Forbidden Planet (1956) - full transcript
When Commander Adams and his crew are sent to investigate why there were no communications from a previous mission to a planet explored 20 years earlier by scientists, he finds only two survivors, Dr. Morbius and his daughter. Unknown to Adams, Morbius has made a discovery, a discovery of great power, and has no intention of sharing it with anyone.
[Electronic Pulsating]
In the final decade
of the 21st century...
men and women in rocket ships
landed on the moon.
By 2200 A.D., they had reached
the other planets of our solar system.
Almost at once there followed
the discovery of hyper-drive...
through which the speed of light
was first attained...
and later greatly surpassed.
And so at last,
mankind began the conquest...
and colonization of deep space.
United Planets cruiser C-57-D...
now more than a year out from Earth base
on a special mission...
to the planetary system of
the great main sequence star, Altair.
- When do we get a D.C. fix, Jerry?
- Half a minute, Skipper.
Ship on course, sir.
We'll reach D.C. point at 1701.
That's less than three minutes now.
- All right, take it away.
- Aye, aye, sir.
Chief, we'll drop back below light speed
in about three minutes.
- Got your breakable gear stowed?
- Aye, aye, sir.
All right. Good.
D.C. set and punched on, Skipper.
All right, attention. Captain to crew.
All hands squared away to decelerate.
Ship's beeper will, as usual,
sound ten times after lights dim.
- Come on, Doc. D.C., Bosun.
- Aye, aye, sir.
D.C. stations, on the double.
Wanna bounce through this one?
[Beeper Sounding]
[Beeper Finishes Sounding]
[Electronic Humming]
[Humming Increases In Frequency]
[Humming Stops]
[Sighing]
All right, we're down
to.3896 of light speed.
It's a little warm
in here, Skipper.
Yeah.
Jerry, you...
There's Altair
right on the nose, Skipper.
[Whirring]
Meanwhile, this ship
arranges its own eclipses.
Okay, Jerry, punch out
an orbit on the fourth planet.
Aye, aye, Skipper.
Ship in approach, Skipper.
Helical vector oriented.
Attention.
Captain to crew. Attention.
Our destination, Altair-4,
is now visible on the main view-plate.
As you'll recollect from your briefing
lectures, this is an Earth-type planet.
Twenty years ago, the spacecraft
Belerephon landed here...
with a prospecting
party of scientists.
Our mission is to search for survivors.
That is all.
[Whirring]
[Whirring]
The Lord sure makes
some beautiful worlds.
How do these continents
check with the old charts?
Be able to tell you better in a while,
Skipper. It's time for brakes.
Okay, take it away.
Astrogator to crew.
Stand by to change flux.
Another one of them new worlds.
No beer, no women,
no pool parlors, nothing.
Nothing to do but throw rocks at tin
cans, and we gotta bring our own cans.
Attention. Captain to crew.
We are now entering
the atmosphere of Altair-4.
No survival suits
will be required upon landing.
Oxygen content:
4.7 richer than Earth standard.
Gravity, only.897.
Adjust your equipment accordingly.
That is all.
All hands, check equipment.
Not even any short-range
radio signals yet?
Not so far, sir.
Jerry, can you make out
anything down there?
I may be missing
some individual structures...
but there are no cities,
ports, roads, bridges, dams.
There's just
no sign of civilization.
[Electronic Static]
Sir, we're being radar-scanned.
- Can you zero on it?
- No, sir.
It seems to emanate from
an area of about 20 miles square.
- Twenty miles square?
- Yes, sir.
- Bosun, pass the alert.
- Aye, aye, sir.
Combat stations. Blaster men,
activate your scopes.
Radio contact, sir.
There's a voice.
- Human?
- It sounds like it.
Boost it.
[Man] Spaceship, identify yourself.
You're being tracked.
Cut me in, Quinn.
United Planets Cruiser C-57-D,
J.J. Adams commanding.
- Who are you?
- Morbius of the Belerephon.
- Who?
- Edward Morbius.
Here it is. "Morbius, E. Ph.D., Lit.D.
Expedition philologist."
- Philologist?
- What do you wish here, cruiser?
You don't understand. We're your
relief. We're glad to find you alive.
I, of course,
appreciate your concern...
but absolutely no assistance
of any sort is required.
The red carpet treatment, huh?
Dr. Morbius, my orders are to
survey the situation on Altair-4.
Let me repeat:
I'm in no sort of difficulty here.
Your best procedure will be to
turn back at once without landing.
Sorry, sir.
If you set down on this planet,
I warn you...
that I cannot be answerable for
the safety of your ship or your crew.
If you'll just supply me
with landing coordinates.
Dr. Morbius,
I require landing coordinates.
Very well, but I wash my hands
of all responsibility.
- You have standard charts?
- Yes, sir.
You may come in at 83-17-4 north...
148-21 west.
Thank you.
It's right back there
in the desert.
Commander, I urge you to reconsider.
Please permit me to recommend...
- [Radio Clicks Off]
- Something funny down there, Skipper.
Okay, Jerry, I'll take her in.
Right.
Attention. Captain to crew.
Stand by to reverse polarity.
Standard class "A" security
will be maintained upon landing...
and until further notice,
all hands will wear side arms.
That is all.
- Artificial gravity off.
- Grav. off.
- Half flux.
- Half flux.
- Cut primary coils.
- Primaries cut, sir.
All clear, sir.
Look at the color of that sky.
Yeah, but I'll still take blue.
I don't know. I think a man
could get used to this...
and grow to love it.
- Bosun, you can assemble the tractor.
- Aye, aye, sir.
- Better check the command mike.
- Hmm?
- The command mike, sir.
- Oh, good idea.
- Chief?
- Sir?
You're in command now, Quinn.
You keep right at those instruments.
- Aye, aye, sir.
- Hey, what's this dust coming?
Looks like we're being met.
- Bosun.
- Aye, aye, sir?
- Hold the tractor.
- Aye, aye, sir.
- Quite a vehicle, huh?
- That driver must be a madman.
What driver?
Welcome to Altair-4, gentlemen.
I am to transport you
to the residence.
If you do not speak English...
I am at your disposal
with 187 other languages...
along with their various
dialects and sub-tongues.
Colloquial English
will do fine, thank you.
This is no offense,
but you are a robot, aren't you?
That is correct, sir.
For your convenience, I am monitored
to respond to the name "Robby."
Nice climate you have here.
High oxygen content.
I rarely use it myself, sir.
It promotes rust.
Hey, Doc,
is it a male or a female?
In my case, sir, the question
is totally without meaning.
Will you get in, gentlemen?
Quinn, tractors if I blink red.
- I'll bring a tractor in a hurry, sir.
- Right.
Passengers will please
fasten their seat belts.
Looks after us like a mother.
If you gentlemen will go in,
you're expected.
- I am Morbius.
- I am Commander Adams.
This is Lieutenant Farman,
my executive...
and Lieutenant Ostrow,
our ship's doctor.
How ironic that a simple scholar
with no ambition...
beyond a modest measure of seclusion,
should, out of a clear sky...
find himself besieged by
an army of fellow creatures...
all grimly determined
to be of service to him.
I'm sorry, sir, if we're not welcome,
but we do have our orders.
But you must stay
for lunch, gentlemen...
and do forgive the ill manners
of an old recluse.
Won't you come in?
Whatever that lunch was,
it was certainly delicious.
Simply some of Robby's synthetics.
- He's your cook too?
- Even manufactures the raw materials.
Come around here, Robby.
I'll show you how this works.
One introduces a sample of human food
through this aperture.
Here there's a small built-in chemical
laboratory where he analyzes it.
Later he can reproduce identical
molecules in any shape or quantity.
Why, it's a housewife's dream.
Plus absolute selfless obedience.
Activate the dispose-all unit.
[Zapping]
A household disintegrator beam.
Put your arm in there.
Order canceled.
Don't attribute feeling
to him, gentlemen.
Robby is simply a tool.
Tremendously strong, of course.
He could quite easily topple
this house off its foundation.
In the wrong hands, mightn't
such a tool become a deadly weapon?
No, Doctor, not even though I were the
mad scientist of the tape thrillers...
because, you see, there happens
to be a built-in safety factor.
Commander, may I borrow that
formidable-looking side arm of yours?
Thank you.
Robby, point this thing at that
althaea frutex out there on the terrace.
- Fire.
- [Zapping]
You understand the mechanism?
Yes, Morbius. A simple blaster.
All right. Now turn around here.
Point it at the commander.
Aim right between the eyes.
Fire.
[Electricity Crackling]
You see, he's helpless...
Locked in a sub-electronic dilemma
between my direct orders...
and his basic inhibitions
against harming rational beings.
Canceled.
If I were to allow
that to continue...
he would blow
every circuit in his body.
Doctor, how did you
come by such a mechanism?
Uh, I didn't
"come by" him, Doctor...
I tinkered him together
during my first months up here.
- Coffee is ready, sir.
- Gentlemen.
Doctor, do you mean that
you made this gentleman?
A useful enough toy, Lieutenant...
but nowadays I have
no time for such things.
Dr. Morbius, you're a philologist,
an expert in words and languages...
their origins and meanings.
Yet this robot of yours
is beyond the combined resources...
of all Earth's physical science.
My dear Commander,
maybe you overestimate...
both Robby and myself.
Gentlemen, let me show you
another bit of parlor magic.
[Beeping, Shutters Banging]
Forgive me. I didn't mean
to alarm you, gentlemen.
I had Robby install
the steel shutters...
before I realized how
altogether safe I am here.
[Beeping, Shutters Banging]
Well, gentlemen,
this has been very pleasant.
You've seen how
comfortable I am here...
no hardships,
no special difficulties...
and no need at all
for military assistance.
Now I daresay you're impatient
to get back to base.
Yes, the moment we've interviewed the
other members of the Belerephon party.
Others. But there are
no others, Commander.
Before the first year was out,
they had all, every man and woman...
succumbed to a...
to a sort of a planetary force here...
some dark, terrible,
incomprehensible force.
Only my wife and I were immune.
And just how do you account
for your immunity, Dr. Morbius?
We differed from the others only
in our special love for this world...
in our boundless longing
to make a home here...
far from the scurry
and strife of humankind.
I remember how, when the vote
was taken to return to Earth...
she and I were utterly heartbroken.
How could we have foreseen the
extinction of coworkers and friends?
Skipper, there is no record of any wife
in the Belerephon rolls.
Lieutenant, look under
"biochemistry," Julia Marsin.
She and I were married
by the skipper on the voyage here.
I have the certificate.
I thought Robby had managed some
very charming feminine touches.
I take it Mrs. Morbius
isn't at home today?
My dear wife died
a few months after the others.
Only in her case,
it was of natural causes.
[Ostrow] I'm very sorry.
Dr. Morbius,
just what were the symptoms...
of all those other deaths,
the unnatural ones?
The symptoms were
striking, Commander.
One by one,
in spite of every safeguard...
my coworkers were torn
literally limb from limb.
By what?
By some devilish thing
that never once showed itself.
- And the Belerephon?
- Vaporized...
as the three remaining survivors
tried to take her off.
And yet, in all these 19 years...
you personally have never again
been bothered by this planetary force?
Only in nightmares
of those times.
And yet, always in my mind...
I seem to feel the creature
is lurking somewhere close at hand...
sly and irresistible, and only waiting
to be re-invoked for murder.
[Woman] Father?
[Morbius] Alta!
Alta, I specifically asked you...
not to join us for lunch.
But, Father, lunch is over.
I'm sure you never said a word
about not coming in for coffee.
Well, did you or did you?
This is Commander Adams...
Dr. Ostrow and, uh,
Lieutenant Farman.
- My daughter.
- How do you do?
I've always so terribly wanted to meet
a young man, and now three at once.
- [Ostrow] That's very kind of you.
- You're lovely, Doctor.
Of course, the two end ones
are unbelievable.
Could this end one
get you some coffee?
I'm quite able to get it,
thank you.
[Bubbling]
Thank you.
Of course, you must make allowances
for my daughter, gentlemen.
She's never known any human being
except her father.
I hope you'll make
allowances too, sir.
