History Film / TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951

* CrushKillDestroy: Plays with the then-common robot rampage tropes. Gort's rampage is brief, has a particular goal, and occurs in complete silence in contrast to the usual depiction of rampaging robots spouting hostile catchphrases.

* CommercialPopUp: During a showing on Creator/{{AMC}}, an ad filled the entire bottom of the screen for a western mini-series, accompanied by loud horse noises. Rather annoying, to say the least.

** Helen tells Tom not to tell the authorities about Klaatu, but doesn't say why it's such a bad idea -- that Klaatu's people will destroy Earth. Tom clearly isn't going to listen to her anyway, but she could have ''tried''.a
* RiddleForTheAges: Klatuu tells Helen that if he is killed, Gort will destroy the Earth, and to stop him, she must use the code word "Klaatu Barada Nikto". She successfully does so, but exactly what the phrase means (obviously, it's something in Klatuu's language) has never been truly revealed. Creator/RobertWise, related a story he had with Edmund North, the screenplay writer, saying North told him, "Well, it's just something I kind of cooked up. I thought it sounded good." On the other hand, Billy Gray, who played Bobby Benson in the film, said that "barada nikto must mean... save earth". Florence Blaustein, widow of the producer Julian Blaustein, said North had to pass a street called Baroda every day going to work and said, "I think that's how that was born." Film historian Stephan Jay Rubin claimed that in an interview he had with North when he asked the question, "What is the direct translation of Klaatu barada nikto, and Edmund North said to me 'There's hope for earth, if the scientists can be reached'."

After meeting with respected scientist Jacob Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), Klaatu decides to demonstrate his power by stopping the flow of electricity everywhere in the entire world (except for airplanes in flight and hospital electronics) for exactly half an hour. (This is the event referred to in the title, though nobody calls it such within the story.) The military takes this as a sign of hostile intent. Klaatu and Helen race to a meeting of the world's top scientists hastily arranged by Barnhardt, but the military hunts Klaatu down and kills him. Shortly before they catch up with him, Klaatu gives Helen a message to deliver to Gort in his own language: "{{Klaatu barada nikto}}." Gort re-activates upon Klaatu's death and vaporizes the soldiers guarding him, but Helen's message diverts Gort into retrieving Klaatu's body before anyone else is harmed. The robot temporarily revives Klaatu, who tells the people of Earth of Gort's true purpose: he, and other robots like him, were built to enforce peace in the galaxy -- and if humans bring their warlike ways into space, they will be destroyed. Klaatu leaves Earth with a simple phrase to mull over: "The choice is yours."

''The Day the Earth Stood Still'' is a 1951 black-and-white science fiction movie based on the short story ''Farewell to the Master''.

The HumanAlien Klaatu (Michael Rennie) lands in Washington DC (in a classic [[FlyingSaucer flying saucer]]) during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar era. The paranoid military shoots him, prompting his [[KillerRobot robot]] Gort to go on a rampage. Klaatu stops Gort, then tells the President of a message for all the world's leaders (who can't agree on a meeting place). Klaatu later escapes to live among the people of Earth and learns of their penchant for war -- but also of their message of peace and understanding.

As a demonstration of power, Klaatu stops the flow of electricity everywhere in the entire world (except for airplanes in flight and hospital electronics) for exactly half an hour. (This is the event referred to in the title, though nobody calls it such within the story.) The military takes this as a sign of hostile intent and responds by hunting Klaatu down and killing him. Shortly before they catch up with him, Klaatu gives one of his newfound human friends, Helen (Patricia Neal), a message to deliver to Gort in his own language: "{{Klaatu barada nikto}}." Gort re-activates upon Klaatu's death and vaporizes the soldiers guarding him, but Helen's message diverts Gort into retrieving Klaatu's body before anyone else is harmed. The robot temporarily revives Klaatu, who tells the people of Earth of Gort's true purpose: he, and other robots like him, were built to enforce peace in the galaxy -- and if humans bring their warlike ways into space, they will be destroyed. Klaatu leaves Earth with a simple phrase to mull over: "The choice is yours."

The HumanAlien Klaatu lands in Washington DC (in a classic [[FlyingSaucer flying saucer]]) during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar era. The paranoid military shoots him, prompting his [[KillerRobot robot]] Gort to go on a rampage. Klaatu stops Gort, then tells the President of a message for all the world's leaders (who can't agree on a meeting place). Klaatu later escapes to live among the people of Earth and learns of their penchant for war -- but also of their message of peace and understanding.

