Low-budget sci-fi fun
Directed by Ib Melchior
Produced by Sidney W. Pink, Norman Maurer
Screenplay by Sidney W. Pink, Ib Melchior
Based on Original story by Sidney W. Pink
Music by Paul Dunlap
Cinematography: Stanley Cortez
Edited by Ivan J. Hoffman
Production company: Sino Productions
Distributed by: Sino Productions (originally), American International Pictures
Running time: 83-87 minutes
Budget: $200,000
Cast
Gerald Mohr as Colonel Thomas O’Bannion
Naura Hayden
as Dr. Iris "Irish" Ryan
Les Tremayne as
Professor Theodore Gettell
Jack Kruschen
as Chief Warrant Officer Sam Jacob
Paul Hahn as Major General George Treegar
J. Edward McKinley as Professor Paul Weiner
Tom Daly as Dr. Frank Gordon
Don Lamond as TV Newscaster/Martian Voice
Edward Innes as Brigadier General Alan Prescott
Gordon Barnes as Major Lyman Ross
Jack Haddock a Lt. Colonel Davis
Brandy Bryan as Nurse Hayes
Joan Fitzpatrick as Nurse Dixon
Arline Hunter as Joan
Alean Hamilton as Joan's Friend
Trailer
The first spaceship to Mars!
Presumed lost!
Now found in space and remotely returned to Earth!
Only two of the original crew of four are still alive!
One survivor remains unconscious!
An alien growth on his arm!
The other survivor has blocked out all memory of what happened!
The race is now on to...
Save the unconscious crewman
and….
Help the amnesiac crew-mate to remember what happened back on…..
What If?…...
Imagine an alternate reality world of 1959 where humanity has made the necessary technological strides allowing it to probe beyond the confines of our planet’s atmosphere. The global war that occupied most of the first decade of their 20th Century ushered in many technological developments that have been incorporated into space exploration and rocketry, not to mention nuclear power and weaponry. There has been no space race as such and yet the moon has been firmly within mankind’s grasp for quite a few years now. Sights are now set for the next great adventure –
The first manned landing on the surface of Mars!
Their own President Roosevelt set the goal for landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1930s. It was later the turn of their president Eisenhower to set about realizing his predecessor, Truman’s wish to achieve a manned landing on the planet Mars by the end of the 1950s. Added to this was the assembly of an international space station in 1955 to aid with humanity’s conquest of space. Clear and decisive goals had been set for mankind’s exploration of space.
For years scientists on that alternate reality world have speculated about what would be found on the planet Mars. It had been conjectured for instance that there would be signs of liquid water on Mars either in the form of ice or even trickling or flowing water on crater walls and cliffs particularly during summertime. Mars they believe may have once had flowing rivers, large bodies of water and even oceans, but that most of the water has been lost due to the planet’s thin atmosphere. Some hold out hope that large deposits of water lay just beneath the surface of Mars.
There was consensus among astronomers that Mars has the largest dust storms in the solar system that can last for months and cover the entire planet, and that the red colour that Mars is known for and named after when referred to as the “Red Planet,” is most likely due to the rock and dust covering its surface being rich in iron.
Scientists are quite confident that surface temperatures would likely range from -153 to 20 °C. and that human beings would not be able to breathe without an oxygen tank due to the thin atmosphere composed primarily, it is believed, of carbon dioxide.
It was known that the Martian year as on our Earth’s neighbour is the equivalent of 687 Earth days - almost twice as long as an Earth year. Also like our own Mars, the days last just 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth.
Future astronauts to Mars were warned to be careful when jumping for joy because the Martian surface gravity would most likely be only 37% of the Earth’s. They would be able to leap nearly three times higher than on Earth!
As for life on Mars? Most of the scientific community agreed that there may have been life present on Mars in the planet’s past. Most likely it was in the form of microbial life-forms. It had been suggested that perhaps such life-forms still exist in niches on the planet’s surface.
