naiman@pegasus.UUCP (Ephrayim J. Naiman) (06/04/84)
I just recently was remembering a movie about some dolphin/aliens (that were being persecuted ?). All I remember is scientists trying to figure out their language and at the end of the movie they destroy this big dam/bridge. As you can see, I really don't remember it that well. It may have been an Outer Limits. Speaking of Outer Limits, does anybody remember the one where some Earth people land on some planet with acid rain. If you get caught in the rain, something funny happens to your eyes so that you can't stand light and you can't stand all dark. I don't remember this one too well either. How about this one ? Some alien lands in Washington with a robot who guards the ship. I seem to recall this was one of the first science fiction movies with any class. All I remember with this one is that the alien tries to get back to his ship at the end of the movie and some human helps him, I think. As you can see I did a lot of reminiscing recently. If anybody remembers anything more about those movies than I've mentioned, I'd appreciate hearing it. -- ==> Ephrayim J. Naiman @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6259 Paths: [ihnp4, allegra, ...]!pegasus!naiman
alle@ihuxb.UUCP (Allen England) (06/04/84)
+ > I just recently was remembering a movie about some dolphin/aliens > (that were being persecuted ?). All I remember is scientists trying to figure > out their language and at the end of the movie they destroy this big > dam/bridge. Maybe it was "The Day of the Dolphin" with George C. Scott... > How about this one ? Some alien lands in Washington with a robot who guards > the ship. I seem to recall this was one of the first science fiction movies > with any class. All I remember with this one is that the alien tries to get > back to his ship at the end of the movie and some human helps him, I think. This was "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with Michael Rennie. The Robot's name was Klaatu. You are correct - this movie was one of the first and still one of the best good science fiction movies. --> Allen <-- ihnp4!ihuxb!alle
mag@whuxle.UUCP (Gray Mike) (06/04/84)
The robot's name was Gort, not Klaatu. He was given an instruction: "Gort, klaatu berada nikto" which was given by Michael Rennie (the alien) to some human to relay to him, which prevented the end of the world, or something. M.A. Gray, BTL WH.
cbspt002@abnjh.UUCP (Marc E. Kenig ) (06/04/84)
<Klatu Nectu Berradas, Gort!?>
I just wanted to be one of the multitudes to answer that the film "with
the alien landing in Washington, robot guarding the ship, etc." was
The Day The Earth Stood Still, starring Michael Renee.
M. Kenig
P.S. I seem to dimly remember the Outer Limits with facist acting
astronauts in ridiculous sunglasses on some planet, but can't
recall the episode name.fish@ihu1g.UUCP (Bob Fishell) (06/04/84)
(oo)
The film you recall with a robot guarding the ship was "The Day the Earth
Stood Still," starring Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal. Frankly, I'm
quite surprised you couldn't recall the name; this is one of the most
familiar SF movies of all time. The robot's name was "Gort," and I wish
I had one of my very own.
--
Bob Fishell
ihnp4!ihu1g!fishags@pucc-i (Seaman) (06/05/84)
Several people have pointed out that the robot in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" was named Gort, not Klaatu. No one has mentioned that Klaatu was actually the name of the alien (Michael Rennie). -- Dave Seaman ..!pur-ee!pucc-i:ags "Against people who give vent to their loquacity by extraneous bombastic circumlocution."
dand@tekigm.UUCP (Dan C. Duval) (06/05/84)
The robot in Washington is "The Day the Earth Stood Still", with Micheal Renne and Patricia Neal, with cameos by a whole bunch of character actors including Sam Jaffe. Micheal Renne played the alien, Klaatu, and the robot was named Gort. Klaatu's "miracle" to prove his civilization's power was to interrupt all electrical service (including car batteries, but excluding hospitals, airplanes in flight, etc), at high noon. This is the movie where that famous line "Klaatu brata nictu" comes from. Dan C Duval ISI Engineering Tektronix, Inc tektronix!tekigm!dand
kcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll) (06/07/84)
*
The movie wherein an alien ship lands in washigton, leaving a robot
to stand guard, is "The Day the Earth Stood Still". An alright film,
but nowhere near as good as the story it was freely adapted from:
"Farewell to the Master", by Harry Bates. Boy, did I like this one!
