"Forbidden Planet"

Matt Holcomb

New member
In the Lucas Q&A on the Vanity Fair website, Lucas says that, tonally, "KotCS" will evoke B sci-fi flicks from the 1950s, and that "Forbidden Planet" is the flick that he remembers the most.

I thought I'd shed some light on the aforementioned flick by presenting its plot summary, courtesy of Wikipedia:

In the early 2200s, the United Planets Cruiser C-57D is sent to the planet Altair IV in the Altair star system, sixteen light-years from Earth, to find out what happened to the Bellerophon expedition, sent out some twenty years earlier. As their spaceship arrives after a year's voyage, the crew detects an immense power source scanning the ship.

They are immediately contacted over the ship's transmitter by Dr. Edward Morbius, the expedition's philologist, who warns them to leave, but refuses to provide a reason. Upon landing, they are met by Robby the Robot, who takes the Commander, his First Officer and Medical Officer to Morbius' home. Morbius explains that a year after the expedition's arrival, some unknown force wiped out nearly everyone in his party and vaporized the Bellerophon as the final survivors tried to take off. Only he, his wife (who later died of natural causes) and infant daughter survived.

Morbius fears that the same fate may await the crew of the C-57D. He and his daughter have remained unharmed, and his house has an interesting array of unknown advanced technology, including Robby, which he claims to have "tinkered ... together during my first months up here" (with Robby exhibiting advances in technology beyond that currently known), including a home security system which can quickly cover the residence window-slides with steel plates.

The C-57D command crew meet Morbius' daughter Altaira, who is now nineteen years old and has grown up bereft of the knowledge of any male except her father. She swims in the nude (she does not know what a bathing suit is), wears scanty clothing and is very curious about human relations. The commander is very protective of her but nonetheless competes with his First Officer, Jerry Farman, for the chance to enlighten her on the romantic topics (note discussion in scene at left).

Morbius tells the Commander he has been reconstructing the history of the Krell, the long-extinct natives of the planet. They had possessed a technology far in advance of that of the humans, but had all died 200,000 years before in one mysterious night of destruction. The crew are shown an intact & self-maintaining underground Krell laboratory, dubbed a "nursery", which includes a "plastic educator" brain-booster machine that resulted in the death of the captain of the Bellerophon. Morbius explains that his attempts to use the educator put him into a coma for almost two days, but also resulted in a significantly increased IQ, enabling him to build Robby the Robot and other inventions.

The party then leave the Krell lab and are taken on a tour of the Krell facilities. This includes an underground machine in the shape of a cube 20 miles square, powered by 9200 thermonuclear reactors, which has been operating, self-repairing and self-maintaining, its purpose unknown, since the extinction of the Krell. The sweeping semi-animated effects shots convey images of enormous, miles-deep shafts with huge structures moving up and down, transferring powerful arcs of energy. Power meters indicate the tremendous energy this vast machine could generate, each meter representing 10 times the power of the previous one. Most of the meters are blank, and only one of them indicates any energy usage. The visitors ask Morbius the purpose of the machine, and he is evasive, mentioning only that the machine responds to flocks of birds with energy discharges (apparently it was a beam from the machine which had earlier scanned the arrival ship).

One night, an unknown creature sneaks into the ship and kills Chief Engineer Quinn, tearing his body apart in the process. (This is not seen, but is merely referred to.) In response to his killing, security around the ship is increased including the installation of particle cannons and a defensive force-field fence. A plaster cast is made from one of the invisible attacker's footprints. Dr. Ostrow puzzles over the improbability of such a creature, which appears to be a chimera which doesn't follow any known evolutionary adaptation ? in his description, a "monster".

The intruder returns to the ship the following night, and is found to be invisible. It remains invisible until revealed by special effects: a huge, roaring, leonine biped revealed in outline by the energy neutron-particle-beam guns that flicker over its surface. In the attack, it kills First Officer Lt. Jerry Farman,Science Officer Pete Doherty and Gunner's Mate "Buddha" Ellis. In the Krell lab, various power meters come to life as the attack progresses. Morbius, having a nightmare, is awakened by Altaira, also screaming, apparently also from a nightmare. Simultaneously, the invisible attacker vanishes and the Krell power meters rapidly fall back to near zero.

Ostrow idly mentions that for the creature to have survived the high energy beams of the cannons it would have to be so dense that it would sink of its own mass to the center of the planet. The only other explanation is presented as a literal recreation of the creature 'microsecond by microsecond'.

