are rifles and sidearms and laser, howitzers and those kinds of things that they can unpack and use. But it's not a war ship [00:13:13] Ian: How do you Broad sides on a circular boat. [00:13:18] Matthew: You get it from the top or bottom? I think, I [00:13:22] Ian: guess so. Sorry, three dimensions. It's just like, it's not navally armed, but it's like minute. Sorry, I had a weird little moment of, of physics confusion. Yes. Uh, but yeah, they are an investigative, they're a scientist force in that sense. [00:13:42] Matthew: Yeah. So we've got our captain, uh, commander John Adams, played by Leslie Nielsen. We've also got kind of his, his sounding board. His best friend aboard the ship is the Doctor [00:13:54] Ian: Doc Ostro. [00:13:55] Matthew: And we've also got the lieutenant who does his job, but there's a little bit of friction between him and the commander. [00:14:01] Ian: He's kind of the commander's foil. He's supposed to be the level-headed one when this, and you know when Adams is a little too rough and tumble, right? Yeah. [00:14:10] Matthew: Lieutenant Farman. Yeah. [00:14:12] Ian: Yeah. It's a, it's a classic trio. [00:14:14] Matthew: Yeah. And they're going to see what happened to the Balerophon because no one's heard from them in 20 years. Yeah. And apparently it is possible to do, , faster than like communication, though. It takes a lot. And even the, the star Cruiser is not really prepared for it. They have to figure out ways to rejigger their equipment and their power systems to do that later on when it becomes important for the plot. But somebody expected to hear something and nobody has, and they get there and there's no real trace of the people or, or anything that's, that's happened and or anything that they've built. There's just this. Ecosystem until they start getting a, a radar scan and they get some communication from the surface. [00:15:01] Ian: Yeah. A message saying, don't, don't land, don't come here. [00:15:06] Matthew: Yes. From a Dr. Morbius who insists that I am fine, we, no assistance is needed for the sake of you or for the, the safety of you and your crew do not land. But in the meantime, I do not need any assistance. Go away. And yeah, we can guess as to whether commander Adams decides to agree with that or not. Nope. [00:15:27] Ian: Well, you heard the man land. He said don't, I didn't listen to the first part. It's kind of the attitude. Yes. It's like him saying, don't means I have to, [00:15:40] Matthew: and you can imagine his mission is not. Go orbit this planet and ask if they need help. His mission is to go see if they need help and what condition they're in. Yeah. So he has to go do that. Mm-hmm. And he does, and they land. And the, the visuals in this movie, they hold up really well. And yet it's a combination of, of clever set building, clever both Stop motion and later on some drawn animation. Overlay animation. But also the, the models and the paintings and the things they use, the colors of this planet with its kind of lavender sky. It's fascinating. It's, it's approachable, but it's alien looking. I love it. [00:16:24] Ian: In the same way that earth is full of greens and blues. Forbidden planet makes Altair Four here. A vibrant palette of green and purple with orange. It's so beautiful. [00:16:41] Matthew: And I wonder to what extent, and this is probably something I could look up, but never did I wonder to what extent these are just artistic decisions on the part of the designers in this movie, and to what extent, if any, did they look at what was known at the time about the spectrum of light from Yeah, because I could see it, this is how a planet would adapt differently to a different spectrum of light. [00:17:08] Ian: Yeah. I'm not sure. [00:17:09] Matthew: And that's fascinating. It's very earth-like in that it is close to earth gravity as really good, atmosphere. And yet it's alien. [00:17:16] Ian: And the characters get to kind of talk about how it's, it's alien, but it's pleasant. [00:17:20] Matthew: Yeah. [00:17:21] Ian: It's nice. [00:17:22] Matthew: Yeah. It's almost the, oh gee, you know, once I, muster out, be nice to have a retirement, cabin here. Exactly. [00:17:29] Ian: but , they of course land. They're checking everything. And this is where, this is where he arrives Dad. [00:17:37] Matthew: Yes. Talk about influential. [00:17:40] Ian: Talk about influential. It's time for the best character in the movie, it's Robbie the robot. [00:17:49] Matthew: Robbie the robot shows up. And if you've seen any science fiction or even a lot of non-science fiction from any time in the last 75 years, you have seen Robbie, the robot. [00:18:01] Ian: It's so wild that this is his first appearance. [00:18:03] Matthew: Yes. [00:18:03] Ian: Because watching this movie, again, they treat Robbie like an actor cameo. Yes. Even from moment one. It's like the way he just, this is a, a full suit robot with this wild. Dome head that clicks and beeps and spins as he talks. [00:18:23] Matthew: A lot of his body looks like a black metal Michelin man. [00:18:27] Ian: I, I gotta say, yeah, he looks like Bibendum's cousin. But there's something about, like, I've been programmed to respond to the name Robbie. Like, it's like having, uh, an actor show up and to say the character's name is his own name. 'cause you're not gonna remember his as anyone else. It's like, and, and there's certain moments where he, like, he doesn't just stand there. He kind of moves to a pose and, and does something. And I'm like, this feels like he's mimicking the pose he's known for on a poster of something else. [00:19:03] Matthew: Yes. It's like, it's a Schwartzenegger movie. He has to say, I'll be back. Exactly. Yes. Yes. A Robbie the robot movie, there's gotta be a shot in which he stands in exactly this way. [00:19:16] Ian: Exactly. It's, you know, if, if, honestly that's a great example. If you had Arnold Schwartzenegger in a film and he shows up just as like the guy running the laundromat, but he says, my name's Arnold, uh, you'll be back. And like you give him those lines, you'd be treating Arnold Schwartzenegger. The way Robbie gets in this film, it's so good. And yet this is his first time. [00:19:38] Matthew: They knew they had something, [00:19:39] Ian: he had star power from moment one. [00:19:42] Matthew: It is such a better and more interesting and more futuristic looking robot than we tended to see. He's not boxy, he's not clunky. He's a little clunky, but still it's, you can see there's a certain sense of scientific knowledge and innovation kind of built into the way he looks. Yeah. And the performers behind Robbie, the robot in this did not get credits. Frankie Darrow and Frankie Carpenter were, playing Robbie. there is a credit for Robbie, the robot as himself. But it was actually Darrow and Carpenter and Marvin Miller did the voice, that was added in the final print. [00:20:22] Ian: Oh, he's so good at it. That voice is, is the iconic thing because Robbie is snarky as anything. He is the, uh, nice oxygen content responded with. I don't use it myself. It promotes Rust is so good. [00:20:39] Matthew: He has a sense of humor. He does. Robbie, the robot has more, he is more a predecessor to, Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy than any other robot. Yes. If Robbie were a little less