As for advanced intelligent life-forms - Martians? The very idea has long been rejected outright by orthodox science. To suggest anything else would have been considered pure science fiction. That did not stop many people thinking that the ideas concerning Mars put forward by scientists and astronomers were merely fanciful or outright deception. Then again such people tended to proclaim that the earth is flat and is the center of the universe and that the moon landings of the 1930s and construction of a moon base in the ‘40s were part of an elaborate hoax!
The more ardent fans of science fiction and those pseudo-scientific extreme fringe-dwellers have held fast to the idea that the surface of Mars is crisscrossed by artificially constructed canals that are used by an advanced civilization to convey water from the poles to their cities.
Then there are the alternate Earth’s nut-jobs. According to them, their version of Mars is populated by monstrous aliens whose sole intent appears to be the launching of an invasion of earth due to their Mars becoming a dying inhospitable planet.
Strangely enough, the few robotic craft that were sent to the red planet failed to function properly. Communication with the craft ceased abruptly possibly due to them crashing onto the planet’s surface, missing the planet entirely or some kind of electrical component malfunction.
As far as Mars was concerned, there was only one way to find out. The manned Rocketship MR-1 mission would hopefully settle matters once and for all!
Spoilers follow below....
The Meeting
It is night time in this alternate world’s Washington, DC. as we see a limousine being escorted to the Pentagon by police motorcycles. Two military officers exit the vehicle and walk in brisk and efficient military fashion to a conference room where Major General George Treegar convenes a meeting.
Treegar reports that at 0.300 that morning, the expeditionary Rocketship MR-1 to Mars was detected drifting in orbit around the Earth “some 90.000 miles out in space” by Mount Palomar after being lost for 61 days. As “all attempts to establish communication have failed so far,” he proposes to retrieve the rocket and return it safely to Earth. Brig. General Alan Prescott responds by stating, "That's a tall order, George." It is not known if there is anyone alive on board and contact with the ship ceased two months earlier when it entered Mars orbit. It was assumed that the ship had crashed but obviously it hadn't.
Attention is drawn to the fact that “recording instruments on that ship contain priceless information covering the entire trip.” If the ship’s robot control systems can be remotely triggered from earth, they will be able to “send the ship homing for the Nevada base.”
Nevada Base: The Return Of the MR-1
Inside the control room, the ship is picked up on the radar telescope screen and is remotely returned to Earth. Its imminent landing in Nevada at 9.12 pm raises questions which are posed in newspaper headlines:
"Is Mars Rocket Crew Alive?"
TV News Broadcast
“The answers to this and the many other questions posed by anxious officials may come tonight, when an attempt will be made to land the Mars rocket ship at a remote air force base in Nevada.
There is still the question of fuel--does the ship have enough fuel left for a safe deceleration? Or will it burn up in our atmosphere like a blazing meteor? The world waits with suspense to learn the fate of the ship's crew of 4, seen here in newsreel shots prior to the departure of the MR-1.
The prayers of a grateful nation tonight will be offered in the hope that these four survived their history-making flight.”
“That thing up there--it's a flying coffin”
When Prof. Weiner comforts Dr Ryan who is in a weakened and shocked state and tells her everything possible will be done for O'Bannion, she replies, "how can anyone cope with that?" Attached to O’Bannion’s arm is some kind of hideous fungal growth!
Shielded from view behind a screen, O'Bannion who is running a high temperature is undergoing treatment. Dr. Frank Gordon has administered a sedative to keep his patient quiet. The doctor admits that he is stumped as to what are they are up against. All that is known is that the infection is spreading rapidly but the disease cannot be combated until they learn “how or by what he was infected.” Until then the doctor declares,“we're working in the dark.”
Since all of the rocket’s taped logs have been erased by exposure to a powerful magnetic field, the only hope is for them to break through Dr. Ryan’s shock-induced amnesia and for her to tell them how O’Bannion contracted the disease in the first place.
