It is 1980, and the United States Air Force's Space Exploration Wing has bases on the Moon and on the eve of a mission to Mars. When another of its two-member crewed Pegasus spacecraft mysteriously disappears, rumors begin circulating of space monsters and phantom planets. Captain Frank Chapman and his navigator Lt. Ray Makonnen are ordered to investigate.
During the search, their spaceship suffers damage from a meteor shower, requiring that both men go outside to make repairs. A bullet-sized particle, however, pierces the air hose on Chapman's space suit, rendering him unconscious. Makonnen is able to repair the hose, but as he opens the airlock hatch, he is fatally struck by a similar particle. Makonnen's last act before being propelled into deep space is to push Chapman inside and close the airlock hatch. Chapman comes to and finds Makonnen gone and himself unable to communicate with the lunar base. He records a log entry about the preceding events, noting that he now must make a forced landing on an asteroid, that it is somehow pulling in his Pegasus spaceship.
Exiting his ship while still feeling the effects of the accident, Chapman collapses and sees tiny humanoids about six inches tall approaching. Once his helmet visor is opened, he can breathe but shrinks to their size due to the asteroid's atmosphere. He is taken underground.
Sesom, the aged and wise ruler of Rheton (the native name for the rocky and seemingly lifeless planetoid where Chapman has landed), explains that though his craft was brought down safely by their gravitational tractor beam, they had not been able to do the same with the preceding Earth spaceships that came near, which were completely destroyed, along with their crews, when they crashed on Rheton's surface. He informs Chapman that he never can leave but will have all the rights of a citizen of Rheton. As he slept, Chapman's spaceship was sent into space to keep Rheton's existence a secret, and more importantly, their world's gravitational technology, which allows the Rhetonians to navigate their world through space.
Chapman meets two beautiful women: Sesom's smugly spoiled blond daughter Liara and the gentle but mute black-haired Zetha. Liara is more than willing to answer his many questions about Rheton. Sesom informs Chapman that he later may marry one of the women once he has become accustomed to living on Rheton.
Liara, after following and engaging constantly with Chapman, declares her love for him, but Chapman, still eager to return to his own people, quietly rejects her. Herron, a young man who is in love with Liara, attempts to win her for himself by lying to Sesom, telling him Chapman is attempting to win over both women.
Stating that he believes this to be a crime against the people of Rheton, Herron requests a duel to the death. Chapman agrees, and the two engage in a form of combat where opponents must push each other onto gravity plates that cause immediate disintegration when touched. Just as Chapman is about to push Herron onto a plate, he lets Herron go, stating that he cannot kill someone for no reason.
As time goes on, Chapman and the mute Zetha become acquainted and eventually fall in love. Herron comes to Chapman late one night and offers to help him escape.
Any plans for the future, however, are put on hold when Chapman discovers the reason for Rheton's erratic course through space: It is because the planetoid is being attacked by the Solarites, an alien race of "fire people" from an unidentified "sun satellite". They want to destroy Rheton with their flaming fighter craft so they can steal its secret of gravitational control.
With Chapman's help, Sesom and Herron destroy the enemy fleet using a gravity beam. During the battle, a giant 7-foot tall Solarite prisoner, captured during a previous raid, escapes when the gravity barrier holding him fails. Stalking corridors, the creature captures Zetha, who previously had been traumatized into silence by a childhood encounter with the savage species. After Sesom is attacked by this bug-eyed monster, Chapman and Herron attempt to rescue Zetha. Chapman defeats the Solarite by pushing it onto a gravity plate.
While kidnapped, Zetha's muteness vanished when she saw Chapman about to be attacked by the creature, and she was able to scream, warning him. The return of her voice allows her to later confess her love for him. The two kiss, but Zetha knows that he must return to his home world. They are interrupted when a search party from Earth locates Chapman. In order to preserve the secret of his adopted people, Chapman crawls inside his spacesuit, and after once more being exposed to atmospheric gases from Earth, he returns to his normal size. Reluctantly, he goes with the search party, leaving Zetha and the miniature world of Rheton behind.
