History Film / TheAmazingColossalMan

* ArtisticLicenseCars: Or, more specifically, school buses. The school bus of terrified kids picked up by Glenn in the sequel has a low ceiling, so they can't stand up. There's no way a real school bus would have an interior like that.

* WouldHurtAChild: Narrowly averted in the sequel when Joyce talks Glenn into putting down the bus full of children.

** It's claimed [[FindTheCure the serum developed in the first film]] only stopped Glenn's growth but wouldn't shrink him back. However, the serum can shrink even animals without peculiar factors altering their growth.
*** Perhaps the serum can shrink animals without abnormal growth factors but can't shrink Glenn ''because'' [[FridgeBrilliance his abnormal growth is counteracting it, causing an uneasy stasis wherein both the growing and the shrinking are hindered by each other, and he remains the same size.]]

''The Amazing Colossal Man'' is a giant monster movie made in 1957, directed and produced by Creator/BertIGordon and released by Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures as a double feature with ''Cat Girl''; it's also a TropeCodifier for "AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever."

The film [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters spends some time]] justifying tropes that audiences now take for granted, like NuclearMutant. It also explores Glenn's [[IncrediblyLamePun growing]] angst and insanity caused by his condition.

* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: The UnbuiltTrope. Most of the first film is about how painful growing to that size would be and how scary the experience is.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Glenn's devoted and loyal sister Joyce [[RememberTheNewGuy who never appeared in the original film]] is a lot like Carol, the faithful and loyal fiancee who [[ChuckCunninghamSyndome never appeared in the sequel]].

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The audience never DID learn where that doomed pilot (the one Glenn was trying to rescue) came from in the first place, though one character speculates they got vaporized.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Glenn's devoted and loyal sister Joyce [[RememberTheNewGuy who never appeared in the original film]] is a lot like Carol, the faithful and loyal fiancee who [[BrotherChuck never appeared in the sequel]].

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Yes, many 1950s atom bomb tests had soldiers walking ''towards'' Ground Zero after the nuke exploded, ForScience And yes, many lawsuits ensued decades later.

* GiantMedicalSyringe: The heroic scientists use a giant syringe to inject phlebotinum into a 60 ft Glenn's bone marrow to stop his growth. Glenn inevitably pulls the syringe out, looks at it (a real normal-size syringe in the actor's hand) with increasing disgust, and flings it down at the scientists, impaling one of them.

* NoMoreForMe: What a drunk says after seeing Glenn on the road.

* SanitySlippage: Glenn becomes depressed and increasingly cynical as he grows, believing there's no hope for him. Compared to the pleasant guy he is in flashbacks, Glenn becomes an unrecognizable and hostile person toward others from misery and his thinking that everyone, even Carol, now thinks he's a freak. By the end, Glenn has seemingly regressed to a childlike mentality, reacting to everything curiously and becoming violent when threatened. He also apparently loses the ability to talk and can't recognize his allies, though he sometimes seems to regain his senses briefly. For some reason, the film never explains Glenn's loss of sanity, but theories suggest that Glenn's smaller heart causing reduced blood flow to his brain might be responsible.

* DyingAsYourself: Glenn finally remembers who he is and who Joyce is before being DrivenToSuicide.

* TechnicolorDeath: Glenn's death, as the otherwise black and white film, suddenly gets color as he grabs electric lines to kill himself.

* WouldHurtAChild: Narrowly averted in the sequel when Joyce talks Glenn into putting down the bus filled with children.

Sure enough, his burns miraculously heal overnight. Soon after, Glenn's fiancee Carol Forrest learns the Army moved Glenn from the hospital to an abandoned medical facility in the desert. Traveling there, she discovers that [[NuclearMutant exposure to the bomb]] has made Glenn's body grow out of control; he's become a giant, and he's still growing at an alarming rate of 8 to 10ft a day. Even worse, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology since the heart's a single cell]], it's not keeping up with the rest of him, causing fainting spells, chest pains, the risk of eventual death... oh, and mental trauma besides the obvious problems of being 60 feet tall.

* YourSizeMayVary: Glenn's size varies from scene to scene, from being as little as around 20 feet tall to about 500' in others and all points in between.

* GiantMedicalSyringe: The heroic scientists use a giant syringe to inject phlebotinum into a 50ft Glenn's bone marrow to stop his growth. The giant inevitably pulls the syringe out, looks at it (a real normal-size syringe in the actor's hand) with increasing disgust, and flings it down at the scientists, impaling one of them.

* LargeHam: Glenn, once SanitySlippage starts to kick in.

