Plan 9 from Outer Space

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Plan 9 from Outer Space
Image:Plan9FromOuterSpace-DVDCover.jpg
Directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Written by Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Starring Tony McCoy
Bela Lugosi
Loretta King
Produced by Charles Burg
J. Edward Reynolds
Hugh Thomas Jr.
Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Distributed by Distributors Corporation of America Inc.
Release date July, 1959 (USA)
Runtime 79 min.
Language English
Budget $60,000
IMDb page


Plan 9 From Outer Space is a 1959 science fiction/horror film written, produced and directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr.. It was originally titled Grave Robbers from Outer Space, but was renamed because that title (as well as much of the original dialog) was considered sacrilegious by its backers, the deacons of the Baptist Church of Beverly Hills.

The movie is widely-regarded as a leading candidate for the title of "worst movie ever made", and earned Edward D. Wood, Jr. a posthumous Golden Turkey Award.

The film is infamous for "almost starring" (as modern releases invariably phrase it) Bela Lugosi. Lugosi died soon after filming began, and Wood convinced the late Dr. Tom Mason, his wife Kathy O'Hara's chiropractor, to replace Lugosi in in the remaining scenes. Dr. Mason, in fact, looked nothing like Lugosi and was far taller. Wood was simply amazed by how Mason's nose and eyes were Lugosi-like. Wood attempted (unsuccessfully) to hide the subterfuge by having Mason perform all his scenes with his cape in front of his face.

To convince the church to bankroll the film, Edward D. Wood, Jr. had the entire cast baptized. Since Tor Johnson was a huge man (over 300 pounds,) and couldn't fit into the church's baptismal, the event was moved to a swimming pool. Despite being a villain as a professional wrestler, friends and colleagues remember the Swedish-born Johnson, who died in 1971, as a kind and gentle man.

In 2005, Legend Films announced the release of a colorized DVD release of the film, featuring audio commentary by comedian Michael J. Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame. Famously, the producers of the series once tried to get the rights to use the film in an episode, but the copyright holders of Ed Wood's filmography declined, because Plan 9 was the more popular of Wood's work. Instead, the series' cast mocked the earlier Wood film Bride of the Monster.

Contents

Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

The film is introduced and narrated by television psychic The Amazing Criswell, and involves aliens who attempt to conquer the Earth by resurrecting corpses from a cemetery.

The aliens have divined that the human race will soon develop the ultimate weapon: a "solaranite bomb" (or "solarbonite") that can "explode the particles of sunlight" and ultimately destroy the universe. They attempted eight times to persuade humanity not to build the bomb, but find themselves unable to even get their attention. "Plan 9", their plan to resurrect the dead, is their final, desperate attempt.

In many respects, the plot is a rehash of The Day the Earth Stood Still with horror elements attached.

Cast

Mistakes

Plan 9 From Outer Space is widely noted for having more — and more obvious — mistakes than any other film (although Robot Monster comes close). There are far too many to document here, but some of the most glaring are:

Image:Plan9SaucerShadow.jpg
  • "Night" and "day" shots are interspersed constantly within the same scene (for example, Paula Trent runs in darkness through the cemetery, while the old man's corpse chases her in daylight). One porthole on the alien spaceship shows a cloudy day (shown during a scene set at night), while the others show only blackness.
  • Mason's attempts to hide the fact that he is not Lugosi are wildly unsuccessful. As an early version of Leonard Maltin's movie guidebook put it, "Lugosi died during production, and it shows."
  • Criswell's opening narration tells how "future events such as these will affect you, in the future", and then immediately switches to saying that the story has already "happened on that fateful day".
  • In the numerous graveyard scenes, as characters brush against tombstones, the stones wobble and, in one case, fall over.
  • During a scene in an airplane cockpit, a flash of light from a flying saucer reveals the shadow of the boom mike. Also in this scene, the actress playing the flight attendant bumps into the curtain several times while waiting for her cue.
  • The flying saucers cast shadows over the "space" backdrop.

Documenting the film

The movie is the subject of a documentary entitled Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion, which is notable for being 30 minutes longer than the movie itself. The documentary is included on many DVD releases of the movie.

In 1994, Tim Burton directed a fictionalized biopic, Ed Wood, based on the making of this film, starring Johnny Depp in the title role, Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, and Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge (who played the alien "Ruler" in Plan 9). Ed Wood also featured frequent Wood cohorts Conrad Brooks and Gregory Walcott, both of whom appeared in Plan 9.

References in popular culture

  • A successor to the Unix operating system was named Plan 9 in honor of this film.
  • Horror punk icons The Misfits named one of their record labels "PLAN 9", and by releasing a song, "Vampira", named after the female lead.
  • Chiller Theatre in New Jersey hosts an annual horror convention, featuring two of the two zombies from Plan 9 (Maila Nurmi and Tor Johnson).
  • Those that preordered the video game Destroy All Humans!, available for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 video game consoles, received a bonus DVD of Plan 9 from Outer Space when the game was released. The game itself also features several references to the movie.
  • Aside from referencing and including a scene from the film, Night of the Creeps also intentionally has a similar plot - an alien experiment is inadvertently sent to Earth that can reanimate the dead.
  • There is a Seattle band called The Dudley Manlove Quartet (Manlove is the actor who played Eros)
  • Plan 9 Music is a chain of record stores in Virginia.
  • Two Seinfeld episodes, the first is "The Chinese Restaurant" (Episode #16) where Jerry, George, and Elaine are going to the movie following their dinner, but plans fall through and Jerry refuses to see it alone. Comes back again in Season 7, Episode #112, when Jerry and Kramer see an advertisement on a telephone pole.
  • Episode number 66 of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 cartoon series is named Plan 6 from Outer Space. This is a wordplay and the 6 here stands for the fictional TV-channel Channel 6 in this cartoon.

External links

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