We young men have been shut up in
hyperspace for well over a year now...
and right from here,
the view looks just like heaven.
Sugar?
But you keep helping me.
After all, you're not Robby.
I wouldn't mind being Robby
in certain ways.
That's only in certain ways,
of course.
I can see that was probably very clever,
but I don't seem to understand it.
Well, there's...
There's no rush.
Yes, l...
I suppose one day I shall be obliged
to make the trip to Earth with her...
for the sake of her
natural development.
I should say fairly soon too.
Your father wasn't too happy at first
about your meeting us, was he?
Well, naturally not.
You're from Earth.
- What's wrong with Earth?
- How lucky I am, though.
All three of you are such
very fine exceptions.
- You are exceptions, aren't you?
- Oh, sure, sure.
That is, I am, anyway.
Old dependable Jerry.
Of course, the doc can be trusted too,
in the daytime.
What about the commander?
Well, I hate to tell
you this, Alta, but...
that man is notorious
throughout seven planetary systems.
Oh, dear. What does he do?
Well, I don't feel
free to discuss...
the shortcomings of
a fellow officer, but...
any girl or woman who lets him
get her alone, anywhere...
Yes.
Yes, I can see it now.
There, just then when he looked at me,
his eyes almost had fire in them.
I'm so glad you don't have
any fire in your eyes, Lieutenant.
Well, I'm not that harmless.
- Alta?
- Yes, Father?
These gentlemen have expressed
a very kindly concern...
- over the amount of liberty you have.
- Liberty?
I told them that you have my permission
to visit Earth whenever you choose.
Earth? I?
Then my little girl
never feels lonely or confined?
Why, I don't know.
I have you and Robby and all my friends.
Friends?
Uh, yes.
- Perhaps you'd better call them, dear.
- All right.
Come, gentlemen.
I felt something
go right through my head.
Alta's whistle is above the pitch of
human hearing. I often feel it myself.
- What's up?
- Look.
[Growling]
No. Watch.
Why, he's as tame as a kitten.
Outside of the range of my daughter's
influence, it's still a deadly beast.
[Growling Softly]
[Communicator Beeps]
- Just a routine checkup from the ship.
- Oh.
- What, Chief?
- Everything okay, Commander?
- No problem.
- Would you mind activating the viewer?
Okay.
As you can see, we're under
no restraint whatsoever.
[Quinn Whistles]
Knock that off, Quinn.
If I can be of any help to you in your
preparations for the homeward voyage...
Thank you, sir, but unfortunately
circumstances may keep us here a while.
- Circumstances?
- You see, my orders...
don't quite seem to cover
the Belerephon fatalities.
I am forced now to contact base
for new instructions.
But, Commander,
suppose these new instructions...
require my return to Earth
for questioning...
two years or more
away from my work here?
Tell me, just what is involved
in your making contact with Earth base?
Fundamentally,
it's a question of crude power...
how to short-circuit the continuum
on a five or six parsec level.
Of course, a transmitter like that
isn't standard equipment.
- No.
- To build one...
we'd cannibalize about two-thirds
of the ship's electronic gear...
and then unship
the main drive to juice it.
Just to construct a bunker to house
the core would take about ten days.
Disabled here
for ten days and nights?
Tell me, would two-inch
lead shielding do as well?
It'd be better if we happened to be
carrying 100 square yards of the stuff.
Then I'll have Robby
run it off for you...
and you'll get it
not later than tomorrow noon.
That's very obliging of you, sir.
Obliging?
[Morbius] Look out there, Commander,
the Belerephon party.
Nineteen years ago
I dug those graves with my own hands...
and I have, believe me,
no wish to repeat that experience.
[Engine Droning]
We'll see you again soon,
Alta, I hope.
- Thank you very much, Doctor.
- Excellent lunch, Doctor.
To tell the truth, I sometimes
still miss the conversation...
of such gentlemen
as yourself, Doctor.
Well, thank you for your
courtesy and concern, sir.
Fasten your seat belts, gentlemen.
Easy with this core. Our M.G. coils
won't take us home without it.
Come on, Cookie, out of the way.
You wanna get run over?
Handle it gently.
It has to get us home.
- Is it far enough away from the ship?
- Sure. No interference there.
- What about the magnetic pull?
- Bosun, drop the thing down over there.
Aye, aye, sir.
Where do you wish
the shielding stacked, sir?
You can just put it right over
there by the core, thank you.
Wait a minute.
That's solid lead he's carrying.
Common lead would have
crushed the vehicle, sir.
This is my morning's run
of isotope 217.
The whole thing
hardly comes to ten tons.
Hello, Alta.
- Hi.
- Does your father know you're here?
He did tell me not to go near the ship,
but this isn't very near.
- Cookie, out of here.
- Aye, aye, sir.
Yes, sir.
[Men Laughing]
Commander, put me down, sir!
- Commander.
- What is it, Chief?
If you'd like
to check my assembly...
for the monitor unit
of the Klystron transmitter...
- What, already?
- Yes, sir.
Excellent.
Are... are these condensers
out of my accelerator circuits?
Yes, sir. I borrowed some solenoids
from your gyrostabilizers too.
Here's the big deal, sir.
I'll bet any quantum mechanic
would give his life...
for a chance to fool around
with this gadget.
Get this in the ship by dark.
It won't do any good to have some fool
fall on it before we transmit tomorrow.
- Good work, Quinn.
- Thank you, sir.
Psst!
Come here. Over here.
Can I be of service, sir?
Never mind the "sir," but I'm
a stranger in this so-called planet...
and I was just wondering
if you could tell me...
where I could get hold
of some of the real stuff.
- "Real stuff"?
- Just for cooking purposes.
I take a big pride in my duties.
Pardon me, sir. "Stuff"?
Oh.
[Gasps]
Just about one jolt left.
Oh, genuine Ancient Rocket bourbon.
See here? Hey!
You low-living contraption!
I oughta take a can opener to you!
Quiet, please. I am analyzing.
[Robby Burps]
Yes, relatively simple alcohol molecules
with traces of fusel oil.
Would 60 gallons be sufficient?
Gallons?
I've been from here to there in
this galaxy, and I want you to know...
you're the most understanding soul
I ever met up with.
Ow!
It's nothing really personal,
just a kiss.
Hmm. But why should people
want to kiss each other?
It's an old custom.
All the really high civilizations
go in for it.
- But it's so silly.
- But it's good for you, though.
It stimulates the whole system.
As a matter of fact, you can't
be in tip-top health without it.
Really? I didn't know that.
I'd be only too happy
to show you.
Well, thank you very much,
Lieutenant.
No trouble at all.
Is that all there is to it?
Well, you've sort of
got to stick with it.
- Hmm.
- Just once more, do you mind?
Not at all.
There must be something
seriously the matter with me...
because I haven't noticed
the least bit of stimulation.
Honey, let's do this thing right.
Now, here.
Are you giving me the treatment?
Are you?
Lieutenant Farman.
Don't say a word, sir.
I know there are lots of pressing duties
waiting for me back at the ship...
and rank doth have
its little privileges, hmm, sir?
And you can depend on it that
those privileges won't be stretched...
into taking your kind of advantages.
- But l...
- Dismissed.
What's the matter with him?
Why did you both act so funny?
Well, what'd you expect?
Don't you understand, Alta?
No? Well, look at yourself.
You can't dress like that around men,
especially not a space wolf like Farman.
So for Pete's sake, go home
and put on something that'll...
Anything.
What's wrong with my clothes?
I designed them myself.
Stop looking at me that way.
I don't think I like it.
Ha-ha.
What do you mean, "ha-ha"?
We were just trying to get
some healthy stimulation...
from hugging and kissing,
that's all.
Oh, that's all?
It's so easy for you, isn't it?
There's no feelings, no emotions.
You, uh...
Nothing human would
ever enter your mind.
It so happens that I'm in command
of 18 competitively selected...
super-perfect
physical specimens...
with an average age of 24.6...
who have been locked up
in hyperspace for 378 days!
It would have served you right
if I hadn't have... and he...
Get out of here before I have you
run out of the area under guard...
and then I'll put
more guards on the guards!
"And then I'll put
more guards on the guards!"
I don't like him.
I just don't like him.
The way he kept looking at me.
Then he shouted.
- What about?
- I don't know, really.
It was awful.
I was only trying to be nice
about kissing the lieutenant.
Oh?
- How did the commander react to that?
- He was furious.
He seemed to think that all that about
biology had something to do with me.
Personally, I mean.
I've never been so nervous in my life.
I hope I don't see him again
if I live to be 400 million!
Well, I daresay
you won't have to.
The best thing you can do
is to go to bed.
I still have some work
to do in my study.
- Good night, my dear.
- Good night.
[Beeping]
[Beeping]
[Beeping]
Where have you been?
I've beamed and beamed.
Sorry, miss.
I was giving myself an oil job.
And what is it you require
this time, Miss Alta?
Robby, I must have a new dress,
right away.
- Again?
- But this one must be different.
Absolutely nothing must show...
below, above or through.
Radiation-proof?
No, just eye-proof will do.
- Thick and heavy?
- Oh, no, Robby.
It must be the loveliest,
softest thing you've ever made for me...
and fit in all the right places,
with lots and lots of star sapphires.
Star sapphires take a week
to crystallize properly.
Would diamonds or emeralds do?
Well, if they're large enough.
Five, ten and fifteen carats,
and on hand.
I will run the dress up for you
in time for breakfast.
[Giggles]
- Sleep well, miss.
- Thank you, Robby.
I don't really care now
whether I do or not.
Funny to see two moons
in the sky, isn't it?
Funny how quick
a guy gets used to it.
Yeah.
[Breathing Sound]
- Joe.
- What?
- Do you hear something?
- Like what?
Like a sort of big breathing.
No.
That's funny. I did.
[Breathing Sound]
Strong and Grey, last night during
your watch this ship was entered...
and valuable government property
was sabotaged.
The two of you claim to have
been at your posts and awake.
Yet this ship was entered,
the heavy-duty hatch was raised...
and latched back, and neither of you
saw or heard anything.
Except you, Grey.
You heard breathing.
And, Youngerford, let me see,
you were asleep in your bunk...
and you think you had a dream.
A dream!
Pending more evidence, you're deprived
of space pay and all privileges.
- Me too, sir?
- No, you'll stand 20 extra watches.
I'll have less dreaming
aboard this ship!
Dismissed!
- Skipper.
- Well, Quinn?
Half of this gear we can replace
and the rest we can patch up somehow...
except this special
Klystron frequency modulator.
With every facility of the ship,
I think I might be able to rebuild it...
but frankly, the book says no.
It came packed in liquid boron
in a suspended grav...
All right, so it's impossible.
How long will it take?
Well, if I don't
stop for breakfast...
- Get on it, Quinn.
- Thank you, sir.
The tractor's ready, sir.
- Wait. I'll put on a clean uniform.
- You'd better stay as you are.
- I'm leaving you in command here.
- Oh, I see.
Establish a standard perimeter
and set up a class "A" alert by sundown.
Aye, aye, sir.
[Squeaking]
Good morning, gentlemen.
We'd like to see Dr. Morbius.
Morbius is in his study, sir...
never to be disturbed
while that door is closed.
All right, we'll wait.
Is there any other way
out of there?
This is the only door.
In case you require anything,
gentlemen, use the beamer.
How could he have
slipped past two sentries?
Nothing important, Skipper.
Doc, you stay right there where you are
and keep your eye on that door.
Okay, Skipper. If Morbius comes out,
we'll call you from right here.
Good morning.
Good morning.
- Come on in.
- Didn't bring my bathing suit.
What's a bathing suit?
Oh, murder.
Never mind. I'm coming out.
Alta, listen. You mustn't...
You just wait right there.
It'll only take me a second to get dry.
Yes, well, I'll...
- I'll just turn my back here.
- If that's the way you feel about it.
Don't worry. You're not gonna
have to look at me anymore.
Hmm?
You'll see.
- See what?
- You'll see what.
Now wait a minute, Alta.
If you're planning on...
I sure didn't expect to see you today
after the way you spoke to me yesterday.
I'm very sorry about the way
I spoke to you yesterday.
I was sort of bothered.
Hmm.
