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The Day the Earth Stood Still

  • 1951
  • G
  • 1h 32m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
88K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,333
788
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Watch the trailer for the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Play trailer1:08
1 Video
99+ Photos
Alien InvasionSpace Sci-FiDramaSci-Fi

An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.

  • Director
    • Robert Wise
  • Writers
    • Edmund H. North
    • Harry Bates
  • Stars
    • Michael Rennie
    • Patricia Neal
    • Hugh Marlowe
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.7/10
    88K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    3,333
    788
    • Director
      • Robert Wise
    • Writers
      • Edmund H. North
      • Harry Bates
    • Stars
      • Michael Rennie
      • Patricia Neal
      • Hugh Marlowe
    • 512User reviews
    • 145Critic reviews
    • 83Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 wins & 1 nomination total

    Videos1

    The Day the Earth Stood Still: Trailer
    Trailer 1:08
    The Day the Earth Stood Still: Trailer

    Photos201

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    + 194
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    Top cast99+

    Edit
    Michael Rennie
    Michael Rennie
    • Klaatu
    Patricia Neal
    Patricia Neal
    • Helen Benson
    Hugh Marlowe
    Hugh Marlowe
    • Tom Stevens
    Sam Jaffe
    Sam Jaffe
    • Professor Jacob Barnhardt
    Billy Gray
    Billy Gray
    • Bobby Benson
    Frances Bavier
    Frances Bavier
    • Mrs. Barley
    Lock Martin
    • Gort
    Patrick Aherne
    • General at Pentagon
    • (uncredited)
    Larry Arnold
    • Scientific Delegate
    • (uncredited)
    Walter Bacon
    • Sightseer at Spaceship
    • (uncredited)
    Rama Bai
    Rama Bai
    • Scientific Delegate
    • (uncredited)
    Oscar Blank
    • Peddler
    • (uncredited)
    Marshall Bradford
    Marshall Bradford
    • Chief of Staff
    • (uncredited)
    Chet Brandenburg
    Chet Brandenburg
    • Farmer
    • (uncredited)
    John Brown
    • George Barley
    • (uncredited)
    John Burton
    • British Radio Announcer
    • (uncredited)
    Wheaton Chambers
    Wheaton Chambers
    • Mr. Bleeker
    • (uncredited)
    Spencer Chan
    Spencer Chan
    • Scientific Delegate
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Robert Wise
    • Writers
      • Edmund H. North
      • Harry Bates
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews512

    7.787.9K
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    Featured reviews

    J. Spurlin

    A science fiction classic that beautifully melds the ordinary and the fantastic

    This science fiction classic is more relevant than ever, and I don't mean its silly message about peace. Yes, yes, we're all violent, silly, war-like humans, and we should all throw away our guns and atomic bombs posthaste if we know what's good for us. Thanks, Klaatu. We'll get right on that. Meanwhile, we'll enjoy the chance to watch your story on DVD because we live in an age – yes, of war and cruelty and weapons of mass destruction – but also of Jar Jar Binks and "Alien vs. Predator."

    Klaatu (Michael Rennie) is a gentlemanly outer-space alien who comes to earth in his flying saucer to send us Earthlings a very important message. Sadly, we shoot him on arrival and try to imprison him in a hospital room. He escapes, however, and goes out among us to find the basis for our "strange, unreasoning attitudes." He takes a room in a boarding house, where he meets the widowed Mrs. Benson (Patricia Neal) and her young son (Billy Gray). The widow is being romanced by an insurance salesman (Hugh Marlowe), who later displays a lust for glory that endangers Klaatu – and thus the rest of the world. Klaatu is in better hands when he reveals himself to Professor Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), a brilliant scientist and the best hope for the survival of Earth.

    It's funny, but I never think about this movie in terms of that plot outline. To me, this film is composed of small moments about people – especially Mrs. Benson. Mention "The Day the Earth Stood Still" to me, and the first thing I think about is that moment where the strange new boarder tells her that he'd like to spend the day with her son. She hesitates a moment and says in a lowered voice, "Well, that's awfully nice of you to suggest it." It's a tiny moment about her concern for her son, her good manners and her intelligent ability to reply quickly and diplomatically. Patricia Neal, not Gort the robot, makes this movie come alive for me.

    The real reason this story is so fresh is because – it's a good story. It's not an excuse to slap us senseless with fast-paced cutting or drown us in great globs of special effects. It has an engaging plot with warm, interesting characters. If we stupidly (and as you know, Klaatu, we humans can be so very stupid) limit ourselves to the New Releases section of the video store, we forget that some sci-fi thrillers put story before special effects.

    The trick work in this movie is excellent, though. I think the robot looks silly, but when Gort opens its visor and we hear that unnerving theremin music, we don't care that this supposedly metallic creature bends like Styrofoam at the knees. We know those laser beams eyes are about to scorch everything in their sight.

    Michael Rennie makes up for Gort's deficiencies. He gives what easily could have been a humorless, sanctimonious character a quiet, graceful authority. His slightly otherworldly looks add to the illusion; and Neal as Mrs. Benson completes it by reacting to him with obvious respect – even when she fears him.