* SanitySlippage: As Glenn grows, he becomes depressed and increasingly cynical, believing there's no hope for him. Compared to the pleasant guy he is in flashbacks, Glenn becomes an unrecognizable and hostile person toward others from the hopelessness of his situation and his thinking that everyone, even Carol, now considers him a freak. By the end, Glenn appears to have regressed to a childlike mentality, reacting to everything curiously and becoming violent when threatened. He seemingly loses the ability to talk and can't recognize his allies, though he sometimes seems to regain his senses briefly. Glenn's loss of sanity never gets a clear scientific explanation in the film, but theories claim that Glenn's smaller heart causing reduced blood flow to his brain might be responsible.
* SarcasticConfession: A truck driver keeps badgering the gate sentries on why he's delivering all this food. Eventually, a military policeman tells him it's for the 30ft giant they have in the circus tent over there. The driver retorts, "Sure, you have!" and drives off.

* TooDumbToLive: Let's go over this again. Glenn ''runs into the test site of an experimental new bomb'', shortly after the bomb has been triggered but hasn't detonated yet, against his superior officer's direct orders AND all common sense, to try to save a downed airplane pilot who didn't respond to radio. The pilot also hasn't indicated that he is alive or (thanks to Bert I. Gordon's classic off-camera style) even exists, and he's most likely dead by now. [[GoodIsDumb Well, Glenn had good intentions...]]

* ArtisticLicenseCars: Or, more specifically, school buses. The school bus of terrified kids picked up by Glenn in the sequel has a low ceiling, so none of the kids can stand up. There's no way a real school bus would have an interior like that.

* SeriesContinuityError: Several details of the sequel blatantly contradict the original film's events. Likely in the days before home video, they hoped no one caught this.
** It's claimed [[FindTheCure the serum developed in the first film]] only stopped Glenn's growth but wouldn't shrink him back. The serum can shrink even animals without peculiar factors altering their growth.

Sure enough, his burns miraculously heal overnight. Soon after, Glenn's fiancee Carol Forrest learns the Army moved Glenn from the hospital to an abandoned medical facility in the desert. Traveling there, she discovers that [[ILoveNuclearPower exposure to the bomb]] has made Glenn's body grow out of control; he's become a giant, and he's still growing at an alarming rate of 8 to 10ft a day. Even worse, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology since the heart's a single cell]], it's not keeping up with the rest of him, causing fainting spells, chest pains, the risk of eventual death... oh, and mental trauma besides the obvious problems of being 60 feet tall.

The film [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters spends some time]] justifying tropes that audiences now take for granted, like ILoveNuclearPower. It also explores Glenn's [[IncrediblyLamePun growing]] angst and insanity caused by his condition.

* ILoveNuclearPower: How Glenn got so darn big.

Lieutenant Colonel Glenn Manning, a Korean War veteran, is one of the lucky soldiers sitting in the trenches waiting to witness the test of a new nuclear weapon, a "plutonium bomb." The bomb doesn't go off when triggered, and Glenn gets caught in the blast when [[TooDumbToLive he races to save the pilot of a plane that crashes in the test area]]. It seems to be enough of a miracle for him to be found alive with severe third-degree burns, but this ''is'' how ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'' got started.

Sure enough, his burns miraculously heal overnight; soon after that, Glenn's fiancee Carol Forrest learns the Army moved Glenn from his original hospital to an abandoned medical facility in the desert. Traveling there, she discovers that [[ILoveNuclearPower exposure to the bomb]] has made Glenn's body grow out of control, and he's become a giant. And he's still growing at an alarming rate of 8 to 10ft a day. Even worse, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology since his heart's a single cell]], it's not keeping up with the rest of him, causing fainting spells, chest pains, the risk of eventual death... oh, and mental trauma on top of the obvious problems of being 60 feet tall.

* GiantMedicalSyringe: The heroic scientists use a giant syringe to inject phlebotinum into a 50ft giant's bone marrow to stop his growth. The giant inevitably pulls the syringe out, looks at it (a real normal-size syringe in the actor's hand) with increasing disgust, and flings it down at the scientists, impaling one of them.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Major Coulter has a giant-sized syringe thrown through him.

* SanitySlippage: As Glenn grows, he becomes depressed and increasingly cynical, believing there's no hope for him. Compared to the pleasant guy he is in flashbacks, Glenn becomes an unrecognizable and hostile person toward others from the hopelessness of his situation and his thinking that everyone, even Carol, now considers him a freak. By the end, Glenn appears to have regressed to a childlike mentality. He seemingly loses the ability to talk and can't recognize his allies, though he sometimes seems to regain his senses briefly. Glenn's loss of sanity never gets a clear scientific explanation in the film, but theories claim that Glenn's smaller heart causing reduced blood flow to his brain might be responsible.