It appeared in Astounding, lo these many years ago (1941?), and the author
was, I beleive, ASF's first editor (circa 1930). The ending was
>much< more effective than that in the movie.
I hope I got all the details of the citation right; it's been a few
years since I read the story.
-Kieran A. Carroll
...decvax!utzoo!kcarrollgrw@fortune.UUCP (Glenn Wichman) (06/13/84)
bip.
"Klaatu Barada Nikto" means, "Klaatu says not to bother with
destroying the earth."
-Glennhester%uci-750a@sri-unix.UUCP (06/13/84)
From: "Jim Hester" <hester@uci-750a> To my knowledge, and that of my reference books, the meaning of "Klaatu Barada Nikto" was never disclosed. However, the robot's behavior implies one of two messages. The first would be a simple plea to help Klaatu rather than destroy the Earth. As you pointed out, Klaatu never said that Gort would do that, but he told the woman that he was afraid of what Gort would do if he were killed. When she asked him what a simgle robot could do, he said that it could destroy the world if it decided to. He later said the same thing to the scientist, Professor Barnhard. Thus one interpretation would be "Klaatu Needs Help". The other possibility stems more from Gort's immediate action upon hearing the message: he returned to the ship and activated the main screen. Klaatu used this screen on at least one occation, and it seemed that he was giving verbal commands to the ship's computer. He might also have been communicating with confederates, either for advice or help for his 'demonstration'. Gort's use of the screen could have been for two purposes: to use the ship's instruments for locating Klaatu, or for getting advice from the ship's computer or others. I doubt Gort would have consulted the ship's computer, due to the nature of the intelligence Klaatu described built into the robot police force. It is possible that he might want to consult humans on a policy matter if specifically instructed to by Klaatu. Thus the second interpretation might be "Klaatu requests you seek advice", or just "Gort, Phone Home" (I can't take credit for the pun, it appeared some time ago on a bboard). I don't have a preference between these theories. I can't see Klaatu sending a message (in the event of his death) to Gort just to come and help him, although he certainly might send something like 'help me if possible, otherwise consult the home office before doing anything rash'. Given the length of the message, I would expect Klaatu to instruct Gort to phone home for instructions, but it seemed to me that Gort was using the screen to find Klaatu rather than communicate (just a feeling, really). Klaatu's description of the robot police force made it clear that they were mentally as well as physically capable of destroying the planet, which implies a high degree of intelligence and independence. I doubt Gort would think of phoning home on his own. My pet theory is that the message, if we knew the literal translation, would still be somewhat cryptic. I believe that Klaatu was reminding the robot of part of the Code it followed: that it must exhaust all possibilities before becomming violent on a planetary scale (Klaatu mentioned that they AUTOMATICALLY react against aggressors, but there must be some tempering in there for cases like when it's master just disappears). This reminder may have been in the form of quoting a rule, or something like "Klaatu is the policy-maker on this mission". In other words, I don't believe the message was a request at all, but something with special meaning to the robot, that would interrupt the automatic strike reflex and get it started thinking and recognizing it's options (including BOTH or EITHER rescuing Klaatu or calling for advise) before it went berserk.
m2int@iwsl4.UUCP (Charles Smith) (06/13/84)
You all are wrong the robots name in the Day the earth
Stood still was GORT. Klatu was the man .
