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The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 2008 American science fiction film, a remake of the 1951 film of the same name. Directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, the film updates the Cold War theme of nuclear warfare to the contemporary issue of man's environmental damage to the planet. It was released on a rollout schedule beginning December 12, 2008, screening in both conventional theaters and IMAX screens.[3][4]
In 1928, a mountaineer encounters a glowing sphere while on an expedition in the snowy mountains of India. He then finds himself awakening after a sudden loss of consciousness, with the sphere now gone and a scar on his hand. In the present day, Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), a Princeton professor, and other scientists are hastily assembled by the government in order to formulate a survival plan when it is feared that a large unknown object with a speed of 30,000 km/s is on a crash course to the Earth, due to impact Manhattan in just over an hour. Nothing can be done about it because a vital military satellite has been disabled. However, the object is a large spherical biological spaceship, which slows down and lands gently in Central Park. A representative of an alien race named Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), taking on the appearance of the man from the opening scene of the film, emerges from the sphere while accompanied by a large robot. Klaatu has come to assess whether humanity can reverse the environmental damage they have inflicted on their own planet. While recovering from a gunshot wound, Klaatu is detained by Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates), the United States Secretary of Defense, and is barred from speaking to the United Nations. Klaatu manages to escape, and he soon finds himself eluding the authorities throughout Northern New Jersey, specifically Newark and the forested Highlands with Helen and her stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith).
Meanwhile, the presence of the sphere has caused a worldwide panic, and the military manages to capture the robot after it thwarts their attempts to destroy the sphere. Klaatu decides that humans shall be exterminated so the planet – with its rare ability to sustain complex life – can survive. He orders smaller spheres previously hidden on Earth to begin taking animal species off the planet, and Jackson, reminded of Noah's Ark, fears that a cataclysm is imminent. The robot, dubbed "Gort" (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology) by the government, is being experimented on deep within an underground facility in Virginia when it transforms into a swarm of self-replicating insect-like nanites that begin destroying everything in their path back to Manhattan.
After speaking with Nobel Prize-winning Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese) about how his own species went through drastic evolution to survive its sun dying out, Klaatu is convinced by Helen and Jacob that humans can change their ways and are worth saving.[5] The three begin heading to the sphere in Central Park, but Klaatu warns that even if he manages to stop Gort there will be a price to the human way of life. The nanobot cloud arrives before they can reach the sphere and they have to hide under a bridge. There, it is revealed that Jacob and Helen have been infected by the nanites. She pleads with Klaatu to save Jacob. Klaatu saves both of them by transferring the infection to his own body, then sacrifices his physical form to stop Gort by walking through the nanites to the sphere and touching it. His actions cause the sphere to emit a massive EMP-like explosion which stops Gort, saving humanity, but at the price of all of Earth's technology becoming useless and immobile. Klaatu disappears, and the giant sphere leaves Earth.
