The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 film)
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 2008 American science fiction film serving as remake of the 1951 film of the same name (which itself was based on the 1940 short story "Farewell to the Master"). Directed by Scott Derrickson from a screenplay by David Scarpa, it stars Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, an alien sent to try to change human behavior in an effort to save Earth from environmental degradation; this version replaces the Cold War-era theme of potential nuclear warfare with the contemporary issue of negative human impact on the environment. It co-stars Jennifer Connelly, Jaden Smith, John Cleese, Jon Hamm, and Kathy Bates.
The Day the Earth Stood Still was originally scheduled for release on May 9, 2008, but was released on a roll-out schedule beginning December 12, 2008, screening in both conventional and IMAX theaters.[3][4] It was met with generally negative reviews from critics, and grossed over $233 million worldwide.
Plot[edit]
In 1928, a solitary mountaineer exploring the Karakoram mountains in India encounters a glowing sphere. He loses consciousness and when he wakes, the sphere is gone and there is a scar on his hand.
In the present day, a rapidly moving object is detected beyond Jupiter's orbit and forecast to impact and destroy all life on Earth. The U.S. government hastily assembles a group of scientists, including Helen Benson and her friend Michael Granier, to develop a survival plan. The object suddenly slows down and descends in Manhattan, revealed to be a large spherical spaceship. Helen and the scientists quickly arrive at the scene along with military forces. An alien emerges and Helen moves forward to greet it; but amidst the confusion, the alien is shot. A gigantic humanoid robot appears and temporarily disables everything in the vicinity by emitting a high-pitched noise before the wounded alien voices the command "Klaatu barada nikto" to shut down the robot's defensive response.
The scientists take the alien away in a lab where they learn that the alien's exterior skin is a bioengineered space suit, composed of placenta-like material covering a human-like being. After the bullet is extracted during surgery, the being quickly ages into Klaatu, who looks like the mountaineer from 1928. Klaatu informs Secretary of Defense Regina Jackson that he is a representative from a group of planetary civilizations, sent to talk to the leaders of Earth about saving the planet from ecocide.[5][6] When Jackson instead sends him to be interrogated, Klaatu escapes and reconnects with Helen and her stepson, Jacob, telling them that he must finish his mission to "save the Earth".
The presence of the sphere and other smaller spheres that begin to appear all over the world cause widespread panic. The military launches a drone attack on the sphere, but is thwarted by the robot. The military takes a weapons-free approach, cautiously enclosing the robot, soon nicknamed "GORT" (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology), and transporting it to the Mount Weather underground facility in Virginia.
Klaatu meets with another alien, Mr. Wu, who has lived on Earth for years. Wu tells Klaatu that the human race are destructive, stubborn, and unwilling to change, which matches Klaatu's experiences. However, Mr. Wu also tells Klaatu that he intends to remain on Earth as he has grown to love these people. Klaatu orders the smaller spheres to collect specimens of animal species, to preserve them for later reintroduction to the Earth. He clarifies for Helen that he means to save the Earth from destruction by humankind.
Hoping to persuade Klaatu to change his mind about humanity, Helen takes him to Professor Barnhardt, a Nobel Prize winner. They discuss how Klaatu's race went through drastic, collaborative evolution to prevent the demise of their planet. Barnhardt pleads that Earth is at the same precipice, and humanity should be given a chance to understand that it too must change. While the adults are talking, Jacob calls the authorities to come and arrest Klaatu.
While the military is examining GORT, the robot transforms into a swarm of winged insect-like nano-machines that self-replicate as they consume every man-made object in their path. The swarm soon devours the entire facility, emerging above ground to continue feeding.
The military captures Helen while Klaatu and Jacob escape on foot. As they travel, Klaatu learns more about humanity through Jacob. When Jacob contacts Helen and arranges to meet at his father's grave, the Secretary sends her to try to change Klaatu's mind. At the grave, Jacob is heartbroken that Klaatu cannot resurrect his long-dead father. As Helen and Jacob reunite, Klaatu's cumulative observations of humans convince him to stop the swarm.
