ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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A giant ant invades a movie theater, a Nazi madman takes on a God-ruled Mars, and a Fan Fiction Star Wars story!





Nuthin' but the Good Stuff for All Sci-Fi's loyal members!

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Matinee (1993)

I finally watched Mantinee, and it was remarkably good!

The first 45 minutes had me worried. The humor wasn't exactly hysterical (except for the gas station attention who mistook William Woolsey for Alfred Hitchcock), and I started wondering if director Joe Dante hadn't made the entertaining spoof of 1950s movies I was hoping for. The close relationship between the two brothers, however, was well done and very touching.

The use of late 1950s and earlier 1960s Top 40's Hits was beautifully done. It blended well with Jerry Goldsmith's fine score.

And when the movie-within-the-movie started, I realized that it featured several beloved stars from the fifties sci-fi classics (along with some side-splitting dialog). I was delighted by the wit and imagination!

William Schallert was terrific as the dentist whose X-ray machine caused the mutated Mant. I loved Robert Cornthwaite as the scientist who always provided definitions for the "big words" he used. Kevin McCarthy was absolutely perfect as "General Ankrum" — a reference to the great Morris Ankrum, of course!

The skillful use of the soundtracks from This Island Earth and The Creature from the Black Lagoon was a genuine plus. All the dialog in Mant was brilliant.

The Wife: "Bill, if you could just listen to the man in you and put the insect aside!"

Bill (suddenly shocked): "Insecticide? Where?"

General Ankrum (gazing up at the giant ant on the side of a building): "Good Heavens! What do you call that thing?"

The Wife (deadpan): "Bill."

The ant head and the mantis hands were perfect. The special effects of the giant ant in the city were remarkably good! It made me wish (yet again) that the FX in Them! had been better.

There were subtle references to Them! in the Mant-in-the-city scenes, such as the ant sounds from the 1954 classic, and the use of bazooka's to fire what General Ankrum called the "DTD missiles".

Unfortunately the story wandered into less worthy areas (story-wise) when the juvenile delinquent started screwing up the novelty gizmos installed in the theater and then tried to kidnap the girl with whom he was obsessed.

Another thing I disliked was the way the young audience went crazy and started trashing the theater. I would have preferred a more respectful portrayal of 1950s kids at a movie theater, especially when they should have been thoroughly entertained by Mant! and all the theater's enhanced features.

On the other hand, Joe Dante chose to treat Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman's character) with great respect. He really did have some remarkable equipment located back stage to enhance the movie-going experience. Dante could have chosen to make Woolsey a ridiculous moron whose device didn't work well. But that wasn't what happened, I'm glad to say.

I admired the way he remained calm when things escalated into dangerous situations, like the threat of the balcony collapsing and injuring the kids. John Goodman was permitted to play a pretty nice guy with great ideas for making movies more fun — not just a sleazy con man.

That was a smart choice on Joe Dante's part.

The fact that John Goodman's character actually ended up pioneering a successful process that a Hollywood producer was willing to back and promote was a very satisfying aspect of the story. And the "happy ending" with John Goodman and Cathy Moriarty planning to get married somehow just tickled me pink!

Coming soon to your computer!

________________________ MANT! "Trailer"

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And now, here's our Feature Presentation — Mant!

__________________Mant (1993) - Short Film

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What can a scientist in my Star Wars fan fic be working on?

What an original and challenging question, Max! It certainly calls to mind some intriguing thoughts! I'm not sure my ideas below can be used in your Star Wars story, but here's what I came up with.

I'm sure you and the other members will enjoy it.

~ An object we might spot out there would have to be galaxy-sized itself just to be visible. A galaxy-size object that is NOT just a galaxy is almost frightening!

~ Objects "in the starless void of space in between galaxies" would not be lit by visible light. Therefore they either have to be detected by radio telescopes or be emitting massive amounts of visible light themselves. And since we're suggesting that such an object is not just galaxy, what the heck is it? (I'm getting spooked again.)

~ The location of such a "mystery object" would be millions of years old by the time we detected it, just like everything else we see which is many light years away.

But what if we took new measurements on the strange object a year later . . . and discovered that it was hundreds of light years closer to us!