happy with his job, I could see him going the direction of Marvin. [00:21:01] Ian: Yes. Absolutely. You're right. Oh [00:21:06] Matthew: but he has been sent as the welcoming party, and there's a little chat with the officers of the, star Cruiser and Robbie has been sent to bring them back , to visit with, Dr. Morbius, the guy they spoke with on the radio who said, don't land. [00:21:20] Ian: Yeah. So it's like, yeah, you, you ignored my instructions, but I'll still be a good neighbor. [00:21:27] Matthew: Yeah. There's no reason not to be hospitable. So they, they get into Robbie's little car and they drive to Morbius place. The commander and the two lieutenants. And Morbius is, a weirdly gracious host Now. He kind of, he says, oh yeah, please join me for lunch. Uh, I hope you'll forgive my, message on the radio. I, I did sincerely wanna warn you, but you know, I don't wanna be inhospitable just write me off as a cranky old man. And let's forget all about that. [00:21:56] Ian: It, it becomes an episode of HGTV for just a moment as we get to see. Morus is lovely home. It's beautiful and all of the cool futuristic gadgets. I'm like this is just the HGTV dream home for Altair four, isn't it? [00:22:10] Matthew: It is. And he built this house, he built Robbie and the car and he is apparently a, really, really intelligent and capable scientist and engineer, [00:22:23] Ian: which confuses , the commander , and lieutenant and the doc. 'cause Morpheus was the linguist. [00:22:31] Matthew: Yes. He was not the. The physicist or the engineer or uh, or the chemist or any of these. He was the language guy. Yeah. And yet suddenly he is doing things that would be incredible advances back on earth. Like Robbie. Apparently there's nothing like this kind of, yeah. Uh, artificially sentient robotics. And also, there are no other survivors of the Balerophon. There is him and there's his daughter, Alterra, named for the star that they are orbiting, played by Anne Francis. She was born after they arrived on, Altair four. Her mother has passed away. And the rest of the. Colonists from the Balerophon were killed. Yes. And we don't get a very clear explanation from Morus about this, except that they were destroyed by some unseen force that permeates this planet. And the last of them were destroyed when the Balerophon exploded as they were trying to escape. [00:23:40] Ian: there's something about it, like, oh, we've shown up to, to learn about what happened to the crew. Oh yeah. So sad. Everyone's dead. [00:23:47] Matthew: Yeah. [00:23:47] Ian: More [00:23:47] Matthew: apples. Right. You know? So what happened to Theon Okay about that? Um, yeah, [00:23:55] Ian: it's like, how do I tell you ever? Yeah. Me. Mr. Not suspicious here is letting you know everybody died. [00:24:06] Matthew: Yeah, everybody except me. And who knows why that is. Yeah. [00:24:12] Ian: The commander's just hearing going press X to doubt. Okay then [00:24:19] Matthew: yeah, another opportunity for a much shorter movie would've been, oh, okay. Well that explains it. See you later, doc. We're gonna go head back to Earth. [00:24:26] Ian: Oh yeah. There are so many moments for a much shorter movie. I will say. Yes. This is full of, this is full of, um, choose your Adventure. Uh, 100% Playthrough moments where it's like you could have picked the other page and not succeeded, [00:24:45] Matthew: and it's interesting that the thing that keeps the crew of the star cruiser on the planet for a while. Is that this doesn't fit in with any of their existing orders. And they are part of a, a, a military-like command structure in that they, they don't know what to do with the, if the idea is there's just one survivor, there's not an operational colony here, but there's one survivor and the survivor says he wants to stay here. And there's not just the one survivor, because we mentioned there is Alterra and the, uh, the officers who meet her take an inordinate interest in Alterra, and that's the creepiest part of this movie. It's under, it's, oh, it's not, absolutely not surprising for a movie in the 1950s. But of course you've got, Ann Francis, who's beautiful and is doing a lot with a very limited role she's given. And immediately there's not only are they. Looking to, I would say, take advantage of this young woman who's under 20 years old. We know that. Yeah. And has never seen a, a, a human being, let alone a man other than her father. And suddenly, uh, Lieutenant Freeman is trying to cozy up with her, and she's more interested in the captain, and he's taking advantage of that in some ways. But, uh, and they even have arguments about, well, you know, what do you expect given what you're wearing? It's, yeah. Lot of terrible things. Awkward this, but again, not, not surprising for a movie in the 1950s, but they, [00:26:23] Ian: they, they do an interesting job there of kind of contrasting. And, and almost it's unfortunately hand weaving, but the an, the aspect of the, she's never seen anyone else. And there's a bit of a, I've been, I, I've wanted to meet somebody and now there's a ship full of, of, of guys showing up. [00:26:42] Matthew: Haha. [00:26:43] Ian: And it's a, we've been stuck on a ship with nothing but us guys. And there's a beautiful lady here. Right. There's a tiny bit of like two different kinds of pressure cookers interacting. But it does lead to, it does lead to Dr. Morby in the background. Just going like, oh no. It's like, I thought I could avoid this [00:27:09] Matthew: by, by raising my daughter on a planet with no other humans. [00:27:13] Ian: Exactly. That initial message starts to become a little bit, get off my lawn. [00:27:19] Matthew: Yeah. And the, the other part of the OR or something that even puts a finer point on the way they're portraying Alterra is that she has this ability to commune with and control all of the animals of Altair four, including, dangerous wild animals and tigers and things. Oh. And they, the fact that there are tigers and, and, and recognizable wild animals on this planet. They have a little conversation in which they sort of explain that by, yeah, by an ancient aliens theory, and we'll get into who those aliens were, but those aliens visited lots of other planets apparently, including Earth, and brought back samples. And that's why there are, you know, Bengal Tigers and other things. Yeah. On Altair four. [00:28:06] Ian: Yeah. It's implied that they like seeded some planets and harvested from others. It's like, oh yeah. There's this ancient race of very powerful aliens who are going across the stars and doing stuff well before humanity tries to take this to the stars themselves. [00:28:21] Matthew: Yeah. But Alterra has the ability to, pacify these wild beasts. And that's never really explained until, well, she starts getting interested in this handsome man and suddenly that power of hers goes away. It's this very medieval, well, her innate purity prevented the dangerous creatures from being dangerous. But once she's interested in being, you know, an adult woman has an interest in, in the opposite sex, well then of course all that is ruined. Yeah. [00:28:53] Ian: But [00:28:54] Matthew: again, it's fits with the story, I suppose. [00:28:57] Ian: Yeah. I will say it was interesting to get to see like. Possibly the one and only MGM Princess