All right, you can look now.
Nothing shows through, does it?
Mm-mm.
I had it made
especially for you.
Oh, I thought you weren't
expecting me today.
I wasn't.
I guess there's just something
about me personally you don't like.
Alta...
you always look just beautiful.
Then why don't you kiss me
like everybody else does?
Everybody?
Hasn't your father
taught you anything?
Well, he says
I'm terribly ignorant...
but I have had
poetry and mathematics...
logic, physics, geology and bi...
Ology?
Of course, that's mostly
on the theoretical side.
Well, so far.
- Oh?
- What's wrong with theory?
This.
[Growling]
Alta.
It's all right. He's my friend.
[Growling]
[Zapping]
I'm sorry, Alta.
I had to do that.
He didn't recognize me.
He would've killed me. Why?
- You really don't know, do you?
- No, I don't.
- Is he still in there?
- Hasn't come out.
Wait a minute, Skipper.
After all, it is his house.
What's the matter?
Doc, something new
has been added.
Ooh.
That's gonna
complicate things a bit.
Yeah.
Not even a window.
The robot lied.
Morbius hasn't been in here.
Doc, he's up to something.
Look at this, Skipper.
- Hieroglyphics?
- Maybe.
But it doesn't look like
Egyptian or cuneiform...
or Chinese.
You'll find the household silver
in the dining room...
and my daughter's jewelry
on her dressing table.
Dr. Morbius...
last night our Klystron monitor
was sabotaged.
And you suspect me?
Then the time has come
for clarification.
Sit down.
In times long past...
this planet was the home of
a mighty and noble race of beings...
which called themselves the Krell.
Ethically,
as well as technologically...
they were a million years
ahead of humankind...
for in unlocking
the mysteries of nature...
they had conquered
even their baser selves...
and when, in the course of eons,
they had abolished sickness...
and insanity and crime
and all injustice...
they turned,
still with high benevolence...
outward toward space.
Long before the dawn of man's history,
they had walked our Earth...
and brought back
many biological specimens.
I see. That explains
the tiger and the deer.
The heights they had reached...
but then, seemingly on the threshold
of some supreme accomplishment...
which was to have crowned
their entire history...
this all but divine race
perished in a single night.
In the 2,000 centuries
since that unexplained catastrophe...
even their
cloud-piercing towers...
of glass and porcelain
and adamantine steel...
have crumbled back into
the soil of Altair-4...
and nothing, absolutely nothing
remains above ground.
What were they like?
No record of their
physical nature has survived...
except, perhaps, in the form
of this characteristic arch.
I suggest you consider it
in comparison to one of our...
functionally designed human doorways.
[Electronic Humming]
[Strange Electronic Tonalities]
That recording was made by Krell
musicians a half a million years ago.
If you will follow me, I will show you
some of their other remaining artifacts.
Krell metal.
Try your blaster there, Commander.
This spot should be molten.
It's not even warm,
and no trace of radioactivity.
The molecules are many times
more densely interlocked...
than in earthly steel...
yet it drinks up energy
like a sponge.
This is just one
of their laboratories.
You will notice that much
of the equipment is familiar...
though designed
for nonhuman technicians.
What's this?
On this screen
may be projected...
the total scientific knowledge
of the Krell...
from its primitive beginning
to the day of its annihilation...
a sheer bulk surpassing
many million earthly libraries.
- You're able to read this?
- A little. It's my profession.
Twenty years ago,
I began here with...
this page
of geometrical theorems.
Eventually I was able to deduce
most of their huge, logical alphabet.
I began to learn.
The first practical result
was my robot...
which you gentlemen
appear to find so remarkable.
Child's play.
I've come here every day now
for two decades...
painfully picking up a few of the least
difficult fragments of their knowledge.
A thing like this,
it's too big to evaluate.
- Think what a discovery of this kind...
- Dr. Morbius...
what is this device over here?
I call it
their "plastic educator."
As far as I can make out, they used it
to condition and test their young...
in much the same way
as we once employed finger-painting...
among our kindergarten children.
I often play with it myself
for relaxation...
although working here,
I sometimes wish I'd been blessed...
with multiple arms and legs.
Now, you can see
that this headset...
was designed for something
much bulkier than my human cranium.
Now, over here you see...
the electromagnetic waves
of my brain...
sending that indicator up
about halfway.
I gather that
one of their own young...
comparable to
a seven-year-old child...
was normally expected to send that
all the way to the top...
which by Krell standards
classifies me as a low-grade moron.
Yet I have
an officially recorded IQ of 183.
Now then, for the primary function.
Actually, to operate...
Well, I'll choose a familiar subject
to start with to save time.
There now, gentlemen.
What's that?
What's happening there?
A statue.
That's Altaira.
Simply a three-dimensional image,
Commander.
But it's alive!
Because my daughter is alive in my brain
from microsecond to microsecond...
while I manipulate.
There.
Something of a strain.
Aladdin's lamp
in a physics laboratory.
Would you gentlemen care to take
the Krell test of your intelligence?
- Yes, very much.
- You may be disappointed, Commander.
Suppose we start
with the good doctor.
- What do I do?
- Just sit down there, and I'll...
Move forward.
There now.
Now, Doctor,
you can read it here.
There's something wrong here.
I have an IQ of 161...
yet I don't register
a third what you did.
Now the commander.
It's all right, sir. A commanding
officer doesn't need brains.
Just a good loud voice, huh?
Do I pull this switch
to make an image?
Stop! You'd never survive.
Our Belerephon skipper tried it,
and it was instantly fatal to him.
Oh, I see.
So you're immune to this too?
In my first attempt
at creating an image here...
my brain pattern there
was scarcely any larger than yours.
Afterwards, I lay unconscious
for a day and a night.
Yet you came back
for a second go at it.
It was a question
of science, Doctor...
but you can imagine my joy
when I discovered that the shock...
had permanently doubled
my intellectual capacity.
Otherwise, my researches here
would have come to nothing...
poor as they have been.
Recently I have turned up
some rather puzzling indications...
that in those final days
before their annihilation...
the Krell had been applying
their entire racial energies...
to a new project...
one which they actually
seemed to hope...
might somehow free them
once and for all...
from any dependence
on physical instrumentalities.
A civilization
without instrumentalities?
Incredible.
Dr. Morbius,
everything here is new.
Not a sign of age or wear
on any of it.
Young man, these devices,
self-serviced, self-maintained...
have stood exactly as you see them
for 2,000 centuries.
2,000 centuries?
And during all this time,
what was their power source?
That's a good question.
May I draw your attention
to these gauges...
all around here, gentlemen?
Their calibrations
appear to indicate...
that they are set
in decimal series...
each division recording
exactly ten times as many amperes...
as the one preceding it.
Ten times ten
times ten times ten...
times ten times ten,
on and on and on...
row after row,
gauge after gauge.
But there is no direct wiring
that I can discover.
However, when I
activate this machine...
it registers infinitesimally,
you see...
down there in the lower
left-hand corner.
And then...
when I activate
the educator here...
it registers a little more.
But this much is negligible.
The total potential here must be
nothing less than astronomical.
Nothing less.
The number ten
raised almost literally...
to the power of infinity.
Gentlemen, would you care to see
some more of the Krell wonders?
- Indeed, yes.
- Yes.
If you will,
step in this shuttle car.
How often the Krell technicians
have ridden in this little vehicle.
What now, Dr. Morbius?
Prepare your minds
for a new scale...
of physical scientific values,
gentlemen.
[Machine Humming]
[Crackling]
Twenty miles.
Twenty miles.
- Listen.
- [Rapid Clicking]
Circuits opening and closing.
And they never rest. This is
one of their ventilator shafts.
You can feel the warm air rising.
Look down here.
Look down, gentlemen.
Are you afraid?
7,800 levels.
And 400 other shafts
like this one.
[Electricity Buzzing]
[Morbius] Yes, a single machine.
A cube 20 miles on each side.
For 2,000 centuries
it has waited patiently here...
tuning and lubricating itself,
replacing worn parts.
I have reason to believe
that 16 years ago...
a minor alteration was performed...
throughout the entire 8,000 cubic miles
of its own fabric.
But what's it all for?
Sometimes the gauges
register a little...
when the buck deer fight in the autumn
or when birds fly over in the spring...
and nearly a whole dial
became active...
when your ship first approached
from deep space.
I'll show you a section
of one of the power units.
These units are sunk
in the body of the planet...
fifty miles
right below our feet.
Now, be sure and look
only in the mirror.
Man does not behold
the face of the Gorgon and live.
9,200 thermonuclear reactors
in tandem.
The harnessed power
of an exploding planetary system.
All hands, stand clear
of fence area.
All right, Quinn, turn it on.
- Have you tested it yet, Bosun?
- Right away, sir.
- There you are, sir.
- Very good.
Lieutenant? Having completed
my washing-up duties after chow...
I request the lieutenant's permission
to take a walk...
outside the perimeter, sir.
- There's nothing out there.
- But there is, sir.
I mean... well, I thought it might
brighten the boys' mess up a bit...
if I could find a few
wild radishes or something.
I don't know what you're lying about,
but you better get back...
before the skipper does,
or we'll both be skinned.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Quinn, this is Farman.
Kill the power on the fence.
All right, put it back on.
480 pints...
as you requested.
Total: 60 gallons.
Genuine Kansas City bourbon!
[Coughing]
It's smooth too.
Robby, I ain't never
gonna forget this.
Any time you're hard up
for lube oil, let me know.
What's up?
Somebody coming this way?
No, sir.
Nothing coming this way.
- [Electricity Crackling]
- The fence is shorting!
Shall I shut down
the current, sir?
No. It's stopped now.
Check over the whole system
in the morning.
Aye, sir.
It's strange how that fence
just shorted out.
Yeah.
[Crewman Screaming]
You're too arbitrary, Commander.
Perhaps I do not choose to be
dictated to in my own world.
Dr. Morbius, a scientific find
of this magnitude...
has got to be taken
under United Planet supervision.
No one man can be allowed
to monopolize it.
For the past two hours
I've been expecting you...
to make exactly
that asinine statement.
Just one moment, Commander.
For close on 20 years now
I've been constantly...
and I hope dispassionately,
considering this very problem...
and I have come
to the unalterable conclusion...
that man is unfit as yet
to receive such knowledge...
such almost limitless power.
Whereas Morbius, with his
artificially expanded intellect...
is now ideally suited to administer
this power for the whole human race.
Precisely, Doctor.
Such portions then
of the Krell science...
as I may, from time to time,
deem suitable and safe...
I shall dispense to Earth.
Other portions,
I shall withhold.
And in this, I shall be
answerable exclusively...
to my own conscience
and judgment.
Dr. Morbius, in the absence
of special instructions...
you leave me
in a very awkward position.
[Communicator Beeps]
- [Farman] Commander Adams.
- Speaking, Lieutenant.
Skipper, the chief's
been murdered.
Quinn? Murdered?
Yes, he was alone,
working on the monitor.
The rest of us were outside
on guard duty. l...
- How was it done?
- "Done"?
Skipper, his body is plastered
all over the communications room.
Leave everything as it is.
We're on our way.
It's started again.
Is that it?
I tried to make a plaster model
from the footprints we found.
37 inches by 19.
Why, it's fantastic.
Doc, I don't understand.
Whatever walks on this would be quite
an opponent for a man with a club...
but with our weapons,
Quinn could have...
No. This thing runs counter to
every known law of adaptive evolution.
What do you mean?
Notice this structure here.
Characteristic
of a four-footed animal.
Yet our visitor last night
left the tracks of a biped.
Primarily a ground animal too.
Yet this claw could only belong
to an arboreal creature...
like some impossible tree sloth.
Just doesn't fit into normal nature
anywhere in the galaxy.
This is a nightmare.
Is that what you made
out of that footprint?
I think it's fairly close.
Pardon me, Commander. Are you ready
to hold discipline on the cook, sir?
Yeah, let's have him.
I'm obliged to remind you that I gave
him permission to go out last night.
Did you give him permission
to get falling-down drunk?
Drunk, sir? Me, sir?
Ask Dr. Ostrow, sir.
Four pints of 120 proof bourbon
without a trace of hangover in it.
