Line #2 Film/TheCatFromOuterSpace


1	[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Cat_From_Outer_Space_1978_801.jpg]]
2	In this 1978 Creator/{{Disney}} movie, a spaceship is stranded on Earth and impounded by the U.S. government. Its pilot, a cat-like alien named [[OverlyLongName Zunar-J-5/9 Doric-4-7]], or Jake for short, has a collar that has special powers, including the ability to allow Jake to communicate with humans. Jake has eluded the authorities and needs the help of a man named Frank in order to reclaim and repair his ship to get back home.
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4	After Frank determines that they need gold in order to fix Jake's ship. Jake uses his collar's powers to affect the outcome of various sporting events, including horse races and pool games, to win money to buy the needed gold and repair his saucer. Frank, Frank's friend Norman Link and Frank's new girlfriend, Liz, help Jake find the gold he needs.
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6	Unfortunately, another problem arises when Liz is kidnapped by billionaire Charles Olympus, who wants the power of Jake's collar. Frank, Jake, and Link must track down Liz and her kidnappers and rescue her.
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8	----
9	!!This movie provides examples of:
10	* AlienAmongUs: Jake, aka Zunar-J-5/9 Doric-4-7.
11	* AlienAnimals: The movie's title kinda gives this away.
12	* AlienCatnip: The pool player's sandwich is able to revive an unconscious Jake just in the nick of time.
13	* AliensLoveHumanFood: Jake is quite a fan of the chopped kidney and tuna Frank provides him with, remarking that it's far superior than the food he gets on the mothership.
14	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Jake uses his collar for telepathy, which presumably doesn't need translation. He does seem to understand spoken English without any problems though, possibly due to a kind of telepathic "translation".
15	* AmusingAlien: Though Jake is more TheComicallySerious at first, he quickly evolves into a NotSoAboveItAll type.
16	* AscendedFanboy: Frank, a fanboy of "Science"!
17	* BadBoss: Charles Olympus, when he and his henchmen bail from their helicopter:
18	--> '''Liz:''' Wait a minute, I haven't got a parachute!\
19	'''Olympus:''' Then you have a problem.\
20	'''Stallwood:''' I haven't got a parachute either!\
21	'''Olympus:''' Then you have the ''same'' problem.
22	* BenevolentAlienInvasion: [[spoiler:Jake even becomes an official citizen of the United States by the end of the film.]]
23	* BondVillainStupidity: Olympus and his lackeys. And let us not forget General Stilton and his men.
24	* CaptainObvious: "Jake, in order to buy a hundred and twenty thousand dollars worth of gold, you ''need'' a hundred and twenty thousand dollars!"
25	* CapturedSuperEntity: Slightly subverted, Mr. Olympus wants Jake's ''collar'', not Jake. Which is actually kinda stupid when you think about it. [[CutLexLuthorACheck All the technical advancements Olympus could make by ''interrogating'' Jake.]] Instead, he just tries stealing some alien tech that's difficult for humans to use. Of course, just because Jake can use the collar doesn't mean he knows how to ''make'' it.
26	* CassandraTruth: Anyone who talks to General Stilton.
27	** When Frank has the alien tech presented to him, he comes ''very close'' to unraveling the prevailing principle of its operation. General Stilton doesn't believe him, even though Jake later confirms that he was on the right track - albeit years from a breakthrough.
28	** When Frank breaks into the Army base, Stilton is rather bemused that his men are making so much fuss over the intruder having brought a cat along.
29	** Finally, General Stilton is informed by the forensics team that the alien spaceship's likely pilot is a cat. He's less than a second away from trashing the equipment when he remembers the intruder having a cat. Of course, this is rather academic, as the machine finally finishes processing all the ''fingerprints'' Frank left inside the ship, which has Stilton screaming about the techs focusing on the cat hairs.
30	* CatsAreMagic: Well, super-evolved with superior alien technology, but same idea.
31	* CatsAreSuperior: And may also be aliens.
32	* CulturalPosturing: Jake, but a very mild case.
33	* DelegationRelay: The Army officers, led by Harry Morgan, who chased Jake and Frank around fall into this running gag several times during the movie.
34	-->'''General Stilton:''' ''(gives a command)'' Colonel!\
35	'''Colonel:''' Captain!\
36	'''Captain:''' Sergeant!\
37	'''Sergeant:''' Yes sir!
38	* DiabolicalMastermind: Mr. Olympus.
39	* DrivesLikeCrazy: Jake, as weird as it sounds.
40	* EvolutionaryLevels: Jake tells Frank that [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the reason his people are cats]] is that on his planet, [[GoalOrientedEvolution "that's as far as we needed to evolve."]]
41	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin:
42	** If you sat down to watch a movie called "The Cat From Outer Space" and expected something else, prepare to be disappointed.
43	** In Universe, there's a regular at Ernie's pool hall named "Honest Harry". Despite sounding like a crook's name, and despite the pool hall being a haven for hustlers and gamblers, it seems Harry actually has built a reputation for being unfailingly honest, and is often the guy holding onto the money temporarily when a bet is made or otherwise acting as a neutral third party.
44	* {{Expy}}: Mr. Olympus and his henchmen are obviously supposed to be like ''Film/JamesBond'' villains.