* TooDumbToLive: Let's go over this again. Glenn ''runs into the test site of an experimental new bomb'', shortly after the bomb has been triggered but hasn't detonated yet, against his superior officer's direct orders AND all common sense, to try to save a downed airplane pilot who didn't respond to radio, has given no indication or clue that he is alive (or, thanks to Bert I. Gordon's classic off-camera style, even exists), and is most likely dead by now. [[GoodIsDumb Well, he had good intentions...]]

* SayMyName: In the ending, Glenn says Joyce's name out loud to show that her reasoning has managed to get through to him.

*** Perhaps the serum can shrink animals without abnormal growth factors but can't shrink Glenn ''because'' [[FridgeBrilliance his abnormal growth is counteracting it, causing an uneasy stasis wherein both the growth and the shrinking are hindered by each other, and he remains the same size.]]

Lieutenant Colonel Glenn Manning, a Korean War veteran, is one of the lucky soldiers sitting in the trenches waiting to witness the test of a new nuclear weapon, a "plutonium bomb." The bomb doesn't go off when triggered, and Glenn gets caught in the blast when [[TooDumbToLive he races to rescue the pilot of a plane that crashes in the test area]]. It seems to be enough of a miracle for him to be found alive with severe third-degree burns, but this ''is'' how ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'' got started.

Sure enough, his burns are miraculously healed the next day; soon after that, Glenn's fiancee Carol Forrest learns he was moved from his original hospital to an abandoned medical facility in the desert. Traveling there, she discovers that [[ILoveNuclearPower exposure to the bomb]] has caused Glenn's body to grow out of control, and he's become a giant. And he's continuing to grow at an alarming rate. Even worse, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology since his heart's a single cell]], it's not keeping up with the rest of him, causing fainting spells, chest pains, the risk of eventual death... oh, and mental trauma on top of the obvious problems of being 60 feet tall.

Eventually, Glenn goes insane, kills one of the doctors trying to cure his growth, kidnaps his fiancee, and rampages through UsefulNotes/LasVegas before being taken down by the Army.

The film [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters spent quite a bit of time]] justifying tropes like ILoveNuclearPower audiences now take for granted. It also went into detail about Glenn's [[IncrediblyLamePun growing]] angst and insanity caused by his condition.

A sequel, ''War of the Colossal Beast'', was released by AIP in 1958 with ''Film/AttackOfThePuppetPeople''. In this installment, Glenn is found alive in Mexico after the events of the first film, scarred, mindless, and hunting bread trucks to survive; his ever-devoted [[strike:fiancee]] [[RememberTheNewGuy sister]] Joyce Manning finds him and leads the U.S. military to bring him back to Los Angeles. [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight They can't restore Glenn's memory]], and he inevitably goes on another rampage. Joyce talks the Beast into freeing a bus of students he held captive, and Glenn, suddenly regaining his humanity, commits suicide by electrical power lines, somehow disintegrating himself and turning the film from black-and-white to color for the last few seconds.

** The official reason for Glenn's growth. Instead of cellular division, "old cells" are replaced by "new cells," and in Glenn's case, the "old cells" are "refusing to die." There's another word for that: cancer.
* ArtisticLicenseCars: Or, more specifically, school buses. The school bus of terrified kids picked up by Glenn in the sequel has a low ceiling, so none of the kids can stand up. There's no way a real school bus would have an interior like that.
* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: The soldier in charge of the team waiting to get exposed to the fallout of the bomb (don't you love the Fifties' callous disregard for safety?) explains that they can't tell when the bomb will explode because they have to "wait for the nuclear reaction to cool off." The writers had no concept of critical mass.

-->'''Glenn:''' [reading newspaper] "Man Lives Through Plutonium Blast" [laughs cynically] That's a great joke, isn't it, Sargeant? They call THIS living?

* HopeSpot: The serum is shown to work, giving us hope that the heroes can return Glenn to normal size. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, [[SanitySlippage he's so far gone]] that he kills Major Coulter with the syringe, and the Army has no choice but to open fire to end his rampage.]]

* LargeHam: Glenn once SanitySlippage starts to kick in.

* NoMoreForMe: What a drunk says after seeing Glenn.

