Forbiden Planet Movie, Thoughts and Questions on there Universe.

[Maurice]

For all, we know we didn't get a visual on the Krell because they ran over budget...

No. The history of the film is fairly well documented. There are multiple drafts of the script out there and Cinefantastique did a double issue on the film's development back in the 70s. They deliberately decided not to show the Krell and to suggest things about their alien anatomy through the set design: the low, wide doorways, the very low handrails, the staircases with the ramp groove down the center and the wide seats with the two backs, both of which suggest they had tails that dragged behind them.

The Id monster being invisible was a budget saving idea though, and part of how they pitched it.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

An interesting speculation I read elsewhere, based on the stated years for the crash, Morbius' wife's death, and Altaira's presumed age, is that Altaira, the migrating birds, and the Earth-like animals were all created by the Great Machine from Morbius' conscious mind. I think that would be a fabulous, implicit conceit but I think it's probably an extrapolation beyond the intention of the scriptwriter, Cyril Hume.

 

[Discofan]

An interesting speculation I read elsewhere, based on the stated years for the crash, Morbius' wife's death, and Altaira's presumed age, is that Altaira, the migrating birds, and the Earth-like animals were all created by the Great Machine from Morbius' conscious mind. I think that would be a fabulous, implicit conceit but I think it's probably an extrapolation beyond the intention of the scriptwriter, Cyril Hume.

I don't know. If he could create people, wouldn't he have recreated his wife after her death, and subconsciously forgot about said death?

 

[Discofan]

Linguists deal with languages both living and dead.

But they didn't know they were gonna need one. In fact, it's most likely that they weren't expecting any civilization there as they had no way to defend themselves in case those were hostile. Just imagine after one year and a half of traveling through space they finally get there and are attacked right off the bat!

 

[BillJ]

Morbius had to have some kind of linguistic skills in order to get anything to work without accidentally killing himself.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I don't know. If he could create people, wouldn't he have recreated his wife after her death, and subconsciously forgot about said death?

The name of Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest, on which the story is very loosely based, means "worthy of admiration". Altaira's name suggests that she is a child "of Altair".

Perhaps Altaira is cloned from a child that Morbius' wife was carrying when she died. Maybe he found it too morbid (sic) to contemplate recreating his wife but wanted to give life to his child.

Or perhaps the Great Machine interpolated his emotional needs, given that Morbius wouldn't have the same degree of control as a Krell.

 

[Discofan]

Morbius had to have some kind of linguistic skills in order to get anything to work without accidentally killing himself.

... Or an IQ boost, which we know he did get.

 

[Discofan]

The name of Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest, on which the story is very loosely based, means "worthy of admiration". Altaira's name suggests that she is a child "of Altair".

Perhaps Altaira is cloned from a child that Morbius' wife was carrying when she died. Maybe he found it too morbid (sic) to contemplate recreating his wife but wanted to give life to his child.

Or perhaps the Great Machine interpolated his emotional needs, given that Morbius wouldn't have the same degree of control as a Krell.

Perhaps things happened exactly as he said they did.

Let's not forget that the moment he realized that the monster was himself, he killed it, at the cost of his own life.

So I tend o think that he was sincere the whole time, only doing things subconsciously.

 

[BillJ]

... Or an IQ boost, which we know he did get.

An IQ boost wouldn’t do anything if you didn’t already have some familiarity with a subject. A smart person isn’t automatically able to be a doctor.

 

[Discofan]

An IQ boost wouldn’t do anything if you didn’t already have some familiarity with a subject. A smart person isn’t automatically able to be a doctor.

The machine did obviously more than just boosting one's IQ. Doctor Ostrow (I checked the name) not only got his IQ boosted but he instantly knew everything the Krell knew, IE a whole bunch of things that were even beyond Morbius' comprehension.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Perhaps things happened exactly as he said they did.

Let's not forget that the moment he realized that the monster was himself, he killed it, at the cost of his own life.

So I tend o think that he was sincere the whole time, only doing things subconsciously.

Yes, I admit it's a stretch but I found the suggestion interesting. The screenplay is impressive as it allows rooms for such possibilities. It likely doesn't attempt to explain everything seen onscreen. Everything that has supposedly happened is only what Morbius chooses to relate and he might be concealing truths or even lying. Morbius is controlling, secretive and slow to divulge information to Commander Adams and his crew. He could well have died taking some secrets with him that he felt unable to disclose.