As Dr. Ryan rests in a hospital bed, Treegar asks her to start telling her story from the beginning………
“The takeoff was as we expected. We reached escape velocity, and Tom cut in the steady 1-G acceleration rockets. We were all in high spirits as we finished our flight-check……...”
We soon noticed that the radiation count was jumping which we attributed to an approaching radioactive meteor. “Both the radar scope pattern and the erratic gamma-count fit.” Visual examination by Sam and myself at the view window confirmed its approach. It did come close on an intersecting course, but managed to miss the ship with an adequate margin of safety.
From the view window we could see the planet Mars in the distance. Sam performed a routine radio check while professor Gettell took notes. While Sam and the professor had a nap, Tom and I took the first watch.
Everything was pretty much routine. One might say “on course, on schedule. Condition A.” Meals, cleaning, checks and more checks. Chit chat and banter. For me there was a bit of apprehension though. Even the term, “The angry red planet” sounded “so foreboding” along with Mars being associated with the “ancient God of war.” I even began to “wonder if some things aren't better unknown.”
On Day 47 Sam reported that we were orbiting Mars and we then began to make our descent onto the planet’s surface. After we safely landed, we opened the view plate and turned on the outside microphones. All that greeted our eyes and ears was an eerie stillness and silence as if everything seemed to be waiting….
We soon shook off the feeling and continued with the work of the mission: micro counts, atmospheric composition analysis, temperature and so on. It was soon obvious that much of the immediate surface area consisted of lush vegetation tinged with a red colour like everything else on the planet. We even anticipated seeing 5-armed Ongolas – the type of Martian monsters found in Sam’s trashy science fiction magazines! Sounds silly, I know...
We discovered that we had landed near the Martian equator and determined that the atmosphere was thin but did contain oxygen, “not enough oxygen to sustain us, but undoubtedly enough for some kind of native animal life.” We supposed that the thin atmosphere accounted for the silence and lack of movement of the plants. We began to wonder if it could’ve been intentional. It just didn’t seem natural as if it were being controlled! If so, then by what?
We decided to suit up and explore outside. As we prepared to do so, I chanced to look outside through the port view-window and was horrified to see………
I woke up to find myself on the ship surrounded by the rest of the crew. They asked me about what I had seen and I said, “it was like a huge distorted face, with--with three bulging eyes. It was obvious they didn’t believe me as there was nothing there or anything moving at all.
Tom and the professor decided to go outside and leave Sam and me back on the ship. No way that was going to happen. All four of us wound up venturing outside the ship. What we saw outside on the surface of Mars was like a weird hallucinogenic assault on our senses. We were confronted with a landscape of strange plants and it was as if everything-and I mean EVERYTHING-were tinted red! The whole effect was that of an eerily silent, blurry, distorted and above all ANGRY world.
Sam brought along a new weapon, an ultrasonic freeze gun. In fact he seemed to have developed a rather disturbing fondness for and attachment to it! Anyway, he tested it by firing it at a plant. A piece of the plant was knocked off and the sound it made was like breaking glass.
We then headed off into what I would describe as a jungle and set about taking some pictures and examining the plant life. It soon became obvious that the specimens had “all the characteristics of plant life, but hardly any chlorophyll” and that there seemed to be” indications of--of a nervous system!”
My scientific and natural curiosity led me to pick up a vine and follow it to see from where it originated. Tom kept on acting in a protective manner as if he thought I was some kind of a hysterical female despite the fact that such silly gender notions had disappeared by the end of the 19th century. After all, women have been a part of the space program from the very beginning and as a female astronaut and specialist I was more than capable of looking after myself! Or so I thought…..
The vine soon led me to what looked like a gigantic Venus fly-trap. As I set about examining the plant, one of its arms or tendrils wrapped itself around me and pulled me towards its mouth. Tom heard my screams for help and came and hacked at the plant with a machete. Once I was free, Sam fired at the plant with his ultrasonic freeze gun which he named "Cleopatra."
