The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a 1953 American independent monster film directed by Eugène Lourié, with stop motion animation by Ray Harryhausen. It is partly based on Ray Bradbury's 1951 short story of the same name, which was later reprinted as "The Fog Horn". In the film, the Rhedosaurus, a giant dinosaur is released from its frozen state in the Arctic by an atomic bomb test. Paul Christian stars as Thomas Nesbitt, the foremost surviving witness of the creature before it causes havoc while traveling toward New York. Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, and Kenneth Tobey are featured in supporting roles.
Plot
Far north of the Arctic Circle, a nuclear bomb test, dubbed "Operation Experiment", is conducted. Prophetically, right after the blast, physicist Thomas Nesbitt muses "What the cumulative effects of all these atomic explosions and tests will be, only time will tell". The explosion awakens a long carnivorous dinosaur known as a Rhedosaurus, thawing it out of the ice where it had been held in suspended animation for millions of years. Nesbitt is the only surviving witness to the beast's awakening and later is dismissed out-of-hand as being delirious at the time of his sighting. Despite the skepticism, he persists, knowing what he saw.
More details
author | Daniel Lewis James Eugène Lourié Fred Freiberger Ray Bradbury Robert Smith |
---|---|
contentLocation | Brooklyn New York City |
director | Eugène Lourié |
editor | Bernard W. Burton |
events | dinosaur |
genre | animation fantasy horror science fiction |
keywords | amusement park arctic circle awaken build burn coney island coney island cyclone contagion spread diving bell draw east coast fall fish grand banks grand banks of newfoundland hudson canyon hudson river hudson river canyon injured ketch kill load military officer north america nuclear bomb paleontologist paleontology poison police officer rhedosaurus rid roller coaster shoot survive suspended animation |
musicBy | David Buttolph |
producer | Hal E. Chester Jack Dietz |
productionCompany | American Film Institute |
publisher | Warner Bros. |
recordedAt | New York City Santa Monica |
theme | kaiju monster movie science fiction horror |