The Day the Earth Stood Still

Remake of the Future Shock Movie from 1951

The day the Earth stood still is of course a remake of the Original Movie released in 1951, and what a classic movie it was.
Starring the genius of Monty Python fame John Cleese, this is one of the few remakes that can make the mark as far as most remakes go. Most fail to recreate the illusions of the first movie, but this one is an exception.
Strange how all the doomsday movies are back in fashion now we are approaching 2012 and Galactic alignment. I wonder if somebody in Hollywood has had a look ahead to the future?
Actors: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates, Jaden Smith, John Cleese
Directors: Scott Derrickson
Writers: David Scarpa, Edmund H. North
Producers: Erwin Stoff, Gregory Goodman, Marvin Towns Jr., Paul Harris Boardman
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Full Screen, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English Subtitles: English, Spanish
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Number of discs: 3
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox DVD Release Date: April 7, 2009 Run Time: 104 minutes

Trivia:
WILHELM SCREAM: Heard when Gort breaks out of the military facility and the metal door crashes on top of multiple soldiers. more

Goofs:
Factual errors: When the surgeon removes the placenta material from Klaatu, he hands a scalpel to a nurse who is not wearing surgical gloves. more
Quotes:
Helen Benson: I need to know what's happening.
Klaatu: This planet is dying. The human race is killing it.
Helen Benson: So you've come here to help us.
Klaatu: No, I didn't.
Helen Benson: You said you came to save us.
Klaatu: I said I came to save the Earth.
Helen Benson: You came to save the Earth... from us. You came to save the Earth *from* us.
Klaatu: We cant risk the survival of this planet for the sake of one species.
Helen Benson: What are you saying?
Klaatu: If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives. There are only a handful of planets in the cosmos that are capable of supporting complex life...

Watch the Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)

Impressive special effects are the key selling point for this big-budget remake of Robert Wise's classic 1951 science fiction parable about an alien visitor who delivers a chilling ultimatum to the leaders of the world. Keanu Reeves, who seemed ideal at first blush but ultimately turns into another case of miscasting, steps in for Michael Rennie as intergalactic watchdog Klaatu, who with his robot Gort (now super-sized), promises global destruction unless the powers that be unless drastic measures are undertaken regarding the Earth's environmental issues (or so one assumes). Jennifer Connelly is largely wasted in the Patricia Neal role of scientist/single mom assigned to study Klaatu, who offers a somewhat chilly father figure to her son (a grating Jaden Smith). Connelly isn't the only fine actor in the cast left standing idle while director Scott Derrickson's effects team constructs eye-popping scenes of wholesale mayhem; Mad Men's Jon Hamm, Kathy Bates, John Cleese and Rob Knepper are all adrift in the aimless script by David Scarpa, which never even fully explains why Klaatu is so bent on blowing us to smithereens. That lack of focus, as well as the B-movie quality of the dialogue (say what you will about the effects in the Wise version, but the film was polished from top to bottom), all help to cement what science fiction fans have been muttering about the film since its inception; the original film needed no high-tech updating By Paul Gaita

The Day the earth Stood Still (1951)

The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 black-and-white science fiction film that tells the story of a humanoid alien visitor who comes to Earth with a warning. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, and Hugh Marlowe, under the direction of Robert Wise. Screenwriter Edmund H. North based the screenplay on the 1940 Harry Bates' short story "Farewell to the Master". The score was composed by Bernard Herrmann and used two theremin electronic instruments. The film is often considered by movie historians to be one of the classics of the science-fiction genre.

Watch "The day the earth Stood Still" (1951)

Watch "The day the earth Stood Still" Part 2. (1951)

Storyline;

At the beginning of the film, a flying saucer lands on the Ellipse in President's Park, Washington, D.C. Its pilot Klaatu (Michael Rennie) emerges and declares he has come on a mission of goodwill. When he opens a small, menacing-looking device, he is shot and wounded by a nervous soldier. In response, a large humanoid robot called Gort (Lock Martin) steps out of the ship and disintegrates all weapons present without harming the soldiers. Klaatu orders him to stop and remarks that the device he carried was in fact a gift to the President that could have been used to study life on other planets. Klaatu is taken to an army hospital, where he recovers. The military attempts to enter Klaatu's ship, but finds it impregnable, while Gort stands motionless outside.

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Klaatu meets the President's secretary, Mr. Harley (Frank Conroy), and reveals he has a message he wants the whole world to hear, to which Harley replies that the divided world leaders would not even be able to agree on a meeting place. When Klaatu suggests he live among ordinary people to get to know them better, Harley informs him that he is in protective custody. Klaatu escapes to a boarding house, assuming the alias "Mr. Carpenter", the name on the laundry label of a suit he has taken . Among the residents are Helen Benson (Patricia Neal), a widow whose husband was killed in World War II, and her son Bobby (Billy Gray). The next morning, Klaatu listens to a paranoid radio commentator and to the boarders' speculations on the subject of his flying saucer over the breakfast table; one suggests that it might be the work of the Soviets.

When Helen's boyfriend, Tom Stephens (Hugh Marlowe), plans a day trip for the two of them, Klaatu offers to babysit Bobby. Bobby takes Klaatu on a tour of the city, including a visit to his father's grave in Arlington National Cemetery, where Klaatu is dismayed to learn that most of those buried there were killed in wars. The two then visit the Lincoln Memorial and the heavily-guarded spaceship. Klaatu, impressed by the inscription of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, is hopeful that Earth may harbor people wise enough to understand his message. When he asks Bobby to name the greatest person living in the world, Bobby suggests a leading American scientist, Professor Jacob Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), who lives nearby. Bobby takes Klaatu to Barnhardt's home. The professor is absent, but Klaatu helps solve an advanced mathematical n-body problem written on a blackboard in the study as a means of introducing himself and leaves his address with the housekeeper.

Later, government agents escort Klaatu to see Barnhardt, who has seen the correction to his work as a calling card which could not have been faked. Klaatu warns the professor that the people of the other planets are concerned for their own safety because human beings have developed atomic power. Barnhardt offers Klaatu the opportunity to speak at an upcoming meeting of scientists he is organizing; Klaatu accepts. Barnhardt is stunned when Klaatu declares that, if his message is rejected, "Planet Earth will be eliminated." The professor pleads for Klaatu to first provide a small demonstration of his power as a warning. Klaatu returns to his spaceship the next evening to implement the professor's suggestion, unaware that Bobby has followed him.

Bobby tells Helen and Tom what he has seen when they return. At first, they do not believe him. When Bobby persists in his claims, Tom tries to find Klaatu to confirm it was just a dream; in Klaatu's room, Tom finds a diamond on the floor. Bobby casually remarks that Klaatu had given him two others for $2. The following day, Tom shows the gem to a jeweler, who declares it unique.



Klaatu goes to Helen's workplace and asks to speak to her. She leads him to an unoccupied elevator which stops suddenly. Klaatu admits he is responsible, tells Helen his true identity, and asks for her help. A montage sequence shows that Klaatu has neutralized electric power everywhere for half an hour (with the exception of critical systems such as hospitals and planes in flight), bringing the world to a standstill and thereby providing the demonstration Barnardt had suggested.
Links
Wikipedia - "The day the earth Stood Still" (1951)