After we composed ourselves, Professor Gettell explained that the plant which almost had me for its lunch was “more than just a plant.” It was "a low form of neuromuscular vegetal creature." It seems that species of Martian flora is plant-like in its cellular structure, possessing both rudimentary muscular and nervous systems that allow it to move and control its tendrils.
We then decided to return to the ship and call it a day. Rather ominously, Professor Gettell suspected that we were being observed, that some kind of control was being exerted over the plants and causing the “quiet and lack of motion” and there was “some purpose behind it all.” We even inferred the existence of a “super-intelligent community mind” controlling all life on Mars, something “like the inexplicable, mysterious control which keeps a colony of ants functioning in perfect unity... on earth.”
We soon noticed that our contact with earth was an hour late. All we kept getting was dead air but there was nothing wrong with our equipment. We then discovered to our dismay that our radio transmissions were being bounced back, leaving us out of contact with Earth. It turned out that it was “some ionized layer in the Martian atmosphere, keeping those radio waves from going through.”
Despite our predicament we were determined to stay the full 5 days on Mars. Five days in a “nightmare of unending silence.” We all felt it!
The next morning we departed the ship on a second exploration mission. This time we exited the jungle and entered a more arid area. We then came across a group of peculiar trees that looked like nothing we had so far seen. Tom and I went over to them for a closer look and I used my machete to remove what appeared to be a dead branch.
Well this “branch” was apparently attached to a “tree” that screeched and moved! What is it about me that seems to attract monsters? Well, this particular monster looked as if it was a cross between a rat, a bat and a spider! Not only that, it was 40 feet tall!
The giant creature strode over Tom and I and approached professor Gettell who managed to get himself wedged between two large rocks. Sammy fired his beloved Cleopatra at the creature, but it had no effect. It took a shot to the creature’s eyes to blind it, causing it to retreat screeching in agony.
As we didn’t have much more time for exploring, we decided not to return to the ship and instead continue with our exploration of this alien world. We were curious to see what was on the other side of a ridge and we were soon rewarded by the discovery of a lake. It had, however, “that same feeling of deadness,” despite having “no abnormal radiation.” It seems that “there's water on Mars after all, besides the polar icecaps.” It felt kind of oily and seemed “heavier than ordinary water.” We speculated that “it probably has an entirely different mineral content” and most likely “couldn't sustain life, at least not life as we know it.”
We agreed to return the next day with a boat. As we departed the area, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched, watched by…...something.
Back inside the ship, we discussed the day's events and finally decided to abort the mission that night. Professor Gettell was quite convinced there was something dangerous observing us. The “orders from General Treegar were to take no unnecessary chances.” We had fulfilled our mission and landed on Mars. We had collected a lot of information, “plenty to prepare for the next expedition.” All that remained was for us to “prepare for blastoff.”
We launched the rocket, but it soon became apparent that we were not going anywhere. We were being held “in some sort of a force field, tremendously powerful.”
Whoever was responsible didn’t want us to leave. We were being held as prisoners on Mars!
Reasoning suggested that whoever was holding us on Mars did not intend to harm us. “If they did, they could've destroyed us a long time ago.” We were being held by a gravitational pull so strong that it would have taken 100 times the thrust we had to break free.
There was nothing left for us to do but to use the boat to see what lay across the lake we found earlier.
Once out on the lake we paddled until we spotted a huge city with skyscrapers half a mile high. We knew that “those buildings didn't just grow, they were made.” The lake which had appeared up until then completely dead, began to boil. Suddenly something rose up out of the water in front of us. Before us was a giant single-celled amoeba-like creature and it was making straight for us. We paddled furiously until we made land. When the creature did the same, Sam opened fire on it with Cleopatra but it had no effect. It then chased us through the jungle to the ship. As we ran into the ship, Sam made one last attempt to stop the creature but was pulled into its body and...and...absorbed!