* SanitySlippage: As Glenn grows, he becomes depressed and increasingly cynical, believing there's no hope for him. Compared to the pleasant guy he is in his flashbacks, Glenn becomes an unrecognizable and hostile person toward others from the hopelessness of his situation and his thinking that everyone, even Carol, now considers him a freak. By the end, Glenn seemingly loses the ability to talk and can't recognize his allies, though he visibly tries to regain his senses at times. Glenn's loss of sanity never gets a clear scientific explanation in the film, but theories claim that Glenn's smaller heart causing reduced blood flow to his brain might be responsible.

* SquareCubeLaw: Played straight, although the "heart as a single cell" bit was probably meant in the same spirit as an aversion.

-->''[-Growing...!-] Growing...! '''Growing...!''' To a Giant! To a Monster! When will it Stop!''

-->'''Glenn:''' Why don't you make me up a sign saying, ''See the Amazing Colossal Man''?

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The audience never DID learn where that doomed pilot (the one Glenn was trying to rescue) came from in the first place, though one character speculates they were vaporized.

* ArtisticLicenseGeology: "The river below that dam [where Glenn fell at the climax of the previous film] is a mile deep in some places." Uh, no, it isn't. The Colorado River's deepest point is about 90 feet.

* RealPlaceBackground: The finale is set in LA's Griffith Park.

** It's claimed [[FindTheCure the serum developed in the first film]] only stopped Glenn's growth but wouldn't shrink him back. The serum was shown to shrink even animals without peculiar factors altering their growth.

* TwoFaced: Half of Glenn's face has been left as exposed bone with an empty eye socket. [[TheNthDoctor This was a perfect excuse to cast another actor as Glenn.]]

* YourSizeMayVary: Glenn's size varies from scene to scene, from being as little as around 20 feet tall to about 500' in others and all points in between.

''The Amazing Colossal Man'' is a giant monster movie made in 1957, directed and produced by Creator/BertIGordon and released by Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures as a double feature with ''Cat Girl''; it's also a TropeCodifier for "AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever".

Lieutenant Colonel Glenn Manning, Korean War veteran, is one of the lucky soldiers sitting in the trenches waiting to witness the test of a new nuclear weapon, a "plutonium bomb". The bomb doesn't go off when it's triggered, and Glenn gets caught in the blast when [[TooDumbToLive he races to rescue the pilot of a plane that crashes in the test area]]. It seems to be enough of a miracle for him to be found alive with severe third degree burns, but... well, this ''is'' how ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'' got started.

Sure enough, his burns are miraculously healed the next day; and soon after that Glenn's fiancee learns he's been spirited away from his original hospital to an abandoned medical facility in the desert. Traveling there, she does eventually learn that [[ILoveNuclearPower exposure to the bomb]] has caused Glenn's body to grow out of control and he's become a giant. And, he's continuing to grow at an alarming rate. Even worse, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology since his heart's a single cell]], it's not keeping up with the rest of him, causing fainting spells, chest pain, the risk of eventual death... oh, and mental trauma on top of the obvious problems of being fifty feet tall.

A sequel, ''War of the Colossal Beast'', was released by AIP in 1958 with ''Film/AttackOfThePuppetPeople''. In this installment, Glenn is found alive in Mexico after the events of the first film, scarred, mindless, and hunting bread trucks to survive; his ever-devoted [[strike:fiancee]] [[RememberTheNewGuy sister]] finds him and leads the U.S. military to bring him back to Los Angeles. [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight They can't restore Glenn's memory]], and he inevitably goes on another rampage. Glenn's sister talks the Beast into freeing a bus of students he held captive, and Glenn, suddenly regaining his humanity, commits suicide by electrical power lines, somehow both disintegrating himself and turning the film from black-and-white to color for the last minute.

!! ''The Amazing Colossal Man'' and ''War of the Colossal Beast'' contain examples of:

* TheAdjectivalSuperhero: Okay, not really a hero, but it follows the naming pattern.
* AluminumChristmasTrees: Yes, many 1950's atom bomb tests had soldiers walking ''towards'' Ground Zero after the nuke exploded, ForScience And yes, many lawsuits ensued decades later.