we're so used to the Disney princesses who can like sing and have a bird land on their finger. It's like, uh, mg m's version here. She's just like, oh, hi tiger. Try like how C could claw anyone in the room today? Very much. Very, very different scenario. But it's there. [00:29:23] Matthew: But this leaves Commander Adams wondering, okay, what do I do? This is not covered by my orders. So we've gotta find a way to communicate with Earth to get instructions as to what to do. But we are not equipped just to turn on our radio and communicate with Earth. So we have to like unship our primary power plant and build a hyper light communications rig in order to communicate with Earth in order to find out do we force this guy to leave? Do we let him stay here? Do we what? Do we do? [00:29:54] Ian: Another piece of the extremely naval aspect of Forbidden Planet, where it's like, you know. You have found an island, it was part of what you were supposed to do. There's people on it. The scenario's not what you want. Build a frontline base with a radio tower to be able to get the signal back to home, but just on a galactic scale instead of a, an ocean scale. [00:30:21] Matthew: And it's an interesting point because one thing that often comes up in this kind of medium to far future space exploration is hearkening back to the age of sail, where once that ship is out there, it is on its own and there is no communicating with home base. And the captain is responsible for all the decisions and has to make those decisions whether they're covered by his orders or not. So I can understand why, for plot reasons they wanted to give this. Crew and this commander a reason to delay that decision. But it also makes me think that maybe this is more of a tightly connected hierarchy in this United Planets than things were in the age of sail. [00:31:03] Ian: Yeah. [00:31:04] Matthew: So now we've got Morbius and his daughter in their house, and we've got the crew of the star cruiser in an, expanding camp around the Star Cruiser where they are building, their communications rig. And then weird things begin to happen. [00:31:21] Ian: Things start being broken and destroyed with immense force. [00:31:26] Matthew: Something comes aboard the ship and destroys one of the important components that are needed for this communication rig. [00:31:33] Ian: It can fit inside the ship, whatever it is. [00:31:36] Matthew: And that leads to a couple of things. It leads to the commander asking his engineer, well, how do we, how can we fix this? And it's the, it's kind of like, well, I don't know that I can, the commander's response is, okay, so it's impossible. How long is it gonna take you? And he gets an answer. Yes. I love that. He gets an answer. [00:31:51] Ian: I love that. [00:31:52] Matthew: That's an interesting kind of relationship between the, the, the captain and his miracle working engineer. [00:31:57] Ian: Oh, yes., It's also like, hmm. There's an old man over there who said, get off my place. We said We're gonna stick around until we can get radio signal. Now our radio signal's gone. Time to go talk to that old man again. [00:32:12] Matthew: And they do, and they need to find out they do what's going on, because who else could it have been? There's nobody else on this planet and we know it wasn't one of our crew. [00:32:19] Ian: Goodness. This, these scenes, I, I will say we are moving so swiftly through this movie compared to how the movie moves. The movie gives every single one of these plot points a lot of weight and time. Part of that is just because the pace of movies in 56, and part of it's because there is a lot of hierarchical command, there's a lot of discussion. Things are not rapid fire in most moments until swift action is needed. This is a story about people on every side who think things through. [00:32:55] Matthew: Yes. [00:32:56] Ian: And that results in a much, a much more methodical pace. It is paced in some ways, more the way you'd expect a modern heist movie to be paced. [00:33:07] Matthew: Yeah. [00:33:07] Ian: Interesting example. Smart people try to solve a task. You wind up with that, okay, get through this, get through that. And when stuff starts to go wrong, swift action can be taken then. But if you don't have to run, don't run. [00:33:22] Matthew: Right? Everybody is thoughtful. Everybody is smart. Everybody's very competent and capable in their sphere and it's, it's momentum doesn't come from their being relentless action. Their momentum comes from it following very well. That South Park storytelling, uh, rule of there's never a an end then it's always until, or therefore, you know, they are, they, they have encountered a situation they were not expecting. The sole survivor doesn't wanna leave, therefore they have to communicate with earth. Therefore, they have to build a, , radio. Transceiver and they're doing until, [00:34:00] Ian: until it gets broken. [00:34:02] Matthew: Yeah. There's this weird supernatural, , intrusion and we actually see that intrusion by some invisible being that goes onto the ship and destroys this thing. [00:34:12] Ian: Therefore, go confront Mobius again. [00:34:14] Matthew: Right. Because who else could it be? And that's where they find out what Mobius has been doing and why Morus has been capable of all the things he's been capable of. [00:34:22] Ian: The Krell [00:34:24] Matthew: He them about the Krell [00:34:27] Ian: the descriptions of the Krell civilization is so wonderful adamantine steel and glass towers because this was a advanced race that perished all at once, hundreds of thousands of years ago. [00:34:44] Matthew: Yes. They were all destroyed on a, in a single night, 200,000 years ago. Before that they had had hundreds of thousands of years of mighty star fairing civilization. They're the ones who brought samples back from Earth and untold numbers of other planets and colonized, who knows where. Although, I don't know, they never made it clear. I don't know that there were ever any krell living long term anywhere other than what we now call Altair four. Yeah. It's, although I suppose it's just ambiguous. It could be. It doesn't affect the story. Mm-hmm. But yeah, they were incredible engineering in terms of power and computation and everything else you could imagine. [00:35:21] Ian: And , they had these amazing underground facilities which survived. And Mobius house is placed on top of one of them. So he has access, very clever place to do that. [00:35:34] Matthew: And he has learned the secrets of the Krell, or at least scratched the surface of them. And this is where it's fascinating that he was the person able to do this because he was their philologist and he was their linguist, and he's the one who could begin to understand. The records that the Krell had left behind and everything he learned helped him learn a little bit more because he could use more equipment, he could access more of the records, and that's what allowed him to create Robbie. It's what allow has allowed him to do so many things. [00:36:05] Ian: All of the engineers could have sat there and tried to piece them apart and understand, and they might have gotten somewhere. Morbius was able to sit down and read the instruction manual. Yes. And that's so effective. He is having some trouble with some devices because the