Director William Marshall, a former actor and bandleader, previously had made two films with Errol Flynn, Hello God and Adventures of Captain Fabian. His son Mike Marshall made his debut in The Phantom Planet. Screenwriter and co-producer Fred Gebhardt previously produced and wrote the screenplay for Columbia Pictures 1960 science fiction film 12 to the Moon. Star Dean Fredericks had just finished filming the lead in the NBC TV series Steve Canyon which was later cancelled after its first season of 34 episodes. Co-star Francis X. Bushman had been a major film star in silent films. This was actor Richard Kiel's first credited film role; he played the captured Solarite.
The Phantom Planet's interior spaceship sets, spacesuit helmets and oxygen backpacks, and special effects originally appeared in the Ziv Company's science fiction television series Men into Space, broadcast in 1959 on CBS TV.
Home media
The Phantom Planet has received multiple DVD "bargain bin" releases as a result of being in the public domain.
A colorized version of The Phantom Planet was released by Legend Films.
A restored widescreen version, remastered from a 35mm print, was released December 10, 2017 on BD-R by Snappy Video, an imprint of Thunderbean Animation.
Legacy
The film was adapted into a comic[2] with some minor plot changes.[3]
A gravity assist, gravity assist maneuver, swing-by, or generally a gravitational slingshot in orbital mechanics, is a type of spaceflight flyby which makes use of the relative movement and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically to save propellant and reduce expense.
Les Maîtres du temps is a 1982 independent animated science fiction film directed by René Laloux and designed by Mœbius. It is based on the 1958 science fiction novel L'Orphelin de Perdide by Stefan Wul.
It! The Terror from Beyond Space is an independently made 1958 American science fiction horror film, produced by Robert Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn, that stars Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith, and Kim Spalding. The film was distributed by United Artists as a double feature with Curse of the Faceless Man.
Men Into Space is an American black-and-white science fiction television series, produced by Ziv Television Programs, Inc., that was first broadcast by CBS from September 30, 1959, to September 7, 1960. The series depicts future efforts by the United States Air Force to explore and develop outer space. The series' star, William Lundigan, played Col. Edward McCauley.
Conquest of Space is a 1955 American Technicolor science fiction film from Paramount Pictures, produced by George Pal, directed by Byron Haskin, that stars Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, and Mickey Shaughnessy.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a 1964 American science fiction film directed by Byron Haskin and produced by Aubrey Schenck that stars Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin, and Adam West. It is a science fiction retelling of the classic 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and filmed in Technicolor and Techniscope.
Underworld is the fifth serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 7–28 January 1978.
Planet Prince is a 1958 Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series created by Masaru Igami and produced by Senkosha, the series aired on NTV from November 4, 1958 to October 6, 1959, with a total of 49 episodes. It was created to capitalize on the success of Shintoho's Super Giant (Starman) movie series. In fact, the title hero bore a strong resemblance to Super Giant. The pair of Planet Prince theatrical featurettes, adapted from the Senkosha TV series, were produced by Toei Studios and filmed in black and white ToeiScope format.
Queen of Outer Space is a 1958 American science fiction film shot in DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope. Produced by Ben Schwalb and directed by Edward Bernds, it stars Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eric Fleming, and Laurie Mitchell. The screenplay by Charles Beaumont, about a revolt against a cruel Venusian queen, is based on an idea supplied by Ben Hecht and originally titled Queen of the Universe. Upon its release, the film was promoted by Allied Artists and distributed to some locations as a double feature with Frankenstein 1970 starring Boris Karloff.
The First Men in the Moon by the English author H. G. Wells is a scientific romance, originally serialised in The Strand Magazine and The Cosmopolitan from November 1900 to June 1901 and published in hardcover in 1901. Wells called it one of his "fantastic stories". The novel recounts a journey to the Moon by the two protagonists: a businessman narrator, Mr. Bedford; and an eccentric scientist, Mr. Cavor. Bedford and Cavor discover that the Moon is inhabited by a sophisticated extraterrestrial civilisation of insect-like creatures they call "Selenites". The inspiration seems to come from the famous 1865 book by Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon, and the opera by Jacques Offenbach from 1875. Verne's novel also uses the word "Selenites" to describe inhabitants of the Moon.