[edit] Production
- Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, an alien messenger in human form. Reeves dislikes remakes, but was impressed by the script, which he deemed a reimagining. He enjoyed the original film as a child and became fonder of it as an adult when he understood how relevant it was, but liked this interpretation because it lacked the contradictory message of Klaatu "laying down the law [...] almost as though the alien had the bigger stick".[6] Reeves acknowledged his Klaatu is "inverted" from the original, starting "sinister and tough" but becomes "more human", whereas the original was "more human than human" before revealing his "big stick" in his ending speech.[7] He compared the remake's Klaatu to the wrathful God who floods the world in the Old Testament, but is gentle and forgiving by the time of the New Testament.[8] He spent many weeks advising the script, trying to make Klaatu's transition from alien in human form to one who appreciates their emotions and beliefs subtle and nuanced.[5] Derrickson said although Reeves would not use actions "that are highly unusual or highly quirky", he nevertheless "keeps you aware of the fact that this being you're walking through this movie with is not a human being".[9] At Reeves' insistence, the classic line "Klaatu barada nikto" was added to the script after initially being omitted.[10] The line was recorded many times, and it was decided to combine two versions; one where Reeves just said it, and a reversed version of a recording where he said the line backwards, creating an alien effect.[11]
- Jennifer Connelly as Helen Benson, a famed astrobiologist at Princeton University who is recruited by the government to study Klaatu. Connelly was Derrickson's first choice for the part.[9] She is a fan of the original film and felt Patricia Neal's original portrayal of Helen was "fabulous", but trusted the filmmakers with their reinterpretation of the story and Helen, who was a secretary in the original.[10] Connelly emphasized Helen is amazed when she meets Klaatu, as she never believed she would encounter a sentient alien like him after speculating on extraterrestrial life for so long.[5] Connelly was dedicated to understanding her scientific jargon, with Seth Shostak stating she did "everything short of writing a NASA grant application".[12]
- Jaden Smith as Jacob Benson, Helen's rebellious eight-year old stepson. His conflict with his stepmother was worsened by the death of his father, and initially dislikes Klaatu, believing he is a potential stepfather. Jacob replaces the character of Bobby (Billy Gray) from the original, and his relationship with Helen was written as a microcosm of how Klaatu comes to see humanity – the alien sees their cold and distant relationship as proof positive of normal human behavior, and their reconciliation forces him to change his mind. Smith said he found Jacob difficult to play because he felt the character an "opposite" of his personality. Smith had met Reeves before on the set of The Matrix sequels with his mother Jada Pinkett-Smith.[5]
- John Cleese cameos as Professor Barnhardt, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who specializes in the evolutionary basis of altruism. Helen takes Klaatu to him to further change his mind. The role was the most difficult to cast, and eventually the filmmakers decided to approach Cleese, noting "Who would you rather make the argument [to Klaatu] for mankind than John Cleese?"[13] Stoff had met Cleese a few times beforehand and had noted his intellect.[5] The actor was surprised the filmmakers were interested in him, and decided playing a dramatic role would be easier than to play a manic, comedic one at his age. He was often reminded to speed up his dialogue so Reeves would not appear in sync with normal human speech patterns.[6] Cleese said he is not interested in extraterrestrial life because he often philosophizes about the purpose of life and why humans are distracted by trivial matters.[5] The scene in which Klaatu corrects a complex mathematical formula Barnhardt has written on a blackboard appears to be rendered similarly to the original. Cleese spoke of portraying abilities outside his own experience: "“The trouble is, I had to be able to write the equation, because Barnhardt has been working on it for 60 years. I learned to carefully copy things down that mean nothing to me at all. In A Fish Called Wanda, I spoke a lot of Russian without having any idea what it means.”[5] The crew enjoyed working with Cleese and were sad when he finished his part.[13]
- Jon Hamm as Dr. Michael Granier, a NASA official who recruits Helen into his scientific team investigating Klaatu. Granier is fascinated by Klaatu, but is torn between his official obligation to detain the alien and protect his country.[5] Hamm acknowledged science fiction was a niche genre when the original film was made, and that it used science fiction to make topical issues more approachable. Hamm had the same feelings for this remake.[13] Originally, Hamm's character was French and named Michel.[14] Although he is interested in math and science, Hamm found his technical dialogue difficult and had to film his lines repeatedly.[5]