Krell were wildly different beasts and creatures than humans were. They do a wonderful job showing this facility and pointing it out like these giant panels of metal, these upside down triangular doors. Were designed to fit Krell just as well as our large, taller than they are wide Rectangles are for human doors. [00:36:45] Matthew: I love the fact that they, there's just tease those things. They, we never get a picture of a krell. There are no krell sculptures. Really? Mm-hmm. It's just this [00:36:54] Ian: No krell skeletons. [00:36:55] Matthew: Yeah. But these, these weirdly shaped gigantic doors and some of the other equipment we see gives us a hint of how weird and alien they were. [00:37:07] Ian: It's a movie with alien encounters purely by negative space. We get an idea in an image of what a krell is like by the outline of what they left behind, and that gives us an idea of their shape and form, both physical and societal. [00:37:26] Matthew: That's an interesting thing to think about. What if we imagine a town somewhere in America, imagine coming upon that. Mm-hmm. With no images or other depictions of humans, just the buildings and the artifacts could you piece together, how much information could you piece together about humans and what they were like [00:37:51] Ian: with, with, with nothing but a winter glove and a doorknob? Would you be able to understand what a hand looks like? [00:37:58] Matthew: Oh, that's a great, great example. Yeah. [00:38:00] Ian: You might be able to piece something together about it, but you still wouldn't have all the things, right? Mm-hmm. But you also might be able to understand how to use either one of those tools [00:38:12] Matthew: and the tools that the Krell left behind. They include a. Kind of an educational toy, which measures and allows you to, it seems like, like it almost might be a biofeedback kind of thing where you can project images that are then, revealed in what I would, would probably call today, some kind of nano material and Yeah. But in addition, it can increase intelligence. And that's what one of the other things that has helped Morbius here is that he has used this, tool and his already very high intelligence. He only had like a 180 IQ when he left Earth Has, and now been vastly increased by his use of this tool. So he's been further able to take advantage of the information and the technology he's learned from the Krell. [00:39:03] Ian: You know, local man finds alien, leapfrog tablet becomes super genius. [00:39:10] Matthew: Pretty much pretty. I pretty much, and the tour that he gives them of this Krell facility is great because it is such a great combination of the, the set design that we're seeing here. And I get the impression that Morbius has over the years, built chairs and, shuttle cars and things that fit his frame more than they would've Yeah. The, the frame of a, uh, of a krell. But this plus some of the matte paintings and animation that we get and there's some great scenes where we've got these people walking around in this enormous facility, underground miles and miles long at a side, with giant. Power transfer equipment and they've got reactors buried deep within the earth. And he has this enormous series of dials. And his most intense activity with this technology has only made the first dial register a little bit. So the amount of power available is incredible. But I love the visuals here. And again, they hold up, [00:40:16] Ian: they hold up. This is the sort of same visual stuff that, Forbidden Planet was, uh, 56, 14 years later in Colossus, the Forin project, some of these same matte painting and design aspects are still wonderfully impactful, Uhhuh. So I'm imagining what it must have been like to see this film in 56 and it would just blow you away. This is amazing. It's so well done. [00:40:47] Matthew: This was shot in, uh, in Cinemascope. So it has a really big format screen. Mm-hmm. So this must have been such, such an impact. And this, even though it's paintings, to me, there's something more engaging. And when I'm seeing paintings like this composited into a really good shot compared to CGI, where everything could be polished, everything can be clean. Uh, and also something about the paintings they used here, something about the design of this facility. There's a little bit of Salvador Dali in here with the shade in your perspectives and the alienness of what's going on. I love those scenes. [00:41:30] Ian: So good. Compared to modern movies, this had a $1.9 million budget in 1956. Yeah, that's giving us, that's a, that's a movie with like a $23 million budget nowadays. [00:41:47] Matthew: And that's, that's not a very high budget for a movie today. [00:41:50] Ian: That's not a very high budget. Even like, you see that 1.9 and it's confusing. So being able to just use an inflation calculator to get you modern statistics on that, that's still low budget. So for them to do this much with that, they had some amazing talent milking every single bit of the design work they could, every single piece and, and pulling everything out of it. They know how to use their shots well. [00:42:20] Matthew: Every single penny of that budget is on the screen. Exactly. Or, or on the speakers. And you know, there's, there's sometimes you hear phrases like something transcending its genre. And I don't like that because that suggests that its genre is something that should be transcended. You hear about mysteries that transcend the genre to become literature. Sorry, they were literature when they were, they were literature mysteries. But this, so, but this movie, I would say it's not transcending its genre so much as it's transcending the limitations that the movie industry placed upon its genre at the time and being able to do more than anyone might've expected. But now at least we've got an explanation from Mobius as to where he got all this ability and, um, why he wants to be left alone. He does not want to just package all of this information up and have it sent back to Earth and have the United Planets decide about it. He thinks that is too dangerous to let humanity have all this information for after all, we still don't know why the krell all disappeared. I'm gonna stay here. I'm gonna continue studying from time to time when I decide that there's something that will be a benefit to Earth, I will send the information, but I'm gonna be the sole arbiter. [00:43:43] Ian: Yeah. He want, he's got this, he wants to portion it and send it, [00:43:47] Matthew: and of course, uh, Adams is not happy about that, but they go back to the camp and now that they know that their, their camp is in some kind of danger because there are these, there, there was that intrusion. They make this a defended camp. They set up a laser Yeah. Barrier fence. And they break out those laser howitzers and rifles and they have. squads protecting each potential, incursion point. So yeah, they might not be a, a war fighting organization, but they are ready with weaponry and training to defend themselves, [00:44:27] Ian: which does make me wonder, we don't hear about any other society organization, and we don't know if they've encountered other aliens, but are they, are they doing missions? But there's other galactic nations that they're fighting against? It's kind of kind of