Deltatron? Or disposal by missile? - The Magnetic Monster (1953) Discussion

[–] Jimbeau4 17 years ago

Which one of you is right?
Neither! The Dilithium crystals would have degenerated into inert Kryptonite.
Electrons would cease to orbit protons, and the ensuing 'absolute zero' would collapse all matter into a black hole. Subsequently, Michael Jackson's new album would rot on the shelves.

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[–] jknoppow-1 17 years ago

If you're still around, the physics of the movie is pure nonsense, so the idea of this element is silly. Things simply don't work that way.

This is a radioactive element, which means that it is destroying itself, not building itself. There is no way that it could build itself, even if it was not radioactive.

It's true that energy can be converted into mass, but it's not something available outside of a powerful particle accelerator, and it uses energy rather than creates energy.

The physics of atom bombs, and the brand new hydrogen bomb, were not understood at all by the general public, (they still aren't), so the film could get away with it's total misunderstanding of that physics.

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[–] alltare2 15 years ago

Sorry to break this to you, jknoppow-1, but you're wrong on both counts. Have you not seen the proof in 'the Night the World Exploded' (57)?

------------You said---------------
...
This is a radioactive element, which means that it is destroying itself, not building itself. There is no way that it could build itself, even if it was not radioactive.

It's true that energy can be converted into mass, but it's not something available outside of a powerful particle accelerator, and it uses energy rather than creates energy.
...

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[–] jknoppow-1 14 years ago

Sorry to break this to you, jknoppow-1, but you're wrong on both counts. Have you not seen the proof in 'the Night the World Exploded' (57)?

------------You said---------------
...
This is a radioactive element, which means that it is destroying itself, not building itself. There is no way that it could build itself, even if it was not radioactive.

It's true that energy can be converted into mass, but it's not something available outside of a powerful particle accelerator, and it uses energy rather than creates energy.
...

I'd never heard of that movie. I looked it up. Sounds like a good show.

But that wasn't a growing element. It was something which, when held under
water was harmless, but became a high explosive when it wasn't drowned.

According to the precis, earthquakes were moving the explosive closer
and closer to the earth's surface.

Mercury fulimate would meet that bill. It won't detonate by itself if
it is under water. It takes some other primer to make it go off, like
dry mercury fulminate.

But the magnetic monster actually sucks up energy in some unexplained way,
and converts it to mass, which then blows up. Someone seems to have
misunderstood fusion bombs extremely much.

Still, it's one of my favorite flicks, I have a copy, and I watch it
at least twice a year.

I looked to see if 'The Night the World Exploded' was out on DVD, but
couldn't find it.

Hope they show it on tv sometime, so I can collect it.

Thanks!

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[–] alltare2 14 years ago

'Night the World Exploded' is 'Monolith Monsters' in reverse somewhat. Where the Monoliths grow and explode when wet, the rocks in NTWE explode when dry. (reminds me of the obvious differences between 'The Time Machine' and 'World Without End', wherein the good guys went from living above ground to underground, and the underground bad guys moved to the surface). NTWE has never been released on DVD or, as far as I can tell, on VHS either. I taped a pretty good copy from TV years ago. The ebay DVD is not quite as good, but it's very watchable. Try looking on iOffer.com too. Apparently, it was Kathryn Grant's last film before becoming Mrs. Bing Crosby.

If you like 50's scifi, it's well worth buying a copy.

------------You said---------------
...

I'd never heard of that movie. I looked it up. Sounds like a good show.

But that wasn't a growing element. It was something which, when held under
water was harmless, but became a high explosive when it wasn't drowned.

According to the precis, earthquakes were moving the explosive closer
and closer to the earth's surface.

Mercury fulimate would meet that bill. It won't detonate by itself if
it is under water. It takes some other primer to make it go off, like
dry mercury fulminate.

But the magnetic monster actually sucks up energy in some unexplained way,
and converts it to mass, which then blows up. Someone seems to have
misunderstood fusion bombs extremely much.

Still, it's one of my favorite flicks, I have a copy, and I watch it
at least twice a year.

I looked to see if 'The Night the World Exploded' was out on DVD, but
couldn't find it.

Hope they show it on tv sometime, so I can collect it.

Thanks!
.....................

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[–] jrlaredo621 14 years ago

H.G. Wells came up with a law for writing science fiction which stated that there should be only one scientific impossibility used to drive the plot. In this case, the one impossibility is this element's half-life reaction. Everything in the story that I remember is consistent with this.

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[–] Xcalat3 16 years ago

the earth magnetic field would provide enough energy for the monster

When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

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[–] OrionCA 16 years ago

I'm pretty sure we didn't have any rockets powerful enough to escape the Earth's gravity in 1953 and even if we did the magnetic interference from the monster would have raised havoc with its guidence system.

I remember watching this flick when I was a pre-teen and how impressed I was by it back then. Today I remember it as a little silly, but still fun.

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[–] scotbpens 15 years ago

The existence of the Earth's magnetosphere is irrelevant. This movie was made in 1953. There were no rockets that could launch an object into earth orbit, let alone into deep space, until the Soviet satellite Sputnik orbited the earth in 1957.

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[–] jcf2001 13 years ago

Even if a rocket existed back then that could launch it beyond Earth orbit, which I'm sure there wasn't, it would take more than 11 hours to get a rocket prepped and ready for launch.

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