After the ship’s hatch was closed and the view ports were opened, we saw that the entire ship had been surrounded by the creature. To compound matters, Tom's arm was covered with a piece of the creature. It had burned through his suit and I had to treat his wound.
This giant amoeba creature was able to digest by using a strong acid. From my previous experience, I knew that such creatures are “almost impossible to kill. Even if you cut them in half, both parts will live.” The creature withstood Sam’s gun by being able to “encyst..that is, secrete and form a sort protective envelope.” I remembered from earlier experiments that amoebas do respond to electricity. It was therefore planned to feed the ship’s radar power through the outer hull. By doing so we would be able to electrocute the creature with half a million volts of electricity.
In the meantime, poor professor Gettell suffered a heart attack due to the stress and strain of everything that had happened. Gettell dismissed it as just a little pain due to a bit of exertion. Suddenly the radio activated and I turned on the recorder as we heard a message for us that began with, "Men of Earth, we of the planet Mars give you this warning. Listen carefully and remember……"
I recall Gettell’s empty chair proclaiming the dear professor’s death….the ship’s acceleration….Tom, Tom in the cabin in his bunk, covered with a blanket. I pull back the blanket, and Tom's arm swings down. It is covered with a green and black substance running from his elbow to his fingers….. Me going below and looking out into space through the view plate and seeing the angry red planet planet Mars in the distance. The mess of wires and that vision of the three-eyed Martian creature in the view plate and…….I don’t know what else!
Iris is back in her hospital bed and calls to Tom. Treegar asks her about the warning, but she remembers that the contents of the last tape may have the answer. Gordon concludes from Tom’s condition that they are facing an enzymatic infection: “A minute part of the amoebic creature must have reached Tom's skin and it's growing, literally eating his tissues.”
Tom shows some improvement but the treatment he is receiving is only slowing the growth. Iris assists with the research. Eventually she announces that the solution may have been found. She tells her colleagues that they been “attacking the alien amoeba as if it were a disease. But it isn't. It's an animal, an animal with instincts, and most important of all, a will to act. It only makes it harder to destroy, and gives it a vulnerability we also have-- that of making a wrong choice.”
She goes on to outline the procedure in which they will prepare “a large tissue culture and place it next to the infected arm, then subject Tom to electric shocks, just short of being harmful to him.”
Later it becomes obvious that Tom’s condition has begun to improve. Treegar and Weiner come into Tom's hospital room with a tape recorder containing the last tape with the recorded warning:
The speech was indeed important. Humanity in that other reality had been judged and was found to be wanting as a species. In some respects, everyone was both right and wrong about the angry red planet: the scientists, the astronomers, the science-fiction writers, the nut-jobs. What everyone really missed was just how alien humanity was in relation to the rest of the universe. Contact with Earthlings was not required or desired and was downright discouraged on penalty of complete annihilation! Trespassers Prosecuted With Extreme Prejudice! Go Away, Or Else! (One for our own S.E.T.I. program to consider perhaps?)
The year 1960 began with the election of Republican President Richard Nixon. Future missions to Mars and beyond were quickly shelved and humanity’s presence in space was confined to low Earth orbit and the Luna base operations. The President tried to explain to the public about the shift in focus from Mars and back to moon by mumbling some nonsense about the moon being a part of Mars, but no-one was paying attention or cared that much.
Throughout the course of the ‘60s, the world was being slowly consumed by conflicts in the Middle-east and South-east Asia; trade wars between nations ruining the global economy; the steady decline and gradual irrelevance of a still militarily bristling USA; the rising super Nationalist Sino-Russian Federation alliance attempting to fill the vacuum left by a diminished US; increasing global fragmentation and descent into nationalism and tribalism; growing populism; civil unrest, dissent and disobedience in the face of the growing world-wide incidence of totalitarian and autocratic rule; race and migrant riots throughout Europe and North America; increasing incidences of xenophobia; assassinations of civil rights and democratic leaders, the most poignant being the assassination of Nixon’s political Democrat Party opponent, John F Kennedy in 1963; the South-China Sea missile-crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war but averted by the withdrawal of US nuclear missiles and warships from the disputed area; early indications of impending climate change and global warming…….