That would mean the object is (a) moving straight towards us, and (b) it's traveling hundreds of times the speed of light!

(That idea is going to keep me awake tonight! )

~ What if the strange object turned out not to be just one large object . . . but a gigantic cluster of objects numbering in the trillions? Could this be mammoth fleet of starships, heading straight towards the Milky Way galaxy?



(Damn, I'm not going to get a WINK of sleep, tonight! )

~ What if the detection method we used involved a new form of technology which received a previously unknown form of radiation? Or it might be something which involved neutrinos, which we've previously had difficulty detecting at all?

And what if we discovered that these "neutrino waves" were actually being emitted by the fleet of alien ships? Furthermore, we discover that they are transmitting a "coherent pattern" of signals . . . a message to us and anyone in our galaxy who can receive it!

(God, I hope TCM has some good movies on tonight which will take my mind off this disturbing concept! )

~ With all that in mind, ponder this idea, folks! The fleet of ships is sending us a warning that the black hole at the center our galaxy is about to become a "Dark Matter Super Nova", something we currently have no knowledge of, but which has already destroyed other galaxies!

The approaching fleet of starships is from a race of beings in the Andromeda galaxy who are coming to evacuate all sentient species from the Milky Way before this disaster strikes. They're going to take us back to their galaxy!



(I'll stop right here, folks, because I desperately need to go pack. I've got too many beloved possessions to leave behind when we're evacuated. I suggest you all do the same!)

Max, thanks for suggesting such a brilliant concept for us to discuss! I hope you visit All Sci-Fi more often and post great ideas like the one you described!
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Red Planet Mars (1952)

Bogmeister does a bangup job of analyzing this fascinating (but puzzling) movie. Either the filmmakers wanted the plot to present conflicting elements . . . or they didn't realize what they'd done.

The following is similar in many respects to my former comments about the plot . . . but with a brand new wrinkle that I think actually solves the mystery!

Read on and tell me if you think I'm right.

As stated in the earlier posts, I've tried for years to think of a way to sort out all the inconsistencies in the plot, but until today I just couldn't make it work. Still, the individual concepts are fascinating — if you ignore the fact that some concepts seem to cancel out others!

For example, here's the evidence that there IS an advanced Martian civilization.

Near the beginning of the movie we're shown telescopic photos of Mars showing what appears to be the polar caps before and after the Martians melted them to send water through the canals.

______Red Planet Mars (1952) and Percival Lowell


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At the end of the film, when the Nazi villain reveals that he's been faking the messages supposedly sent by the Martians, Andrea King notices that his written record of the messages is not consistent with the replies they received to various religious questions they transmitted. This proved that those replies were not from him, they were from . . . some other source.



Real Martians, maybe?

The movie makes it very clear that the equipment used to send and receive the messages is unique, and the only two working sets in the world belong to the good guys and the Nazi scientist. However, his set is eventually destroyed during an avalanche in the Andes, where his lab was hidden.



He escaped, but he no longer had a way to send more messages . . . even though one last (incomplete) message is received during the climax.

Those are the arguments FOR there being Martians who sent us messages.

On the other hand, the evidence that there are NO Martians at all is pretty convincing, too. The Nazi did in fact send answers to Peter and Andrea's messages (pretending he was the Martians), and these messages are the ones which describe the advanced Martian civilization . . . which the "Martians" claimed is ruled directly by God!

The only way we can resolve this contradiction is to make the rather large assumption that God actually used the Nazi the same way God used the authors of the Bible. They were God’s Holy Ghost Writers (pardon the joke . . . ).

Yeah, I know, that seems pretty outlandish. But it's actually consistent with what Christians believe — that the authors of the Bible were "divinely inspired" and wrote what God wanted them to write.

In this case, God commandeered the Nazi's plan to create fake Martian messages that gave elaborate descriptions of an advanced civilization. God planted ideas in his head . . . and they were actually true!

Ya gotta love the irony of that idea! The arrogant Nazi thought he was being so clever with his description of the Martian's super-civilization, when in fact he was just the pawn of the Big Guy in the Sky! (And the Martians were laughing their little green asses off! )

This crazy suggestion of mine is also completely consistent with the dramatic climax.