45	* FirstContact: With humans and... Space Cats?
46	* TheGamblingAddict: Frank's buddy Link appears to be a mild one. He likes his football bets and horse races, and he's the one who leads Frank and Jake to the pool hall where they try to win enough money to buy gold for Jake's ship.
47	* HiddenInPlainSight: Looking exactly like a normal cat has its advantages.
48	* HornySailors: Alluded to when Jake says he wants to spend some time with Lucy-Belle, as he's been stuck on his ship for a while.
49	-->'''Jake''': Her [Liz's] kitty-cat's not too bad either.\
50	'''Frank''': ''(amused)'' There's plenty of time for that.\
51	'''Jake''': That's all right for ''you'' to say! But I've been confined to a spaceship for five months.
52	* IChooseToStay: [[spoiler:Jake eventually decides that he likes Frank and the other humans too much to leave them.]]
53	* ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: The spare collar Frank uses during the film.
54	* InformedAbility: Liz at one point claims to be a blackbelt. This never comes up again nor does Liz ever demonstrate such skill (though to be fair, in the few cases where she was engaged with the antagonists she was either being held at gunpoint or stuck in a cramped helicopter with people carrying guns, so she never really has an opening).
55	* InnocentAliens: Jake's cat-race.
56	* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: Jake and the other alien cats aren't all that interested in Earth. He just had to make an emergency landing there.
57	* InspectorJavert: It's easy not to like General Stilton, but he really isn't a bad man or even a bad soldier - he just wound up with a bad situation that had to be handled. When he finally does get the full explanation of what's going on, he proves surprisingly reasonable. [[spoiler:At the end of the movie, he does help Jake make a deal with the President.]]
58	* JustPlaneWrong: There's nothing in an Aérospatiale Gazelle anywhere ''near'' where Stallwood fires his flare gun that would cause the controls to lock up.
59	* LittleStowaway: Jake.
60	* ManChild: Several of the military characters at various points, but particularly the colonel. "It ''is'' a pussycat!"
61	* MoralMyopia: While there is the justification of Jake being in a time crunch to get his ship working again lest he be stranded on Earth, neither he nor any of his human allies display much if any reluctance over him flagrantly cheating at several sporting events in order to gain the necessary funds via gambling payouts.
62	* TheMothership: Whose pilot apparently is also a cat.
63	* OhCrap: Stallwood has one of these moments when Mr. Olympus tells him it would not be wise to [[spoiler:let Liz live]]. He appears to have genuinely believed up to that point that his employer was a man of his word.
64	* PairTheSpares: Unusually, the protagonist Jake and his love interest Lucybelle are animals, and it's the spares (Frank and Liz) who are human.
65	* PaperThinDisguise: Frank is able to pass as General Stilton simply by wearing his uniform and putting on sunglasses. Downplayed in that he doesn't look ''that'' dissimilar from Stilton, and the guard on duty ''is'' initially uncertain of his identity, but Frank does a good enough vocal and personality impression that the guard is quickly cowed.
66	* ParachuteInATree: [[spoiler:What happens to Mr. Olympus and his henchmen. Hanging off the edge of a ''cliff'', for that matter.]]
67	* PsychicPowers: Jake, naturally. Or his collar, at least. Jake's very skilled in its use, but Frank is able to use one to fly around, make pool balls repeatedly ricochet clear across a room, and even access computers.
68	* RedScare: Near the beginning of the movie, General Stilton assumes Jake's ship is a Soviet one.
69	* SomeCallMeTim: The titular cat's name is Zunar-J-5/9 Doric-4-7, but the human that the cat stays with decides to call him Jake.
70	* SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands: Played with realistically ''and'' fictitiously by both the military and the villains.
71	* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: A mild case with Link - he has a habit of casually coming over to Frank's apartment without notice to use his TV to watch sports games he's bet on, avail himself to any beer Frank has in the fridge (which he notes that Frank keeps running out of for some reason), and fail to take Frank's hints that he's kind of busy. The first time this happens Jake ends up using his powers to win Link his bet just to get rid of him.
72	* TranslatorCollar: Jake's collar.
73	* {{Unobtainium}}: Jake's ship runs on an element called "Org-12". In an aversion, Frank figures out it's gold based on its atomic weight.
74	* TheWormGuy: Frank was not initially invited to inspect the "artichoke" from Jake's spaceship, as his speciality was very specific and the head of the institute said he wasn't sure Frank was worth being there, but Frank is the only one who was close to an answer. Jake told him later he (Frank) was on the right track, but still years from a discovery.
75	** Of course, Frank's friend and fellow scientist Link specialized in garbage...yet somehow he was one among those initially invited.
76	* WorthlessYellowRocks: "Org-12" (gold) is clearly a rather common metal on Jake's planet, because they use it as a spaceship component. Frank has to explain to him how expensive it is on Earth.
77	* YouCanTalk: Frank's response when Jake first reveals his telepathy:
78	--> '''Frank:''' You? That's you?\
79	'''Jake:''' It's not the mouse.\
80	'''Frank:''' But your lips aren't moving! You're not... speaking.\
81	'''Jake:''' Thought transference. Nothing exceptional where I come from.

Context Film / TheCatFromOuterSpace