Plot Synopsis
Dr. Helen Benson, an astrobiologist played by Jennifer Connelly, is whisked out of her house by the US government as she prepares dinner for her step-son, played by Jaden Smith. She is shoved into a truck with about a dozen other scientists and engineers and driven to a military installation where she is told that an unidentified object rocketing through space at 1/10th of the speed of light is scheduled to collide with Manhattan in 78 minutes.
As doomsday arrives, everyone is surprised to find out that the object is slowing down and landing in Central Park. It turns out that the unidentified object is an alien spacecraft carrying an ambassador named Klaatu, played by Keanu Reeves, who tries to warn humans about their reckless destruction of the environment and his duty to save the Earth at all costs. Klaatu is protected by a giant robot named Gort who can manipulate electronics, is nearly indestructible and is made of metallic locusts. Klaatu's diplomatic mission is botched early on by a trigger-happy soldier and a ridiculous Secretary of Defense, which puts him on the run from the US government with the help of Dr. Benson for most of the movie.
Dr. Benson, her son, and Klaatu try to find someone who can help Klaatu and save the human race, introducing him to a Nobel Laureate played by John Cleese along the way. Throughout the movie, Dr. Benson begs Klaatu to spare the human race, claiming that we can change and that environmental destruction isn't inevitable. Dr. Benson's troubled relationship with her disrespectful and unhappy stepson is a subplot revisited throughout the film. While trying to reach a UN meeting where he can explain his case to the world's leaders, Klaatu has a covert meeting with an alien spy in the form of an old Chinese American man who has lived on Earth for seventy years. The spy communicates to Klaatu that despite the fact that human beings know they are destroying the Earth, they are unrepentant and unable to stop themselves. They are, in short, irredeemable. The only way to save the rest of the species on Earth is to annihilate them.
Meanwhile, the US military is trying to pick apart and destroy Gort, who releases a plague of metallic, metallovorous locusts upon the Earth. These locusts then roll through the US, devouring everything man-made in their way. In an attempt to save the world's animals from the locusts, scintillating orbs spread across the planet begin storing the fauna of the world in the fashion of Noah. Complete disaster is averted when Klaatu, after watching Dr. Benson and her step-son share a heartfelt moment in which the two reconcile, decides to spare the human race. We may be destructive and brutish, but we are at least empathetic and have the capacity to change. He commands the locusts to stop before they reach a major city, but before leaving, disables all of our electronics.
Criticisms of the Government
So what are we to make of all this? First off, I had a lot of problems with way that the government operated in the movie. Overall, the series of events that occurred after Klaatu's landing were ridiculous. Why would the government choose the scientists that could best analyze the problem and use them as the first ones to approach the spacecraft? Wouldn't you want to keep these people from direct contact with the aliens until after you knew whether they were aggressive or peaceful? Additionally, who would fire on an alien as it reached out to greet Dr. Benson? No trained soldier would do that and the whole situation seemed contrived. Immediately after Klaatu's shooting, Gort, a colossal, cyclopean robot, comes to his defense. Of course, why would Gort be a cyclops, and not something more useful and maneuverable, like a giant wasp or spider? Because they are selling this movie to people who are fans of the original movie and who want to see a giant humanoid robot, just like in the original, even though we have the special effects to create something much cooler now.
After Klaatu in his larval form is wounded, he is rushed to the hospital, where a doctor operates on him in an attempt to remove the bullet. He is surprised to find out that Klaatu's physiology is human, and that his blubbery cocoon is falling off his body. During Klaatu's surgery, one of the scientists remarks that the biologists of the world will be studying the cocoon for decades. Of course, the wicked Secretary of Defense played by Kathy Bates claims that nobody will see the cocoon, since it is the property of the US government and is highly classified. However, the Secretary allows Dr. Benson to take a sliver of the cocoon home with her for some unexplainable reason.
