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The Wild Blue Yonder

  • 20052005
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 20m
IMDb RATING
6.1/10
3.8K
YOUR RATING
The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
Sci-Fi
An alien narrates the story of his dying planet, his and his people's visits to Earth and Earth's man-made demise, while human astronauts attempt to find an alternate planet for surviving hu... Read allAn alien narrates the story of his dying planet, his and his people's visits to Earth and Earth's man-made demise, while human astronauts attempt to find an alternate planet for surviving humans to live on.An alien narrates the story of his dying planet, his and his people's visits to Earth and Earth's man-made demise, while human astronauts attempt to find an alternate planet for surviving humans to live on.
IMDb RATING
6.1/10
3.8K
YOUR RATING
    • Werner Herzog
    • Werner Herzog
  • Stars
    • Brad Dourif
    • Donald Williams
    • Ellen Baker
    • Werner Herzog
    • Werner Herzog
  • Stars
    • Brad Dourif
    • Donald Williams
    • Ellen Baker
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 56User reviews
    • 55Critic reviews
    • 65Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Photos6

    Brad Dourif in The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
    The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
    The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
    Brad Dourif in The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
    The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Brad Dourif
    Brad Dourif
    • The Alien
    Donald Williams
    • Astronaut Commander
    • (as Capt. Donald Williams)
    Ellen Baker
    • Astronaut physician
    • (as Dr. Ellen Baker)
    Franklin Chang-Diaz
    • Astronaut Plasma Physicist
    Shannon Lucid
    • Astronaut biochemist
    Michael McCulley
    • Astronaut pilot
    Roger Diehl
    • Mathematician
    Ted Sweetser
    • Mathematician
    Martin Lo
    • Mathematician
      • Werner Herzog
      • Werner Herzog
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Multiple formats were used throughout the film. Footage shot in space was on standard 16mm, the underwater nature footage was on a consumer grade SD digital camera and interview footage with the scientists as well as the scenes with the Alien were on digital HD. The final edit was composed into an unspecified digital format and transferred to 35mm.
    • Quotes

      The Alien: You know, our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfathers were fine scientists, but the journey was long and boring and when we got here, hundreds of hundreds and hundreds and hundreda and hundreds of years later, those of us who arrived here just... sucked.

    • Connections
      Featured in Was ich bin sind meine Filme - Teil 2... nach 30 Jahren (2010)
    • Soundtracks
      Bad News from Outer Space
      Performed by Ernst Reijseger

    User reviews56

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    An unique and fascinating sci-fi film as poetry even if it is hard work here and there
    When their planet started to die, an alien race set out to evacuate the Andromeda system to other places within the universe that were inhabitable. Several of their ships reached Earth several generations later but by then the founding fathers had died off and left behind a lesser generation. On arrival on Earth things did not go as well as they had planned – attempts to build themselves a capital city to rival Washington DC end with a crumbling, desert collection of ruins. Looking at the journey itself and the problems they encountered, a surviving alien recalls the whole thing.

    It would take a real talent to do it but if you were to take all the elements in the plot here you could easily produce an effects-heavy sci-fi epic that stretches over several films or books. So how much talent does it take to do just that using one actor, some expert contributors, underwater footage from under the ice flow and lots of stock footage? I'm not sure of the answer but the second way seems harder because it does deliver the goods in this fascinating film that dances along the line between interesting and pretentious. I found the story worked really well and the overall effect was to produce a sci-fi film as poetry, full of ideas and emotions. It is hard to describe but I found it effortlessly engaging and enjoyed it a great deal.

    Of course the delivery was always going to be challenging and I can understand why it has got such a low rating on this very site. It is not a Hollywood sci-fi film, in fact it is not an easy film to put into a box and sell in such a marketplace because it is so unique. The direction is very daring and mostly works because the writing is there to do it. The dialogue is the story and it is very well delivered by Dourif to the point where he is never less than fascinating due to his words but also his convincing delivery of those words. The use of stock footage and locations that are very non-sci-fi are carried by Dourif's story telling but the problems come when he is absent for longer than a few minutes. Extended footage of diving below the ice sheet is interesting but it is the same thing over and over so, without a narrator to move us on and keep us interested, I felt that the film got close to boring. Fortunately this only happens a handful of times. The musical score is again very unusual for sci-fi but it does capture a strange sort of otherworldy sombre air.

    Overall then this will probably put most viewers off very quickly. It is as much a piece of poetry as it is a piece of cinema and it is certainly not what you expect from a "sci-fi epic" although that is unquestionably what the story is. At times boring, the film is generally very engaging and interesting and it is well worth checking out to experience it as much as anything else.
    helpful•59
    8
    • bob the moo
    • Sep 25, 2005

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 15, 2007 (United Kingdom)
      • Germany
      • France
      • Austria
      • United Kingdom
      • Werner Herzog Filmproduktion (Eglish, French, German)
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
    • Production companies
      • Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
      • West Park Pictures Produktion
      • Tétra Média
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 20 minutes
      • Black and White
      • Color
      • Stereo

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