- Kathy Bates as Regina Jackson, the United States Secretary of Defense. Bates had only two weeks to film her scenes, so she often requested Derrickson act out her lines so she would directly understand his aims for her dialogue, rather than interpret vague directions.[5]
[edit] Development
In 1994, 20th Century Fox and Erwin Stoff had produced the successful Keanu Reeves film Speed. Stoff was at an office at the studio when he saw a poster for The Day the Earth Stood Still, which made him ponder a remake with Reeves as Klaatu.[13] By the time David Scarpa started writing his draft in 2005,[15] Thomas Rothman was in charge of Fox and felt a responsibility to remake the film.[13] Scarpa felt everything about the original film was still relevant, but changed the allegory from nuclear war to environmental damage because "the specifics of [how] we now have the capability to destroy ourselves have changed".[5] Scarpa noted the recent events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 informed his mindset when writing the screenplay.[15] He noted "People don't want to be preached to about the environment. We tried to avoid having our alien looking out over the garbage in the lake and crying a silent tear," à la the 1970s Keep America Beautiful adverts. He scrapped Klaatu's speech at the conclusion of the story because "audiences today are [un]willing to tolerate that".[16]
Director Scott Derrickson admired the original film's director Robert Wise, whom he met as a film student.[5] He generally dislikes remakes, but he enjoyed the script – which he decided was a retelling of the story and not a true remake.[6] He also explained The Day the Earth Stood Still is a not a widely seen classic film, unlike The Wizard of Oz, which he would not bother remaking.[15] Derrickson's benchmark was Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Klaatu was made more menacing than in the original, because the director felt he had to symbolize the more complex era of the 2000s.[17] There was debate over whether to have Klaatu land in Washington, D.C. as with the original, but Derrickson chose New York City because he liked the geometry of Klaatu's sphere landing in Central Park.[18] Derrickson did not also write in Gort's back-story, which was absent from the script he read, noting the accusations of fascism at the original film regarding Klaatu's warning that if Earth was not civil, Gort's powerful robotic race would destroy them all.[19]
Astronomer Seth Shostak served as scientific consultant on the film, reviewing the script several times for errors, and gave suggestions for making the scientists less dry. "Real scientists don't describe an object entering the solar system as 'notable for the fact that it was not moving in an asteroidal ellipse, but moving at nearly three times ten to the seventh meters per second'. More likely, they would say that there was 'a goddamned rock headed our way!'" He also noted the scientists should refer to one another by a first name basis.[12]
[edit] Filming
Filming took place from December 12, 2007 to March 19, 2008 at Vancouver Film Studios,[18][20] Vancouver Forum, Deer Lake and Simon Fraser University.[21] The film was originally scheduled for release on May 9, 2008, but it was delayed to December 12, 2008 because filming commenced later than scheduled.[22] The shoot was unaffected by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike;[13] by then Scarpa had written forty drafts of the script.[15] The film was mostly shot on sets because it was winter in Vancouver.[5]
As Fox had a mandate to become a carbon neutral company by 2011, The Day the Earth Stood Still's production had an environmentally friendly regimen. "Whether it was because of this movie thematically or it was an accident of time, there were certain things production-wise we've been doing and been asked to do and so on," said Erwin Stoff.[13] To prevent the wasting of paper, concept art, location stills and costume tests were posted on a website created by the production for crew members to look up. Costumes were kept for future Fox productions or given to homeless shelters, rather than thrown away. Hybrid vehicles were used and crew members had to turn off their car engines if they sat in their vehicles for more than three minutes.[5]
Derrickson was fascinated by color schemes. He chose blue-green and orange as the primary colors for The Day the Earth Stood Still. The missile silo the military convert for experiments on Gort emphasized gray and orange, which was inspired by an image of lava flowing through a gray field. Derrickson opted to shoot on traditional film, and rendered the colors in post-production to make them more subtle, for realism.[5]
To film Barnhardt and Klaatu writing equations on a blackboard, general relativity sums were drawn by Marco Peloso from the University of Minnesota, and William Hiscock of Montana State University in light pencil. Keanu Reeves and John Cleese drew over these in chalk.[12]
[edit] Effects
The redesigned
Gort and the biological spaceship
Weta Digital worked on the majority of the effects, with additional work by Cinesite and Flash Film Works. The machines of Klaatu's people have a biological basis rather than a mechanical one, as Derrickson theorized their level of advancement would be shown by their mastering of ecology.[5] Derrickson deemed a modern audience would find the original's flying saucer amusingly dated.[18] The director also noted many films had been influenced by The Day the Earth Stood Still, so they needed to bring new ideas to the remake.[13]
