Klaatu (The Day the Earth Stood Still)

Klaatu is the humanoid alien protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

in the 1951 science fiction film

Science fiction film

Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 American science fiction film directed by Robert Wise and written by Edmund H. North based on the short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, and Hugh Marlowe...

and its 2008 remake

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 film)

The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 2008 science fiction film, a remake of the 1951 film of the same name. The screenplay is based on the 1940 classic science fiction short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates, and the 1951 screenplay adaptation by Edmund H...

. Klaatu is famous in part because of the phrase "Klaatu barada nikto

Klaatu barada nikto

"Klaatu barada nikto" is a phrase originating from the 1951 science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. "Klaatu" is the name of the humanoid alien protagonist in the film. Klaatu commanded Helen Benson that, were anything to happen to him, she must utter the phrase to the robot Gort...

!" used in the classic film and its re-use in the Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell

Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American film and television actor. As a cult movie actor, Campbell starred as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series of films and he has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave, Maniac Cop, Bubba Ho-tep, Escape From L.A. and Sundown:...

cult

Cult film

A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...

comedy film Army of Darkness
Army of Darkness
Army of Darkness, also known as Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness or simply Evil Dead III, is a 1992 horror comedy fantasy action film directed by Sam Raimi. It is the third and final installment in The Evil Dead trilogy. The film was written by Raimi and his brother Ivan, produced by Robert Tapert,...

, as well as many other films.

Michael Rennie as Klaatu

Klaatu (played by Michael Rennie

Michael Rennie

Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...

) arrives in a flying saucer

Unidentified flying object

A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...

in Washington, DC, wearing a silver spacesuit and accompanied by a large humanoid robot, Gort

Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still)

Gort is a fictional humanoid robot in the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still and its 2008 remake.In the original short story "Farewell to the Master", on which the two films are based, the character was called Gnut.- 1951 depiction :...

(played by Lock Martin

Lock Martin

Lock Martin was the stage name of American actor Joseph Lockard Martin, Jr. He is best remembered for playing the robot Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still ....

). Klaatu arrives as a peaceful ambassador from an extraterrestrial confederation, but when he presents a harmless device he is shot by one of the soldiers that form his rather apprehensive welcoming committee. Klaatu explains the device was a gift to the President and could have been used to study life on other planets. To protect Klaatu, Gort vaporizes all of the surrounding weaponry.

Klaatu is taken to a hospital, where he quickly recovers. On learning that the government does not expect other nations to be willing to come to meet him, he goes out to meet the common people, using the surname "Carpenter," the name found on the clothes and suit case he borrows, as a pseudonym. He takes up residence in a boarding house and is shown the town by a young boy named Bobby Benson (played by Billy Gray) who stays there with his mother, Helen Benson (played by Patricia Neal

Patricia Neal

Patricia Neal was an American actress of stage and screen. She was best known for her film roles as World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still , wealthy matron Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's , middle-aged housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud , for which she won...

), and drops by the home of Professor Barnhardt, a brilliant scientist (played by Sam Jaffe

Sam Jaffe (actor)

Sam Jaffe was an American actor, teacher, musician and engineer. In 1951, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Asphalt Jungle and appeared in other classic films such as Ben-Hur and The Day the Earth Stood Still...

), who is absent.

Klaatu/Carpenter leaves a "calling card" by marking Barnhardt's calculations as a teacher would mark a student's. When Klaatu/Carpenter is brought later by an army driver, Barnhardt discusses the situation with Klaatu, agrees to summon scientists from all nations, and asks Klaatu for a show of power, thus exhibiting that the extraterrestrial alliance controls enormous power that would threaten Earth if Earth threatens the peace in space.
Klaatu, in reply, neutralizes electric power all over the world (with some notable exceptions, such as hospitals and airplanes in flight) for 30 minutes. Klaatu's action is taken to be an act of war

Casus belli

is a Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while means bellic...

. Betrayed by Mrs. Benson's boyfriend, he is hunted down and fatally shot.

Because Gort's purpose is to prevent aggression and could "destroy the Earth" if anything untoward happens to him, Klaatu has told Mrs. Benson to deliver the phrase that will cancel the attack. Helen reaches the robot, uttering "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto

Klaatu barada nikto

!" barely in time to save her own life, whereupon Gort aborts his attack, retrieves Klaatu's body, transports him to the saucer, and revives him from death.

After Klaatu is revived, he steps out of the saucer, giving the scientists the following ultimatum: Earth can either decide not to threaten aggression on other planets and join other spacefaring worlds—a peace ensured by a massive deterrent force, consisting of robots similar to Gort—or else "this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder". He and Gort then depart.

Keanu Reeves as Klaatu

The 2008 remake

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 film)

of The Day the Earth Stood Still features Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves

Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...

in the role of Klaatu and Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Lynn Connelly is an American film actress, who began her career as a child model. She appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising, before making her motion picture debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America...

as Helen Benson. While the original Klaatu was simply of a near-human species, in the remake it is stated that Klaatu's race is not remotely human, so that Klaatu's biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

was radically altered to give him a human form acquired in 1928. When asked if he was human, Klaatu merely responds that "this body is human" and that "this body feels pain" when asked about that. No description of the race is given, other than that it is "different" from humans and the look "would only frighten you". He is captured by the military but escapes with help from Helen. He meets with a man named Mr. Wu (actually another alien of Klaatu's race in disguise, who has been living on Earth) to discuss whether or not humanity should be destroyed and they both agree that it needs to be done for the good of the planet, although Wu is unwilling to leave due to his newfound love for the humans. Klaatu orders smaller spheres—previously hidden on Earth—to begin taking animal species off the planet (like an ark

Noah's Ark

Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...

) and activates Gort to destroy humanity. After spending time with Helen and her stepson Jacob, as well as talking with Professor Barnhart, Klaatu decides to try to stop humanity's destruction. After saving Jacob and his mother from Gort, Klaatu sacrifices his physical form to stop Gort, setting off a massive electromagnetic pulse

Electromagnetic pulse

An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. The abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation usually results from certain types of high energy explosions, especially a nuclear explosion, or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field...

before his body is destroyed. The EMP destroys Gort, saving humanity, but disables all electric technology in the world to give them the first step toward saving the earth. His spaceship/sphere then departs Earth after the pulse. It is unclear whether Klaatu survived or not; his human body was destroyed, but he indicated throughout the movie that he was merely residing in it and controlling it, so its destruction may not have killed him.

There are many differences between this version of Klaatu and the original, the most obvious being his expression of emotions and view of humanity. Reeves' Klaatu shows very little emotion, and explains this is because Klaatu "is an alien entity contained in a human body, and when he is looking out of that body, he is just looking out." The filmmakers thought that it would not make sense for an alien being to act as human as Rennie's Klaatu did, and so they "decided that in the beginning he should just be very different. That involved having no natural human gestures or behavioral signs but appearing more flat and expressionless. He has a concentrated way of seeing the world."

Klaatu has a very cynical view of humans, being very strict with them. This is best shown when he is talking with Secretary of Defense

United States Secretary of Defense

The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...

Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates

Kathy Bates

Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...

). He is more concerned about the Earth's botanic and animal species than humanity, almost caring nothing about them. Another, less obvious, difference is his knowledge of the planet. The original Klaatu knew nothing of Earth, and he spent most of the film learning about it to decide whether or not it should be destroyed. In the later film, another member of Klaatu's race had been sent down in advance to judge the planet. He knew enough about it to conclude that humanity should be destroyed. However, he, as well as the spy sent before him, eventually realized humanity had the potential for good and should be preserved.

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