Forbidden Planet

1956
G
1h 38m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

55K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer3:41

Space Sci-Fi Adventure Sci-Fi

A starship crew in the 23rd century goes to investigate the silence of a distant planet's colony, only to find just two survivors, a powerful robot, and the deadly secret of a lost civilizat... Read allA starship crew in the 23rd century goes to investigate the silence of a distant planet's colony, only to find just two survivors, a powerful robot, and the deadly secret of a lost civilization.A starship crew in the 23rd century goes to investigate the silence of a distant planet's colony, only to find just two survivors, a powerful robot, and the deadly secret of a lost civilization.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

55K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

2,073

1,244

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 2 wins & 3 nominations total

Trivia
The famous poster for the film shows a menacing robot carrying a struggling pretty girl - a staple of monster movie posters from the 1950's. In fact, no such scene occurs in the film itself and the robot portrayed in the poster is the very likeable Robby the Robot.

Goofs
When Doc describes their C-57D star ship's weapon capacity as 3 billion electron volts, that value is actually quite minuscule, something less than the energy expended by a flying mosquito.

For example, a weapon like a 20 kiloton nuclear detonation would be on the order of 10 to the 32 exponent electron volts.

Quotes
Commander Adams: Nice climate you have here. High oxygen content.
Robby the Robot: I seldom use it myself, sir. It promotes rust.

Alternate versions
Whe Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer reissued this film as part of a kiddie-matinée package, the scene where Jerry Farman cons the socially naive Altaira into kissing him was excised.

Connections
Edited into The Twilight Zone: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (1960)

User reviews430

Review

Featured review

9/10

Gets better as it gets older

While not re-treading the comments or plot summaries of other IMDB users, I thought I'd say that this particular film does get better as it gets older. While ground-breaking on it's release in 1956, the visual "look" of this film has grown over the 46 years since it first arrived.

True to the pulp sci-fi of its day, the art direction has mellowed into an archetype that has not been bettered to this date. MGM put a surprising amount of money into the production values (similar to, but better than Universal's "This Island Earth"). This is a living "cover art". The indelible images of the saucer passing through space, landing on Altair-4, Robby, and the disintegrating tiger linger long in collective memory.

This must be seen on the big screen if possible, and in the original Cinemascope format. I've been lucky enough to see it (it was re-released in the 70's on a double bill with George Pal's "The Time Machine"), and the power it carries in scenes such as the Krell machines and the attack of the Id Monster are truly impressive. Watching it on a television just doesn't come close, although the "letterboxed" version is better than nothing. I am a poster collector, and even the advertising material for this film is exceptional. I see the one-sheet for it every day in my living room, and have never grown tired of it. "AMAZING!" is what is says, and for once they got it right. A true classic of it's type.