That ain't natural.
Besides, why did that Robert argue me
into drinking all that whiskey?
You were with the robot last night?
Yes, sir.
Him and me, we kind of got to
toasting each other's good health...
just for cordial interplanetary
relations, you understand.
Now, that's all the time?
Even while the chief was being killed?
Certainly, sir.
I hope you don't think I got
that stiff in five minutes.
All right. Dismissed.
I guess that kind of
washes the robot up.
Where does that leave us
for suspects?
Maybe it leaves us
with the same one.
Maybe we should drop over
to that Krell laboratory...
and get our IQs boosted
a couple of hundred percent.
Sir, burial detail is ready.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
- Dismissed.
- Company, dismissed.
Fine technician.
Good shipmate.
That's a good epitaph
for any man.
Good day, Dr. Morbius.
I daresay neither of us
slept any last night.
That's a pretty close guess.
I warned you while your ship
was still in space.
I begged you not to land
on this planet.
Believe me, Commander,
that is only a foretaste.
The Belerephon pattern
is being woven again.
Remain here and the next attack
on your party...
will be more deadly and general.
How do you know that?
Know? l...
I seem to visualize it.
If you wish, call it...
a premonition.
What do you make of that, Skipper?
I'd say it sounded
like an ultimatum.
- Bosun.
- Aye, sir.
Bosun. I want a clear field
of fire in all directions.
- Aye, aye, sir.
- Randall?
How soon will radar
be operational?
- Operating right now, sir.
- Good. Keep on it yourself.
- Aye, aye, sir.
- The M.A. alert is completed?
- Aye, aye, sir.
- Fine.
Activate main batteries.
- Alarm for test.
- [High-pitched Tone]
Fire!
[Rumbling]
Check good.
Lieutenant, you got
your trouble squad in hand?
Yes, sir, but they're
a little trigger-happy.
They're sort of edgy
to see whatever's out there.
Oh, Jerry.
This may be a big deal coming up.
I'm sorry if I've leaned on you...
Stop knocking yourself out, Skipper.
She picked the right man.
[Communicator Beeps]
- What is it, Randall?
- Radar just picked up something.
- Where away?
- At the head of the arroyo.
- Moving?
- This way. Slowly.
Automatic control.
Batteries, fire!
Batteries, hold fire.
Do you see anything out there?
Nothing.
Batteries, fire!
Batteries, cease fire.
- Randall.
- Dead on target, sir.
Good.
- Give me audio-com.
- Aye, aye, sir.
Attention!
This may have been a ruse to divert us
from some other part of the perimeter.
Continue watching
on your own immediate fronts.
That is all.
- [Beep]
- What?
It just stopped
at the foot of the pass.
Are you sure you've got
a real blip there?
Big as a house, and we were
on target with both bursts.
It's coming on again!
- Straight across?
- It shows here.
It's still coming!
Gray, Strong, set up
a cross fire on those rocks.
[Electricity Crackling]
Fire!
The blasted thing's invisible!
[Creature Roars]
[Roaring]
- [Roaring]
- [Screaming]
Jerry! Hold fire!
[Roaring]
Fire!
[Machine Pulsating]
[Groaning]
[Screaming]
[Roaring]
[Altaira Screams] Father!
Alta!
- Father!
- Altaira!
- Alta, where are you?
- Father!
What is it? What's the matter?
I just had a terrible dream!
There was blood and fire
and thunder...
and something awful was moving
in the middle of it.
I could hear it roar and bellow.
Now, now. You know
a dream can't hurt you.
Not me. Not us.
The thing I saw was trying
to break in the camp.
It was gonna kill...
You'll take care of him for me,
won't you? You'll protect him.
My darling, I'm completely helpless
as long as he remains here so willfully.
Come now.
- Bosun.
- Yes, sir?
Get those graves dug.
Keep the men busy.
- The busier the better.
- Randall?
Give me audio-com.
Well, men, whatever it was,
our main battery stopped it.
You believe that?
No, it just went away
for some reason. It'll be back.
Doc, an invisible being...
that cannot be disintegrated
by atomic fission.
No, Skipper. That is
a scientific impossibility.
Hypnotic illusions
don't tear people apart.
That's true enough...
but any organism dense enough to survive
three billion electron volts...
would have to be made
of solid nuclear material.
It would sink of its own weight
to the center of this planet.
You saw it yourself standing there
in those neutron beams.
There's your answer.
It must have been renewing
its molecular structure...
from one microsecond
to the next.
- Bosun! I want the tractor.
- Ready, sir.
We pick up the girl and her father
whether they like it or not.
Section 86A:
"Evacuate all civilians
from disaster areas."
You left out
two very important words.
"Where feasible."
If you remember
the Belerephon expedition...
their ship was vaporized
trying to lift off.
Which makes it a gilt-edged priority
that one of us...
gets into that Krell lab
and takes that brain boost.
- Bosun.
- Aye, sir?
I'm leaving you in command.
Get the ship operational.
Do your best to wait it out
for me and the doctor...
but the second that fence starts
to short again, lift off...
and report back to Earth base
on conditions in this sector.
Right, Skipper.
All right. Get everything
aboard ship. We're pullin' out!
No lights showing.
Yeah.
Look, Doc, in case
we make it into that lab...
I'll take the first go
at the IQ booster.
You hear me?
I hear you.
I am monitored to admit no one
at this hour.
That sounded final.
Maybe if we reasoned with him.
My beams are focused
on your blasters, gentlemen.
Hasn't he got a built-in rule
against wringing our necks for us?
[Robby] That is true, sir.
Yet I am monitored
to admit no one.
[Altaira] Robby.
- Let them in.
- Alta, this is your father's order.
- Get out of the way.
- Quiet.
Robby...
emergency cancellation Archimedes.
Why are you here?
We were attacked.
Three more men dead,
including Jerry Farman.
I don't know. It was...
just some kind of big outline
in the disintegrator beams.
And you can't explain it?
No.
Well, anyway, we fought it,
and we lost.
- I figure it'll be back.
- You must leave, now.
I'm not going without you.
But I can't possibly leave him alone.
I just can't.
- Then we'll take him.
- By force?
I can't agree to that either.
Can't you? You don't realize
what's loose on this planet!
But I'm immune,
like both my parents.
That's what he says.
Nothing could be immune to that thing...
Oh, darling, please go.
Oh, please. If you love me, go.
Alta. Doc, will you talk
some sense to this girl?
I'm in over my head. Doc?
Doc?
Doc?
On the sofa, Robby.
So you took the brain boost, huh?
[Panting]
You oughta see my new mind.
Up there in lights.
Bigger than his now.
Easy, Doc.
Morbius was too close
to the problem.
The Krell had completed their project.
That big machine.
No instrumentalities.
True creation.
Doc, let's have it.
- But the Krell forgot one thing.
- Yes, what?
Monsters, John.
Monsters from the Id.
The Id? What's that?
Talk, Doc.
Doc?
Oh, Doc.
Doc.
How romantic!
The fool! The meddling idiot!
As though his ape's brain
could contain the secrets of the Krell.
Father, he's dead.
He was warned,
and now he's paid.
Let him be buried with the other victims
of human greed and folly.
Morbius, you wanted me
to make a choice.
Now you've chosen for me.
- Alta!
- I'm ready to go with you, darling.
Altaira! No!
[Robby] I will place him
in the tractor, sir.
Thank you.
She mustn't do this.
She must be prevented.
Morbius, what is the Id?
My daughter is planning a very foolish
action, and she'll be terribly punished.
- What is the Id?
- Id! Id! Id!
It's an obsolete term...
I'm afraid,
once used to describe...
the elementary basis
of the subconscious mind.
- Monsters from the Id.
- Huh?
Monsters from the subconscious.
Of course.
That's what Doc meant.
Morbius...
the big machine... 8,000 cubic miles
of Klystron relays...
enough power for a whole population
of creative geniuses...
operated by remote control.
Morbius, operated by
the electromagnetic impulses...
of individual Krell brains.
To what purpose?
In return, that machine would
instantaneously project solid matter...
to any point on the planet, in any shape
or color they might imagine...
for any purpose, Morbius!
Creation by mere thought.
Why haven't I seen this all along?
Like you, the Krell forgot
one deadly danger...
their own subconscious hate
and lust for destruction.
The beast.
The mindless primitive.
Even the Krell must have
evolved from that beginning.
And so those mindless beasts
of the subconscious...
had access to a machine
that could never be shut down.
The secret devil
of every soul on the planet...
all set free at once
to loot and maim...
and take revenge and kill!
My poor Krell!
After a million years
of shining sanity...
they could hardly have understood
what power was destroying them.
Yes, young man.
All very convincing
but for one obvious fallacy.
The last Krell died
2,000 centuries ago...
but today, as we all know...
there is still at large
on this planet a living monster.
Your mind refuses
to face a conclusion.
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
[Robby] Morbius.
- Morbius!
- What?
Something is approaching
from the southwest.
It is now quite close.
[Beeping]
- Could Robby be wrong?
- No, never.
There it comes.
[Beeping]
[Shutters Banging]
I feel sorry for you, young man.
Feel sorry for your
daughter, Morbius.
It's listening.
[Banging]
- Alta, go into my study.
- You still refuse to face the truth.
- What truth?
- Morbius, that thing out there.
- It's you.
- You're insane!
You have led it here where Alta
must see you torn to pieces!
You think she's immune?
She's joined herself to me!
- Yes, and whatever comes, forever.
- Say it's a lie.
Let it hear you!
Tell it you don't love this man!
Not even if I could.
Stop it, Robby!
Don't let it in! Kill it!
[Wild Beeping,
Electricity Crackling]
It's no use.
He knows it's your other self.
We're safe.
Why did you jumble
that combination?
Whatever you know in here,
your twin self in the tunnel knows too.
I'm not a monster, you...
We're all part monsters
in our subconscious!
- So we have laws and religion.
- Let me go!
You've got to listen.
We don't have much time.
Here.
Here's where your mind
was artificially enlarged.
Consciously it still lacked the power
to operate the great machine...
but your subconscious
had been made strong enough!
- I won't hear you!
- You've got to listen!
Twenty years ago, when your comrades
voted to return to Earth...
you sent your secret Id out
to murder them!
Not quite realizing it, of course,
except maybe in your dreams.
What man can remember
his own dreams?
At least when we approached from space,
you remembered enough to warn us off.
But when you thought we were a threat
to your little egomaniac empire...
your subconscious
sent its Id monster out again!
More deaths, Morbius.
More murder!
And now this too?
Harm my own daughter?
But now she's defying you, Morbius...
and even in you, the loving father,
there still exists...
the mindless primitive...
more enraged and more inflamed
with each new frustration.
So now you're whistling up
your monster again...
to punish her for her disloyalty
and disobedience!
And if you don't do something
about it soon...
it's going to be coming
right through that door.
Solid Krell metal, 26 inches thick.
Look at your gauges. Look!
That machine is going
to supply your monster...
with whatever amount of power
it requires to reach us.
Look now!
[High-pitched Humming]
[Adams] Red-hot.
Soon it'll be white-hot.
Then it'll soften and melt.
Alta, say you don't believe this of me!
Tell me you don't!
Then it must be true.
Yes, I must be guilty!
Then help us, darling!
I've known you great and noble
like the Krell.
Guilty! Guilty!
My evil self is at that door,
and I have no power to stop it!
[Machine Alarm Blaring]
Stop! No further!
I deny you! I give you up!
[Alarm Blaring]
[Alarm Subsides, Stops]
Father. Oh, Father.
Son...
turn that disc.
The switch. Throw it.
In 24 hours...
you must be 100 million miles
out in space.
The Krell furnaces...
Chain reaction...
They cannot be reversed.
Alta!
Oh, no!
98.6 million. We're clear now.
Quite an astrogator.
A genuine privilege, Commander.
Activate main view-plate.
Aye, aye, Skipper.
That's Altair-4,
the bright speck below the star.
Fifteen seconds.
Yes, Alta, your father,
my shipmates...
all the stored knowledge
of the Krell.
Five seconds, four...
three, two, one...
