Terror from the Year 5000

Terror from the Year 5000 is a sci-fi film involving Time Travel with a twist. Dr. Earling and his rich assistant/benefactor, Victor, have developed a time machine of sorts. Said time machine, after a test, materializes a curio statue. Earling is quite excited and sends letters to museum curator Bob Hedges, but once there's no reply, his daughter, Claire, tries sending the statue followed by a telegram.

The statue turns out to be radioactive, encouraging Hedges to fly down to Florida and check out what's going on. Earling and Hedges agree that they need to find more information, but Victor is too impatient and decides to gun the machine up to 11. He succeeds in bringing something living back and a bunch of mayhem is caused before all is made well.

For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, please go to the episode recap page.


 * Broken Aesop: Near the end Bob is all for repairing the machine and seeing that the people get the genes they need, commenting that despite their looks the mutants are still human. Only for Dr. Earling to say that the future is what they make it *cue triumphant music*. So the moral is: do nothing even though you have the means to help people and try to avoid doing what caused it in the 1st place...even though there's no guarantee it can be avoided.
 * Really, what power to three ordinary people have over events that will happen 3,000 years after they're dead?
 * Crusty Caretaker: Angelo, amateur Jimmy Carter impersonator and professional pervert.
 * Developing Doomed Characters: It takes a long time for the Terror to make an appearance. There's a point when the plot stops in its tracks as our characters catch a movie and hit the bar.
 * Deus Ex Machina: The scuba gear and the radiation-proof gear.
 * Hey, It's That Gal!: The "future woman"/nurse is played by Salome Jens, which every Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fan knows as the Female Changeling, the ultimate Big Bad of the series.
 * Hypnotic Fingernails
 * Mad Scientist: Averted with Dr. Earling. He insists on official verification of his discoveries and when he learns that his experiments are resulting in dangerous radioactivity, he suspends his work until safeguards can be implemented. His assistant, on the other hand, is a complete jerk.
 * Neutral Female: Dr. Bob's assistant Miss Blake plays this totally straight with her Extreme Doormat personailty. Claire, on the other hand, subverts it; even outside 50's standards, she's rather intelligent and assertive. Heck, she even brawls the titular Terror after finding out the mutant lady killed Angelo.
 * Non-Action Guy: Victor
 * Time Machine: Only this time, it brings things back!
 * ~What the Hell, Hero?~: Bob gets chewed out for making time with Claire. Yep, that's it.
 * You Fail Physics Forever: Carbon dating would not work on objects from the future, because it's an estimate based on radiometric decay.
 * It also only works on organic matter. The statue is made of metal.
 * In addition, numerous people essentially hold the very radioactive statue bare-handed. Scientists, agog at results of testing the device with a Geiger counter, throw it into an open plastic bin of water...which immediately starts boiling.