vague. [00:44:50] Matthew: That is a good point. And maybe there have been conflicts between colonies and such, but the, the impression that we get is that the United planets are a. An advanced and peaceful organization. So it could just be that they are prepared to defend themselves against wildlife, against dangerous fauna on planets that they explore. And maybe they could be, if they're, they're coming to explore what happened or investigate what happened to a colony that hasn't been heard from in 20 years, maybe they are better prepared than most because they might have to defend themselves against whatever happened to the Balerophon. [00:45:30] Ian: Yeah. And, and I did imply there, they might have found, alien forests and fought alien bears. I never did specify the scale of the forest or the bears. Yes. It's like we have arrived and it, the fauna here makes us comparable to a small rabbit. Oh no. [00:45:49] Matthew: If you want a scary science fiction animal, just take an animal and put mega or hyper in front of it. It's an Altair mega bear. I got hyper. [00:45:58] Ian: It's the it's, it's the hyper hummingbird. [00:46:02] Matthew: Oh, that sounds scary. [00:46:04] Ian: It actually does. [00:46:05] Matthew: That's sounds like a DC 10 hovering over you. Yeah. [00:46:11] Ian: I am bothered by how well that system works. [00:46:14] Matthew: Yep. So they're ready for something the next night. I don't know that they're ready for what they get though. [00:46:24] Ian: I don't think they are [00:46:26] Matthew: because they get a giant monster. [00:46:30] Ian: A giant animated kind of, yes. Monster. Oh. Some of the best shots in science fiction [00:46:42] Matthew: because once again, it's an invisible monster, like whatever it was that came aboard their, their ship and destroyed their equipment. But they've now got this laser perimeter fence and that at least slows it down. And as it is being hit by , the beams from this perimeter fence, we begin to see its outline. And this is where, um, uh, oh, and we forgot in terms of the shape of this thing, we did get a little bit about the invisible thing before because it had footprints. Oh yeah. And had a great scene in which we, there's an invisible monster, but we see it leaving footprints. [00:47:23] Ian: Yes. Oh goodness. That scene is good. I take it they like had holes underneath and they were pulling slideaway pieces to cause sand to sink in. [00:47:33] Matthew: Yes. It was a, a table with the, the terrain and they just pulled down sheets. Uh, away from these, uh, these footprint cutouts, but it's so effective and we're just following along as these footprints just appear in the ground, but then they make a plaster cast of the footprint and it makes no sense whatsoever. it's got aspects of completely different branches of evolution in terms of being a quadraped versus a bird versus, I don't know what else. But it's, it's this giant foot with this huge claw in the front of it. [00:48:04] Ian: and this, this casting is the size of the torso of, yeah. Of the captain here. It's like, you know, take a look at this. It's as big as you are of, [00:48:14] Matthew: and yet it able to come aboard the ship. [00:48:16] Ian: Exactly. It's like the scale makes no sense. This is an impossible creature. [00:48:22] Matthew: And that in every way, that's kind of what they encounter, when it attacks them through the fence. And this is where, Walt Disney animation steps. Yes. And contributes to this movie because it did the animation for the monster that we see. [00:48:37] Ian: Because every time they shoot it with laser fire, it lights up in the spot where it's hit with crackling electricity. And so just as the krell, we only see it in negative. Yes. [00:48:54] Matthew: And in its outline and its overall shape, it does kind of look like a much bigger brother to the hairy monster from the, bugs Bunny cartoons. [00:49:04] Ian: It really does. It's got bit of a derpy face. So good. It does, [00:49:11] Matthew: and it roars and it, it screams and it attacks and it's, it's bothered but not brought down by laser fire. It could reach these claws out. And , this is where I think Lieutenant Freeman is a casualty. They managed to protect the ship, but it's still a devastating attack. And, meanwhile, back in Mobius house, Morbius is asleep and Alterra wakes up with a horrible nightmare and screams for her father, and he wakes up and we see between the two scenes, as soon as Morbius wakes up, the monster disappears. [00:49:48] Ian: Yep. [00:49:49] Matthew: So that's, we as the audience now know there is a connection between Morus and this monster. [00:49:55] Ian: Uh, there's fun elements there about the monster's design, I will say. [00:50:01] Matthew: Yeah. [00:50:02] Ian: Okay. This is a silly thing. If you're watching this nowadays, you can pause the film and look, the monster has a small goatee. [00:50:12] Matthew: I never noticed that. Interesting. He a monstrous version of Morbius, [00:50:16] Ian: the, the monster's facial design. It's inhuman, but it's got some of the same shaping as his goatee and mustache kind of bad guy. Look, [00:50:28] Matthew: oh, and by the way, it's Walter Pigeon playing Morbius who has this terrific combination of refinement and. Projecting this aloof intelligence and disdain while still being as polite as possible and still being very opinionated. It's, it's a wonderful combination of traits he puts into this role. [00:50:49] Ian: He has got the personality down of a man who will insult you in a way that he thinks you're too unintelligent to have understand. Yes. To understand. It's like I'm going, I'm going to insult you and it's gonna go over your head. And that proves I'm right, is kind of, is the way that Dr. Edward Morbius lives. Yes. [00:51:09] Matthew: And my insults are the best chance you have to become smarter. So please pay attention. [00:51:15] Ian: Exactly. Exactly right. [00:51:20] Matthew: So of course. Adams and, his now one buddy, Dr. Ostro, go to confront Morbius again. [00:51:26] Ian: Not just confront Morian, but also he's got all this technology that could defeat the monster. [00:51:35] Matthew: Oh, yes. Yeah. And they want to try using, we can get [00:51:37] Ian: some of that. Yeah. He won't let us have it, but we need to contact someone or we need to be able to defeat this thing. We go where the supplies are. [00:51:46] Matthew: And he already warned them against trying to use this intelligence booster because it almost killed him. I think it did kill somebody else from the Balerophon. so, you know, don't use it. And on their way there, there's this little debate between Adams and the Commander, Adams and the doctor about, you know, Adams and saying, when we get there, anybody who's gonna use that brain boosting machine, it's gonna be me. I, I'm going to be the one who takes that risk. But when they get there, Adams is distracted by Alterra and is trying to convince her to leave with them because they need to, to get off of this planet. And while Adams is distracted by Alterra, the doctor runs into the, or sneaks into the Krell facility. Tries the brain booster. [00:52:33] Ian: And, , Adams does convince Altera to go with, she has seen elements of her father, Dr. Morbius, that. She had not seen before, a vicious side, a controlling side, without context before, and