Alta, about a million years
from now the human race...
will have crawled up
to where the Krell stood...
in their great moment
of triumph and tragedy.
And your father's name
will shine again...
like a beacon in the galaxy.
It's true, it will remind us...
that we are, after all, not God.
In the final decade
of the 21st century...
men and women in rocket ships
landed on the moon.
By 2200 A.D., they had reached
the other planets of our solar system.
Almost at once there followed
the discovery of hyper-drive...
through which the speed of light
was first attained...
and later greatly surpassed.
And so at last,
mankind began the conquest...
and colonization of deep space.
United Planets cruiser C-57-D...
now more than a year out from Earth base
on a special mission...
to the planetary system of
the great main sequence star, Altair.
- When do we get a D.C. fix, Jerry?
- Half a minute, Skipper.
Ship on course, sir.
We'll reach D.C. point at 1701.
That's less than three minutes now.
- All right, take it away.
- Aye, aye, sir.
Chief, we'll drop back below light speed
in about three minutes.
- Got your breakable gear stowed?
- Aye, aye, sir.
All right. Good.
D.C. set and punched on, Skipper.
All right, attention. Captain to crew.
All hands squared away to decelerate.
Ship's beeper will, as usual,
sound ten times after lights dim.
- Come on, Doc. D.C., Bosun.
- Aye, aye, sir.
D.C. stations, on the double.
Wanna bounce through this one?
[Beeper Sounding]
[Beeper Finishes Sounding]
[Electronic Humming]
[Humming Increases In Frequency]
[Humming Stops]
[Sighing]
All right, we're down
to.3896 of light speed.
It's a little warm
in here, Skipper.
Yeah.
Jerry, you...
There's Altair
right on the nose, Skipper.
[Whirring]
Meanwhile, this ship
arranges its own eclipses.
Okay, Jerry, punch out
an orbit on the fourth planet.
Aye, aye, Skipper.
Ship in approach, Skipper.
Helical vector oriented.
Attention.
Captain to crew. Attention.
Our destination, Altair-4,
is now visible on the main view-plate.
As you'll recollect from your briefing
lectures, this is an Earth-type planet.
Twenty years ago, the spacecraft
Belerephon landed here...
with a prospecting
party of scientists.
Our mission is to search for survivors.
That is all.
[Whirring]
[Whirring]
The Lord sure makes
some beautiful worlds.
How do these continents
check with the old charts?
Be able to tell you better in a while,
Skipper. It's time for brakes.
Okay, take it away.
Astrogator to crew.
Stand by to change flux.
Another one of them new worlds.
No beer, no women,
no pool parlors, nothing.
Nothing to do but throw rocks at tin
cans, and we gotta bring our own cans.
Attention. Captain to crew.
We are now entering
the atmosphere of Altair-4.
No survival suits
will be required upon landing.
Oxygen content:
4.7 richer than Earth standard.
Gravity, only.897.
Adjust your equipment accordingly.
That is all.
All hands, check equipment.
Not even any short-range
radio signals yet?
Not so far, sir.
Jerry, can you make out
anything down there?
I may be missing
some individual structures...
but there are no cities,
ports, roads, bridges, dams.
There's just
no sign of civilization.
[Electronic Static]
Sir, we're being radar-scanned.
- Can you zero on it?
- No, sir.
It seems to emanate from
an area of about 20 miles square.
- Twenty miles square?
- Yes, sir.
- Bosun, pass the alert.
- Aye, aye, sir.
Combat stations. Blaster men,
activate your scopes.
Radio contact, sir.
There's a voice.
- Human?
- It sounds like it.
Boost it.
[Man] Spaceship, identify yourself.
You're being tracked.
Cut me in, Quinn.
United Planets Cruiser C-57-D,
J.J. Adams commanding.
- Who are you?
- Morbius of the Belerephon.
- Who?
- Edward Morbius.
Here it is. "Morbius, E. Ph.D., Lit.D.
Expedition philologist."
- Philologist?
- What do you wish here, cruiser?
You don't understand. We're your
relief. We're glad to find you alive.
I, of course,
appreciate your concern...
but absolutely no assistance
of any sort is required.
The red carpet treatment, huh?
Dr. Morbius, my orders are to
survey the situation on Altair-4.
Let me repeat:
I'm in no sort of difficulty here.
Your best procedure will be to
turn back at once without landing.
Sorry, sir.
If you set down on this planet,
I warn you...
that I cannot be answerable for
the safety of your ship or your crew.
If you'll just supply me
with landing coordinates.
Dr. Morbius,
I require landing coordinates.
Very well, but I wash my hands
of all responsibility.
- You have standard charts?
- Yes, sir.
You may come in at 83-17-4 north...
148-21 west.
Thank you.
It's right back there
in the desert.
Commander, I urge you to reconsider.
Please permit me to recommend...
- [Radio Clicks Off]
- Something funny down there, Skipper.
Okay, Jerry, I'll take her in.
Right.
Attention. Captain to crew.
Stand by to reverse polarity.
Standard class "A" security
will be maintained upon landing...
and until further notice,
all hands will wear side arms.
That is all.
- Artificial gravity off.
- Grav. off.
- Half flux.
- Half flux.
- Cut primary coils.
- Primaries cut, sir.
All clear, sir.
Look at the color of that sky.
Yeah, but I'll still take blue.
I don't know. I think a man
could get used to this...
and grow to love it.
- Bosun, you can assemble the tractor.
- Aye, aye, sir.
- Better check the command mike.
- Hmm?
- The command mike, sir.
- Oh, good idea.
- Chief?
- Sir?
You're in command now, Quinn.
You keep right at those instruments.
- Aye, aye, sir.
- Hey, what's this dust coming?
Looks like we're being met.
- Bosun.
- Aye, aye, sir?
- Hold the tractor.
- Aye, aye, sir.
- Quite a vehicle, huh?
- That driver must be a madman.
What driver?
Welcome to Altair-4, gentlemen.
I am to transport you
to the residence.
If you do not speak English...
I am at your disposal
with 187 other languages...
along with their various
dialects and sub-tongues.
Colloquial English
will do fine, thank you.
This is no offense,
but you are a robot, aren't you?
That is correct, sir.
For your convenience, I am monitored
to respond to the name "Robby."
Nice climate you have here.
High oxygen content.
I rarely use it myself, sir.
It promotes rust.
Hey, Doc,
is it a male or a female?
In my case, sir, the question
is totally without meaning.
Will you get in, gentlemen?
Quinn, tractors if I blink red.
- I'll bring a tractor in a hurry, sir.
- Right.
Passengers will please
fasten their seat belts.
Looks after us like a mother.
If you gentlemen will go in,
you're expected.
- I am Morbius.
- I am Commander Adams.
This is Lieutenant Farman,
my executive...
and Lieutenant Ostrow,
our ship's doctor.
How ironic that a simple scholar
with no ambition...
beyond a modest measure of seclusion,
should, out of a clear sky...
find himself besieged by
an army of fellow creatures...
all grimly determined
to be of service to him.
I'm sorry, sir, if we're not welcome,
but we do have our orders.
But you must stay
for lunch, gentlemen...
and do forgive the ill manners
of an old recluse.
Won't you come in?
Whatever that lunch was,
it was certainly delicious.
Simply some of Robby's synthetics.
- He's your cook too?
- Even manufactures the raw materials.
Come around here, Robby.
I'll show you how this works.
One introduces a sample of human food
through this aperture.
Here there's a small built-in chemical
laboratory where he analyzes it.
Later he can reproduce identical
molecules in any shape or quantity.
Why, it's a housewife's dream.
Plus absolute selfless obedience.
Activate the dispose-all unit.
[Zapping]
A household disintegrator beam.
Put your arm in there.
Order canceled.
Don't attribute feeling
to him, gentlemen.
Robby is simply a tool.
Tremendously strong, of course.
He could quite easily topple
this house off its foundation.
In the wrong hands, mightn't
such a tool become a deadly weapon?
No, Doctor, not even though I were the
mad scientist of the tape thrillers...
because, you see, there happens
to be a built-in safety factor.
Commander, may I borrow that
formidable-looking side arm of yours?
Thank you.
Robby, point this thing at that
althaea frutex out there on the terrace.
- Fire.
- [Zapping]
You understand the mechanism?
Yes, Morbius. A simple blaster.
All right. Now turn around here.
Point it at the commander.
Aim right between the eyes.
Fire.
[Electricity Crackling]
You see, he's helpless...
Locked in a sub-electronic dilemma
between my direct orders...
and his basic inhibitions
against harming rational beings.
Canceled.
If I were to allow
that to continue...
he would blow
every circuit in his body.
Doctor, how did you
come by such a mechanism?
Uh, I didn't
"come by" him, Doctor...
I tinkered him together
during my first months up here.
- Coffee is ready, sir.
- Gentlemen.
Doctor, do you mean that
you made this gentleman?
A useful enough toy, Lieutenant...
but nowadays I have
no time for such things.
Dr. Morbius, you're a philologist,
an expert in words and languages...
their origins and meanings.
Yet this robot of yours
is beyond the combined resources...
of all Earth's physical science.
My dear Commander,
maybe you overestimate...
both Robby and myself.
Gentlemen, let me show you
another bit of parlor magic.
[Beeping, Shutters Banging]
Forgive me. I didn't mean
to alarm you, gentlemen.
I had Robby install
the steel shutters...
before I realized how
altogether safe I am here.
[Beeping, Shutters Banging]
Well, gentlemen,
this has been very pleasant.
You've seen how
comfortable I am here...
no hardships,
no special difficulties...
and no need at all
for military assistance.
Now I daresay you're impatient
to get back to base.
Yes, the moment we've interviewed the
other members of the Belerephon party.
Others. But there are
no others, Commander.
Before the first year was out,
they had all, every man and woman...
succumbed to a...
to a sort of a planetary force here...
some dark, terrible,
incomprehensible force.
Only my wife and I were immune.
And just how do you account
for your immunity, Dr. Morbius?
We differed from the others only
in our special love for this world...
in our boundless longing
to make a home here...
far from the scurry
and strife of humankind.
I remember how, when the vote
was taken to return to Earth...
she and I were utterly heartbroken.
How could we have foreseen the
extinction of coworkers and friends?
Skipper, there is no record of any wife
in the Belerephon rolls.
Lieutenant, look under
"biochemistry," Julia Marsin.
She and I were married
by the skipper on the voyage here.
I have the certificate.
I thought Robby had managed some
very charming feminine touches.
I take it Mrs. Morbius
isn't at home today?
My dear wife died
a few months after the others.
Only in her case,
it was of natural causes.
[Ostrow] I'm very sorry.
Dr. Morbius,
just what were the symptoms...
of all those other deaths,
the unnatural ones?
The symptoms were
striking, Commander.
One by one,
in spite of every safeguard...
my coworkers were torn
literally limb from limb.
By what?
By some devilish thing
that never once showed itself.
- And the Belerephon?
- Vaporized...
as the three remaining survivors
tried to take her off.
And yet, in all these 19 years...
you personally have never again
been bothered by this planetary force?
Only in nightmares
of those times.
And yet, always in my mind...
I seem to feel the creature
is lurking somewhere close at hand...
sly and irresistible, and only waiting
to be re-invoked for murder.
[Woman] Father?
[Morbius] Alta!
Alta, I specifically asked you...
not to join us for lunch.
But, Father, lunch is over.
I'm sure you never said a word
about not coming in for coffee.
Well, did you or did you?
This is Commander Adams...
Dr. Ostrow and, uh,
Lieutenant Farman.
- My daughter.
- How do you do?
I've always so terribly wanted to meet
a young man, and now three at once.
- [Ostrow] That's very kind of you.
- You're lovely, Doctor.
Of course, the two end ones
are unbelievable.
Could this end one
get you some coffee?
I'm quite able to get it,
thank you.
[Bubbling]
Thank you.
Of course, you must make allowances
for my daughter, gentlemen.
She's never known any human being
except her father.
I hope you'll make
allowances too, sir.
We young men have been shut up in
hyperspace for well over a year now...
and right from here,
the view looks just like heaven.
Sugar?
But you keep helping me.
After all, you're not Robby.
I wouldn't mind being Robby
in certain ways.
