The day the earth stood still was made back in the days of Black and White film-making, back when the atomic bomb was our greatest fear and space was our greatest mystery. An alien emissary named Klaatu comes to earth to warn it’s people to stop warring or face consequences. He looks human and has a very tall robot accompanying him. He wants to speak to all the world leaders, but there is extreme mistrust and hesitation to comply. He is greeted with hostility at every turn. He shuts down all non-vital electronics/electricity in a demonstration of his advanced power.
Keeping hospitals and airplanes running, as he doesn’t wish to make an act of war by his own actions.
Disappointed and thinking the worst of humanity, much like the prince and the pauper, he takes a room in a boarding house to see how people really live. There he meets a mom struggling with her son and finds that humanity is not necessarily defined by their aggression. Unfortunately another boarder discovers who he is and jealous of his time with Helen (Patricia Neal) lets the authorities know where to find the alien. As a consequence he is shot and recuperates in his spaceship. He explains to a concerned Helen that despite all their advancements no-one has become immortal and he makes his good-byes with a final warning that if humanity doesn’t stop it’s conflicts they are doomed.
This classic had a superb cast and still stands the test of time. It’s remake 2008, replaces humanity’s war-mongering with seeing human’s as an ecological threat . For me, I see the message of the original much more convincing. Nature still dominates us, and all our attempts to protect it through legislation, only create more waste (e-waste, over packaging for “safety and promotion”, transportation for recycling instead of reusing, rules against making our own green spaces, etc).
