Tag: Forbidden Planet

Not So Forbidden Planet

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Dr. Morbius – Young man, my daughter is going to be terribly punished for what she just said.

J J Adams – Dr Morbius, don’t you understand it’s your subconscious that is responsible for all this death and destruction?

Dr. Morbius – What, me harm my own daughter.

J J Adams – Well, look at those gages.  Your subconscious monster will use whatever amount of unlimited power it takes to break through that door.

Dr. Morbius – I’m helpless to stop this terrible power.

Altaira – John please do something.

J J Adams – Alright I will.  (draws his sidearm and fatally wounds Dr Morbius who falls to the ground)

(The gages of the Krell machine quickly settle down to minimal levels and the door that was white hot cools visibly.)

Dr. Morbius – Son, throw that switch.

J J Adams – What will it do?

Dr. Morbius – It will initiate a chain reaction inside the Krell thermonuclear power plants that will unstoppably consume the planet in a miniature nova.  The Krell technology is too dangerous for humanity.  It must be destroyed.

J J Adams – Sorry Dr Morbius, I disagree.  The technology they possessed was too dangerous for them and for you.  But we’ll harvest the Krell knowledge without unleashing any subconscious monsters and I predict we’ll do just fine.

(Morbius expires)

Altaira – John, what do we do now?

J J Adams – Our first problem is how to get out of here.  That door will be cool soon but it’s probably permanently welded shut.  I’ll contact my crew and we’ll provide a funeral ceremony for your father and Doc.  Afterwards we’ll get back in touch with Earth and begin the start of the project to decipher the Krell technology.  That will be the largest step change in human knowledge since the discovery of the faster than light drive.  It will take tens of thousands of scientists and engineers centuries to mine all of the knowledge here.

Altaira – But what will become of me?

J J Adams – That depends on what you want to do.  If you want to stay on Altair IV, you will have many opportunities to press your legal right to some kind of remuneration for the government’s seizure of the Krell technology.  I’d say you may end up as one of the wealthiest humans in the galaxy.

Altaira – But what about us?

J J Adams – Well Alta, a starship captain doesn’t make enough of a salary to impress an heiress but if you can wait a year for a wedding I can most probably wangle a desk job on Altair IV and we can see whether your interest in biology is strictly academic or not.

Altaira – I’ll wait for you John.  I don’t want to leave my home.  But with my father gone I need someone to help me figure out my future.

J J Adams – Well, as I said I’ll be stuck here indefinitely while the military secures the Krell infrastructure.  So, you’ll get a chance to get to know me when I’m not killing your relatives or fighting invisible monsters.

(They embrace, kiss and then begin the search for a way out.)

Forbidden Planet – The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? – OCF Classic Movie Reviews

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A lot of stuff has been said about what makes Forbidden Planet such an important sci-fi movie.  The ground-breaking special effects, the plot element of a human military vessel exploring space that would spawn the endless iterations of the Star Ship Enterprise.  And of course, there’s the classical angle.  Supposedly the plot is an update of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”

So, there’s all that good stuff.  But to my mind the real reason can be summed up in two words, Anne Francis.  When the angelic face of Miss Francis first appears on screen I began to see the movie in the correct light.  This was an epic adventure story that rivalled the Odyssey of Homer for timelessness and meaning.  Now the fact that I was a sixteen-year old boy at the time probably colored my thought processes to some extent and the skimpiness of her costumes might even have had something to do with it.  But let’s face it, giant ants can only get you so far.  If you want to keep the natives from getting restless you have to appeal to their most powerful motivations and if a blonde-haired, blue eyed creature with a very pretty face and extremely long shapely unclad legs is brought center stage, suddenly even the acting skills of Leslie Nielsen seem greatly enhanced and worth a fair hearing.

But now that I’m in my dotage and no longer as easily swayed by a pretty face, I’ve had a chance to re-evaluate the movie.  Surprisingly, I’m still a big fan.  And this is despite the obvious weaknesses that are extremely evident in such an old film.  The dialog has some extremely cliché-ridden exchanges including:

  • The captain tells off the young woman because her uninhibited interest in the young men in his crew will be a distraction from military discipline.
  • Morbius displays the stereotypical arrogance of the academic intellectual toward the practical military authorities.
  • The banter provided by the ship’s cook is the comic relief that would seem right at home in an Abbott and Costello movie.

So what makes it good?  Well, the humans are mostly likeable and admirable.  The plot unwinds in a manner that allows for the gradual reveal of the mystery.  Of course, the who of the question is answered long before the why and how of the problem.  But the details provide reinforcement of the underlying lesson to learn.  We are reminded that smarter isn’t the same as perfect.

And the special effects are still pretty good.  The animation of the Krell infrastructure impresses the viewer with the gargantuan scope of the installation.  The humans walking through it literally look like ants at one point.

And finally, the interaction between the isolated inhabitants of this dream world and the crew of the no-nonsense military vessel is classic.  It reminds you of the stories that portray the first contact between Europeans and the South Sea Islands.  The sailors always have a feeling they have somehow discovered paradise with its idyllic climate, scantily clad, friendly women and tropical fruit. The military men are enthralled with how favorably it compares to the boring, spartan existence of their all-male naval vessel.

Are there problems with the story?  Yes.  Morbius seems a little too dense for a brilliant scientist.  The resolution of the crisis at the end is a little jarring.  The solution is quite heavy handed.  But all in all, it’s a pretty neat story.  I think it indicates why the Star Trek series was so popular.  But I think it also shows why the later tv series were less interesting.  The adventure and discovery aspects became less of a focus as the Enterprise became less of a military/exploration vessel and more of a social worker/nanny vehicle to the stars.