The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) on Netflix
G19511h 32mDramaSci-FiThriller
A saucer lands in Washington, D.C., and a visitor named Klaatu steps out with a robot, Gort, bearing a message for Earth's leaders. Wounded by a soldier, he hides among ordinary people.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.7/1089,385 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
A saucer sets down on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and the Army rings it with soldiers and tanks. A humanoid figure in a spacesuit steps out and says he arrives in peace; while he is opening a small device meant as a gift for the President, a frightened soldier shoots him. A giant robot, Gort, comes out of the saucer and destroys the soldiers' weapons until Klaatu orders it to stop. Treated at a hospital, Klaatu tells the President's secretary, Mr. Harley, that his message has to reach all the world's leaders at once, and Harley calls that impossible. Klaatu slips away, takes a suit whose laundry ticket reads Maj. Carpenter, and rents a room in a boarding house, where he meets the widow Helen Benson and her son Bobby.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Gort was played by Lock Martin, an usher at Grauman's Chinese Theatre who stood seven feet and seven inches tall; because the two foamed neoprene suits were confining and heat-inducing, director Robert Wise limited his shooting to half-hour intervals.
SPOILER
Producer Julian Blaustein said the film censor Joseph Breen objected to Klaatu's resurrection and limitless power, so at the MPAA's request a line was written in which Klaatu says Gort revived him only temporarily and that "that power is reserved to the Almighty Spirit."- Spencer Tracy and Claude Rains originally were considered for the part of Klaatu, while top broadcast journalists of their time, Elmer Davis, H.V. Kaltenborn, Drew Pearson and Gabriel Heatter, had cameo roles.
- The United States Department of Defense refused participation in the film after reading the script; the military vehicles, equipment and soldiers instead came from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment then stationed at Fort Meade.
- Since the film's release the phrase "Klaatu barada nikto" has appeared repeatedly in fiction and popular culture; the Robot Hall of Fame called it "one of the most famous commands in science fiction", and Frederick S. Clarke of Cinefantastique in 1970 called it "the most famous phrase ever spoken by an extraterrestrial".
- Ringo Starr used a modified scene of the ship and Klaatu for the cover of his 1974 album Goodnight Vienna; Lou Cannon and Colin Powell believed the film inspired Ronald Reagan to discuss uniting against an alien invasion when meeting Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985.
- Bernard Herrmann scored the film with unusual instrumentation including two theremins played by Dr. Samuel Hoffman and Paul Shure, two Hammond organs, three vibraphones and four tubas; his use of the theremin was an early foray into electronic music, one year before Karlheinz Stockhausen.
