Doomsday Machine (1967)

Escape From Planet Earth

Cast:

Bobby Van is Danny
Ruta Lee is Dr. Marion Turner
Mala Powers is Maj. Georgianna Bronski
James Craig is Dr. Haines
Grant Williams is Maj. Kurt Mason

What the box says:

An upcoming space mission to Venus becomes even more vital after a startling secret is revealed. Foreign agents have revealed a secret plot by the Chinese where they have manufactured the ultimate weapon, capable of destroying everything on the surface of the planet. The mission to our sister planet now becomes a fight for survival of the human race, as the crew must try to save the Earth from destruction.

Plot:

Spy lady sneaks into some secret Chinese facility and takes photos of the super-weapon that has been developed. She gets the photos out to warn the rest of the world. Apparently, the explosions caused by the weapon would fracture the faults in the Earth's core and only have 51 hours before total destruction.

Elsewhere, Project Astra in the USA is being prepped for it's liftoff for a flight to Venus. Mars has already been landed. The base is closed before launch and countdown. 3 women astronauts are replacing 3 of the men. Needless to say, the men aren't too happy about the replacements.

Countdown, let the stock footage of takeoff and flight ensue.

Does this look familiar? I'm getting a feeling it is... Some of the men and women are arguing before rocket separation.

The men are thinking that China is behind something. 2 of the women do know about the Chinese weapon. They were placed on the rocket for insurance of the human race.

I'm sorry, Captain Kirk, Star Trek can't be picked up on our communication system. The ship picks up a video feed from Earth of a global war, a nuclear chain reaction on the planet.
Alderaan exploded better than this... Afterwards, everyone is trying to cope with the destruction.

The ship evades radioactive fragments of Earth. Doctor Perry realizes they need to get to Venus within 2 months to avoid the radiation that would sterilize them. He also plans that 3 people can be shielded from the radiation. However, the crew is comprised of 3 women and 4 men.

Curt, another of the men, starts chasing Kate around. Kate is trapped in the airlock with Curt. She accidentally activates the airlock doors.

Open door buttons should have a cover to prevent accidents.

Doctor Perry starts programming the computer to pick 3 of the crew rather than drawing straws. The crew just learns about the deaths of Kate and kurt...and then there were 5...

Captain Price refuses anything that doesn't keep all the 5. However, they have another problem, and this one is outside. Danny and Bronksi go outside to fix it before the 3rd stage rocket separation. Unfortunately, they're left behind but do find a Russian ship that was sent ahead but was lost.

Dan and Bronksi enter the ship and find the Russian corpses and examine the command controls and radio the other ship. They can follow them to Venus. However, they keep losing radio contact.

Hopefully, we won't wind up thrown into a star gate like from 2001: a Space Odyssey Suddenly, a Venusian warns Dan and Bronksi not to come to Venus. Apparently, they have very low standards of the violent-Earthlings. They destroyed the other ship to keep humans away. However, they will propel the ship Dan and BRonski are on away elsewhere beyond the universe?.

What I say:

Real life and my ramblings are usually on a parallel track that keep them from intersecting. The final shuttle launch was last week. For 30 years, it has been the work horse to taking out of our planet into near Earth-Orbit. Just seeing some of the sci-fi movies from the late 1960s before the first moon landing to see how movies envisioned extra-planetary travel is hard to fathom.

Venus seemed to get plenty of the exploration sci-fi in the 1950s and 1960s sci-fi movies like First Spaceship on Venus, Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet , and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women . After all, HG Welles had written the classic sci-fi book War of the Worlds with Mars. After the classic 1950s movie adaptation, Mars kept invading Earth in some form or fashion. Mars Need Women isn't going to be thought of epic science fiction. Well, Mars learned to quake in fear after Earth sent its great warlord to retaliate after all Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

Most of the movie was made in 1967. Americans and Russians united against China, that seems heavily futuristic. However, the post-production was not finished until 1972. The rocket takeoff stock footage is almost the sci-fi equivalent of Monoument Valley in a Western. Still, special effects are included from Gorath and the Wizard of Mars.

Doomsday Machine spends most of its time trying to be somewhat believable for a space travel but tacking on the secret weapon which might destroy the planet at the front. This movie makes the the original Star Trek a very hard sci-fi. However, halfway through, the astronauts had to start fighting with each other be it professionally or because of the flaring hormones that would be more common-placed in doctor TV series.

Movies with bad endings are a danger we have to risk. Still, at least a movie that is about 90 minutes with a bad ending is better than the time investment on a 500 page book with all its hours for the possible bad ending. Dream endings where everything that have the "it happened didn't or did it?" ending is normally bad enough. However, randomly stopping the movie at the end by having half the characters disappear and having aliens just throw the others away to some "great journey" at the edge of the universe has to be an even worse movie endings.

Quotable Dialogue
"This is T-Minus 120."
"Our lives depend on ballistics not pictures."
"Venus, open your arms..."
"In Russia, we're more mature."
"I don't care if it's the Flying Dutchman..."
Morals of the Story
Airbourne cats automatically lure guard dogs away from them
By 1975, permanent lunar bases have been established on the moon.
US and Russia had a treaty against China's super-weapons.