The Beast of Yucca Flats

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Beast of Yucca Flats. A film by Coleman Francis.

Joseph Javorsky. Noted scientist. Played by Tor Johnson. Defected from Soviet Russia. Hunted by KGB. Walks onto a nuclear test site. Touch a button. Things happen. The A-bomb. A man becomes a beast.

No-one talks - the camera didn't have sound gear. A Narrator. Unable to speak in full sentences. Flag on the moon. How did it get there?

A topless woman is strangled. Nothing to do with the rest of the movie.

The beast kills a couple on vacation. Something about the wheels of progress. People hunt the beast. Climb a mountain, then give up.

Boys from the city. Not yet caught up in the whirlwind of progress. A guy gets shot from a plane. Man's inhumanity to man. Beast is finally killed.

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

Tropes used in The Beast of Yucca Flats include:
  • Contemplate Our Navels - Flag on the moon. How did it get there?
    • The top secret Russian moon landing of course! No, really; that's the secret with evidence being smuggled in the briefcase at the beginning if you pay attention.
  • Dying as Yourself - After the narrator's repetition of how Javorsky was a kind man until he became the Beast, the scene with the rabbit works as an example of this trope.
  • The End - or Is It? - The Beast comes back to life... and kisses a rabbit.
  • Fan Nickname: "The Breast of Yucca Flats" for the random topless scene at the beginning.
  • Fan Service - The topless actress in the opening murder.
  • Fauxlosophic Narration - Trope on the page. How did it get there?
  • Filming for Easy Dub - Beast of Yucca Flats was recorded silent, and the dialogue dubbed in later, so people only talk off-screen.
  • For Science! - The Beast may or may not be motivated by "scientific progress". The narrator is not very clear on this subject.
  • I Love Nuclear Power - An atomic bomb turns Joseph Javorsky into The Beast.
  • I Love the Dead - It is heavily implied that the killer at the start of The Beast of Yucca Flats abuses the woman's corpse.
  • Pet The Bunny
  • R-Rated Opening - A topless woman is killed by someone.
  • Science Is Bad - well, we think it is... it's kinda hard to tell.
    • Joseph Javorsky tried to use science for good, but the evil it wrought overwhelmed and transformed him. As the wheels of progress turn, his fate will be the fate of us all.
  • Stop or I Will Shoot - Taken to the worst extreme. A sniper is sent up in a plane to bring down the suspected killer and starts shooting at a family dad who was looking for help for his family stranded on vacation. Naturally, the dad starts running, convincing the shooter he's found the guilty party.
    • Author Appeal: All three of Coleman Francis' films have featured a vigilante shooting of a character. In two of them, Coleman was the sniper; in another, Red Zone Cuba, it was Coleman who got sniped.
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