So who had the time, money or energy for space exploration and extending humanity’s frontiers out into the cosmos? The Martians had much more than just a glimpse of the world and nature of human beings and what they saw now taking place on that version of earth convinced them more than ever of the wisdom of their warning…….but, had they perhaps also unwittingly robbed humanity of a crucial major potential unifying endeavor?
Director Melchior with an initial production budget of only $200,000 was given just nine days to film Angry Red Planet.
The film-processing technique, CineMagic involved filming through an orange filter, with the picture being solarized and which combined hand-drawn animations with live-action footage, or turning live-action footage directly into hand-drawn animation. The intention was to enable hand-drawn backgrounds to look as real as the live action footage. This process was used for all scenes depicting the surface of Mars. The psychedelic effect only really helped to disguise the cheap alien monsters and scenery. $54,000 or just over a quarter of the film's budget, was spent on the Cinemagic process.
The film employed extensive use of stock footage, such as rocket launches being run backwards to create the illusion of the rocket setting down in the desert, using its retros to slow its descent.
Well before the time of CGI and advanced computer-controlled animatronics which audiences of today are familiar with, special effects consisted of marionettes, back-projection techniques, and optical effects. I have to say the end result was pretty funky especially with that rat, bat, spider combo creature. This 40-foot alien monster was really a marionette about 15 inches high. Loved it!
USAF Norwood Hospital
Shielded from view behind a screen, O'Bannion who is running a high temperature is undergoing treatment. Dr. Frank Gordon has administered a sedative to keep his patient quiet. The doctor admits that he is stumped as to what are they are up against. All that is known is that the infection is spreading rapidly but the disease cannot be combated until they learn “how or by what he was infected.” Until then the doctor declares,“we're working in the dark.”
Since all of the rocket’s taped logs have been erased by exposure to a powerful magnetic field, the only hope is for them to break through Dr. Ryan’s shock-induced amnesia and for her to tell them how O’Bannion contracted the disease in the first place.
As Dr. Ryan rests in a hospital bed, Treegar asks her to start telling her story from the beginning………
Journey To Mars
We soon noticed that the radiation count was jumping which we attributed to an approaching radioactive meteor. “Both the radar scope pattern and the erratic gamma-count fit.” Visual examination by Sam and myself at the view window confirmed its approach. It did come close on an intersecting course, but managed to miss the ship with an adequate margin of safety.
Days 17 – 29
Day 47: The landing
"Well, should we go out and claim the planet in the name of Brooklyn?"
On Day 47 Sam reported that we were orbiting Mars and we then began to make our descent onto the planet’s surface. After we safely landed, we opened the view plate and turned on the outside microphones. All that greeted our eyes and ears was an eerie stillness and silence as if everything seemed to be waiting….
We discovered that we had landed near the Martian equator and determined that the atmosphere was thin but did contain oxygen, “not enough oxygen to sustain us, but undoubtedly enough for some kind of native animal life.” We supposed that the thin atmosphere accounted for the silence and lack of movement of the plants. We began to wonder if it could’ve been intentional. It just didn’t seem natural as if it were being controlled! If so, then by what?
We decided to suit up and explore outside. As we prepared to do so, I chanced to look outside through the port view-window and was horrified to see………
Suddenly Ryan screams and we see her back in her hospital bed. Treegar asks her what happened but she can't remember. Treegar is worried that the alien infection could spread to all humans. Since time is of the essence, the only course of action to recover Ryan’s memory is to use an experimental memory-recovery drug which runs the risk of straining her already fragile nervous system. Gordon states that "her mind might snap if we forced her to remember the horror she has so carefully obliterated from her conscious level." With Tom’s condition worsening, Ryan insists that the doctors use the narcosynthesis method of memory recovery.