 

[Discofan]

Yes, I admit it's a stretch but I found the suggestion interesting. The screenplay is impressive as it allows rooms for such possibilities. It likely doesn't attempt to explain everything seen onscreen. Everything that has supposedly happened is only what Morbius chooses to relate and he might be concealing truths or even lying. Morbius is controlling, secretive and slow to divulge information to Commander Adams and his crew. He could well have died taking some secrets with him that he felt unable to disclose.

I think of the Krell that died in one night... I mean, first of all, it's not night everywhere at the same time, so are we to assume that the destruction followed the movement of the sun around the planet? As soon as the Krell fell asleep they would start killing their neighbors until not one of them was left... I guess they also built and destroyed a million buildings each... the cities reconfiguring themselves from second to second... Until there was nothing left but dust and the machine itself...

The machine is like a planetwide replicator, making matter appear anywhere...

Can the machine make living beings... The doctor didn't live long enough to say it.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

It's a working hypothesis that sounds dramatically valid but perhaps doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. Of course, Morbius, Adams and his crew don't really have any opportunity to refine it. Perhaps these are the sort of issues that JMS would have tackled in his abandoned screenplay from 12 years ago.

It's kind of implied that life on the planet is controlled by the Great Machine when Morbius states that the dials light up when the birds migrate with the seasons but not that it creates that life. But perhaps even Morbius himself is a construct of the machine extrapolated from remains in the Bellerophon, providing a way for it to communicate with Adams and crew after some much time has passed. Perhaps it suffers from guilt at the extinction of the Krell and has a death wish. Nah, that is too much of a stretch.

 

[valkyrie013]

It's a working hypothesis that sounds dramatically valid but perhaps doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. Of course, Morbius, Adams and his crew don't really have any opportunity to refine it. Perhaps these are the sort of issues that JMS would have tackled in his abandoned screenplay from 12 years ago.

It's kind of implied that life on the planet is controlled by the Great Machine when Morbius states that the dials light up when the birds migrate with the seasons but not that it creates that life. But perhaps even Morbius himself is a construct of the machine extrapolated from remains in the Bellerophon, providing a way for it to communicate with Adams and crew after some much time has passed. Perhaps it suffers from guilt at the extinction of the Krell and has a death wish. Nah, that is too much of a stretch.

That would be a good idea for a movie/ outer limits episode . at the end find out a machine gained sentence, then had great remorse at having been the instrument of so many deaths but unable to die. So get someone to kill them.

Wouldn't work for the actual movie Morbius actually warned them from the planet at first if it was the machine it would have gladly invited them down.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

That would be a good idea for a movie/ outer limits episode . at the end find out a machine gained sentence, then had great remorse at having been the instrument of so many deaths but unable to die. So get someone to kill them.

Wouldn't work for the actual movie Morbius actually warned them from the planet at first if it was the machine it would have gladly invited them down.

I guess you could handwave that away by the machine not being able to control its created creatures like they are glove puppets as a limitation added to its programming by the Krell. Morbius being a construct himself is really too much of a stretch of credulity though.

 

[Mr Awe]

In my experience, more often than not, throwing gobs of money at a project usually leads to a poor product.

ST:TOS was actually an expensive series at the time. I don't consider that a "poor product."

 

[Discofan]

ST:TOS was actually an expensive series at the time. I don't consider that a "poor product."

Actually the list of movies that cost a lot of money and were if not masterpieces, very good and successful is endless.

What do you think of a rule that has more exceptions than items following the rule?

 

[XCV330]

The monster was important to the visuals of the film, the look of the Kreel were not.

The Krell worked best as a mystery. This huge amazing place they built, but no sign of them.

The same way Fred Pohl's novel Gateway works so well (on a variety of reasons) when it comes to the aliens is that we really dont understand what the Hee Chee did or what they did it or anything about them. Honestly its kind of let down in the subsequent novels when we meet them. They're interesting, but there's no mystery to them anymore.

 

[Mr Awe]

Actually the list of movies that cost a lot of money and were if not masterpieces, very good and successful is endless.

What do you think of a rule that has more exceptions than items following the rule?

I just happen to know that BillJ loves TOS so thought it was a great example!

 

[Discofan]

The Krell worked best as a mystery. This huge amazing place they built, but no sign of them.

The same way Fred Pohl's novel Gateway works so well (on a variety of reasons) when it comes to the aliens is that we really dont understand what the Hee Chee did or what they did it or anything about them. Honestly its kind of let down in the subsequent novels when we meet them. They're interesting, but there's no mystery to them anymore.

Well, maybe but too much mystery kills the mystery. If you never learn anything about anything you end up with crap like in "Insurrection" where the Baku do stuff that seems improbable and when someone asks "How do you do that?" all they get for an answer is "You're asking too many questions".

I don't call that mystery, I call that cheating the audience.