ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Wow, this is just the kind of posts I like, Maurice. I love this movie and I've seen it many times. When I read your remark I knew I'd have to do some research to find out if the movie made a mistake or if there was a plot element I'd forgotten about that explained how some of the characters handled the black meteor fragments and didn't get "stoned".

I found two interesting items in the Goofs section on IMDB which addressed the subject. The first one acknowledges that water causes the rocks to become dangerous, but it misses a key component to the puzzle.
________________________________

It is established that contact with water "activates" the monolith rocks, and that contact or proximity to the wetted rocks results in people turning to stone, but it is never explained why everyone else who handles them afterward is unaffected by the resulting rocks (as when they inspect those in the destroyed lab or at the smashed farmhouse) — except due to the absence of fresh water.
________________________________

Obviously the IMDB member who posted that comment didn't realize that the rocks where dangerous only during the specific period when they were active and growing, after which they could be handled safely.

But this next comment addresses that important point.
________________________________

It is noted that, while the monoliths can turn victims to stone, no one who touches the rock in the aftermath is affected.

This could simply be that the monoliths don't become active unless they're hit with fresh water. After they absorb the water, they "turn off" and become inert again. Any people touching them (as shown numerous times throughout the movie) when they are inert would be safe.

The first victim's rock was hit by rain, thus making it active when he presumably touched it. The little girl dropped hers in a bucket of water. Unfortunately, the absorption process is never really described (how much contact needed, how long does it take, etc.), so viewers are left to fill in the gaps.
________________________________

That IMDB member understood the process better then the one previously quoted. However, I suspected that his comments might not have gotten all the facts straight, so this afternoon I felt a moral obligation to put in my DVD and watch the whole movie to get to the bottom of this mystery!

Hey, it's a thankless job, but somebody's gotta do it!

Thirty minutes into the movie I discovered that, lo and behold, the comment above did get a few things wrong!

First of all, the IMDB member was mistaken when he said, "The first victim's rock was hit by rain".

Ben (Grant William's fellow geologist, who was turned to stone) is awakened in the night when an open window in the lab caused a gust of wind to blow a beaker labeled "distilled water" off a shelf. It breaks over the black rock which Ben brought back from the desert earlier that afternoon. The rock begins to bubble and grow, and the scene fades out with Ben slowly approaching the strange sight.

Grant Williams walks in the next morning and discovers hundreds of rock fragments all other the lab, and the handrail along a wooden stairway was damaged when the growing spire of rock toppled over and smashed it. And Ben is leaning against a door jam, stone-cold dead.

So to speak . . .



However, by the time Grant arrives, the rocks are inert, and he handles a fragment without being harmed.

The next three victims were young Jenny (one of Lola Albright's students) and her parents. Jenny brought a rock fragment back from a school field trip to the desert and rinsed it off in the large metal tube under the faucet outside her farmhouse. When her mother calls her in for dinner, she drops the rock into the water-filled bucket, and we see it begin to bubble.

When Grant, Lola, and the sheriff arrive at the farmhouse that night, the front of the farmhouse has been destroyed, and the area is littered with the black rocks. Jenny's parents are dead, and Jenny is in shock.



So, the secret to handling the black rocks safely is to make sure they haven't been "activated" for a brief period by exposure to water, during which they absorb silicate from the material they touch.



Mystery solved!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Maurice]

I know it's not a "mistake", I just thought it was hilarious just that the characters, who don't yet understand what is going on, just keep handling the damned things even though they know they are what's behind the stony-effect.
_________________
* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

I see your point!

However, if they really did endanger themselves, I think it would be a mistake for them to handle the rocks. Let's examine the situation.

Since it took them a while to find out that the rocks were definitely the cause to the condition, their first contacts with them were made out of ignorance.

Once they understood that the rocks caused the condition, they were aware that it didn't happen the moment they were touched. The effect happened after a period of time.

But if they'd assumed that the condition was caused after a period of exposure, they would have been afraid to even come near the rocks! However, the little girl only experienced the condition in her hand (after the longest exposure), while her parents were total petrified after a shorter exposure.

And neither the teacher or the other kids were effected at all.

One thing which might have made them less cautious than they should have been was the fact that the lethal condition never happened to anybody the first moment they touched the rocks, and it had NOT happened to several people who handled the rocks just as often as the folks that had been petrified.

Add to this the puzzling fact that the condition was always accompanied by the drastic multiplication of the rocks!

All of this indicated that there was a specific catalyst, so the problem became how to determine what the catalyst was. I think the movie presents the investigation into finding the catalyst extremely well (it's the part of the story I like best), and the fact that they were racing to find a way to understand what caused the condition and reverse it to save the little girl made it necessary to take some risks.

Grant Williams and his professor friend even stated early on that if the rocks kept multiplying, they would eventually become a serious danger.

All that taken together means there was good reason to risk handling the rocks in order to find a way to prevent the problem from spreading.

Of course, wearing gloves would certainly have been a reasonable precaution — so, like I said, I see your point.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

I'm watching this tonight on SVENGOOLIE (You better hope you can get this show . . . a hold out from the age of horror hosts, but the BEST of the lot!), and I'm even more impressed by the sheer INTELLIGENCE of the story and the great execution of the story-telling . . . from the literacy of the dialogue to the really, truly, great acting by all of the actors and the superb direction and editing! The music isn't so bad either!

Love this film! Best of a great era!
_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Do you have this box set? If not, you should get it.



It has all these movies.