As a demonstration of power, Klaatu stops the flow of electricity everywhere in the entire world (except for airplanes in flight and hospital electronics) for exactly half an hour. (This is the event referred to in the title, though nobody calls it such within the story.) The military takes this as a sign of hostile intent and responds by hunting Klaatu down and killing him. Shortly before they catch up with him, Klaatu gives one of his newfound human friends, Helen, a message to deliver to Gort in his own language: "{{Klaatu barada nikto}}." Gort re-activates upon Klaatu's death and vaporizes the soldiers guarding him, but Helen's message diverts Gort into retrieving Klaatu's body before anyone else is harmed. The robot temporarily revives Klaatu, who tells the people of Earth of Gort's true purpose: he, and other robots like him, were built to enforce peace in the galaxy -- and if humans bring their warlike ways into space, they will be destroyed. Klaatu leaves Earth with a simple phrase to mull over: "The choice is yours."

* AllNationsAreSuperPowers: Surprisingly averted. Klaatu landed in Washington, D.C. because he thought that landing in the capital of the world's most powerful country would get the ''entire'' world's attention, but he repeatedly insists that his message is for all of humanity, no matter how large or small the country. He brushes off U.S. warnings about the Soviets as internal bickering that doesn't concern him. Moreover, when it is suggested that he could give his message to the whole world by addressing the United Nations, he actually ''declines'', because he feels that not every nation or state-group is represented by it (when the film was made, the People's Republic of China was an unrecognized state, and would not be until 1971, when it replaced Taiwan - but then Taiwan wasn't represented). Ultimately, pressed for time he comes up with the impromptu solution of addressing an international conference of scientists, who are generally apolitical.

* WorthlessYellowRocks: Klaatu goes around with a pocketful of cut diamonds which function as small change on his planet; he tries to buy things with them on Earth, attracting the attention of the authorities.

* InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves: Klaatu visits Earth because, now that we're developing space travel technology, we could potentially take our self-destructive tendencies off world and threaten galactic peace. The aliens want us to outgrow our childish ways and will gladly accept us as equals when we do, but until then, if we start trouble, unstoppable alien robots will be waiting to destroy us in retaliation.
* IntimidationDemonstration: The titular Day The Earth Stood Still is caused by Klaatu using an {{EMP}} to short out all devices on earth from thirty minutes, as a show of what the world is up against.
* {{Jerkass}}: Tom, who rats Klaatu out to the Feds.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The item shot out of Klaatu's hand was a gift for the President that would have advanced science significantly.
** Wearing a face concealing -- and unnecessary -- helmet and extending an unidentified object without a ''word'' of explanation is very poor First Contact protocol.

** Helen tells Tom not to tell the authorities about Klaatu, but doesn't say why it's such a bad idea -- that Klaatu's people will destroy Earth.

* ScreamingWoman: Helen is a subversion. The dramatic climax of the movie comes when she keeps a cool head and relays Klaatu's last message to Gort clearly and calmly, ensuring the film's somewhat-bittersweet conclusion. She does scream when Gort approaches her, but she quickly calms down after that.

* SlaveRace: TheReveal makes it clear that Klaatu and his people deliberately did this to themselves by establishing a robot-controlled police state.

* SwordOfDamocles: Klaatu claims that this is why his people built Gort and other robots like him; the robots were purposely programmed to destroy Klaatu's planet if war ever started, preventing the species from ever doing so.

* WeComeInPeaceShootToKill: Of the "peaceful alien met with hostility" variety. Klaatu is treated with suspicion from the outset, though at first the only overt hostility is from one nervous soldier. After the Earth Stands Still (a harmless demonstration of power, meant to get Earth to recognize the seriousness of the situation), everyone starts trying to kill him.

As a demonstration of power, Klaatu freezes everything mechanical in the entire world (except for airplanes in flight and hospital electronics) for exactly half an hour. (This is the event referred to in the title, though nobody calls it such within the story.) The military takes this as a sign of hostile intent and responds by hunting Klaatu down and killing him. Shortly before they catch up with him, Klaatu gives one of his newfound human friends, Helen, a message to deliver to Gort in his own language: "{{Klaatu barada nikto}}." Gort re-activates upon Klaatu's death and begins destroying the city, but Helen's message diverts Gort into retrieving Klaatu's body. The robot temporarily revives Klaatu, who tells the people of Earth of Gort's true purpose: he, and other robots like him, were built to enforce peace in the galaxy -- and if humans bring their warlike ways into space, they will be destroyed. Klaatu leaves Earth with a simple phrase to mull over: "The choice is yours."

* AllNationsAreSuperPowers: Surprisingly averted. Klaatu landed in the Washington, D.C. because he thought that landing in the capital of the world's most powerful country would get the ''entire'' world's attention, but he repeatedly insists that his message is for all of humanity, no matter how large or small the country. He brushes off U.S. warnings about the Soviets as internal bickering that doesn't concern him. Moreover, when it is suggested that he could give his message to the whole world by addressing the United Nations, he actually ''declines'', because he feels that not every nation or state-group is represented by it (when the film was made, the People's Republic of China was an unrecognized state, and would not be until 1971, when it replaced Taiwan - but then Taiwan wasn't represented). Ultimately, pressed for time he comes up with the impromptu solution of addressing an international conference of scientists, who are generally apolitical.