They approached their spacecraft as interdimensional portals resembling orbs. The script had specified the inside of the orbs as a "white limbo-y thing", but visual effects consultant Jeff Okun explained this was deleted for being too "cheesy".[18] Derrickson felt not showing the inside of the ship, unlike the original, would make the audience more curious.[5] As well as computer-generated spheres – such as Klaatu's 300 foot ship, or a 3000 foot tall orb that rises from the sea–700 pound spheres nine feet in diameter were sculpted by Custom Plastics, which built spheres for Disney theme parks. The spheres were split in two to make transportation easier. It was difficult placing lights inside them without making them melt. The visual effects team looked at molecules, water droplets and the surfaces of Jupiter and Saturn for the spheres' texture.[5]
Derrickson emphasized a Trinity-like relationship between the sphere, Klaatu and Gort.[13] Klaatu is initially depicted as a radiant focus of sentient light. He is then depicted as a seven-feet tall gray "walking womb" shape which finally takes on a completely human appearance. The filmmakers conceived the transitionary form because they pondered the idea of humans mistaking space suits for alien skin. Computer-generated imagery and practical effects achieved the transformation.[5] The creation of the alien form was led by Todd Masters (Slither), who hired a sex toy maker to sculpt the skinsuit with thermal plastic and silicone.[18]
Gort was described as nanotechnology in the script by the time the director signed on, although it did not specify his appearance.[23] Derrickson explored many possibilities for depicting the character, but realized making a faithful homage to the original was best.[9] Their 15th draft[15] had depicted the robot as a four-legged "Totem" that stands upright after firing its weapon beam.[24] Okun explained there were many more "horrific" or "amazing" concepts, but it made sense that the robot would assume a familiar human shape. He cited the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey as an inspiration for Gort's texture, noting "it's a simple shape, it has no emotion [...] it just simply is",[6] which makes Gort more frightening because the audience cannot tell what he is thinking. The computer-generated robot was estimated by the animators to be 28 feet tall, whereas in the original he was played by the 7 foot tall Lock Martin.[5] Gort's computer model was programmed to reflect light, and the filmmakers spent time on motion capture sessions to guide the performance. An actor wore weights on his hands and feet so the animators could bring a sense of weight and power to Gort.[5] His destructive capabilities were based on locust swarms.[15]
Composer Tyler Bates utilized the theremin, which Bernard Herrmann heavily used for the original film. Bates and the female theremin player he hired used the instrument in a manner reminiscent of a sound effect, especially during Klaatu's surgery.[25]
[edit] Release
Before its release, The Day the Earth Stood Still was nominated for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound at the 2008 Satellite Awards.[26] On the film's December 12, 2008 release, the Deep Space Communications Network at Cape Canaveral was to transmit the film to Alpha Centauri.[3]
[edit] Reception
Keanu Reeves and Scott Derrickson on film promotion in Mexico. December 12, 2008.
The film received generally negative reviews. Based on 140 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, only 21% of reviewers gave the film positive reviews. Its consensus stated the majority found the film "heavy on special effects, but without a coherent story at its base, [the film] is subpar re-imagining of the 1951 science-fiction classic". [27] Similarly, another review aggregator, Metacritic, gave the film a 39/100 approval rating based on 33 reviews. [28]
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times congratulated Keanu Reeves's performance and wrote in his review that "This contemporary remake of the science-fiction classic knew what it was doing when it cast Keanu Reeves, the movies' greatest stone face since Buster Keaton." [29] However, on the other hand, A.O. Scott of the New York Times was not impressed with Reeves' performance, commenting that "[e]ven Klaatu looks bored and distracted, much as he did back when we knew him as Neo."[30] William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer gave the film a B- and wrote "It's a decent enough stab at being what the old movie was to its time, following the same basic plot, full of respectful references to its model, updated with a gallery of fairly imaginative special effects." [31] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 stars and noted that the film had "taken its title so seriously that the plot stands still along with it." [32] Also, Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film 2 stars and wrote in her review she felt the film was "musty and derivative" and thought the film's only bright spot was "10-year-old Jaden Smith" and played "an engaging, lively performance". [33]
On its opening weekend, the film opened #1 with $31 million in 3,560 theaters with an $8,708 average. [34]