she is a little bit more open to the rest of the world. She is an intelligent lady and she has been raised by this professor, Dr. Morbius. So she understands a lot, but she just doesn't have experience and this is an opportunity for her to go out into the world and see it, use what she knows, be that person She does not want to follow in her father's footsteps of sitting on his pile of information and hoarding it. There's also the, oh my goodness, there's a handsome captain. I want to go with him. Element that's there, but in terms of. I would say that her clinging to the side of the captain, and let's leave here, is not purely of a damsel in distress. Helpless. There is a very much a get me out of here. I've got more I can do. [00:53:47] Matthew: Yes. [00:53:47] Ian: I'm sure she has some more agency in it than you'd expect in this film. I'm saying. [00:53:51] Matthew: Yeah. I'm sure that a psychologist could, could explain a whole lot about the fact that she has mainly has transferred this combination of, affection and devotion from her father to the new authority figure Commander Adams. And yet yeah, that doesn't negate the fact that she's also a person who is now coming of age and coming into her own and being able to realize she has to make decisions on her own, not just accept what she's told by other people. And, and things don't go well for the doctor when he tries the brain booster because he's carried back in by Robbie on the verge of death. [00:54:32] Ian: She does amuse me because this is such an iconic scene, and yet the poster is of Robby carrying Alterra. [00:54:39] Matthew: Yes. Which never happens. It's kind of like it never happens. But the but, [00:54:44] Ian: but the Robbie does carry the doctor into the room in the same kind of pose. That's just a little funnier. [00:54:50] Matthew: Probably would not have gotten people into movie theater seats the way that the, the illustration of him carrying the, the damsel does. And not that Robbie's the monster anyway, but of course, you've gotta have that kind of a picture on a sci fi movie poster in the fifties. Absolutely. So, as Morbius predicted. using the brain booster proves fatal for the doctor. But before he passes away, he is able to convey some additional, information. Because what we did learn from Morbius was that just before they were completely destroyed in a single night, the Krell were on the verge of their greatest advancement, which was a technology that would free them from the confines of matter completely. They would not be beholden to physical needs. Any physical things that they did require, any interaction they had to do with the, with the physical universe, they could do with a single thought. And just as they were about to achieve this, they were destroyed. Well, as we learn from the doctor, it turns out that they did achieve that. [00:55:59] Ian: Yep. [00:56:01] Matthew: But, um, things don't always go well when every single thought you might have is suddenly manifest in the real world. [00:56:09] Ian: It's the, it's one of the best lines in sci-fi, I think. [00:56:13] Matthew: Oh, go, go for it. [00:56:15] Ian: Monsters. Monsters from the id, [00:56:20] Matthew: they get very Freudian and the, the id, there's no super ego buffering the impact of the ID on the real world. [00:56:28] Ian: Mm-hmm. It's, it's explains so much. Morbius was the monster. Is the monster and he didn't know it. There's some Jekyll and Hyde in here, an unreleased id, an unreleased self, taking out all the anger and vengeance and negativity and destroying, hurting, killing with nothing to control it. An invisible deadly force. It's so perfect. [00:57:02] Matthew: And Morbius resists believing this for so long, even during this final, sequence. And yet eventually he has to admit, this is obviously what's happening because they're, they're running away from the monster because now the attacking them in Mobius house and in the Krell facility, the three of them who remain and they can't get away from it because everything Mobius knows, the monster knows. [00:57:26] Ian: Yes. [00:57:27] Matthew: And it can draw on as much power as it needs to do what Mobius unconscious thoughts are telling it to do, which is destroy them for its own survival. Mm-hmm. And it is drawing on an enormous amount of the power that we have seen is available through these, krell devices. [00:57:46] Ian: All 9,208 thermonuclear reactors still in the Krell facility, powered into this creature, It's terrifying. [00:57:57] Matthew: And eventually, I, I don't Is it just his conflict with the creature, or what is it that seems to knock out Mobius? [00:58:06] Ian: Well, he kind of accepts the fact that it's his other half. And there's this moment of like force and feedback. It's like, by acknowledging it, the rest of him had control of it. There's something almost zen about that. It's like, oh, you acknowledge the thought is there, and then let it pass. It'll stop being, but that requires you to acknowledge it, and that takes effort. [00:58:28] Matthew: That was it. With his last few words, he is able to, explain to Commander Adams the extremely conveniently located self-destruct mechanism. Yes. Why do people keep building self-destruct mechanisms into things? I can understand needing the ability to scuttle a warship, but it seems like everything in science fiction, you build a hotdog cart. It's got a self-destruct mechanism in it. [00:58:59] Ian: I wanna say that on one end, it's a safety feature. It's like, it's like a crumple zone of a car. But for wild sciences. And at the same time, there's an element of like, well, yeah, every device has a self-destruct feature if you use it improperly. So all you need is a button sends a bad instruction. [00:59:20] Matthew: That's true. Any device can be a self-destruct device. [00:59:24] Ian: Exactly. [00:59:25] Matthew: You were talking about, HGTV Dream Home for, Altair four. I want that On the next HGTV Dream home, it's like, well, here's the mud room and here's our passive solar. and here's the self-destruct mechanism that's conveniently right off the kitchen. So in the end, Alterra joins, commander Adams and the remaining crew of the Star Cruiser as they depart from, Altair four and watch from a distance as, the planet explodes, taking with it. They take Robert all the, the crows. Yeah, they do bring Robbie with them. That's right. They do. So Robbie is the only surviving piece of Krell technology, I guess. So I guess he counts as Krell or Krell once removed. [01:00:08] Ian: Yeah. I'm krell on my mother's side. [01:00:13] Matthew: That is such a Robbie joke. And, yeah, Robbie is even their new, I think he's, their new Helmsman aren't their new navigator? [01:00:26] Ian: I think so. [01:00:27] Matthew: And we haven't talked too much about the interior of the Star Cruiser, but it is, it is really cool. And it's got the central control console in the middle of which is a great kind of Astrogation sphere mm-hmm. with a tiny model of the ship. But then there are also view screens elsewhere, and when they, come out of, hyperdrive, the beginning of the movie. They have to step into these, onto these pads that have like a light emitting pad at the top and bottom, and it holds them in some kind of stasis so they can safely decelerate from faster than light