** The heart is but a ''single'' cell? They probably got the "single cell" thing from the fact that heart muscle is ''syncytial'', which means that its cells are not separated by membranes. It's especially dumb considering how they already had a perfectly good explanation to go with - just say that the square-cube law means his heart isn't getting big enough to handle his new body size.
** The official explanation for Glenn's growth; apparently instead of cellular division, "old cells" are replaced by "new cells" and in Glenn's case the "old cells" are "refusing to die". There's another word for that: cancer.
* ArtisticLicenseCars: Or, more specifically, school buses. The school bus of terrified kids picked up by Glenn in the sequel has an extremely low ceiling so none of the kids can possibly stand up. There's no way a real school bus would have an interior like that.
* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: The soldier in charge of the team waiting to be exposed to the fallout of the bomb (don't you just love the Fifties' callous disregard for safety?) explains that they can't tell when the bomb will explode because they have to "wait for the nuclear reaction to cool off." Clearly the writers had no concept of critical mass.
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: The UnbuiltTrope. Most of the first film is about how painful actually growing to that size would be as well as how scary and frightening the experience is.
* DownerEnding: Both movies.

-->'''Glenn:''' [reading newspaper] "Man Lives Through Plutonium Blast" [laughs cynically] That's a great joke, isn't it sargeant? They call THIS living?
* GiantMedicalSyringe: The heroic scientists use a giant syringe to inject phlebotinum into the bone marrow of a fifty-foot-tall giant, in order to stop his growth. The giant inevitably pulls the syringe out, looks at it (a real normal-size syringe in the actor's hand) with increasing disgust, and flings it down at the scientists, impaling one of them.

* HopeSpot: The serum is shown to work, giving us a hope that Glenn can be returned to normal size. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, [[SanitySlippage he's so far gone]] he kills Major Coulter with the syringe, and the Army has no choice but to open fire to end his rampage.]]

* MonumentalBattle:
** The climax of the first film happens atop Hoover Dam. Glenn also destroys a few famous (circa 1950s) pieces of the Vegas Strip along the way.
** The climax of the second film takes place at [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Griffith Observatory]].
* NoMoreForMe: What a drunk says when he sees Glenn.

* SarcasticConfession: A truck driver keeps badgering the gate sentries on the reason he's delivering all this food. Eventually a military policeman tells him that it's for the thirty-foot giant they have in the circus tent over there. The driver retorts, "Sure, you have!" and drives off.

-->'''Glenn:''' Why don't you make me up a sign saying ''See the Amazing Colossal Man''?
* TooDumbToLive: Let's go over this again. Glenn ''runs into the test site of an experimental new bomb'', shortly after the bomb has been triggered but has not detonated yet, against the direct orders of his superior officer AND any and all common sense, to try to rescue a downed airplane pilot who didn't respond to radio, has given no indication or clue that he is alive (or, thanks to Bert I. Gordon's classic off-camera style, even exists), and is most likely dead by now. [[GoodIsDumb Well, he had good intentions...]]

* ArtisticLicenseGeology: "The river below that dam [where Glenn fell at the climax of the previous film] is a mile deep in some places." Uh, no it isn't. The Colorado River's deepest point is about 90 feet.

* SayMyName: In the ending, Glenn says Joyce's name out loud to show that her reasoning has managed to get through to him
* SeriesContinuityError: Several details of the sequel blatantly contradict the events of the original film. Likely in the days before home video, they were hoping no one caught this.
** It's claimed [[FindTheCure the serum developed in the first film]] only stopped Glenn's growth, but wouldn't shrink him back. In fact, the serum was shown capable of shrinking even animals without abnormal factors altering their growth.
*** Perhaps the serum can shrink animals without abnormal growth factors, but can't shrink Glenn ''because'' [[FridgeBrilliance it's being counteracted by his abnormal growth, causing an uneasy stasis wherein both the growth and the shrinking are stymied by each other and he remains the same size.]]
** Glenn's sister is a major character in the second film, but when his fiancee is asked about Glenn's family in the first film, she states that she herself is all he has.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Glenn's devoted and loyal sister Joyce [[RememberTheNewGuy who never appeared in the original film]] is a lot like Carol, his devoted and loyal fiancee who [[BrotherChuck never appeared in the sequel]].
* TechnicolorDeath: Glenn's death, literally, as the otherwise black and white film suddenly gets color as he grabs electric lines to kill himself.

* TheUnintelligible: Before the ending, all Glenn can say is "Uhhhhhhhhh".

* YourSizeMayVary: Glenn will vary from scene to scene from being as little as around 20 feet tall to about 500' in others and all points in between.

Lieutenant Colonel Glenn Manning, Korean War veteran, is one of the lucky soldiers sitting in the trenches waiting to witness the test of a new nuclear weapon, a "plutonium bomb". The bomb doesn't go off when it's triggered, and Glenn gets caught in the blast when [[TooDumbToLive he races to rescue the pilot of a plane that crashes in the test area]]. It seems to be enough of a miracle for him to be found alive with severe third degree burns, but... well, this ''is'' how ''The ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'' got started.