    Under Robert Wise's direction, every shot is strikingly composed and brings out the maximum dramatic potential of the story. The sense of rhythm and pacing is beautifully suspenseful. Bernard Herrmann, with the theremin as one of his instruments, gives the movie both a nervous tension and a sense of wonder. And the story is so perfectly constructed that it even gets away with a big speech for a climax.

    What's the heart of this movie? There's a bravura sequence where Billy Gray secretly follows Rennie from the boarding house to his spaceship. It's a simple, wordless scene where the entire team of filmmakers – and that goes double for Herrmann – meld the ordinary and the fantastic. You want a special effect? That's it.
    8Xstal

    The Altruistic Alien...

    A spacecraft makes its way towards the earth, it's like a saucer with a rounded, curving girth, when it lands, a man descends, he comes in peace, wants to make friends, and then he's shot, because of difference, we're averse. A robot then appears and shows its power, disintegrating weapons, with its glower, but the alien assailed, gets the giant to curtail, though the sentiment is clear for all to see. It's not too long before the foreigner has gone, assimilating to a world gone wrong, finding out about mankind, finding out how we're so blind, to trajectories that lead to our extinction.

    I don't think the message is any different all these years later, just more pertinent.
    Snow Leopard

    Interesting In Itself & As A Reflection of Its Era

    Interesting both in itself and as a reflection of its era, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" may seem unspectacular now to those who are used to the extravagant science fiction pictures of the present time, but it deserves its place as a cinema classic. The story is worthwhile in itself, and as soon as you set aside any preconceptions about what science fiction should involve, it also builds up some pretty good drama and suspense. Its perspective is also interesting to see as a reflection of the concerns of its era, which have such obvious similarities with those of the present.

    The story itself sometimes moves rather slowly, and the focus is really more on the reactions to Klaatu's arrival than on the action itself. As Klaatu, Michael Rennie stays pretty low-key, as does the rest of the cast much of the time. Although there are times when the movie might lack some energy as a result, in general it probably works better that way than it would have if there were too much forced emphasis on the urgency of Klaatu's mission, which is more than able to speak for itself. The ideas behind the story are fairly simple, but they are, of course, just as significant now (or in practically any other era) as they were in the 1950's.
    10TheLittleSongbird

    Timeless and influential

    I love a good sci-fi movie as much as the next person, and I do have some favourites of the genre, Alien, Blade Runner, Empire Strikes Back, Metropolis and 2001:A Space Odyssey are wonderful movies, and like The Day the Earth Stood Still they not only have an influence on other movies of the genre and in general but also timeless classics in many more ways than one. The Day The Earth Stood Still has been a favourite since I first saw it and I still at 18 hold it in great regard. It still looks wonderful for its time, the effects and designs are wonderfully composed if purposefully simple and the cinematography is exemplary. Bernard Hermann's score is tense and wondrous, the script is deft, Robert Wise's direction is superb and while it has some solemn philosophical aspects and some heavy-handed symbolism neither of which are flaws in any way the story is compelling from start to finish. The acting is also impressive, Lock Martin is good as giant Gort but the real revelation is Michael Rennie's authoritative, dignified and sympathetic Klatu. Overall, a sci-fi masterpiece. 10/10 Bethany Cox
    ErnestPWorrell

    My FIRST sci-fi movie!

    When I first saw this movie (on television circa 1957)I was just a young child four years of age. I remember sitting on my father's lap and watched the whole thing through my fingers as I held my hands over my eyes for protection (yeah...right!). Gort and Klaatu were magnificent space travelers...and with a message of peace during a time that the Soviets and U.S. were deep into the 'cold war'. Very timely! Very scary! It spooked me then and I still get a chill watching the movie today. But, it's one of the classics that will live on forever! It's message is as meaningful today as it was back in the 50's. Maybe we should all watch it again and take notes.........

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Lock Martin, the doorman at Grauman's Chinese Theater, was cast because of his nearly seven-foot height; however, he was not a physically strong man and could not actually carry Patricia Neal, so he had to be aided by wires (in shots from the back where he's carrying her (actually a lightweight dummy in his arms). He also had difficulty with the heavy Gort suit and could only stay in it for about a half hour at a time.
    • Goofs
      Klaatu arranges to have the electromagnetic fields neutralized from 12.00 pm to 12:30 pm EST, yet it is clearly broad daylight in every country in which people are struggling with inoperative devices. In Asia and the Middle East, it should've been nightfall during this time frame.
    • Quotes

      Helen: Gort. Klaatu barada nikto. Klaatu barada nikto.

    • Crazy credits
      Elmer Davis, H.V. Kaltenborn, and Drew Pearson identify themselves when they appear on screen. Radio personality Gabriel Heatter is identified by an announcer.
    • Connections
      Edited into The Giant Claw (1957)

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    FAQ25

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    • What is 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' about?
    • Is 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' based on a book?
    • From what planet did Klaatu originate?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 20, 1951 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
      • Hindi
      • Russian
    • Also known as
      • El día que paralizaron la Tierra
    • Filming locations
      • The Ellipse, National Mall, Washington, District of Columbia, USA(landing of the flying suacer on the oval)
    • Production company
      • Twentieth Century Fox
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $1,200,000 (estimated)
    • Gross worldwide
      • $651
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 32 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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