speed. And it's another example of how there's all this banter among the crew at the beginning and the end as they're flying. They don't, they don't bother with the, as you know, bobs. We just get it from them talking to each other and they talk about, we're coming out of Hyperdrive, Stow, any breakable gear, somebody says to somebody else, Hey, come on, we've gotta get into the DC stations. Do you wanna bounce around on this one? You get the impression it's not necessarily fatal if you are not in a deceleration, unit, but it's not a good idea. So I love those kinds of things where all the details seem real and lived in because they're conveyed in the same way that natural conversation would convey them. [01:01:46] Ian: It's not, it's not as you know, Bob, but it's a lot of, Hey, Bob, hand me that thing. Dang it. [01:01:51] Matthew: Yes. [01:01:55] Ian: And, and that, that really adds to the flow. It's well polished in that just human interaction wise, which makes sense for a film whose actual grand story was a, was an assessment of psychology. [01:02:10] Matthew: Yeah. [01:02:11] Ian: Those tiny moments of like how people interact at the beginning in a sci-fi world. That's what this has all been about. It's how people interact in a sci-fi world to give it context. [01:02:26] Matthew: And there's one character we haven't mentioned who is thrown in for comic relief from time to time. And that is the cook. [01:02:33] Ian: He's in a different movie, isn't he? He feels like it. It's like it. [01:02:38] Matthew: Everybody else is in these really cool, these really well designed gray uniforms, and they've got, different uniforms for when they're on the bridge and, and piloting the ship versus what they put on to then be out on the planet. But they're, they're well designed in that, okay, these are different functional uniforms for this thing. And they've got these cool hats. They follow Navy protocol. They go indoors. They, those lids come off immediately and yet Cookie is there. He's essentially in dungarees in a white apron in a white hat all the time. [01:03:09] Ian: Yeah. [01:03:10] Matthew: And he, makes friends with Robbie because he's got one pint of whiskey left and he would really like some more. And it turns out, as we learned from Morbius earlier, Robbie can synthesize practically any material you need. [01:03:26] Ian: Yeah. [01:03:27] Matthew: So he, which just, he upsets cook the cook by drinking the last of his whiskey, but then analyzes it and produces 60 gallons [01:03:37] Ian: In, in bottles with the same label. [01:03:41] Matthew: Yes. He replicates the container. [01:03:43] Ian: Robbie's, Robbie's not just building alcohol, Robbie's running a bootlegging operation, but a bootlegging operation of synthesized material. That's exactly like the original. [01:03:58] Matthew: Is this a sequel idea? We'll, we'll talk about sequels later on, of course. Or the idea, but I dunno. Robbie and the cook [01:04:05] Ian: maybe [01:04:06] Matthew: kind of sounds like a seventies. Crime comedy, doesn't it? [01:04:10] Ian: It really does. The cook feels like he wandered in off of an episode of Lost in Space. [01:04:16] Matthew: Yes. And Lost in Space. Clearly owes a lot to this between the Oh, everything from the absolutely costuming to the, the design of the ship and everything else. [01:04:27] Ian: It's, uh, absolutely. But that's, that's the, that's a tonal dissonance that Yes, the ma the main problem there is like, this does not land the same. This is not lining up. [01:04:38] Matthew: And I think we might be coming to our final questions here. [01:04:42] Ian: I think we are. [01:04:44] Matthew: Well stick around for those final questions and our opinions about whether we recommend this movie, what we think might be done or should be done with this movie going forward. But first, if you are enjoying the Inter Millennium Media Project and the IMMP podcast, please go to immproject.com where you'll find a lot of things. You'll find all of our back episodes. If you want more of the, inter Millennium Media Project podcast, and you'll also find, ways to support the podcast. You go to our Patreon, you can get bonus audio content starting at $3 a month. If you join us at the movie club level, you'll get a mystery DVD in the mail periodically. [01:05:20] Ian: Yeah. [01:05:21] Matthew: Another way to, support us is to go to our shop that's also linked from immproject.com. And there you'll find t-shirts and coffee mugs, and notebooks and all kinds of fun things. And not just for fans of the podcast, but also about some of the things that we have talked about, like the prisoner and space 1999. And you'll also find ways to contact us. We would love to hear from you, whether it's on our discord or, comments on our YouTube page, which is also linked from immproject.com. Or you'll find a contact page there where you can email us and where you can send us honest to goodness mail via the US Postal Service. [01:06:00] Ian: Woo-hoo. [01:06:01] Matthew: But of course, the best way to support the podcast is let people know about it. share it with your friends, either, the audio version or the video versions that are on YouTube and, leave us reviews wherever it is you get your podcasts. So Ian, where can people find you? [01:06:19] Ian: I can be found as itemcrafting@itemcrafting.com or, itemcraftinglive on Twitch. I try to stream every Thursday playing a variety of games, making, props and items from what we've seen on the screen. I always happy I have someone join. Talk about whatever movies you've seen recently discuss the games and the media we're all enjoying. So, you know, come on over. We're always happy to have you. [01:06:44] Matthew: How about you, dad? I like the way you run those streams. The way, uh, you'll play a game and then you'll use your, your crafting abilities to create a trophy to celebrate the fact that you finished the game. I love that. [01:06:54] Ian: Oh, yeah. I'm always building, pieces for the armory. You gotta imagine these characters are carrying around hundreds of fun things. I just want one of them. Yeah. And how about you, dad? [01:07:07] Matthew: Well, you can find me, uh, as yes ByMatthewPorter most places, but best bet is to go to ByMatthewPorter.com. Where you'll find links to whatever I'm doing online. You'll also find a link to my YouTube page where I talk about movies and movie theaters and, sometimes travel. And also if you go to , bymatthewporter.com, you can sign up for my newsletter. So by getting the newsletter or keeping track of what's happening on the website, you can find out whatever new is going on. And I've got some really cool announcements coming up. So that's a great way to stay on top of those. [01:07:40] Ian: Huzzah!. [01:07:43] Matthew: So that, uh, that brings us to our final questions. It's a movie. So Yes, of course. That begins with screen or no screen. What are you recommending? [01:07:53] Ian: This is a screen. Oh my goodness. I said that I had a story about how I, for how I saw this movie or how I remember it. Yeah. And I want to tell that now, [01:08:01] Matthew: please. [01:08:02] Ian: So, I know I'd seen this movie much younger, but it had, I, it had slipped out of my memory. [01:08:08] Matthew: Mm-hmm. [01:08:09] Ian: So when I started in. College. I was enjoying a whole lot