Doraemon: Nobita Drifts in the Universe is the 1999 Japanese animated epic space opera film. It is the second Doraemon film released after Hiroshi Fujimoto's departure, based on the 19 volume of the same name of the Doraemon Long Stories series. This is the third movie solely produced by Fujiko Production following The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West (1988) and Nobita's Great Adventure in the South Seas (1998). This movie commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Doraemon film series during its end credits showcasing a piece of artwork of it and all films released prior. It was released on March 6, 1999, together with Doraemon: Nobita's the Night Before a Wedding and Funny Candy of Okashinana!?. It is the 20th Doraemon film.
Cat-Women of the Moon is an independently made 1953 American black-and-white three-dimensional science-fiction film, produced by Jack Rabin and Al Zimbalist, directed by Arthur Hilton, that stars Sonny Tufts, Victor Jory, and Marie Windsor. The film was released by Astor Pictures.
Space Apprentice, also known as Probationers, is a science fiction novel by Soviet-Russian writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, originally published in 1962. It is set in the Noon Universe following The Land of Crimson Clouds and "Destination Amalthea", hundreds of years before the other Noon novels.
Black holes, objects whose gravity is so strong that nothing—including light—can escape them, have been depicted in fiction since at least the pulp era of science fiction, before the term black hole was coined. A common portrayal at the time was of black holes as hazards to spacefarers, a motif that has also recurred in later works. The concept of black holes became popular in science and fiction alike in the 1960s. Authors quickly seized upon the relativistic effect of gravitational time dilation, whereby time passes more slowly closer to a black hole due to its immense gravitational field. Black holes also became a popular means of space travel in science fiction, especially when the notion of wormholes emerged as a relatively plausible way to achieve faster-than-light travel. In this concept, a black hole is connected to its theoretical opposite, a so-called white hole, and as such acts as a gateway to another point in space which might be very distant from the point of entry. More exotically, the point of emergence is occasionally portrayed as another point in time—thus enabling time travel—or even an entirely different universe.
Milcząca Gwiazda, literal English translation The Silent Star, is a 1960 East German/Polish color science fiction film based on the 1951 science fiction novel The Astronauts by Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem. It was directed by Kurt Maetzig, and stars Günther Simon, Julius Ongewe and Yoko Tani. The film was first released by Progress Film in East Germany, running 93 min. Variously dubbed and cut versions were also released in English under other titles: First Spaceship on Venus, Planet of the Dead, and Spaceship Venus Does Not Reply.
Journey to Mars the Wonderful World: Its Beauty and Splendor; Its Mighty Races and Kingdoms; Its Final Doom is an 1894 science fiction novel written by Gustavus W. Pope. The book has attracted increased contemporary attention as a precedent and possible source for the famous Barsoom novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. A sequel, Journey to Venus, followed in 1895.
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon, based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. It follows a spaceship crew who investigate a derelict spaceship and are hunted by a deadly extraterrestrial creature. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions and was distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was the executive producer. The alien creatures and environments were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while the concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the other sets.
"Ker-Plop" is a science fiction novella by Ted Reynolds, which first appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January 1979.
War of the Planets (Italian: I Diafanoidi Vengono da Marte, lit. 'The Diaphanoids Come From Mars' is a 1966 Italian science fiction film, produced by Joseph Fryd and Antonio Margheriti, directed by Margheriti, that stars Tony Russel and Lisa Gastoni. The film was released theatrically in 1966 throughout Europe. Its storyline and screenplay were written by Ivan Reiner and Renato Moretti.
The 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey featured numerous fictional future technologies, which have proven prescient in light of subsequent developments around the world. Before the film's production began, director Stanley Kubrick sought technical advice from over fifty organizations, and a number of them submitted their ideas to Kubrick of what kind of products might be seen in a movie set in the year 2001. The film is also praised for its accurate portrayal of spaceflight and vacuum.
Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009, (First Edition 1982). ISBN0-89950-032-3.
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