That's only in certain ways,
of course.
I can see that was probably very clever,
but I don't seem to understand it.
Well, there's...
There's no rush.
Yes, l...
I suppose one day I shall be obliged
to make the trip to Earth with her...
for the sake of her
natural development.
I should say fairly soon too.
Your father wasn't too happy at first
about your meeting us, was he?
Well, naturally not.
You're from Earth.
- What's wrong with Earth?
- How lucky I am, though.
All three of you are such
very fine exceptions.
- You are exceptions, aren't you?
- Oh, sure, sure.
That is, I am, anyway.
Old dependable Jerry.
Of course, the doc can be trusted too,
in the daytime.
What about the commander?
Well, I hate to tell
you this, Alta, but...
that man is notorious
throughout seven planetary systems.
Oh, dear. What does he do?
Well, I don't feel
free to discuss...
the shortcomings of
a fellow officer, but...
any girl or woman who lets him
get her alone, anywhere...
Yes.
Yes, I can see it now.
There, just then when he looked at me,
his eyes almost had fire in them.
I'm so glad you don't have
any fire in your eyes, Lieutenant.
Well, I'm not that harmless.
- Alta?
- Yes, Father?
These gentlemen have expressed
a very kindly concern...
- over the amount of liberty you have.
- Liberty?
I told them that you have my permission
to visit Earth whenever you choose.
Earth? I?
Then my little girl
never feels lonely or confined?
Why, I don't know.
I have you and Robby and all my friends.
Friends?
Uh, yes.
- Perhaps you'd better call them, dear.
- All right.
Come, gentlemen.
I felt something
go right through my head.
Alta's whistle is above the pitch of
human hearing. I often feel it myself.
- What's up?
- Look.
[Growling]
No. Watch.
Why, he's as tame as a kitten.
Outside of the range of my daughter's
influence, it's still a deadly beast.
[Growling Softly]
[Communicator Beeps]
- Just a routine checkup from the ship.
- Oh.
- What, Chief?
- Everything okay, Commander?
- No problem.
- Would you mind activating the viewer?
Okay.
As you can see, we're under
no restraint whatsoever.
[Quinn Whistles]
Knock that off, Quinn.
If I can be of any help to you in your
preparations for the homeward voyage...
Thank you, sir, but unfortunately
circumstances may keep us here a while.
- Circumstances?
- You see, my orders...
don't quite seem to cover
the Belerephon fatalities.
I am forced now to contact base
for new instructions.
But, Commander,
suppose these new instructions...
require my return to Earth
for questioning...
two years or more
away from my work here?
Tell me, just what is involved
in your making contact with Earth base?
Fundamentally,
it's a question of crude power...
how to short-circuit the continuum
on a five or six parsec level.
Of course, a transmitter like that
isn't standard equipment.
- No.
- To build one...
we'd cannibalize about two-thirds
of the ship's electronic gear...
and then unship
the main drive to juice it.
Just to construct a bunker to house
the core would take about ten days.
Disabled here
for ten days and nights?
Tell me, would two-inch
lead shielding do as well?
It'd be better if we happened to be
carrying 100 square yards of the stuff.
Then I'll have Robby
run it off for you...
and you'll get it
not later than tomorrow noon.
That's very obliging of you, sir.
Obliging?
[Morbius] Look out there, Commander,
the Belerephon party.
Nineteen years ago
I dug those graves with my own hands...
and I have, believe me,
no wish to repeat that experience.
[Engine Droning]
We'll see you again soon,
Alta, I hope.
- Thank you very much, Doctor.
- Excellent lunch, Doctor.
To tell the truth, I sometimes
still miss the conversation...
of such gentlemen
as yourself, Doctor.
Well, thank you for your
courtesy and concern, sir.
Fasten your seat belts, gentlemen.
Easy with this core. Our M.G. coils
won't take us home without it.
Come on, Cookie, out of the way.
You wanna get run over?
Handle it gently.
It has to get us home.
- Is it far enough away from the ship?
- Sure. No interference there.
- What about the magnetic pull?
- Bosun, drop the thing down over there.
Aye, aye, sir.
Where do you wish
the shielding stacked, sir?
You can just put it right over
there by the core, thank you.
Wait a minute.
That's solid lead he's carrying.
Common lead would have
crushed the vehicle, sir.
This is my morning's run
of isotope 217.
The whole thing
hardly comes to ten tons.
Hello, Alta.
- Hi.
- Does your father know you're here?
He did tell me not to go near the ship,
but this isn't very near.
- Cookie, out of here.
- Aye, aye, sir.
Yes, sir.
[Men Laughing]
Commander, put me down, sir!
- Commander.
- What is it, Chief?
If you'd like
to check my assembly...
for the monitor unit
of the Klystron transmitter...
- What, already?
- Yes, sir.
Excellent.
Are... are these condensers
out of my accelerator circuits?
Yes, sir. I borrowed some solenoids
from your gyrostabilizers too.
Here's the big deal, sir.
I'll bet any quantum mechanic
would give his life...
for a chance to fool around
with this gadget.
Get this in the ship by dark.
It won't do any good to have some fool
fall on it before we transmit tomorrow.
- Good work, Quinn.
- Thank you, sir.
Psst!
Come here. Over here.
Can I be of service, sir?
Never mind the "sir," but I'm
a stranger in this so-called planet...
and I was just wondering
if you could tell me...
where I could get hold
of some of the real stuff.
- "Real stuff"?
- Just for cooking purposes.
I take a big pride in my duties.
Pardon me, sir. "Stuff"?
Oh.
[Gasps]
Just about one jolt left.
Oh, genuine Ancient Rocket bourbon.
See here? Hey!
You low-living contraption!
I oughta take a can opener to you!
Quiet, please. I am analyzing.
[Robby Burps]
Yes, relatively simple alcohol molecules
with traces of fusel oil.
Would 60 gallons be sufficient?
Gallons?
I've been from here to there in
this galaxy, and I want you to know...
you're the most understanding soul
I ever met up with.
Ow!
It's nothing really personal,
just a kiss.
Hmm. But why should people
want to kiss each other?
It's an old custom.
All the really high civilizations
go in for it.
- But it's so silly.
- But it's good for you, though.
It stimulates the whole system.
As a matter of fact, you can't
be in tip-top health without it.
Really? I didn't know that.
I'd be only too happy
to show you.
Well, thank you very much,
Lieutenant.
No trouble at all.
Is that all there is to it?
Well, you've sort of
got to stick with it.
- Hmm.
- Just once more, do you mind?
Not at all.
There must be something
seriously the matter with me...
because I haven't noticed
the least bit of stimulation.
Honey, let's do this thing right.
Now, here.
Are you giving me the treatment?
Are you?
Lieutenant Farman.
Don't say a word, sir.
I know there are lots of pressing duties
waiting for me back at the ship...
and rank doth have
its little privileges, hmm, sir?
And you can depend on it that
those privileges won't be stretched...
into taking your kind of advantages.
- But l...
- Dismissed.
What's the matter with him?
Why did you both act so funny?
Well, what'd you expect?
Don't you understand, Alta?
No? Well, look at yourself.
You can't dress like that around men,
especially not a space wolf like Farman.
So for Pete's sake, go home
and put on something that'll...
Anything.
What's wrong with my clothes?
I designed them myself.
Stop looking at me that way.
I don't think I like it.
Ha-ha.
What do you mean, "ha-ha"?
We were just trying to get
some healthy stimulation...
from hugging and kissing,
that's all.
Oh, that's all?
It's so easy for you, isn't it?
There's no feelings, no emotions.
You, uh...
Nothing human would
ever enter your mind.
It so happens that I'm in command
of 18 competitively selected...
super-perfect
physical specimens...
with an average age of 24.6...
who have been locked up
in hyperspace for 378 days!
It would have served you right
if I hadn't have... and he...
Get out of here before I have you
run out of the area under guard...
and then I'll put
more guards on the guards!
"And then I'll put
more guards on the guards!"
I don't like him.
I just don't like him.
The way he kept looking at me.
Then he shouted.
- What about?
- I don't know, really.
It was awful.
I was only trying to be nice
about kissing the lieutenant.
Oh?
- How did the commander react to that?
- He was furious.
He seemed to think that all that about
biology had something to do with me.
Personally, I mean.
I've never been so nervous in my life.
I hope I don't see him again
if I live to be 400 million!
Well, I daresay
you won't have to.
The best thing you can do
is to go to bed.
I still have some work
to do in my study.
- Good night, my dear.
- Good night.
[Beeping]
[Beeping]
[Beeping]
Where have you been?
I've beamed and beamed.
Sorry, miss.
I was giving myself an oil job.
And what is it you require
this time, Miss Alta?
Robby, I must have a new dress,
right away.
- Again?
- But this one must be different.
Absolutely nothing must show...
below, above or through.
Radiation-proof?
No, just eye-proof will do.
- Thick and heavy?
- Oh, no, Robby.
It must be the loveliest,
softest thing you've ever made for me...
and fit in all the right places,
with lots and lots of star sapphires.
Star sapphires take a week
to crystallize properly.
Would diamonds or emeralds do?
Well, if they're large enough.
Five, ten and fifteen carats,
and on hand.
I will run the dress up for you
in time for breakfast.
[Giggles]
- Sleep well, miss.
- Thank you, Robby.
I don't really care now
whether I do or not.
Funny to see two moons
in the sky, isn't it?
Funny how quick
a guy gets used to it.
Yeah.
[Breathing Sound]
- Joe.
- What?
- Do you hear something?
- Like what?
Like a sort of big breathing.
No.
That's funny. I did.
[Breathing Sound]
Strong and Grey, last night during
your watch this ship was entered...
and valuable government property
was sabotaged.
The two of you claim to have
been at your posts and awake.
Yet this ship was entered,
the heavy-duty hatch was raised...
and latched back, and neither of you
saw or heard anything.
Except you, Grey.
You heard breathing.
And, Youngerford, let me see,
you were asleep in your bunk...
and you think you had a dream.
A dream!
Pending more evidence, you're deprived
of space pay and all privileges.
- Me too, sir?
- No, you'll stand 20 extra watches.
I'll have less dreaming
aboard this ship!
Dismissed!
- Skipper.
- Well, Quinn?
Half of this gear we can replace
and the rest we can patch up somehow...
except this special
Klystron frequency modulator.
With every facility of the ship,
I think I might be able to rebuild it...
but frankly, the book says no.
It came packed in liquid boron
in a suspended grav...
All right, so it's impossible.
How long will it take?
Well, if I don't
stop for breakfast...
- Get on it, Quinn.
- Thank you, sir.
The tractor's ready, sir.
- Wait. I'll put on a clean uniform.
- You'd better stay as you are.
- I'm leaving you in command here.
- Oh, I see.
Establish a standard perimeter
and set up a class "A" alert by sundown.
Aye, aye, sir.
[Squeaking]
Good morning, gentlemen.
We'd like to see Dr. Morbius.
Morbius is in his study, sir...
never to be disturbed
while that door is closed.
All right, we'll wait.
Is there any other way
out of there?
This is the only door.
In case you require anything,
gentlemen, use the beamer.
How could he have
slipped past two sentries?
Nothing important, Skipper.
Doc, you stay right there where you are
and keep your eye on that door.
Okay, Skipper. If Morbius comes out,
we'll call you from right here.
Good morning.
Good morning.
- Come on in.
- Didn't bring my bathing suit.
What's a bathing suit?
Oh, murder.
Never mind. I'm coming out.
Alta, listen. You mustn't...
You just wait right there.
It'll only take me a second to get dry.
Yes, well, I'll...
- I'll just turn my back here.
- If that's the way you feel about it.
Don't worry. You're not gonna
have to look at me anymore.
Hmm?
You'll see.
- See what?
- You'll see what.
Now wait a minute, Alta.
If you're planning on...
I sure didn't expect to see you today
after the way you spoke to me yesterday.
I'm very sorry about the way
I spoke to you yesterday.
I was sort of bothered.
Hmm.
All right, you can look now.
Nothing shows through, does it?
Mm-mm.
I had it made
especially for you.
Oh, I thought you weren't
expecting me today.
I wasn't.
