More than two decades before filmmaker George Lucas took audiences to a galaxy far, far away, director Fred M. Wilcox and Forbidden Planet (1956) got there first. Unlike the sci-fi films that preceded it, which were either set on Earth or within our solar system, there’s not a single shot of our planet in the film. Set in the 23rd century, when incredible scientific advancement has enabled faster-than-light interstellar travel yet human beings are doomed to bring their worst impulses everywhere they go, Forbidden Planet introduced several firsts to sci-fi cinema, and its influence on the genre remains unmistakable.
Based on a screenplay by Irving Block and Allen Adler, and recognizably drawing on elements of Shakespeare’s Tempest, the film follows a starship crew on a mission to determine what became of the scientists who reached the “Earth-type” planet Altair IV around 20 years ago and were never heard from again. On approaching the remote planet and expecting lone survivor Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) to welcome their rescue party, they’re taken aback by his insistence on staying put, as well as his warnings of the terrestrial dangers they’ll encounter if they refuse to turn back. They land anyway, and learn that an unseen entity had ripped apart the earlier expedition. Now, its horrific attacks have resumed.