“Crazy Peepin' Tom”
A Day’s “Excitement and Swashbuckling”
Sam brought along a new weapon, an ultrasonic freeze gun. In fact he seemed to have developed a rather disturbing fondness for and attachment to it! Anyway, he tested it by firing it at a plant. A piece of the plant was knocked off and the sound it made was like breaking glass.
We then headed off into what I would describe as a jungle and set about taking some pictures and examining the plant life. It soon became obvious that the specimens had “all the characteristics of plant life, but hardly any chlorophyll” and that there seemed to be” indications of--of a nervous system!”
My scientific and natural curiosity led me to pick up a vine and follow it to see from where it originated. Tom kept on acting in a protective manner as if he thought I was some kind of a hysterical female despite the fact that such silly gender notions had disappeared by the end of the 19th century. After all, women have been a part of the space program from the very beginning and as a female astronaut and specialist I was more than capable of looking after myself! Or so I thought…..
Sober Reflection
We then decided to return to the ship and call it a day. Rather ominously, Professor Gettell suspected that we were being observed, that some kind of control was being exerted over the plants and causing the “quiet and lack of motion” and there was “some purpose behind it all.” We even inferred the existence of a “super-intelligent community mind” controlling all life on Mars, something “like the inexplicable, mysterious control which keeps a colony of ants functioning in perfect unity... on earth.”
We soon noticed that our contact with earth was an hour late. All we kept getting was dead air but there was nothing wrong with our equipment. We then discovered to our dismay that our radio transmissions were being bounced back, leaving us out of contact with Earth. It turned out that it was “some ionized layer in the Martian atmosphere, keeping those radio waves from going through.”
Despite our predicament we were determined to stay the full 5 days on Mars. Five days in a “nightmare of unending silence.” We all felt it!
“King Kong's Big Brother”
Well this “branch” was apparently attached to a “tree” that screeched and moved! What is it about me that seems to attract monsters? Well, this particular monster looked as if it was a cross between a rat, a bat and a spider! Not only that, it was 40 feet tall!
Mission Accomplished?
Back inside the ship, we discussed the day's events and finally decided to abort the mission that night. Professor Gettell was quite convinced there was something dangerous observing us. The “orders from General Treegar were to take no unnecessary chances.” We had fulfilled our mission and landed on Mars. We had collected a lot of information, “plenty to prepare for the next expedition.” All that remained was for us to “prepare for blastoff.”
We launched the rocket, but it soon became apparent that we were not going anywhere. We were being held “in some sort of a force field, tremendously powerful.”
Whoever was responsible didn’t want us to leave. We were being held as prisoners on Mars!
Reasoning suggested that whoever was holding us on Mars did not intend to harm us. “If they did, they could've destroyed us a long time ago.” We were being held by a gravitational pull so strong that it would have taken 100 times the thrust we had to break free.
There was nothing left for us to do but to use the boat to see what lay across the lake we found earlier.
Deadly Pursuit
This giant amoeba creature was able to digest by using a strong acid. From my previous experience, I knew that such creatures are “almost impossible to kill. Even if you cut them in half, both parts will live.” The creature withstood Sam’s gun by being able to “encyst..that is, secrete and form a sort protective envelope.” I remembered from earlier experiments that amoebas do respond to electricity. It was therefore planned to feed the ship’s radar power through the outer hull. By doing so we would be able to electrocute the creature with half a million volts of electricity.
The Here and Now
Iris is back in her hospital bed and calls to Tom. Treegar asks her about the warning, but she remembers that the contents of the last tape may have the answer. Gordon concludes from Tom’s condition that they are facing an enzymatic infection: “A minute part of the amoebic creature must have reached Tom's skin and it's growing, literally eating his tissues.”