Once Klaatu wakes up and finds that he has fully realized his human form, he is transported to an "interrogation room", where he is subjected to a lie detector. I found this part of the movie totally ridiculous. Klaatu is put into a room with only his interrogator and is asked a series of questions. If you had an alien in your midst and you were concerned about his species attacking the Earth, why would you use a lie detector? He's an alien; why would the government expect a lie detector to work on him? The interrogator begins by asking Klaatu "control questions", one of which questions his knowledge of an invasion of Earth. A control question is something that both the operator and the subject know is either true or false that allows the operator to record base metabolic ratings, so that they can be compared later with readings from other questions to see if the subject is lying. If you ask a question whose answer you don't know, you defeat the whole purpose of asking the control questions. Nobody on the set knew about this or said anything? I find that hard to believe. Doing a proper lie detector scene would not have taken much longer and would have been more believable. Despite this, the far more unexplainable part of this scene is that there are absolutely no other observers of Klaatu while he is being questioned. Why would nobody else in the building be watching an E.T. be questioned, if for no other reason than curiousity, let alone for security or analysis? This situation made Klaatu's escape far too easy and made the plot less interesting.
After Klaatu's surgery, Dr. Benson and most likely the other scientists are sent home with no security. For an event of this magnitude, why would the government let the scientists go home? I feel like the security at a defense company like Raytheon is tighter than that used by the government in the film.
Overall, the response by the government was strange, bumbling and Busheque. The whole encounter was run as well as the response to Hurricane Katrina. Replace the Secretary of Defense with the Vice President, and then the fictional government really resembles the Bush Administration. The President never appeared in the movie, and the Secretary of Defense ran all of the operations. On the other hand, if the President in the movie was anything like President Bush, then it's probably best that he didn't intervene.
Criticism of the Aliens
So the government was ridiculous in the movie, but one could argue that the government was supposed to look ridiculous, as the movie parodied the real US government. However, the aliens, beings from another planet who are far more advanced than us, were almost as ridiculous as the government they met on Earth. The aliens were portrayed as a technologically and morally advanced society, but their actions say otherwise.
Alien Plan
The aliens' plan for Earth was unethical and riddled with errors. Here is the overall alien plan:
- Observe Earth for thousands or millions of years.
- Put spheres which will hold all of Earth's animals in diverse ecosystems in order to transport all the animals off of the Earth in the event of a catastrophe.
- In the event that the Earth is threatened, save all the animals by moving them in the orbs.
The aliens have observed that humans are destroying the planet, so here is are their tactics:
- Send a spy to Earth to keep tabs on the locals.
- After situation gets worse, send ambassador to explain the situation to the humans.
- Have humans transport him to an upcoming UN meeting to explain the Earth's predicament and the aliens' ultimatum.
- If humans do not obey the ultimatum, kill them all.
- Earth's Predicament: Human beings are destroying the Earth. Planets capable of sustaining complex life are rare, so preservation of the Earth is a high priority.
- Aliens' Ultimatum: If you do not stop destroying the Earth and do not start acting responsibly, we will kill all of you and destroy every trace of your civilization.
Criticism of the Alien Plan
The Alien Plan was ill-conceived and its purposes questionable. The whole reason that the aliens thought Earth was so special is because of its ability to sustain complex life forms. However, they ignore the fact that even though our ecosystem is fragile, life on Earth is resilient. Even if we destroyed all the complex life forms on Earth, complex life would evolve again after millions of years. The chances of humans destroying Earth's capability to sustain complex life forms is minuscule.
The Alien Plan didn't value human life correctly. If the presence of complex life is so rare in the universe, then the presence of intelligent life and civilization is even more rare. Humans are, as E.O. Wilson said, "the crown jewel of the animal kingdom". If the aliens want to save the Earth's creatures, they must save us too. If the aliens are so keen on saving complex life, shouldn't they be keen on keeping intelligent life around as well? The aliens' goal is to preserve all animals except for humans, but aren't the aliens wasting the evolutionary work of creating intelligent life when they could just reason with us or perhaps in the worst case occupy us for a while? Occupying the Earth isn't exactly a moral alternative but it's better than killing everyone. Extermination seems like a last ditch effort, when they did not try all of the intermediary plans. Additionally, we have the right to life, which the aliens are violating. Saving the Earth does not justify the extermination of the human race. Furthermore, the destruction of the Earth is being brought on mostly by the industrialized countries. Why punish everyone when hunter-gatherers of the world are still living sustainably?
