The Doomsday Machine (1972 Film)
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''Doomsday Machine'', also known as ''Escape from Planet Earth'' (video title), is an American
science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...
mostly filmed in 1967 but completed without the original cast or sets in 1972.


Plot

A spy discovers that the Chinese government has created a
doomsday device A doomsday device is a hypothetical construction – usually a weapon or weapons system – which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly Earth, or destroy the planet itself, bringing " doomsday", a term used for the end of planet Earth ...
(the "key" to which, "only Chairman Mao has") capable of destroying the Earth and it will be activated in 72 hours. Soon after, ''Astra'' – a two-year return mission to Venus by the United States Space Program – has its time of launch speeded up and half of the male flight crew are replaced by women shortly before take-off, including one Russian. Shortly before blastoff military alerts are put into effect. After leaving Earth, the seven crew members of ''Astra'' deduce that they have been put together to restart the human race should the Chinese activate their device. Shortly after this, the device goes off and Earth is destroyed. As ''Astra'' continues to Venus, the crew discovers that a safe landing on Venus is impossible unless the crew is reduced to three. Mason tries to
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
Carlson, at which point she accidentally gets them both blown out of an airlock. Two more crew-members—Danny and Major Bronski—are lost as they head out to repair a fault with the spaceship. However, they notice another spacecraft nearby and jump to it. The second craft proves to be a lost Soviet ship that disappeared piloted by a close friend of the Russian crew member. Though its pilot is dead, Danny and Bronski successfully power up the Soviet ship. Before the two ships can rendezvous, contact with ''Astra'' is lost. A disembodied voice cuts in, claiming to be the collective consciousness of the Venusian population. The voice informs the survivors (whom the Venusians refer to as the "Last of Man") in the Russian ship that ''Astra'' no longer exists (presumably destroyed somehow by the
telepathic Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...
Venusians), and that the ship (due to the "self-destructive" potential of humans) will be not allowed to reach Venus. It gives a cryptic message regarding the prospect of starting new life in a "very strange and very great" place, somewhere far "beyond the rim of the universe," before the ship suddenly blasts off, apparently by the power of the Venusians, and the movie abruptly concludes.


Cast

*
Bobby Van Robert Jack Stein (December 6, 1928 – July 31, 1980), known by his legalized stage name Bobby Van, was a musical actor and dancer, best known for his career on Broadway, in films and television from the 1950s through the 1970s. He was also a ...
as Danny *
Ruta Lee Ruta Lee (born Ruta Mary Kilmonis; May 30, 1935) is a Canadian-born American actress and dancer of Lithuanian descent. She was born in Montreal, Canada, to Lithuanian immigrant parents. Ruta Lee appeared as one of the brides in the musical ''Se ...
as Dr. Marion Turner *
Mala Powers Mary Ellen "Mala" Powers (December 20, 1931 – June 11, 2007) was an American actress. Early life Powers was born in San Francisco. Her father was a United Press Associations executive, while her mother was a minister. In 1940, her family mov ...
as Maj. Georgianna Bronski * James Craig as Dr. Haines * Grant Williams as Maj. Kurt Mason *
Henry Wilcoxon Henry Wilcoxon (born Harry Frederick Wilcoxon; 8 September 1905 – 6 March 1984) was a British-American actor and film producer, born in the British West Indies. He was known as an actor in many of director Cecil B. DeMille's films, also ser ...
as Dr. Christopher Perry * Essie Lin Chia as Girl Spy *
Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio presenter who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40'', as well as the weekly syndicated televi ...
as Mission Control Officer * Lorri Scott as Lt. Katie Carlson *
Denny Miller Denny Scott Miller (born Dennis Linn Miller; April 25, 1934 – September 9, 2014) was an American actor, perhaps best known for his regular role as Duke Shannon on ''Wagon Train'', his guest-starring appearances on ''Gilligan's Island'' and ''C ...
as Col. Don Price (billed as Scott Miller) *
Mike Farrell Michael Joseph Farrell Jr. (born February 6, 1939) is an American actor, best known for his role as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on the television series '' M*A*S*H'' (1975–83). In addition, Farrell was a producer of '' Patch Adams'' (1998) starr ...
as 1st Reporter


Production

Production of ''Doomsday Machine'' began in 1967 under Herbert J. Leder's direction under the titles ''Armageddon 1975'' and ''Doomsday Plus Seven''. Production stopped on the film before it was completed (presumably due to funding problems), and the unfinished footage lay in storage for several years. Production resumed in 1972, though without benefit of access to the original cast members, costumes or sets. Sloppy production standards have made the film a favorite for buffs of bad cinema. The film relies extensively on
stock footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...
, including real (but badly degraded)
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
rocket footage, special effects shots from David L. Hewitt's '' The Wizard of Mars'' (1965; Hewitt receives a special effects credit for ''Doomsday Machine''), '' Gorath'' (1962) and other disparate sources, leading to numerous continuity errors. Among such mistakes is the external appearance of the ''Astra'', which inexplicably changes throughout the film. The protracted last segment of the movie – with an American and Russian astronaut boarding a derelict Soviet spacecraft – was obviously shot after the unfinished principal photography without the participation of the original actors. After this point, the characters stay in their spacesuits, which look different from those shown in the immediately preceding scenes, and their helmets are now opaque, concealing the doubles' faces. The characters do speak but now with different voices. The slow, repetitive pacing of this sequence is also markedly different from the rest of the film and suggests an effort to pad the film's running time out in order to reach a desired length.


Copyright

The film is in the public domain due to failure to renew its copyright.


In popular culture

*The film was featured on ''
Elvira's Movie Macabre ''Elvira's Movie Macabre'' (titled on-screen as ''Movie Macabre with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark'' in its original run), or simply ''Movie Macabre'', is an American Horror host, hosted horror movie television program that originally aired locall ...
''. *The film was the second film riffed in the ''
Cinematic Titanic Cinematic Titanic was a project by ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K'') creator and original host, Joel Hodgson. The project involved "MSTing, riffing" B-movies, in a manner similar to that of ''MST3K''. Joining Hodgson were some of the ori ...
'' series. *This film was reviewed by the '' Nostalgia Critic'' on Best of TGWTG Volume 3. *The film was reviewed by Bill Gibron of ''
PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...
''.


References


External links

* * * http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/doomsday-machine/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Doomsday Machine 1972 films American science fiction films 1960s science fiction films Films about astronauts Films directed by Herbert J. Leder Films set in 1975 Venus in film 1960s unfinished films 1970s English-language films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films 1970s American films English-language science fiction films 1972 science fiction films Apocalyptic films