of, uh, YouTube and media stuff at the time, and one of those episodes got me to rewatch this movie. Oh, it's brilliant. It was, an episode of the, show by Kyle Kallgren Brows Held High, where he talks about Forbidden Planet and something that we didn't discuss here, the fact that it has a lot of similarities and a lot of callback to The Tempest by William Shakespeare, [01:08:42] Matthew: this is an adaptation of The Tempest clearly. [01:08:45] Ian: Absolutely. That episode of his YouTube channel was so good at explaining and discussing how well Forbidden Planet did. Its adaptation in that sense that I went over to the college library and rented the DVD copy to rewatch and I fell in love with the film all over again. I also fell in love. Here's a side thing with the bonus features. They have so much fun with it, and there's one that gets me every time, which is seeing some of the grand technological demonstrations, but without the special effects. [01:09:20] Matthew: Oh, yes. It just [01:09:21] Ian: is ridiculous. There's a delightful moment where we get to sell a doctor Edward Morbius, in the movie showing off like a matter, a disposal unit that they use for trash, but it just looks like he opens a closet and throws an orange in, and everyone stands around. [01:09:38] Matthew: That's become known around here as the fruit closet. [01:09:41] Ian: The fruit closet. Oh, let me show you - "kathunk". It's, it's excellent. It's kind of funny to put this on audio podcast where it's entirely a visual joke, even like. The, the fact that they've got all of these clips and scenes from before, there's so much to this. This is a foundational piece of sci-fi and it's excellently done. I fell in love with all over again, and I've enjoyed this movie ever since. So it was always going to be a screen for me because this is a movie that every time I come back to it, I find more to, like. [01:10:18] Matthew: There's so much that's influential, but it, and it's, and yet it's not a, well, you're better off watching the later things that this influenced, it still holds up on its own with the performances, even the effects and the visuals. It's fascinating to see. I definitely recommend it and it, but it, it was so influential. Just some of the ideas of this, this United Planets organization that is military in structure, yet scientific in goal. The, the interaction of these small groups of officers that we follow primarily, uh mm-hmm. Is. It works so well and it's been adapted to so many other things that it's definitely a screen for me. So that leaves our next question, which is, revive, reboot, or rest in peace. [01:11:08] Ian: How does one handle what has become a forbidden planet? I mean, do we acknowledge, uh. The sheer number of things in pop culture that reference it. Do we look at Robbie, the robot's, many, many appearances in everything from the Twilight Zone to the Banana splits. Wonder Woman, the man from uncle, he showed up in an episode of Lost In Space. Apparently [01:11:40] Matthew: The Blu-ray disc that I got for Forbidden Planet includes a complete feature film, the Invisible Boy, in which features Robbie the Robot, and also includes an episode of the Thin Man TV series titled The Robot Client. [01:12:01] Ian: Oh my goodness. Yeah, he's, he's, Robbie was on the Love Boat People. Robbie is the legacy in some ways of Forbidden Planet. Let's just be honest. [01:12:11] Matthew: We have seen Robbie before on the podcast, uh, talking about. Uh, project UFO, he showed up as an alien. [01:12:17] Ian: Yes. Showed [01:12:18] Matthew: up as an alien. [01:12:20] Ian: Uh, but there's also the name and Forbidden Planet is part of things like Rocky Horror Picture Show in one of its songs. There's a British jukebox musical that attempts to be a sequel called Return to the Forbidden Planet. [01:12:35] Matthew: Oh, that sounds frightening. [01:12:36] Ian: Oh, yeah. Produced in the, a jukebox musical of songs from the fifties and sixties produced in 83 in London. [01:12:49] Matthew: Oh, gosh. There's a lot packed into that description. [01:12:52] Ian: Yeah. Just that alone is going to like, I think that the, I think that the Forbidden Planet. Kind of diffused into popular culture instead of maintaining itself as a solid object that could be built upon. [01:13:10] Matthew: It's also the name of a great bookstore for comics and sci-fi. [01:13:14] Ian: Yes. So, so yeah. Not a sequel progression. [01:13:21] Matthew: I don't need a sequel to Forbidden Planet. [01:13:23] Ian: I don't really, yeah. [01:13:25] Matthew: If I had seen this when it came out in the 1950s and had the same kind of reaction to it, I could have, I could imagine being interested in more stories in this same setting. I wanna see, yeah. What Commander Adams and the crew of his Star Cruiser go onto next. What is their next adventure? What else do they explore? Or what else is happening? What is Earth like during this, far future time period? And yet. Forbidden Planet does not require that it is a wonderfully self-contained story. So, yeah, I, I'm not looking for a sequel. I'm definitely not looking for a, a reboot. I don't think this needs to be remade. With the possible exception of, the sexism inherent in this, story. Yeah. I don't know though what would've been improved by making it certainly not the filmmaking techniques. The way they used what they had in the fifties was great, and most of the screenwriting is great, so I wouldn't, change much there. [01:14:24] Ian: Yeah. I think that it's, I think that it's kind of, it's got its place and it doesn't need more. Yeah. I, it the, the, the legacy it has in science fiction is fine. People writing the C five seven D on. On things in the background of sets, Altair showing up and Altair four showing up in lists of planets and plenty of other things. [01:14:49] Matthew: Yep. [01:14:50] Ian: Uh, anytime, of course, Robbie, I mean, lines of all sorts. We'll reach DC point at 1 7 0 1. Every line of this has become a piece that someone gets to reference somewhere in a wonderful way. And I love that. [01:15:05] Matthew: So I, I say a rest in peace with the reminder that that does, that, it does not indicate a failing of this in any way. It is a, this is great just as it is. Don't need to do anything else. Let it be what it is and go watch it. [01:15:19] Ian: Exactly. But definitely go watch it. [01:15:24] Matthew: Oh, and this was a fun way to begin our little tour of some things that Leslie Nielsen has done. Because he, he does such a good job as Commander Adams he immediately has that commanding presence on screen. [01:15:40] Ian: I mean, yeah, he, he says so much, so much delightful energy. And he's, he's got such a presence. I'm excited. You know, what's, what's the next, you know, know grand moment of him being this, this heroic and stoic man? Are we gonna see next Dad? [01:15:56] Matthew: Well, I think that's gonna be really fun when we jump into the 1980s with, Leslie Nielsen next time. [01:16:04] Ian: Oh, this is gonna be some tonal whiplash of the best kind. [01:16:07] Matthew: Oh, yes. Oh yes. And like I say, I think for a lot of our listeners will be going into the stuff that he is, better known for in later generations. And we will be back to talk about that in a couple of weeks. [01:16:20] Ian: Until then, go find something new to watch.