The aliens' motives were mysterious. Why are the aliens trying to save the Earth anyways? Do they just find complex life valuable for scientific purposes or believe it has an inherent right to exist? Or do they want to save the Earth as a potential colony in case they need to move in? That may actually explain their willingness to exterminate us. In that case, they are no better us, since they are not acting out of any higher purpose but only their own selfish ends.
Criticism of the Execution of the Alien Plan
The Aliens' plan was poorly thought out and morally ambiguous, but the execution was even worse. If the aliens already had a spy on Earth for 70 years who knew we were irrational, why would they attempt a plan like this? Additionally, why send a giant, intimidating spacecraft to Central Park, when they could just land somewhere more inconspicuous in a smaller vessel and go to the UN meeting from there. The aliens obviously have a good handle on electronics, so communicating with the world's leaders would not be a problem.
Instead of going directly to the UN Meeting, which was presumably in New York, the alien ambassador gets into huge rigamarole with the US government and ends up not communicating the Earth's predicament or his ultimatum to more than a few people. Is there nobody else but Gort who can support him? Klaatu's civilization only sent him to represent all of the alien civilizations? This seems like a plan that was destined to fail.
After Klaatu stops the invasion of the metallic locusts, he decides to disable all of the electronics in the world. This seems strange, as we could repair our old electronic devices or just build new ones. This would not stop the destruction of the Earth by itself. Disabling the planet's electronics only seems like an act of malice by Klaatu after his ill treatment by humans. This punishes everyone on Earth, whereas the US was the only country who had direct contact with Klaatu and who botched his "diplomatic" mission? Additionally, even a different Secretary of Defense or President would have saved him a lot of hassle. Why not just reprimand them?
The alien plan suffered from Manichean thinking which resembled that of the Secretary of Defense. Either earthlings could be reasoned with or they had to be destroyed. There was no middle ground. Similary, in the Secretary of Defense's view, the aliens were an evil force that was trying to destroy us. However, the Secretary didn't think that the aliens perhaps had another motive and that a more diplomatic posture would have been more suitable. In the end, the aliens should have considered more intermediate steps such as occupation or multiple warnings. Many warnings over time would have been more effective than just one warning, which wasn't even delivered to the UN. Furthermore, extermination of the human race should never have even been an option.
Overall Criticism of the Movie
The Good
Although there were many problems with the movie, there were some bright spots. Even though the government's incompetence was vastly overstated, the movie did provide a good criticism of an aggressive, paranoid government. Most people who watch this movie should understand the message that diplomacy should be used before violence. This movie was also a call for environmental responsibility which is so lacking in the world today. Hopefully anyone who sees the movie will become more aware of the world's environmental problems. The main characters in the movie were also diverse. The two human characters in the movie with the most power are Dr. Benson and the Secretary of Defense, who are both women. Additionally, the Dr. Benson's son is black and she was involved in an interracial marriage. This promotes tolerance and civil justice for women and blacks.
The Bad
Although the movie had an environmental theme, this film put the environmentalist aliens in a bad light. Many people perceive environmentalists as people who will destroy their way of life if they don't respect the Spotted Owl or some other endangered animal. This movie just stokes their fears could perhaps make them less willing to listen to environmentalists. Aliens who respected human rights would have worked better for the environmentalist movement, especially since most environmentalists are concerned with human rights.
The Day the Earth Stood Still would have better served the environmentalist cause if the film had given some concrete examples of environmental problems on the earth and what we can do to stop them. There are a multitude of environmental problems, including extinction of species, water shortages, air pollution, water pollution, global warming and soil erosion. A deep look into some of these problems would have perhaps slowed down the pace of the movie, but just a few quick shots of refugees or oil spills would have put more focus on the environment. This might have made the movie more moralizing and boring, but the movie was already moralizing to begin with.
Conclusion
Although this movie was not a complete waste of time, it could have been much better. Some of the best movies ever made are Science Fiction, and this genre can be quite rewarding. However, instead of being Terminator II or Bladerunner, this movie conked out in terms of realism. Many small details were overlooked and the plot could have been much better. In the end, the makers of The Day the Earth Stood Still decided to try to stick more to the storyline of the original movie rather than just create a good movie.
Rating: 5/10
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