The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 film)/Trivia


  • As Himself: H. V. Kaltenborn, Elmer Davis, Drew Pearson, and Gabriel Heatter
  • Executive Meddling: At the end, after Gort brings Klaatu back from the dead, the filmmakers were made to add dialogue specifying that the result was temporary and that "the power of life and death ... is reserved for the Almighty Spirit".
  • Science Marches On: There's a news report which casually states the most likely candidates for Klaatu's homeworld are Venus and Mars because they are the most likely planets to be capable of supporting life. In 1951 this would have made sense as it was suspected that Venus could be similar to Earth, and Mars had long been suspected as a possible candidate for life. We now know that the runaway greenhouse effect on Venus makes it too hot to support anything let alone a species intelligent enough to develop interplanetary travel, and so far there has been no solid evidence of life on Mars and most will agree that if there is anything at all, it probably won't be much more than bacteria. In fact since then scientists have actually been shifting focus even further out towards various Moons among the Jovian bodies (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) as more likely candidates for extra-terrestrial life.