Kronos
Just finished watching "Kronos" released by Regal Films, a division of 20th Century-Fox back in 1957.
"Kronos" is a rather curious science fiction movie. Like most classic science fiction movies, it was filmed in black and white, and it uses a mixture of practical effects and animation also just like some classic science fiction movies from that era. It also shows that there is a sexual relationship between the two love interests - something unusual for a science fiction movie of this era unless it's clearly established and stated that the couple is married within a moment of being introduced on screen.
"Kronos" also introduces a solution to the Fermi Paradox by way of the "grabby alien" theory where an alien civilization seeks to destroy another one by literary taking everything it has - in this instance all of humanity's energy producing technology.
"Kronos" opens with a flying saucer in deep space. It
emits a glowing ball of electrical energy, which races to Earth. It intercepts a man driving his pickup along an isolated road in the American Southwest desert late at night and takes over the man's mind, directing him to LabCentral, a U.S. research facility, where a pair of scientists have been tracking the flying object, thinking it to be an asteroid.
The possessed man knocks out LabCentral's security guard, then proceeds into the main building where the entity leaves the pickup driver and enters the mind of Dr. Hubbell Eliot, the LabCentral chief. Meanwhile, in a research lab below, astrophysicist Dr. Leslie Gaskell and his computer science associate, Dr. Arnold Culver, have been tracking the flying object. They realize that it is not only headed toward Earth but is moving under intelligent guidance. They order three nuclear missiles fired, but they fail to destroy the object, which dives into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico.
The two scientists, along with Vera Hunter, LabCentral's staff photographer and Gaskell's girlfriend, rush to Mexico. After their arrival, they see an enormous dome, glowing and steaming, appear on the ocean horizon. The next morning, on the beach outside their room, they find that a very tall machine has appeared; its four-legged body has two mobile antennae.
They use a small helicopter to land atop the machine, glimpsing its complex inner workings before being forced to leave and fly back to LabCentral when the machine begins to move. The possessed Dr. Eliot, using lists of power stations and atom-bomb arsenals around the world, telepathically directs the machine. Now named Kronos by the news media, it methodically attacks power plants in Mexico, draining all their energy. In doing so, Kronos grows larger, consuming more and more power as it moves from one power source to the next. Four Mexican Air Force fighter planes attack, but the ever-growing alien machine easily destroys them and continues on its rampage.
Meanwhile, when Kronos is absorbing energy, Eliot is momentarily freed from the influence of the energy force controlling him. Eliot tells his returned colleagues that Kronos is an energy accumulator, sent by an alien race that has exhausted its own natural resources; they have sent their giant machine to drain all the Earth's available power and then return it to their dying world.
On Eliot's recommendation, the United States Air Force sends a B-47 bomber to drop an atomic bomb on Kronos. Gaskell warns the Air Force general in charge that an atomic explosion will simply supply the alien machine with more massive amounts of energy. The general attempts to abort the mission, but Kronos, aware of the plan by way of Dr. Eliot's mind, magnetically draws the jet to crash into it, absorbing the bomb's nuclear blast. The alien machine, now grown to an immense size, appears unstoppable, harvesting all forms of energy at will.
In another uncontrolled moment, Dr. Eliot locks himself in an hermetically sealed room and smashes the only electronic keypad for the door; he and the energy force which has possessed him expire. As Kronos draws near Los Angeles, Gaskell realizes that reversing the machine's polarity will force it to feed upon itself, until it is destroyed in a gigantic implosion. Gaskell, Culver, and Vera convince the Air Force to bombard Kronos with nuclear ions, which will cause the polarity to reverse; the experiment works, and Kronos is completely obliterated in the resulting implosion.
The movie ends with a cautionary note that there might be more Kronos machines lurking out in the galaxy.
One of the most intriguing things about "Kronos" is how it got the way the media is used to influence public opinion exactly right and how journalists often have their own agenda.
Some fun facts about "Kronos": it was filmed in two weeks and had a budge of $160,000.0. Also Jeff Morrow, who played Gaskell, went on to lend his voice to the original George Jetson. Oh yes, and "Kronos" was filmed using "Regalscope" which is another way to say it was filmed in CinemaScope.