Granier drives them to the Central Park sphere, but the swarm has reached massive proportions. Klaatu trudges through the swarm to the sphere, touching it moments before his own body is consumed. The sphere deactivates the swarm, saving humanity, but also shutting down all electronics on Earth as the giant sphere leaves the Earth.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
In 1994, 20th Century Fox and Erwin Stoff had produced the successful Keanu Reeves film Speed (1994). Stoff was at an office at the studio when he saw a poster for the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, which made him ponder a remake with Reeves as Klaatu.[17]
By the time David Scarpa started writing a draft of the script in 2005,[18] Thomas Rothman was in charge of Fox and felt a responsibility to remake the film.[17] Scarpa felt everything about the original film was still relevant, but changed the allegory from nuclear war to environmental damage because "the specifics of [how] we now have the capability to destroy ourselves have changed."[19] Scarpa noted the recent events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 informed his mindset when writing the screenplay.[18] He scrapped Klaatu's speech at the conclusion of the story because "audiences today are [un]willing to tolerate that. People don't want to be preached to about the environment. We tried to avoid having our alien looking out over the garbage in the lake and crying a silent tear [from the 1970s Keep America Beautiful ads]."[20]
Director Scott Derrickson admired the original film's director Robert Wise, whom he met as a film student.[19] He generally dislikes remakes, but he enjoyed the script, which he decided was a retelling of the story and not a true remake.[21] He also explained that The Day the Earth Stood Still is not a widely seen classic film, unlike The Wizard of Oz (1939), which he would not bother remaking.[18] Derrickson's benchmark was Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Klaatu was made more menacing than in the original, because the director felt he had to symbolize the more complex era of the 2000s.[22] There was debate over whether to have Klaatu land in Washington, D.C., as in the original; but Derrickson chose New York City because he liked the geometry of Klaatu's sphere landing in Central Park.[23] Derrickson also did not write in Gort's original backstory, which was already absent from the script he read. He already thought the script was a good adaptation and didn't want the negative connotations of fascism from the original film.[24]
Astronomer Seth Shostak served as scientific consultant on the film, reviewed the script several times for errors, gave suggestions for making the scientists appear less dry, and noted that they would refer to one another on a first-name basis. He said, "Real scientists don't describe an object entering the solar system as 'notable for the fact that it was not moving in an asteroidal ellipse, but moving at nearly three times ten to the seventh meters per second.' More likely, they would say that there was 'a goddamned rock headed our way!'"[25]
Filming[edit]
Filming took place from December 12, 2007, to March 19, 2008, at Vancouver Film Studios,[23][26] Vancouver Forum, Deer Lake, Jericho Park, and Simon Fraser University.[27] The film was originally scheduled for release on May 9, 2008, but was delayed until December 12, 2008, because filming commenced later than scheduled.[28] By the time preproduction started, Scarpa had written 40 drafts of the script.[18] The film was mostly shot on sets because it was winter in Vancouver.[19]
Derrickson was fascinated by color schemes. He chose blue-green and orange as the primary colors for The Day the Earth Stood Still. The missile silo converted by the military for experimenting on Gort emphasized gray and orange, which was inspired by an image of lava flowing through a gray field. Derrickson opted to shoot on traditional film, and rendered the colors in post-production to make them more subtle, for realism.[19]
To film Barnhardt and Klaatu writing equations on a blackboard, general relativity sums were drawn by Marco Peloso from the University of Minnesota and William Hiscock of Montana State University in faint pencil marks. Keanu Reeves and John Cleese drew over these in chalk.[25]
As Fox had a mandate to become a carbon neutral company by 2011, The Day the Earth Stood Still's production had an environmentally friendly regimen. "Whether it was because of this movie thematically or it was an accident of time, there were certain things production-wise we've been doing and been asked to do and so on," said Erwin Stoff.[17] To save paper, concept art, location stills and costume tests were posted on a website created by the production for crew members to reference. Costumes were kept for future Fox productions or given to homeless shelters rather than thrown away. Hybrid vehicles were used, and crew members had orders to turn off their car engines if they sat in their vehicles for more than three minutes.[19]
The Day the Earth Stood Still: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The Day the Earth Stood Still opened in North America on December 12, 2008. During that opening weekend, and despite poor response from critics, it reached the #1 spot, grossing $30,480,153 from 3,560 theaters with an $8,562 average per theater.[2] Out of its opening weekend income, 12% was from IMAX; it was "the highest IMAX share yet for a two-dimensional title".[37] In 2008, it was the 27th-highest-grossing film during its opening weekend but 40th for the entire year. It stayed in the top 10 for its first four weeks in theaters,[38] and ended up grossing $79,366,978 domestically and $153,726,881 in foreign markets, a total of $233,093,859.[2]