I guess there's just something
about me personally you don't like.
Alta...
you always look just beautiful.
Then why don't you kiss me
like everybody else does?
Everybody?
Hasn't your father
taught you anything?
Well, he says
I'm terribly ignorant...
but I have had
poetry and mathematics...
logic, physics, geology and bi...
Ology?
Of course, that's mostly
on the theoretical side.
Well, so far.
- Oh?
- What's wrong with theory?
This.
[Growling]
Alta.
It's all right. He's my friend.
[Growling]
[Zapping]
I'm sorry, Alta.
I had to do that.
He didn't recognize me.
He would've killed me. Why?
- You really don't know, do you?
- No, I don't.
- Is he still in there?
- Hasn't come out.
Wait a minute, Skipper.
After all, it is his house.
What's the matter?
Doc, something new
has been added.
Ooh.
That's gonna
complicate things a bit.
Yeah.
Not even a window.
The robot lied.
Morbius hasn't been in here.
Doc, he's up to something.
Look at this, Skipper.
- Hieroglyphics?
- Maybe.
But it doesn't look like
Egyptian or cuneiform...
or Chinese.
You'll find the household silver
in the dining room...
and my daughter's jewelry
on her dressing table.
Dr. Morbius...
last night our Klystron monitor
was sabotaged.
And you suspect me?
Then the time has come
for clarification.
Sit down.
In times long past...
this planet was the home of
a mighty and noble race of beings...
which called themselves the Krell.
Ethically,
as well as technologically...
they were a million years
ahead of humankind...
for in unlocking
the mysteries of nature...
they had conquered
even their baser selves...
and when, in the course of eons,
they had abolished sickness...
and insanity and crime
and all injustice...
they turned,
still with high benevolence...
outward toward space.
Long before the dawn of man's history,
they had walked our Earth...
and brought back
many biological specimens.
I see. That explains
the tiger and the deer.
The heights they had reached...
but then, seemingly on the threshold
of some supreme accomplishment...
which was to have crowned
their entire history...
this all but divine race
perished in a single night.
In the 2,000 centuries
since that unexplained catastrophe...
even their
cloud-piercing towers...
of glass and porcelain
and adamantine steel...
have crumbled back into
the soil of Altair-4...
and nothing, absolutely nothing
remains above ground.
What were they like?
No record of their
physical nature has survived...
except, perhaps, in the form
of this characteristic arch.
I suggest you consider it
in comparison to one of our...
functionally designed human doorways.
[Electronic Humming]
[Strange Electronic Tonalities]
That recording was made by Krell
musicians a half a million years ago.
If you will follow me, I will show you
some of their other remaining artifacts.
Krell metal.
Try your blaster there, Commander.
This spot should be molten.
It's not even warm,
and no trace of radioactivity.
The molecules are many times
more densely interlocked...
than in earthly steel...
yet it drinks up energy
like a sponge.
This is just one
of their laboratories.
You will notice that much
of the equipment is familiar...
though designed
for nonhuman technicians.
What's this?
On this screen
may be projected...
the total scientific knowledge
of the Krell...
from its primitive beginning
to the day of its annihilation...
a sheer bulk surpassing
many million earthly libraries.
- You're able to read this?
- A little. It's my profession.
Twenty years ago,
I began here with...
this page
of geometrical theorems.
Eventually I was able to deduce
most of their huge, logical alphabet.
I began to learn.
The first practical result
was my robot...
which you gentlemen
appear to find so remarkable.
Child's play.
I've come here every day now
for two decades...
painfully picking up a few of the least
difficult fragments of their knowledge.
A thing like this,
it's too big to evaluate.
- Think what a discovery of this kind...
- Dr. Morbius...
what is this device over here?
I call it
their "plastic educator."
As far as I can make out, they used it
to condition and test their young...
in much the same way
as we once employed finger-painting...
among our kindergarten children.
I often play with it myself
for relaxation...
although working here,
I sometimes wish I'd been blessed...
with multiple arms and legs.
Now, you can see
that this headset...
was designed for something
much bulkier than my human cranium.
Now, over here you see...
the electromagnetic waves
of my brain...
sending that indicator up
about halfway.
I gather that
one of their own young...
comparable to
a seven-year-old child...
was normally expected to send that
all the way to the top...
which by Krell standards
classifies me as a low-grade moron.
Yet I have
an officially recorded IQ of 183.
Now then, for the primary function.
Actually, to operate...
Well, I'll choose a familiar subject
to start with to save time.
There now, gentlemen.
What's that?
What's happening there?
A statue.
That's Altaira.
Simply a three-dimensional image,
Commander.
But it's alive!
Because my daughter is alive in my brain
from microsecond to microsecond...
while I manipulate.
There.
Something of a strain.
Aladdin's lamp
in a physics laboratory.
Would you gentlemen care to take
the Krell test of your intelligence?
- Yes, very much.
- You may be disappointed, Commander.
Suppose we start
with the good doctor.
- What do I do?
- Just sit down there, and I'll...
Move forward.
There now.
Now, Doctor,
you can read it here.
There's something wrong here.
I have an IQ of 161...
yet I don't register
a third what you did.
Now the commander.
It's all right, sir. A commanding
officer doesn't need brains.
Just a good loud voice, huh?
Do I pull this switch
to make an image?
Stop! You'd never survive.
Our Belerephon skipper tried it,
and it was instantly fatal to him.
Oh, I see.
So you're immune to this too?
In my first attempt
at creating an image here...
my brain pattern there
was scarcely any larger than yours.
Afterwards, I lay unconscious
for a day and a night.
Yet you came back
for a second go at it.
It was a question
of science, Doctor...
but you can imagine my joy
when I discovered that the shock...
had permanently doubled
my intellectual capacity.
Otherwise, my researches here
would have come to nothing...
poor as they have been.
Recently I have turned up
some rather puzzling indications...
that in those final days
before their annihilation...
the Krell had been applying
their entire racial energies...
to a new project...
one which they actually
seemed to hope...
might somehow free them
once and for all...
from any dependence
on physical instrumentalities.
A civilization
without instrumentalities?
Incredible.
Dr. Morbius,
everything here is new.
Not a sign of age or wear
on any of it.
Young man, these devices,
self-serviced, self-maintained...
have stood exactly as you see them
for 2,000 centuries.
2,000 centuries?
And during all this time,
what was their power source?
That's a good question.
May I draw your attention
to these gauges...
all around here, gentlemen?
Their calibrations
appear to indicate...
that they are set
in decimal series...
each division recording
exactly ten times as many amperes...
as the one preceding it.
Ten times ten
times ten times ten...
times ten times ten,
on and on and on...
row after row,
gauge after gauge.
But there is no direct wiring
that I can discover.
However, when I
activate this machine...
it registers infinitesimally,
you see...
down there in the lower
left-hand corner.
And then...
when I activate
the educator here...
it registers a little more.
But this much is negligible.
The total potential here must be
nothing less than astronomical.
Nothing less.
The number ten
raised almost literally...
to the power of infinity.
Gentlemen, would you care to see
some more of the Krell wonders?
- Indeed, yes.
- Yes.
If you will,
step in this shuttle car.
How often the Krell technicians
have ridden in this little vehicle.
What now, Dr. Morbius?
Prepare your minds
for a new scale...
of physical scientific values,
gentlemen.
[Machine Humming]
[Crackling]
Twenty miles.
Twenty miles.
- Listen.
- [Rapid Clicking]
Circuits opening and closing.
And they never rest. This is
one of their ventilator shafts.
You can feel the warm air rising.
Look down here.
Look down, gentlemen.
Are you afraid?
7,800 levels.
And 400 other shafts
like this one.
[Electricity Buzzing]
[Morbius] Yes, a single machine.
A cube 20 miles on each side.
For 2,000 centuries
it has waited patiently here...
tuning and lubricating itself,
replacing worn parts.
I have reason to believe
that 16 years ago...
a minor alteration was performed...
throughout the entire 8,000 cubic miles
of its own fabric.
But what's it all for?
Sometimes the gauges
register a little...
when the buck deer fight in the autumn
or when birds fly over in the spring...
and nearly a whole dial
became active...
when your ship first approached
from deep space.
I'll show you a section
of one of the power units.
These units are sunk
in the body of the planet...
fifty miles
right below our feet.
Now, be sure and look
only in the mirror.
Man does not behold
the face of the Gorgon and live.
9,200 thermonuclear reactors
in tandem.
The harnessed power
of an exploding planetary system.
All hands, stand clear
of fence area.
All right, Quinn, turn it on.
- Have you tested it yet, Bosun?
- Right away, sir.
- There you are, sir.
- Very good.
Lieutenant? Having completed
my washing-up duties after chow...
I request the lieutenant's permission
to take a walk...
outside the perimeter, sir.
- There's nothing out there.
- But there is, sir.
I mean... well, I thought it might
brighten the boys' mess up a bit...
if I could find a few
wild radishes or something.
I don't know what you're lying about,
but you better get back...
before the skipper does,
or we'll both be skinned.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Quinn, this is Farman.
Kill the power on the fence.
All right, put it back on.
480 pints...
as you requested.
Total: 60 gallons.
Genuine Kansas City bourbon!
[Coughing]
It's smooth too.
Robby, I ain't never
gonna forget this.
Any time you're hard up
for lube oil, let me know.
What's up?
Somebody coming this way?
No, sir.
Nothing coming this way.
- [Electricity Crackling]
- The fence is shorting!
Shall I shut down
the current, sir?
No. It's stopped now.
Check over the whole system
in the morning.
Aye, sir.
It's strange how that fence
just shorted out.
Yeah.
[Crewman Screaming]
You're too arbitrary, Commander.
Perhaps I do not choose to be
dictated to in my own world.
Dr. Morbius, a scientific find
of this magnitude...
has got to be taken
under United Planet supervision.
No one man can be allowed
to monopolize it.
For the past two hours
I've been expecting you...
to make exactly
that asinine statement.
Just one moment, Commander.
For close on 20 years now
I've been constantly...
and I hope dispassionately,
considering this very problem...
and I have come
to the unalterable conclusion...
that man is unfit as yet
to receive such knowledge...
such almost limitless power.
Whereas Morbius, with his
artificially expanded intellect...
is now ideally suited to administer
this power for the whole human race.
Precisely, Doctor.
Such portions then
of the Krell science...
as I may, from time to time,
deem suitable and safe...
I shall dispense to Earth.
Other portions,
I shall withhold.
And in this, I shall be
answerable exclusively...
to my own conscience
and judgment.
Dr. Morbius, in the absence
of special instructions...
you leave me
in a very awkward position.
[Communicator Beeps]
- [Farman] Commander Adams.
- Speaking, Lieutenant.
Skipper, the chief's
been murdered.
Quinn? Murdered?
Yes, he was alone,
working on the monitor.
The rest of us were outside
on guard duty. l...
- How was it done?
- "Done"?
Skipper, his body is plastered
all over the communications room.
Leave everything as it is.
We're on our way.
It's started again.
Is that it?
I tried to make a plaster model
from the footprints we found.
37 inches by 19.
Why, it's fantastic.
Doc, I don't understand.
Whatever walks on this would be quite
an opponent for a man with a club...
but with our weapons,
Quinn could have...
No. This thing runs counter to
every known law of adaptive evolution.
What do you mean?
Notice this structure here.
Characteristic
of a four-footed animal.
Yet our visitor last night
left the tracks of a biped.
Primarily a ground animal too.
Yet this claw could only belong
to an arboreal creature...
like some impossible tree sloth.
Just doesn't fit into normal nature
anywhere in the galaxy.
This is a nightmare.
Is that what you made
out of that footprint?
I think it's fairly close.
Pardon me, Commander. Are you ready
to hold discipline on the cook, sir?
Yeah, let's have him.
I'm obliged to remind you that I gave
him permission to go out last night.
Did you give him permission
to get falling-down drunk?
Drunk, sir? Me, sir?
Ask Dr. Ostrow, sir.
Four pints of 120 proof bourbon
without a trace of hangover in it.
That ain't natural.
Besides, why did that Robert argue me
into drinking all that whiskey?
You were with the robot last night?
Yes, sir.