Strongly Recommended.
Four Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Kronos-Action-...
"Kronos" is a rather curious science fiction movie. Like most classic science fiction movies, it was filmed in black and white, and it uses a mixture of practical effects and animation also just like some classic science fiction movies from that era. It also shows that there is a sexual relationship between the two love interests - something unusual for a science fiction movie of this era unless it's clearly established and stated that the couple is married within a moment of being introduced on screen.
"Kronos" also introduces a solution to the Fermi Paradox by way of the "grabby alien" theory where an alien civilization seeks to destroy another one by literary taking everything it has - in this instance all of humanity's energy producing technology.
"Kronos" opens with a flying saucer in deep space. It
emits a glowing ball of electrical energy, which races to Earth. It intercepts a man driving his pickup along an isolated road in the American Southwest desert late at night and takes over the man's mind, directing him to LabCentral, a U.S. research facility, where a pair of scientists have been tracking the flying object, thinking it to be an asteroid.
The possessed man knocks out LabCentral's security guard, then proceeds into the main building where the entity leaves the pickup driver and enters the mind of Dr. Hubbell Eliot, the LabCentral chief. Meanwhile, in a research lab below, astrophysicist Dr. Leslie Gaskell and his computer science associate, Dr. Arnold Culver, have been tracking the flying object. They realize that it is not only headed toward Earth but is moving under intelligent guidance. They order three nuclear missiles fired, but they fail to destroy the object, which dives into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico.
The two scientists, along with Vera Hunter, LabCentral's staff photographer and Gaskell's girlfriend, rush to Mexico. After their arrival, they see an enormous dome, glowing and steaming, appear on the ocean horizon. The next morning, on the beach outside their room, they find that a very tall machine has appeared; its four-legged body has two mobile antennae.
They use a small helicopter to land atop the machine, glimpsing its complex inner workings before being forced to leave and fly back to LabCentral when the machine begins to move. The possessed Dr. Eliot, using lists of power stations and atom-bomb arsenals around the world, telepathically directs the machine. Now named Kronos by the news media, it methodically attacks power plants in Mexico, draining all their energy. In doing so, Kronos grows larger, consuming more and more power as it moves from one power source to the next. Four Mexican Air Force fighter planes attack, but the ever-growing alien machine easily destroys them and continues on its rampage.
Meanwhile, when Kronos is absorbing energy, Eliot is momentarily freed from the influence of the energy force controlling him. Eliot tells his returned colleagues that Kronos is an energy accumulator, sent by an alien race that has exhausted its own natural resources; they have sent their giant machine to drain all the Earth's available power and then return it to their dying world.
On Eliot's recommendation, the United States Air Force sends a B-47 bomber to drop an atomic bomb on Kronos. Gaskell warns the Air Force general in charge that an atomic explosion will simply supply the alien machine with more massive amounts of energy. The general attempts to abort the mission, but Kronos, aware of the plan by way of Dr. Eliot's mind, magnetically draws the jet to crash into it, absorbing the bomb's nuclear blast. The alien machine, now grown to an immense size, appears unstoppable, harvesting all forms of energy at will.
In another uncontrolled moment, Dr. Eliot locks himself in an hermetically sealed room and smashes the only electronic keypad for the door; he and the energy force which has possessed him expire. As Kronos draws near Los Angeles, Gaskell realizes that reversing the machine's polarity will force it to feed upon itself, until it is destroyed in a gigantic implosion. Gaskell, Culver, and Vera convince the Air Force to bombard Kronos with nuclear ions, which will cause the polarity to reverse; the experiment works, and Kronos is completely obliterated in the resulting implosion.
The movie ends with a cautionary note that there might be more Kronos machines lurking out in the galaxy.
One of the most intriguing things about "Kronos" is how it got the way the media is used to influence public opinion exactly right and how journalists often have their own agenda.
Some fun facts about "Kronos": it was filmed in two weeks and had a budge of $160,000.0. Also Jeff Morrow, who played Gaskell, went on to lend his voice to the original George Jetson. Oh yes, and "Kronos" was filmed using "Regalscope" which is another way to say it was filmed in CinemaScope.
Strongly Recommended.
Four Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Kronos-Action-...
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