Behold!

The Nazi is boasting to Peter and Andrea about how he faked the whole thing just to deceive the world and discredit Christianity.



But Andrea proves to him (using his own notes about the messages he sent) that all the messages pertaining to religious questions had different answers than the ones he sent — answers which were consistent with a Christian worldview, rather than the arrogant replies like the ones he had transmitted.

The Nazi then scoffs at their claim that they didn't fake those messages to promote the world's belief that Mars was ruled by God himself. Peter even begins to wonder if the people in Washington (who had taken over the task of decoding the messages) had done the faking!

The Nazi proudly points out that after his equipment was destroyed in the Andean avalanche, no more "messages from Mars" had been received. He claims this proved that all the messages were sent by him, and the pro-religious "translations" that differed from what he sent must be fakes created by the Americans in charge of the project.

It's important to note that he makes a dramatic speech which includes the quote, “Better to rein in hell than to serve in heaven!” This (and the whole tone of his remarks) seems to indicate that he’s not just trying to lash out at mankind, he’s battling against God as well!



Wow, those Nazis never think small, eh?

When Peter and Andrea are faced with the possibility that the Nazi will convince the world the whole incident has been a hoax, the brave couple conspire to kill the Nazi (and themselves), thus preventing his evil plan to destroy the world's new-found peace. Peter secretly opens a valve on a hydrogen tank and leaks the flammable gas into the room . . . and then he offers Andrea a cigarette. They both know what will happen when he lights it.

But the question concerning the messages' authenticity is suddenly answered when a new message comes in — even though there's no other transmitter on Earth that could send it!



Unfortunately the message is never completed, because the Nazi is so enraged by the discovery that his conspiracy has somehow been thwarted, he fires his pistol into the equipment, igniting the hydrogen-rich air and blowing up the lab. And right before doing so, he delivers a very significant line.

“No, not NOW. HE won’t . . . beat me . . . NOW!”

It’s as if the Nazi knew in that last moment that God actually existed and was about to destroy his carefully arrange plot against mankind.

Watch the video of the movie (starting at the 1:15:00 mark) and listen to the Nazi’s revelation concerning his plot.

___________________ Red Planet Mars 1952


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The final scene in the movie reveals that the incomplete message (which was relayed simultaneously to Washington) was translated as meaning, "Well done, my good and faithful . . . "

In other words, God gave Peter and Andrea a great big “at-a-boy” for sacrificing themselves to defeat the Nazi!

Guys, I know this interpretation of the movie is far-fetched, but I’m damned if I can find another way to make sense of the plot. I must admit, however, that it appeals to the writer in me, and it connects all the dots better than anything else I can come up with.

Please note that it’s logical to assume that the Nazi did send the messages other than the last incomplete message and the replies to the religious questions which differed completely from what the Nazi transmitted.

And also consider the fact that his own replies to the religious questions were not received at all — an interesting clue all by itself!

Furthermore, I think the reception of the incomplete last message seems to prove that God and his loyal Martians were aware of the whole drama taking place on Earth, which means the Martians were in on God’s sneaky plan to make the Nazi think he was making up the whole story about an advanced Martian civilization.

In other words, the arrogant Nazis was “divinely inspired” without knowing it until the very end! That’s quite a remarkable plot twist, and I like the concept.

To summarize:

~ There really was a Martian civilization ruled directly by God (which is reminiscent of the Hebrews in the Old Testament, although they weren’t quite as obedient sometimes ).

~ The Martians could have sent the messages themselves if they (and God) had chosen to do so.

~ The Boss on Mars decided to plant ideas in the Nazi’s mind and have him do the transmitting. And yet, whenever the Nazi didn’t send what God wanted him too, God simply blocked the Nazi’s bad message and let the Martians send the correct reply.

~ That’s why the replies to the religious questions were different from the Nazi’s!

~ The capper to all this, of course, is the fact that the Nazi assumed the religious replies were faked by the Americans, and he went insane when he realized that the incomplete message proved that Peter and Andrea were right about the whole thing!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)