Commander Adams and Doc Ostrow go to Morbius' home to confront him about their latest findings. Ostrow sneaks in and attempts to use the Krell educator machine. Before he dies from its effects, he gasps out his revelation: the huge machine was designed to let the Krell materialize anything they wanted at a mere thought. "But the Krell forgot one thing! Monsters, John! Monsters from the id!" Though the Krell considered themselves civilized, their subconscious minds were unleashed by the almost limitless power of the Machine. With this information, the Commander deduces that the race was wiped out in a single night of frenzied destruction, as their subconscious minds acted out their darkest urges, fueled by the Machine's power.

With this revelation, the Commander also realizes that Morbius' sessions with the educator had attuned his mind to the machinery. Although Morbius' conscious mind was not strong enough to control the machine, his subconscious was and did, directing the attacks first against the Bellerophon party when they voted to return to Earth, and now the rescue ship. His deepest desire is simply to be left alone to study the Krell, and his subconscious is using the Machine to fulfill that wish. Ultimately, Altaira declares her love for the commander and chooses to leave the planet with him, despite the risks posed by this defiance of her father.

In the climactic attack, the monster breaks into the Krell nursery to which the remaining principals have fled. Morbius, finally accepting the awful truth that the enemy is his own subconscious, throws himself between the monster and his daughter. He is mortally injured, suffering a severe cerebral hemorrhage, and simultaneously the monster disappears. As he lies dying of the stroke, he directs Adams to put the Krell machine into overload to initiate the destruction of the planet. He has realized that the machine is far too dangerous to be used by any race that cannot fully control its subconscious desires. Altaira, Robbie, and the surviving crew members escape to a safe distance where they witness the destruction of the planet, and then prepare for the trip to Earth.


(Cont'd)
 

Matt Holcomb

New member
"Forbidden Planet" (Cont'd)

So let's assume that Lucas mentioned "Forbidden Planet" in the Q&A because he paid homage to it in "KotCS".

What's interesting is that "Forbidden Planet" explores the idea of the power of the subconscious mind by presenting a sophisticated alien machine that can create anything the subconscious mind can dream up.

According to this website, "crystals can be used to amplify the visualization of thoughtforms. They have the ability to increase the power of thought."

So based on this idea, I wouldn't be surprised if the titular crystal skull is Lucas' version of the Krell machine from "Forbidden Planet". If so, it would go a long way to explaining the presence of ancient Nazca warriors in "KotCS".

After reading the plot summary for "Forbidden Planet", things are now starting to, er, crystallize for me with regard to the plotline of "KotCS".

Here are my speculative story beats of "KotCS" based on everything that I've read:

1. Mutt Ravenwood visits Indy at his college to inform him that his mother, Marion, has been kidnapped. Mutt and Indy are forced to escape after they're tracked down by Soviet spies.

2. Turns out said spies have kidnapped Marion to blackmail Indy into stealing the crystal skull from Area 51 on their behalf, which turns out to be the skull of one of the aliens found at Roswell (according to the teaser trailer breakdown, there is a shot of a wooden crate that has the word 'Roswell' stenciled on it).

3. Mutt and Indy are taken by the Soviet agents to a hidden Peruvian temple to essentially plug the crystal skull into something and in the process are reunited with Marion. We later learn that the temple was constructed by the Inca Empire with the help of an alien race. This is when we also discover the aliens that crashed their ship at Roswell were members of the same race.

4. Now powered up, the crystal skull is able to read the minds of those in its vicinity, and like the Krell machine from "Forbidden Planet", it materializes anything (for example, ancient Nazca warriors) certain key players want at a mere thought.

5. Perhaps the ensuing battle in and around the temple is disrupted by the arrival of an alien ship via the hitherto inexplicable Nazca lines. Some little grey men from the ship are sent down to terra firma to commandeer the temple, which doubles as a spacecraft. The temple rises towards the clouds and then blasts off into space, presumably back to the planet from which it came, the other alien vessel in tow ....
 

AndyLGR

Active member
Forbidden Planet is a classic.

By tone I take it that they mean the look and feel of the film. In the Empire article they mention that as the original films are set in the 30's they went for a 1930's serial look and feel to the films. But because this film is set in the 1950's they wanted a look similar to some of the classic 1950's movies like Creature from the black lagoon was an example used. They are just trying to invoke the feeling of the films from those specific time periods.
 
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