She goes on to outline the procedure in which they will prepare “a large tissue culture and place it next to the infected arm, then subject Tom to electric shocks, just short of being harmful to him.”
Later it becomes obvious that Tom’s condition has begun to improve. Treegar and Weiner come into Tom's hospital room with a tape recorder containing the last tape with the recorded warning:
“Men of earth, we of the planet Mars give you this warning. Listen carefully and remember.
We have known your planet Earth since the first creature crawled out of the primeval slime of your seas to become man.
For millennia, we have followed your progress. For centuries, we have watched you, listened to your radio signals and learned your speech and your culture. And now, you have invaded our home.
Technological adults, but spiritual and emotional infants!
We kept you here, deciding your fate. Had the lower forms of life of our planet destroyed you, we would not have interfered. But you survived.
Your civilization has not progressed beyond destruction, war and violence against yourselves and others.
Do as you will to your own and to your planet, but remember this warning—DO NOT RETURN TO MARS!
You will be permitted to leave for this sole purpose -- carry the warning to Earth. DO NOT COME HERE. We can and will destroy you, all life on your planet, if you do not heed us.
You have seen us, been permitted to glimpse our world. Go now. Warn mankind--
NOT TO RETURN UNBIDDEN!
The speech was indeed important. Humanity in that other reality had been judged and was found to be wanting as a species. In some respects, everyone was both right and wrong about the angry red planet: the scientists, the astronomers, the science-fiction writers, the nut-jobs. What everyone really missed was just how alien humanity was in relation to the rest of the universe. Contact with Earthlings was not required or desired and was downright discouraged on penalty of complete annihilation! Trespassers Prosecuted With Extreme Prejudice! Go Away, Or Else! (One for our own S.E.T.I. program to consider perhaps?)
The year 1960 began with the election of Republican President Richard Nixon. Future missions to Mars and beyond were quickly shelved and humanity’s presence in space was confined to low Earth orbit and the Luna base operations. The President tried to explain to the public about the shift in focus from Mars and back to moon by mumbling some nonsense about the moon being a part of Mars, but no-one was paying attention or cared that much.
Throughout the course of the ‘60s, the world was being slowly consumed by conflicts in the Middle-east and South-east Asia; trade wars between nations ruining the global economy; the steady decline and gradual irrelevance of a still militarily bristling USA; the rising super Nationalist Sino-Russian Federation alliance attempting to fill the vacuum left by a diminished US; increasing global fragmentation and descent into nationalism and tribalism; growing populism; civil unrest, dissent and disobedience in the face of the growing world-wide incidence of totalitarian and autocratic rule; race and migrant riots throughout Europe and North America; increasing incidences of xenophobia; assassinations of civil rights and democratic leaders, the most poignant being the assassination of Nixon’s political Democrat Party opponent, John F Kennedy in 1963; the South-China Sea missile-crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war but averted by the withdrawal of US nuclear missiles and warships from the disputed area; early indications of impending climate change and global warming…….
So who had the time, money or energy for space exploration and extending humanity’s frontiers out into the cosmos? The Martians had much more than just a glimpse of the world and nature of human beings and what they saw now taking place on that version of earth convinced them more than ever of the wisdom of their warning…….but, had they perhaps also unwittingly robbed humanity of a crucial major potential unifying endeavor?
Points of Interest
Director Melchior with an initial production budget of only $200,000 was given just nine days to film Angry Red Planet.
The film employed extensive use of stock footage, such as rocket launches being run backwards to create the illusion of the rocket setting down in the desert, using its retros to slow its descent.
Well before the time of CGI and advanced computer-controlled animatronics which audiences of today are familiar with, special effects consisted of marionettes, back-projection techniques, and optical effects. I have to say the end result was pretty funky especially with that rat, bat, spider combo creature. This 40-foot alien monster was really a marionette about 15 inches high. Loved it!
©Chris Christopoulos 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment