MovieChat Forums > It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) Discussion > Supplies in space

Supplies in space

posted 15 years ago by ewarn-1
8 replies | jump to latest

This movie is a pretty good instructional on what American astronauts should bring into space for the first manned missions to Mars. Apparently the most crucial items are not food, computers,or life support systems, but surplus World War II weaponry. This includes: M-1 rifles, carbines, automatic .45 pistols, boxes of ammunition, gas masks, and anti-tank rocket firing bazookas. Let's not forget pineapple fragmentation grenades, packed into neat boxes labelled 'grenades'. According to the script, just for a gag, astronauts would be allowed to assemble poisonous gas weapons to fight 'dinosaurs' on Mars. Ha! Those crazy astronauts! Now, what I learned from this scientific documentary is that it is okay to set off the grenades on board the spacecraft, and the future space travellers can feel free to fire the weaponry all they please, until the ammunition is exhausted! This won't damage any of the instruments on the spaceship, and it probably won't injure the rubber clad monster either.

[–] highwaystar50 15 years ago

I suspect that you are trying to be humorous. If not you should know that if you watch enough 50's space movies you'll note that the crews also wear street clothes or military uniforms instead of space suits. That's just the way it was back then as these movies were made well ahead of anyone's space program.
KS

[–] Frumious_Bandersnatch_46 14 years ago

Seeing this two years after The Forbidden Planet, one would think they could have done a bit better — in a number of areas.

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Have you noticed that in Shakespeare's plays soothsayers said the sooth, the whole sooth, and nothing but the sooth?
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[–] graham-167 13 years ago

I know it's over the top, but bear in mind, back in the 50s even scientists couldn't say with any great certainty that there was no life in places like Mars and Venus. To us the idea of taking guns on a Mars mission is comical, but to them... well I won't say it's reasonable, but it was a lot more reasonable than it looks from our perspective.

And hey, it's a nuclear powered space ship remember. They're not constrained by the niggling "shave every spare ounce off the design" nonsense that NASA is, so a few more or less boxes of cargo aren't going to worry them.

[–] mam13143 13 years ago

I love the fifties scifi films. Specially the space yarns with spaceships equipped with regular desks and chairs on wheels, etc. But then no one really knew what it would really be like. Watch The Right Stuff if you want to laugh at the tests they devised for the astronauts -- no clue what to do. Of course today we are getting ready to send people to the moon and mars on top of a rocket - see how far we have come lol.

[–] essex9999 9 years ago

I know it's over the top, but bear in mind, back in the 50s even scientists couldn't say with any great certainty that there was no life in places like Mars and Venus. To us the idea of taking guns on a Mars mission is comical, but to them... well I won't say it's reasonable, but it was a lot more reasonable than it looks from our perspective.

I'd say it was quite reasonable, considering that there actually was life on this movie's version of Mars - big, dangerous monsters, in fact. And, since none of their weapons were effective against the creature, you could say their armory was under-supplied, not over-supplied.

[–] xnet95 12 years ago

LOL - I thought the same thing. I really liked this movie, but when I saw them open a box of grenades, I was howling. Then they actually used them on the ship! Weren't they afraid of blowing a hole in the hull and decompressing the inside?

[–] jjk50 8 years ago

You're forgetting the most important supply of all, lots and lots of cigarettes. Apparently its' perfectly safe to puff away with all the tanks of oxygen, fuel and explosives.

[–] trancejeremy 8 years ago

The first one had problems and this was to be a rescue mission.

So it made sense to carry weapons, as they didn't know what to expect.

Would also probably have made more sense to carry soldiers, but still...