The Terrornauts (1967)

hyped garbage

Better Late Then Never

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Sci-Fi and horror movies don't often win Academy Awards, but that's not necessarily the fault of the films themselves but merely due to the fact there aren't sufficient categories! If, for example, there existed an Oscar for the coolest movie title, it would guaranteed be won by a horror or Sci-Fi flick almost every year! "The Terrornauts" definitely would have deserved the Oscar for coolest title back in 1967, that's for certain, even though it's a completely irrelevant title. There isn't much "terror" here and the main characters arguably don't even qualify as "astronauts" either. Then again who needs the Academy Awards; because I've never seen an Oscar winning film that provided me with so much entertainment and chuckles than "The Terrornauts". Thus far I always assumed that "First Men in the Moon" (Nathan Juran – 1964) was the cheesiest and most pleasantly deranged Sci-Fi movie to hail from England, but that was before I discovered this even crazier and more imaginative little accomplishment from the Amicus Studios. It's practically impossible to describe the plot of "The Terrornauts", but I'll give it a try anyways. Dr. Joe Burke, along with his girlfriend Sandy and co- worker Ben, is running operation Star Talk. His mission is to intercept radio signals from outer space in order to prove the existence of other intelligent life forms. He's devoted to his job because, as a child, he once had a vivid dream about being on a planet where he could breathe normally. But since his project is unsuccessful for the past four years and quite expensive at the same time, a grumpy government official now informs Dr. Burke that the project will be terminated in three months. But then suddenly Dr. Burke receives signals, hallelujah! He responds to them and, before they properly understand what is going on, their entire laboratory is sucked out of its fundaments and into a massive space ship! The crew, including the talkative coffee lady and a nerdy financial auditor sent by the government, is hosted by a tacky robot and forced to participate in hallucinating experiments. They also stumble upon a portal that leads them directly to – oh yes – the planet that Dr. Burke dreamed about as a child! Do I really need to re-emphasize that "The Terrornauts" is downright awesome?!? Whoever wrote the script of this movie was permanently high on excellent drugs and the team in charge of the special effects and costume designs must have been even crazier! At a certain point in the film the group runs into a flamboyant monster with tentacles on its head and one giant eye on the lower left side, whilst on the planet our heroine is chased by green-faced aliens that want to ritually sacrifice her. The warfare during the climax (I'm not even entirely sure against whom…) looks like it could have formed the inspiration for the legendary "Space Invaders" video game and the very last sequences, featuring a French gendarme, are simply priceless. Back in the late '60s and early '70s, Amicus was a fairly solid and respectable production studio in the shadows of the almighty Hammer Studios. They released several great anthology horror films starring British horror regulars such as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee ("Asylum", "Tales from the Crypt", "Torture Garden"), as well as fantasy/Sci-Fi flicks ("Dr. Who and the Daleks", "At the Earth's Core"). "The Terrornauts" is a bit of an outcast in their overall repertoire, but definitely a gem for avid cult fanatics to seek out and enjoy!

