MovieChat Forums > The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Discussion > Klaatu: Interplanetary terrorist extrao...

Klaatu: Interplanetary terrorist extraordinaire

posted 11 years ago by Unintended_Consequence
7 replies | jump to latest

First, I'm just going to show up in a giant ship traveling thousands of miles an hour. I won't call ahead to announce myself. I'm just going to zoom right into a country on the edge of nuclear war with other countries, and let everyone guess what might be going on.

Then I'm going to emerge from my ship and point a device at you, not telling you what it is, and then activate it.

Then I'm not going to tell you what I'm here for. And if you don't arrange a meeting for me exactly how I want it, I'm going to threaten to "level" one of your major cities. I don't remember "Special K" mentioning anything about allowing for evacuations.

OK, you can talk me out of doing that, but I'm going to shut down all electricity, and we see that automobiles have stopped functioning, so it's not just AC current involved. It must have been cool as airplanes fell from the skies and submarines shut down. Of course, surgeons in dark operating rooms always make such a fuss.

Oh, screw it. We might just smoke you lot and save the trouble of trying to fix this.

Sorry, USSR, this is the real Evil Empire. You're second rate.

BIG GOVERNMENT = small citizen
Power is a zero sum game

[–] WhoToTrust 11 years ago

by ThinkASecondTime - ...It must have been cool as airplanes fell from the skies and submarines shut down. Of course, surgeons in dark operating rooms always make such a fuss.

Those things were actually addressed in the movie as being accounted for by Klaatu, and as a result, NOT happening.

[–] Unintended_Consequence 11 years ago

I don't recall that. I just saw all the cars with their hoods up, so I assumed that critical electrical functions would cease as well.

But flattening NYC was definitely a threat, and he wasn't going to cut us a lot of slack before he did it, either. He pretty much said, 'get everyone in a room that I want to talk to or there will be a big flat space between Staten Island and Connecticut.

BIG GOVERNMENT = small citizen
Power is a zero sum game

[–] WhoToTrust 11 years ago

Planes in flight, hospitals, etc, being spared their power being interrupted during the demonstration was brought up during one of the meetings with all of the military personnel.

And the amount of slack Klaatu cut us was pretty much up to us to earn throughout the entire movie. It wasn't his fault that we failed to earn any at just about every turn.

[–] Unintended_Consequence 11 years ago

I thought the threat to level a major city was a tad harsh because he didn't get the kind of meeting he wanted right away. Why not just broadcast to the whole world simultaneously? If they can shut down electrical power worldwide without damaging the infrastructure surely they could manage that.

BIG GOVERNMENT = small citizen
Power is a zero sum game

[–] WhoToTrust 11 years ago

By requesting to speak with the Earths' world leaders, Klaatu was simply trying to work with the established system on the planet he was dealing with.

IIRC, the "threat" to level a major city was only an attention getter made because of the kind of self-important responses Klaatu was receiving regarding his request to meet with world leaders to deliver his message. Everyone Klaatu was speaking with was so wrapped up in their own little worlds of petty politics, he correctly assumed that mentioning leveling a major city was probably the only way to get anyones' attention.

While leveling a major city was obviously considered an impressive show of force by the world leaders Klaatu was speaking with, it was Klaatu's peaceful demonstration of force that ended up providing the worlds' leaders with REAL perspective about who and what they were dealing with, which made it clear that Klaatu had never intended to level anything so early on in the interaction.

[–] ericjg623 11 years ago

he correctly assumed that mentioning leveling a major city was probably the only way to get anyones' attention.

Yeah, mass murder is, like, SO effective at showing everyone you're a leader for peace!

Let's see how that works for parenting:

Parent - Kid, if you keep ignoring me, I'm going to kill your puppy.

Kid - Gee, Dad, you're so enlightened!

[–] WhoToTrust 11 years ago

by ericjg623 - Yeah, mass murder is, like, SO effective at showing everyone you're a leader for peace!

Let's see how that works for parenting:

Parent - Kid, if you keep ignoring me, I'm going to kill your puppy.

Kid - Gee, Dad, you're so enlightened!

And you blaming Klaatu for having to resort to such tactics is on about the same level as the child in your example who doesn't comprehend how it's own actions led to the reprimand, and obviously only thinks it knows what enlightened means.