Him and me, we kind of got to
toasting each other's good health...
just for cordial interplanetary
relations, you understand.
Now, that's all the time?
Even while the chief was being killed?
Certainly, sir.
I hope you don't think I got
that stiff in five minutes.
All right. Dismissed.
I guess that kind of
washes the robot up.
Where does that leave us
for suspects?
Maybe it leaves us
with the same one.
Maybe we should drop over
to that Krell laboratory...
and get our IQs boosted
a couple of hundred percent.
Sir, burial detail is ready.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
- Dismissed.
- Company, dismissed.
Fine technician.
Good shipmate.
That's a good epitaph
for any man.
Good day, Dr. Morbius.
I daresay neither of us
slept any last night.
That's a pretty close guess.
I warned you while your ship
was still in space.
I begged you not to land
on this planet.
Believe me, Commander,
that is only a foretaste.
The Belerephon pattern
is being woven again.
Remain here and the next attack
on your party...
will be more deadly and general.
How do you know that?
Know? l...
I seem to visualize it.
If you wish, call it...
a premonition.
What do you make of that, Skipper?
I'd say it sounded
like an ultimatum.
- Bosun.
- Aye, sir.
Bosun. I want a clear field
of fire in all directions.
- Aye, aye, sir.
- Randall?
How soon will radar
be operational?
- Operating right now, sir.
- Good. Keep on it yourself.
- Aye, aye, sir.
- The M.A. alert is completed?
- Aye, aye, sir.
- Fine.
Activate main batteries.
- Alarm for test.
- [High-pitched Tone]
Fire!
[Rumbling]
Check good.
Lieutenant, you got
your trouble squad in hand?
Yes, sir, but they're
a little trigger-happy.
They're sort of edgy
to see whatever's out there.
Oh, Jerry.
This may be a big deal coming up.
I'm sorry if I've leaned on you...
Stop knocking yourself out, Skipper.
She picked the right man.
[Communicator Beeps]
- What is it, Randall?
- Radar just picked up something.
- Where away?
- At the head of the arroyo.
- Moving?
- This way. Slowly.
Automatic control.
Batteries, fire!
Batteries, hold fire.
Do you see anything out there?
Nothing.
Batteries, fire!
Batteries, cease fire.
- Randall.
- Dead on target, sir.
Good.
- Give me audio-com.
- Aye, aye, sir.
Attention!
This may have been a ruse to divert us
from some other part of the perimeter.
Continue watching
on your own immediate fronts.
That is all.
- [Beep]
- What?
It just stopped
at the foot of the pass.
Are you sure you've got
a real blip there?
Big as a house, and we were
on target with both bursts.
It's coming on again!
- Straight across?
- It shows here.
It's still coming!
Gray, Strong, set up
a cross fire on those rocks.
[Electricity Crackling]
Fire!
The blasted thing's invisible!
[Creature Roars]
[Roaring]
- [Roaring]
- [Screaming]
Jerry! Hold fire!
[Roaring]
Fire!
[Machine Pulsating]
[Groaning]
[Screaming]
[Roaring]
[Altaira Screams] Father!
Alta!
- Father!
- Altaira!
- Alta, where are you?
- Father!
What is it? What's the matter?
I just had a terrible dream!
There was blood and fire
and thunder...
and something awful was moving
in the middle of it.
I could hear it roar and bellow.
Now, now. You know
a dream can't hurt you.
Not me. Not us.
The thing I saw was trying
to break in the camp.
It was gonna kill...
You'll take care of him for me,
won't you? You'll protect him.
My darling, I'm completely helpless
as long as he remains here so willfully.
Come now.
- Bosun.
- Yes, sir?
Get those graves dug.
Keep the men busy.
- The busier the better.
- Randall?
Give me audio-com.
Well, men, whatever it was,
our main battery stopped it.
You believe that?
No, it just went away
for some reason. It'll be back.
Doc, an invisible being...
that cannot be disintegrated
by atomic fission.
No, Skipper. That is
a scientific impossibility.
Hypnotic illusions
don't tear people apart.
That's true enough...
but any organism dense enough to survive
three billion electron volts...
would have to be made
of solid nuclear material.
It would sink of its own weight
to the center of this planet.
You saw it yourself standing there
in those neutron beams.
There's your answer.
It must have been renewing
its molecular structure...
from one microsecond
to the next.
- Bosun! I want the tractor.
- Ready, sir.
We pick up the girl and her father
whether they like it or not.
Section 86A:
"Evacuate all civilians
from disaster areas."
You left out
two very important words.
"Where feasible."
If you remember
the Belerephon expedition...
their ship was vaporized
trying to lift off.
Which makes it a gilt-edged priority
that one of us...
gets into that Krell lab
and takes that brain boost.
- Bosun.
- Aye, sir?
I'm leaving you in command.
Get the ship operational.
Do your best to wait it out
for me and the doctor...
but the second that fence starts
to short again, lift off...
and report back to Earth base
on conditions in this sector.
Right, Skipper.
All right. Get everything
aboard ship. We're pullin' out!
No lights showing.
Yeah.
Look, Doc, in case
we make it into that lab...
I'll take the first go
at the IQ booster.
You hear me?
I hear you.
I am monitored to admit no one
at this hour.
That sounded final.
Maybe if we reasoned with him.
My beams are focused
on your blasters, gentlemen.
Hasn't he got a built-in rule
against wringing our necks for us?
[Robby] That is true, sir.
Yet I am monitored
to admit no one.
[Altaira] Robby.
- Let them in.
- Alta, this is your father's order.
- Get out of the way.
- Quiet.
Robby...
emergency cancellation Archimedes.
Why are you here?
We were attacked.
Three more men dead,
including Jerry Farman.
I don't know. It was...
just some kind of big outline
in the disintegrator beams.
And you can't explain it?
No.
Well, anyway, we fought it,
and we lost.
- I figure it'll be back.
- You must leave, now.
I'm not going without you.
But I can't possibly leave him alone.
I just can't.
- Then we'll take him.
- By force?
I can't agree to that either.
Can't you? You don't realize
what's loose on this planet!
But I'm immune,
like both my parents.
That's what he says.
Nothing could be immune to that thing...
Oh, darling, please go.
Oh, please. If you love me, go.
Alta. Doc, will you talk
some sense to this girl?
I'm in over my head. Doc?
Doc?
Doc?
On the sofa, Robby.
So you took the brain boost, huh?
[Panting]
You oughta see my new mind.
Up there in lights.
Bigger than his now.
Easy, Doc.
Morbius was too close
to the problem.
The Krell had completed their project.
That big machine.
No instrumentalities.
True creation.
Doc, let's have it.
- But the Krell forgot one thing.
- Yes, what?
Monsters, John.
Monsters from the Id.
The Id? What's that?
Talk, Doc.
Doc?
Oh, Doc.
Doc.
How romantic!
The fool! The meddling idiot!
As though his ape's brain
could contain the secrets of the Krell.
Father, he's dead.
He was warned,
and now he's paid.
Let him be buried with the other victims
of human greed and folly.
Morbius, you wanted me
to make a choice.
Now you've chosen for me.
- Alta!
- I'm ready to go with you, darling.
Altaira! No!
[Robby] I will place him
in the tractor, sir.
Thank you.
She mustn't do this.
She must be prevented.
Morbius, what is the Id?
My daughter is planning a very foolish
action, and she'll be terribly punished.
- What is the Id?
- Id! Id! Id!
It's an obsolete term...
I'm afraid,
once used to describe...
the elementary basis
of the subconscious mind.
- Monsters from the Id.
- Huh?
Monsters from the subconscious.
Of course.
That's what Doc meant.
Morbius...
the big machine... 8,000 cubic miles
of Klystron relays...
enough power for a whole population
of creative geniuses...
operated by remote control.
Morbius, operated by
the electromagnetic impulses...
of individual Krell brains.
To what purpose?
In return, that machine would
instantaneously project solid matter...
to any point on the planet, in any shape
or color they might imagine...
for any purpose, Morbius!
Creation by mere thought.
Why haven't I seen this all along?
Like you, the Krell forgot
one deadly danger...
their own subconscious hate
and lust for destruction.
The beast.
The mindless primitive.
Even the Krell must have
evolved from that beginning.
And so those mindless beasts
of the subconscious...
had access to a machine
that could never be shut down.
The secret devil
of every soul on the planet...
all set free at once
to loot and maim...
and take revenge and kill!
My poor Krell!
After a million years
of shining sanity...
they could hardly have understood
what power was destroying them.
Yes, young man.
All very convincing
but for one obvious fallacy.
The last Krell died
2,000 centuries ago...
but today, as we all know...
there is still at large
on this planet a living monster.
Your mind refuses
to face a conclusion.
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
[Robby] Morbius.
- Morbius!
- What?
Something is approaching
from the southwest.
It is now quite close.
[Beeping]
- Could Robby be wrong?
- No, never.
There it comes.
[Beeping]
[Shutters Banging]
I feel sorry for you, young man.
Feel sorry for your
daughter, Morbius.
It's listening.
[Banging]
- Alta, go into my study.
- You still refuse to face the truth.
- What truth?
- Morbius, that thing out there.
- It's you.
- You're insane!
You have led it here where Alta
must see you torn to pieces!
You think she's immune?
She's joined herself to me!
- Yes, and whatever comes, forever.
- Say it's a lie.
Let it hear you!
Tell it you don't love this man!
Not even if I could.
Stop it, Robby!
Don't let it in! Kill it!
[Wild Beeping,
Electricity Crackling]
It's no use.
He knows it's your other self.
We're safe.
Why did you jumble
that combination?
Whatever you know in here,
your twin self in the tunnel knows too.
I'm not a monster, you...
We're all part monsters
in our subconscious!
- So we have laws and religion.
- Let me go!
You've got to listen.
We don't have much time.
Here.
Here's where your mind
was artificially enlarged.
Consciously it still lacked the power
to operate the great machine...
but your subconscious
had been made strong enough!
- I won't hear you!
- You've got to listen!
Twenty years ago, when your comrades
voted to return to Earth...
you sent your secret Id out
to murder them!
Not quite realizing it, of course,
except maybe in your dreams.
What man can remember
his own dreams?
At least when we approached from space,
you remembered enough to warn us off.
But when you thought we were a threat
to your little egomaniac empire...
your subconscious
sent its Id monster out again!
More deaths, Morbius.
More murder!
And now this too?
Harm my own daughter?
But now she's defying you, Morbius...
and even in you, the loving father,
there still exists...
the mindless primitive...
more enraged and more inflamed
with each new frustration.
So now you're whistling up
your monster again...
to punish her for her disloyalty
and disobedience!
And if you don't do something
about it soon...
it's going to be coming
right through that door.
Solid Krell metal, 26 inches thick.
Look at your gauges. Look!
That machine is going
to supply your monster...
with whatever amount of power
it requires to reach us.
Look now!
[High-pitched Humming]
[Adams] Red-hot.
Soon it'll be white-hot.
Then it'll soften and melt.
Alta, say you don't believe this of me!
Tell me you don't!
Then it must be true.
Yes, I must be guilty!
Then help us, darling!
I've known you great and noble
like the Krell.
Guilty! Guilty!
My evil self is at that door,
and I have no power to stop it!
[Machine Alarm Blaring]
Stop! No further!
I deny you! I give you up!
[Alarm Blaring]
[Alarm Subsides, Stops]
Father. Oh, Father.
Son...
turn that disc.
The switch. Throw it.
In 24 hours...
you must be 100 million miles
out in space.
The Krell furnaces...
Chain reaction...
They cannot be reversed.
Alta!
Oh, no!
98.6 million. We're clear now.
Quite an astrogator.
A genuine privilege, Commander.
Activate main view-plate.
Aye, aye, Skipper.
That's Altair-4,
the bright speck below the star.
Fifteen seconds.
Yes, Alta, your father,
my shipmates...
all the stored knowledge
of the Krell.
Five seconds, four...
three, two, one...
Alta, about a million years
from now the human race...
will have crawled up
to where the Krell stood...
in their great moment
of triumph and tragedy.
And your father's name
will shine again...
like a beacon in the galaxy.
It's true, it will remind us...
that we are, after all, not God.