I used to have a schoolfriend named Eddie Donnelly whose favourite programme was 'The Tomorrow People'. After viewing the latest episode, he, along with his sister Esther and younger brother Graham, would retreat to the spare room to continue the adventure. His 'jaunting' belts were bits of string. 'TIM' the super intelligent computer was a broken cassette player, flex twisted round the light fitting. His mother's hairdryer became a ray-gun. 'The Galactric Trig' was the ironing cupboard at the top of the stairs. Eddie would, naturally, be John, the group's leader. A typical session went as follows: "We have a new assignment!", Eddie would say: "We must go to the planet Carlgor-5!". Touching their bits of string, the trio then ran downstairs to the kitchen, and out the back door into the weed-infested garden. This was Eddie's idea of Carlgor-5. As smoke wafted over the fence from next door's bonfire, he said: "We must be careful. The natives here are savage! Come, let us search for the legendary Crystal of Kronos which has mind-bending properties! If the Thargs get to it first, the universe is theirs!". At which point, the chimes of a Mr.Whippy ice cream van could be heard, and Eddie was left to finish the quest alone while the others went to nag their mother for money for cornets.I was reminded of Eddie and his intergalactic exploits while watching 'The Terrornauts' recently. It is a cheap sci-fi movie made by Amicus, the only British studio to rival Hammer in the '60's. After enjoying success with movies based on 'Dr.Who', Milton Subotsky and Max J.Rosenberg purchased the rights to a novel called 'The Wailing Asteroid' by Murray Leinster, hiring sci-fi author John Brunner to adapt it. It opens at the headquarters of 'Project Star Talk', whose purpose is to search for extra-terrestrial beings with a radio telescope. Dr.Joe Burke ( Simon Oates ), the head of the project, is told by his frosty superior ( Max Adrian ) that the funding will soon be stopped unless results are obtained soon. Well, wouldn't you know it, suddenly signals are being picked up from the heavens. A space ship uses a tractor beam to tear the project building out of the ground and transport it through space to an an alien vessel parked on an asteroid. As well as Burke, there is also his girlfriend Sandy ( Zena Marshall, 'Miss Taro' in 'Dr.No' ), another scientist played by Stanley Meadows, and - if you can believe this - Charles Hawtrey as an accountant named Joshua Yellowlees and Patricia Hayes as tea lady Mrs.Jones! The group are subjected to intelligence tests by a robot looking like a cross between a Dalek and an upturned ice cream cone. Passing the tests, they discover the real reason for their abduction - the Earth is about to be attacked by an alien race and only they can stop them! I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would. The cast helps, obviously. Oates went on to play 'Dr.John Ridge' in the B.B.C.'s sci-fi drama 'Doomwatch', and in a small role is Richard Carpenter, later to create the classic children's shows 'Catweazle' and 'The Ghosts Of Motley Hall'. The whole thing has an amateur look to it which I found endearing. The Terrornauts themselves are green-skinned creatures whose sense of gallantry is non-existent - as soon as Sandy arrives amongst them, they try and sacrifice her! The alien space fleet looks like a lot of Zoom ice lollies flying about in space. Having sat through umpteen mega-buck Hollywood bores, this unpretentious romp is the ideal antidote. It was directed by Monthgomery Tully, also responsible for another guilty sci-fi pleasure - 'Battle Beneath The Earth' ( 1967 ) in which the Red Chinese attempt to conquer America by means of underground tunnels full of atomic bombs.I don't know if Eddie ever saw this on television but I reckon he and his brother and sister could have pulled off a recreation with remarkable ease.

OK, I am a big Amicus fan and for years, I searched for this film, it was almost like the 'Holy Grail' for me, as far as Amicus films went. Finally, I received a copy of this film and let me just say, it didn't disappoint. The wonderful thing about this film is, it doesn't take itself seriously, it offers the purest form of entertainment and delivers. I do believe when the film began, it was to be a fully serious sci-fi effort, but once the film location changes to space, it's more camp and definitely a lot of fun. I just adore Mrs. Jones and Mr. Yellowlees, they bring a sense of fun to the film that it might never have enjoyed, without their characters. At times, the film has an almost; Dr. Who feel to it, with some of the creatures we see and the colors glow with the 60s look. I can't recommend this film as a serious sci-fi film, but if you're in the mood for innocent and enjoyable fun with a film, this is the film for you!

I was constantly surprised by where this film took me.Initially expecting the the alien spaceship to have hostile intentions against the Earth, it simply kidnaps some miscellaneous and startled astronomers and makes off with them. After that it is nothing like the usual: aliens attack earth, humans fight back but are losing, humans find a clever trick/weapon/chemical/virus and defeat evil aliens (or get soundly defeated and taken over by evil aliens).They are dumped into an alien base on an asteroid and the fun part is watching them work out where they are, and why. The ending is novel for its time, but a little tacky.I enjoyed the film very much for its novelty and surprises (not its very basic special effects). It was a "nice" film. It is probably very dated now but I haven't seen it for 30 years.