Tarantula,The Mole People, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Monster on the Campus, The Monolith Monsters, Dr. Cyclops, Cult of the Cobra, The Land Unknown, The Deadly Mantis, and The Leech Woman.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
________________________________

~ A Question for the Members: This movie presents a concept which threatens the world with destruction . . . but it also offers the world a magnificent opportunity for construction as well!

In other words — what use could be made of this new element which is spontaneously created by combining the amazing meteorite material with water and simple silicate . . . the stuff of which our deserts are made?

~ My Theory: Let's examine the facts which this fine movie presents.

The black material of the meteorite is not especially hard, because it fragments when the columns topple over. And as a building material, it isn't useful because water causes it to combine with the silicate in the soil and expand, which destroy the area around it.

However, what if science found a way to selectively arrest the expansion of this element and make it useful as a building material? It could then be used to spontaneously grow into vertical structures which were not effected by water!

If that happened, Donald Trump could have slabs of this material lad out along the U.S./Mexican border and then hosed down with water until his coveted Wall grew up from the ground!

When it reached the height required to keep out all those dangerous Mexicans, the growing material could be arrested by using whatever scientific process was developed to modify the material and stop the growth.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

A few new thoughts about the unique meteoric material that arrived from space in this wonderful movie, which I think we should shall call . . . mononite.

First of all, if this material is inert until activated by water, then the way to stabilize a slab of it is simple: just coat it in a tough waterproof material which keeps it from getting wet!

Now that we can produce inexpensive and stable slabs of this material, we can build structures that would normally uses concrete.

I Googled the question, "Why does concrete crack?" Here's the answer.
________________________________

Shrinkage is a main cause of cracking. As concrete hardens and dries, it shrinks. This is due to the evaporation of excess mixing water. The wetter or soupier the concrete mix, the greater the shrinkage will be.
________________________________

Mononite won't shrink and crack, because it contains no moisture!

And we know that mononite is at least as strong as concrete — because in the movie we see that the tall columns of this material only shatter into large chunks each time they crash down to the ground!





However, concrete structures — like tall buildings which are demolished by explosives — actually pulverize into small fragments and huge clouds of dust!

Therefore, by using preformed slabs of "stabilized" mononite we can build roads, bridges. and skyscrapers which don't suffer from the shrinkage and cracks that concrete structures do!

Bear in mind that blocks of mononite can be shaped to suit the needs of the structures they support. For example, giant slabs can be cut to accommodate doors and windows in large buildings.

Mononite might also become the new "marble" for sculptors! Although this elements tends to chip like obsidian (which is a bit like glass), it can still be shaped and polished to create beautiful forms like the one shown below.





Obsidian has a Mohs' scale hardness rating of 5.5, while concrete is rated between 5.0 and 7.0.

This movie provides evidence that mononite's hardness would be rated closer to that of Topaz (8) or Corundum (9).

Diamond is a 10 on the Mohs' scale of hardness — but we should remember, of course, that diamonds can be turned into beautiful jewelry by skilled diamond cutters!



So, even incredibly hard materials like diamond can be sculpted into useful shapes!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Let's Create a Sequel!
________________________________

~ A Question for the Members: What if a second meteorite of the strange black rock landed on Earth. but this time we weren't lucky enough to have it land in a desert region where rain is rare?

~ Here's what I came up with.: The second meteorite lands in the worst possible place on Earth — Lake Superior, the largest of he five Great Lakes!





Immersed in the fresh water, the meteor would grow rapidly until one or more giant black columns rise above the surface. Since we've seen how the columns often grow at a slight angle —





— each one would eventually topple over and sink down to the lake bed, where the horizontal columns would begin to grow in a wide "wall" shape. This would be caused by the fact that the columns wouldn't fall as hard (thanks to the water) and shatter into pieces, the way they did when they fell in the desert.





There would be no way to stop the rapid spread of the black spires as they expanded in all directions from the meteorite impact point.

The water in the lake would constantly trigger their growth, and it would also prevent any attempts to stop their expansion by using salt water, the way it was done in the desert.





I can't think of an effective defense against this geological invasion! We would not be able to turn all of Lake Superior into salt water. And we can't lay down enough salt around the entire shore line of Lake Superior, because its 2,726 miles.

Besides, all five lakes are interconnected, so a dam would have to be built between Lake Superior and its connection to lakes Huron and Michigan.

Any suggestions, folks? The fate of the world is in our hands!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Let's Create a Sequel!
________________________________

~ A Question for the Members: What if a second meteorite of the strange black rock landed on Earth. but this time we weren't lucky enough to have it land in a desert region where rain is rare?

~ Here's what I came up with.: The second meteorite lands in the worst possible place on Earth — Lake Superior, the largest of he five Great Lakes!





Immersed in the fresh water, the meteor would grow rapidly until one or more giant black columns rise above the surface. Since we've seen how the columns often grow at a slight angle —





— each one would eventually topple over and sink down to the lake bed, where the horizontal columns would begin to grow in a wide "wall" shape. This would be caused by the fact that the columns wouldn't fall as hard (thanks to the water) and shatter into pieces, the way they did when they fell in the desert.





There would be no way to stop the rapid spread of the black spires as they expanded in all directions from the meteorite impact point.

The water in the lake would constantly trigger their growth, and it would also prevent any attempts to stop their expansion by using salt water, the way it was done in the desert.





I can't think of an effective defense against this geological invasion! We would not be able to turn all of Lake Superior into salt water. And we can't lay down enough salt around the entire shore line of Lake Superior, because its 2,726 miles.

Besides, all five lakes are interconnected, so a dam would have to be built between Lake Superior and its connection to lakes Huron and Michigan.

Any suggestions, folks? The fate of the world is in our hands!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)