Hacker Cinema
This Island Earth
1955 · Film · 85 min
Directed by Joseph M. Newman, Jack Arnold
Science FictionAdventureHorror
Aliens have landed and are hiding on Earth, but need Earth’s scientists to help them fight an inter-planetary war.
3 positive3 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
Side note: highly recommend MST3K The Movie, which features the classic movie “This Island Earth”.
"This Island Earth" was featured on MST3K: The Movie!
When "Universal International" appears on screen, Mike Nelson quips "Doesn't the fact that it's universal make it international?"
related aside : the 'This Island Earth' MST3K is a great episode, which apparently features a part of the effect.
'This Island Earth' is great all by itself if you're into campy early-ish scifi.
Just an aside: I was amused when someone pointed out that the plot of "Raiders" would have reached the same climatic end if Indiana Jones were completely removed from the script.
I have noticed too that "This Island Earth" (if you know this old classic sci-fi film) is another such script in which the protagonist could be removed with no change in the outcome.
This Island Earth - an early example of the use of a puzzle (meritocratic choice)to determine an intelligent protagonist as well as a defense against being mathematically expendable. Though the movie bombed, the book and its themes still resonate.
It was a time when people thought Artificial Intelligence was either on the way shortly (those who actually used computers) or already here with those Atomic Brains we have now (everyone else).
I just watched the Svengoolie episode of "This Island Earth" and, early on, one of the characters mentioned how that era was called the "pushbutton age". Well, we live in more of a "pushbutton age" now but familiarity breeds contempt; conversely, unfamiliarity breeds a kind of awe, and unreasonable expectations that can leave a bad taste in peoples' mouths.
I personally remember going through it when the Internet was first beginning to trickle down to the masses, pre-Bubble, and I remember thinking that some of those ideas then were patently idiotic. But which!
And in the 1920s, radio went through the same thing, if not bigger. Radio!