“Man does not look into the face of the Gorgon and live.”
A colony of settlers comprising mostly of scientists were sent to a planet called Altair IV. When communication with the planet abruptly stops an expedition is sent from Earth to discover what happened. Upon approaching the planet a communiqué from the planet orders them to go away. Commander J.J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) takes his orders from Earth. He lands the spaceship on Altair IV.
A robot (Robby) is sent out to the space ship to ferry them to the main installation. Adams brings with him Lt Jerry Farman (Jack Kelly) and Lt. “Doc” Ostrow (Warren Stevens). When they arrive they meet Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon). Morbius is cordial, but distant. He tells the commander that one by one every one of the colonists was killed by a planetary force. At one point only he, his wife and their infant daughter were immune. Eventually his wife died of natural causes. Morbius and his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) are now the only people left on the planet.
Morbius tells the astronauts about the civilization that use to inhabit the planet. A race called the Krell. They were a race of geniuses that lived in a massive scientific complex underground. They destroyed themselves sometime in the ancient past. Apparently aliens can experience hubris too. Their technology still remains, but there is no one that can operate it. The only remaining indication of what happened to the Krell is the mysterious force that is still present. A force that begins to attack the astronauts. A force that Morbius and Altaira may no longer be protected from.
“Forbidden Planet” was released in 1956 and was directed by Fred M. Wilcox. What’s so special about it? It has a way of blending science fact with science imagination. The combination of all three sciences, Formal (mathematics, linguistics), Natural (cosmology, physical, biological) and Social (human behavior, psychology) while still being just plain entertaining. Toss in a cool robot and Anne Francis and you got yourself a hit.
There are a lot of things that need to come together in order to make an all time classic science fiction movie. “Forbidden Planet” has basically all of them. A great cast. (Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis et al.) Cool music. (tonalities by Bebe and Louis Barron) A time tested plot. (Shakespeare) Great looking sets. (MGM) A robot. (Robby $125,000) And an awesome title. (Forbidden Planet)
There are a few movies that helped to bring science fiction and horror genres into the “A” movie arena. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” 1951 “War of the Worlds” 1953, “This Island Earth” 1955 and “Forbidden Planet” 1956, just to name a few. Without them, and the chances that the filmmakers took, there would be no “Star Trek”, “Star Wars”, “Close Encounters”, “Avatar” or “Alien”, No Gene Roddenberry, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, or Ridley Scott. These early movies transformed the science fiction industry. They sparked the imagination of young minds. Kids who grew up and transformed that spark into ground breaking movies of fantastic alien worlds and creatures. Kids that went one step further and actually believed we could go to these wonderful places. Would we even have gotten to the moon without the inspiration of others who said “outer space is the place to be and we can go there”?