History Film / ThisIslandEarth

!!''This Island Earth'' film provides examples of:

!!''This Island Earth'' provides examples of:

''This Island Earth'' returned to the big screen 41 years later when it was riffed by the Satellite of Love crew in ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000TheMovie Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie]]''. It was also one of the inspirations for The Coneheads on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' as Creator/DanAykroyd and writer Tom Davis were fans and tickled by how nobody seemed to notice the enormous heads of Exeter and the other aliens. Music/WeirdAlYankovic paid homage as well with the Interocitor appearing in his "Dare to Be Stupid" video and mention of the device in his film ''Film/{{UHF}}'', and the punk band Music/TheMisfits dedicated a song to the film on their album ''American Psycho''. The depiction of the planet Gamilon in ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Star Blazers]]'' as a subterranean society entered by flying into crater-like holes in the planet's surface seems to have been clearly inspired by Metaluna in this film. The makeup design of the Rylans and the villains' use of meteorites as planetary bombardment weapons in ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'' seem to be inspired by this film, as well.

* ArtisticLicenseSpace:
** The Earth is cloud-free. This is partly due to using the same Earth model used for the production studio logo AND the facet that this movie was made in 1954, ''three years before the first satellites went up'' and sent back pictures.

** The Earth is cloud-free. This is partly due to using the same Earth model used for the production studio logo AND the face that this movie was made in 1954, three years before the first satellites went up and sent back pictures.

* HughMann: During dinner, Exeter refers to Mozart as "your composer". [[CriticalResearchFailure Initially Exeter doesn't even recognize the name]].

* AwesomeMcCoolname: ''Rex Reason''. And that's the actor's actual birth name, too.

''This Island Earth'' returned to the big screen 41 years later when it was riffed by the Satellite of Love crew in ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000TheMovie Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie]]''. It was also one of the inspirations for The Coneheads on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' as Creator/DanAykroyd and writer Tom Davis were fans and tickled by how nobody seemed to notice the enormous heads of Exeter and the other aliens. Music/WeirdAlYankovic paid homage as well with the Interocitor appearing in his "Dare to Be Stupid" video and mention of the device in his film ''Film/{{UHF}}'', and the punk band Music/TheMisfits dedicated a song to the film on their album ''American Psycho''. The depiction of the planet Gamilon in ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Star Blazers]]'' as a subterranean society entered by flying into crater-like holes in the planet's surface seems to have been clearly inspired by Metaluna in this film. The makeup design of the alien Rylans and the villains' use of meteorites as planetary bombardment weapons in ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'' seem to be inspired by this film, as well.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'' also involves a human drafted into an extraterrestrial conflict under somewhat similar circumstances.

''This Island Earth'' is a ScienceFiction novel by Raymond F. Jones, first [[SerialNovel serialized]] in ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'' magazine in 1949 before being published in book form in 1952. It involves a group of aliens using Earth as a pawn in an intergalactic war by recruiting Earthlings into a group known as the “Peace Engineers”. The better-known 1955 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]], directed by Joseph M. Newman and Jack Arnold, was one of the first sci-fi films to be made in glorious Technicolor and was critically acclaimed for its special effects and storytelling.

''This Island Earth'' returned to the big screen 41 years later when it was riffed by the Satellite of Love crew in ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000TheMovie Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie]]''. It was also one of the inspirations for The Coneheads on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' as Creator/DanAykroyd and writer Tom Davis were fans and tickled by how nobody seemed to notice the enormous heads of Exeter and the other aliens. Music/WeirdAlYankovic paid homage as well with the Interocitor appearing in his "Dare to Be Stupid" video and mention of the device in his film ''Film/{{UHF}}'', and the punk band Misfits dedicated a song to the film on their album ''American Psycho''. The depiction of the planet Gamilon in ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Star Blazers]]'' as a subterranean society entered by flying into crater-like holes in the planet's surface seems to have been clearly inspired by Metaluna in this film. The makeup design of the alien Rylans and the villains' use of meteorites as planetary bombardment weapons in ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'' seem to be inspired by this film, as well.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: The big-brained bug people the Metalunans benevolently use as laborers aren't mutants, they're Mutants ("myu-TAHNT"). [[DontExplainTheJoke It's funny, in a way, because they have bug heads like ants and don't talk. Mute-Ants.]]

''This Island Earth'' is a ScienceFiction novel by Raymond F. Jones, first published in 1952. It involves a group of aliens using Earth as a pawn in an intergalactic war by recruiting Earthlings into a group known as the “Peace Engineers”. The better-known 1955 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]], directed by Joseph M. Newman and Jack Arnold, was one of the first sci-fi films to be made in glorious Technicolor and was critically acclaimed for its special effects and storytelling.

''This Island Earth'' is a Science Fiction novel by Raymond F. Jones, first published in 1952. It involves a group of aliens using Earth as a pawn in an intergalactic war by recruiting Earthlings into a group known as the “Peace Engineers”. The better known 1955 film adaptation, directed by Joseph M. Newman and Jack Arnold, was one of the first sci-fi films to be made in glorious Technicolor and was critically acclaimed for its special effects and storytelling.

Dr. Cal Meacham (Rex Reason), nuclear physicist, dashing pilot, and media darling, is flying to his lab in his personal jet when a sudden engine failure sends him hurtling towards the ground, only for him to be saved at the last minute when a green glow surrounds the vessel and helps it land safely. The weirdness continues at his lab, when Meacham and his assistant Joe Wilson (Robert Nichols) ponder over a strange electrical capacitor they received that is obviously more advanced than any human technology. Placing another order from the mysterious company that sent it results in a huge shipment of arcane doodads and a complex set of instructions. With the help of a [[HardWorkMontage montage]], the two successfully assemble an "interocitor," and receive a transmission from an orange-skinned, white-haired, [[RubberForeheadAlien dimple-foreheaded]], [[HughMann definitely-not-an-alien]] named Exeter (Jeff Morrow). He congratulates Meacham -- apparently the interocitor is a test he and his colleagues use to recruit scientists for a special project -- and invites Meacham to join him.