Charles Smithfritz@hpfclk.UUCP (06/14/84)
To Jim Hester: I think your theories are all wrong, if you take into account the original story mentioned by Keiran Carroll. In this story, the human has just helped Gort to revivify (actually, reconstruct) the dead Klaatu, and as Gort is carrying Klaatu to the ship to leave, the dialog goes something like this... (note, Gort could speak in this story) Human: "Gort, when your master awakens, please tell him it was an accident." Gort: "You don't understand. *I* am the master." Obviously, things were changed around a bit for the movie! Still one of the all-time SF classics. Gary Fritz Hewlett-Packard Co Ft Collins, CO ihnp4!hpfcla!hpfclk!fritz
hester%uci-750a@sri-unix.UUCP (06/19/84)
From: "Jim Hester" <hester@uci-750a> > To Jim Hester: I think your theories are all wrong, if you take into > account the original story mentioned by Keiran Carroll. In this > story, the human has just helped Gort to revivify (actually, > reconstruct) the dead Klaatu, and as Gort is carrying Klaatu to the > ship to leave, the dialog goes something like this... (note, Gort > could speak in this story) > Human: "Gort, when your master awakens, please tell him it was an > accident." > Gort: "You don't understand. *I* am the master." > Obviously, things were changed around a bit for the movie! Still > one of the all-time SF classics. If you take the short story into account, the question of the translation is meaningless, since it did not exist in the story. I am well aware of the story: you might remember I commented on the bboard that although I considered the plot of the movie better, the story was worth reading, since it was entirely different. The ONLY similarity between the two is a spaceship, a robot, and a man with the same name that gets shot by Earthlings. That's exactly the problem: the story is NO authority, since it has nothing to do with the plot of the movie. I have a copy of the story. If it was any help, I would have used it. My guesses were based only on the movie. First, there have been enough people sending in "something like this"s: let's set the record straight. The short story was called "Farewell to the Master", written by Harry Bates. It was printed by Street & Smith, Inc., publishers of "Astounding Stories". The issue(s) are not given, but S & S has copywrites for the story dated 1939, 1940, 1942, and 1943. My copy is in the anthology "Adventures in Time and Space," edited by Healy and McComas and printed (as of my copy) 8 times between 1946 and 1954. I was wrong about the robot's name, it was Gnut. The end passage mentioned by so many is as follows (I have no cumpunctions about spoilers since the beans have already been spilled): Of all the things Cliff had wanted to say to Klaatu, one remained imperatively present in his mind. Now, as the green metal robot stood framed in the great green ship, (e siezed his chance. "Gnut," he said earnestly, holding carefully to the limp body in his arms, "you must do one thing for me. Listen carefully. I want you to tell your master - the master yet to come - that what happened to the first Klaatu was an accident, for which all Earth is immeasurably sorry. Will you do that?" "I have known it," the robot answered gently. But will you promise to tell your master - just those words - as soon as he is arrived?" "You misunderstand," said Gnut, still gently, and quietly spoke four more words. As Cliff heard them a mist passed over his eyes and his body went numb. As he recovered and his eyes came back to focus he saw the great ship disappear. It just suddenly was not there any more. He fell back a step or two. In his ears, like great bells, rang Gnut's last words. Never, never was he to disclose them till the day he came to die. "You misunderstand," the mighty robot had said. "I am the master." So much for the story, back to the movie. The only thing that most people agree on is that Gort consulted the screen in the ship in response to the message. Most also agree that he was about to destroy the planet before he received the message. Therefore the message was something that (at least temporarily) overrode Gort's first reflex (Klaatu told the girl that the robots AUTOMATICALLY act against any and all aggressors). The two standard guesses concerning the message are that it was a plea for help or a suggestion (not order, the Robot Police Force might listen to suggestions, but Klaatu specifically said that in matters of aggression they were all-powerful and under no direction but their own) to consult others (or the ship's computer?) before acting. My only addition was that unless Klaatu's language packed a LOT into a small space, I thought it possible that the message was something short, just to get the robot thinking and interrupt it's attack reflex long enough for it to recognize alternatives. This message might have been a quote of some sort of prime directive of peace before war or some other short message that might be meaningless to Earthlings who don't know the complete history and relationship between the Robots and Galactics. My 'theory' as you call it contradicts the standard assumptions only in the literal translation of the message. The spirit (and effect) of the message is the same in either case, and it's unlikely that the writers had a much better idea of the literal translation. Since I don't believe there is any 'correct' (and thus any 'incorrect') answer, I speculate freely on possibilities. That theory appeals to me, since it explains the terseness of the message in light of the assumed intentions of the robot. I would never insist that I am right or that any theory that does not contradict the known facts is wrong. I was merely repeating common assumptions and adding a comment of my own. If anyone gets a real interview with someone in the know, PASS IT ON! All I know offhand is that Klaatu was Michael Renne and Gort was the (then) bellboy of Grauman's Chinese Restaurant. The people in charge of casting were having a hard time finding somebody right for Gort, and went out for lunch. They hired him on the spot.