* BrokenAesop: The intended message is HumansAreTheRealMonsters because Klaatu is a peaceful ambassador whose home planet fears Earth will expand into outer space due to its advances in space and nuclear technology, makes the Earth stand still to deliver a message of peace, which culminates in Klaatu's accidental death. Except, Klaatu arrives with zero warning, shuts down all power on Earth (with the exception of hospitals and in-flight airplanes) — which potentially caused thousands of deaths — all to deliver a message of complete annihilation if they do anything remotely "threatening" to a planet ''they didn't even know existed'' solely because Earth has the ''theoretical'' capability to attack them, not because of any action Earth intentionally or unintentionally made against them. This makes Klaatu's planet look extremely hostile and xenophobic, ruining the film's intended message.

* DisintegratorRay: Gort's eye beam is used to disintegrate tanks, artillery pieces and individual weapons. After Klatuu is killed, his programming changes, and he uses it on humans, nearly doing so to Helen, but she manages to tell him the code word to make him stop.

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Klaatu says that the earth will be destroyed if they choose to not live in peace.

* GodTest: As a demonstration that he is a powerful alien, Klaatu cuts power ''all over the globe'' with the exception of hospitals and airplanes in flight.

* HideYourOtherness: Klaatu spends a good chunk of the film hiding from the military by posing as a man named Mister Carpenter who's renting an apartment with a local family, he soon becomes trusting enough of the family to let them in on his secret and elicit their help in getting back to his ship and preventing The End of the World as We Know It.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Klaatu shows up and tries to give humanity a machine that would allow for interstellar communication. And how do the humans respond? ''By shooting him''. After he recovers he spends some time observing humanity and eventually decides to show he means business by disabling all human technology on the planet (with a few exceptions, he left alone planes in flight, hospitals, and the like) for a short period of time. Then the humans shoot him ''again'', this time killing him. He gets better, scolds them for being so violent, and essentially says that if humanity keeps this up the interstellar community will have no choice to put them down in order to prevent humanity from carrying its warlike ways out into space.

%%* WhiteAndWhiteMorality

''The Day the Earth Stood Still'' is a 1951 black-and-white science fiction movie based on the short story ''Farewell to the Master''. The HumanAlien Klaatu lands in Washington DC (in a classic [[FlyingSaucer flying saucer]]) during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar era. The paranoid military shoots him, prompting his [[KillerRobot robot]] Gort to go on a rampage. Klaatu stops Gort, then tells the President of a message for all the world's leaders (who can't agree on a meeting place). Klaatu later escapes to live among the people of Earth and learns of their penchant for war -- but also of their message of peace and understanding.

----

* SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance: Klaatu claims to have arrived from a planet "250 million miles" from Earth. This would place his homeworld somewhere in the Sun's asteroid belt.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfDistance: Klaatu claims to have arrived from a planet "250 million miles" from Earth. This would place his homeworld somewhere in the Sun's asteroid belt.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt

* BenevolentAlienInvasion: Played mostly straight in the original.

* CrowdPanic: When the spaceship first lands and when Gort first appears.

* CyberCyclops: Gort has a single visor from which he can shoot death rays.
* DisintegratorRay: Gort's eye beam

* EinsteinHair: Professor Barnhardt

* HumanAliens: Klaatu is apparently physically identical to human beings.

%%* InterruptedCooldownHug

* ShootHimHeHasAWallet: Happens to Klaatu in the beginning.
* SpacePolice: The race of robots that Gort belongs to are the policing force of the intergalactic community.

* WorthlessYellowRocks: Klaatu's diamonds. He sells them for two dollars.

* ScreamingWoman: Helen is a subversion. The dramatic climax of the movie comes when she keeps a cool head and relays Klaatu's last message to Gort clearly and calmly, ensuring the film's somewhat-bittersweet conclusion.

* CrystalDragonJesus: Klaatu.

* HijackedByJesus: Inverted - Klaatu is an archetypal Messianic character with heavy references to Jesus in Gospels.

* GenreSavvy: Klaatu, due to his knowledge of Earth culture. When the human officials try to give him lame excuses why he can't meet world leaders and claiming that such meetings are without any precedents, he points out the United Nations exists to do just that.

* GodTest: As a demonstration that he is a powerful alien, Klaatu is asked to stop traffic so a man can cross the street. He does so by cutting power ''all over the globe'' with the exception of hospitals and airplanes in flight.

This film's plot was copied in the extremely similar (yet [[NarmCharm hila]][[SoBadItsGood rious]]) ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace''.