Battle in Outer Space
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is a 1959 Japanese
science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...
directed by
Ishirō Honda was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 44 feature films in a career spanning 59 years. The most internationally successful Japanese filmmaker prior to Hayao Miyazaki, his films have had a significant influence on the film industry. Honda enter ...
, with special effects by
Eiji Tsuburaya was a Japanese special effects director and cinematographer. Known as the he worked on 250 feature films in a career spanning 50 years. He is regarded as one of the co-creators of the ''Godzilla'' series, as well as the main creator of the ' ...
.


Plot

In 1965, a series of mysterious and devastating incidents are happening on Earth. These incidents range from a railroad bridge levitated off the ground causing a train wreck in Japan; an ocean liner lifted out of the
Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...
by a waterspout, destroying it; severe flooding in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
, Italy; and the destruction of the J-SS3 space station. A UN-connected international meeting is called at the Space Research Center in Japan. Major Ichiro Katsumiya, Professor Adachi and Dr. Richardson open the conference and describe the disasters, adding that the survivors suffered from extreme
frostbite Frostbite is a skin injury that occurs when exposed to extreme low temperatures, causing the freezing of the skin or other tissues, commonly affecting the fingers, toes, nose, ears, cheeks and chin areas. Most often, frostbite occurs in the han ...
. Dr. Richardson theorizes that some unknown force lowered the temperatures of the objects so as to lower the Earth's
gravitational pull In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...
, thus making the objects easier to lift, regardless of their size and weight. Katsumiya determines that such an action could only be accomplished by a force beyond the Earth. Dr. Ahmed, an Iranian delegate at the meeting, reacts as though suffering from a severe headache and slips away. Ahmed walks outside to a courtyard in a daze. Etsuko Shiraishi sees him and watches in horror as he is enveloped in a red light coming from the sky. Astronaut Iwamura comes in and Etsuko tells him what happened but Ahmed is nowhere to be seen. Back at the conference, it is believed that aliens might be behind the disasters and it is suggested that the Earth be prepared militarily. Dr. Ahmed appears and tries to sabotage the heat ray experiments held at the meeting. He is caught before completing his mission. He briefly takes Etsuko hostage and warns that the Earth will soon become a colony of the planet Natal. Ahmed's hand is injured and he makes a run for it. However, a Natal saucer appears near the center and vaporizes him, but forensics find a tiny
radio transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...
that was put in him. The transmissions locate the suspect aliens on the Moon. The UN decides to launch two rocket ships, called SPIPs, to the Moon on a reconnaissance mission. En route, both ships are attacked by remotely controlled meteors called 'space torpedoes'. Iwamura, the navigator of SPIP-1, is also under mind control by the aliens. He is caught trying to disable the rocket's weapons and is tied up. Both SPIPs avoid the meteors and are given a warning by the Natal not to land on the Moon, but it is ignored. Once the rockets land on the Moon, the two teams look for the alien base in
lunar rovers A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration Rover (space exploration), vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo Program's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15 ...
. Meanwhile, Iwamura has untied himself and blown up SPIP-1. They find a cave on foot and locate the Natal base in a deep crater. Etsuko is temporarily captured by the Natal but is rescued by Katsumiya. A beam weapon battle erupts as the teams attack the base. The Natal base is destroyed, freeing Iwamura from the aliens' mind control. Feeling guilty, Iwamura stays behind to give covering fire, allowing the SPIP-2 to escape. Back on Earth, the world prepares for a final conflict against the Natal. Rocket Fighter Planes (based on the
North American X-15 The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft. It was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set speed an ...
experimental rocket plane) and Atomic Heat Cannons are built to counter the invasion fleet. Eventually, the Natal saucers and their mothership approach Earth. Squadrons of Scout Ships (converted into Space Fighters) are sent up into space and engage in a massive dogfight with the saucers. The Natal mothership launches Space Torpedoes that hit New York and
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. The mothership descends upon Tokyo and lays the metropolis to waste with its anti-gravity ray. The remaining saucers and mothership advance on the Space Research Center. But the Atomic Heat Cannons finally destroy the mothership and Earth is saved.


Production


Writing

Developed as a story proposal in 1957 by Jojiro Okami,
Shinichi Sekizawa was a Japanese screenwriter noted for his immense contributions to several films by Ishirō Honda, including several classic Godzilla films. He also contributed material to the original ''Ultraman (1966 TV series), Ultraman'' series and several T ...
later wrote four script drafts for the film. Though the characters of Dr. Adachi. Dr. Immerman, and Etsuko (the same names of characters that appear prominently in ''
The Mysterians is a 1957 Japanese tokusatsu science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film begins with a giant fissure destroying an entire village. This leads to an investigation whereby the source is disc ...
'' exist in the finished film, it is believed in the first draft they were to be the exact same characters as those from The Mysterians carried over. This element was likely present in the story pitch by Jojiro Okami, who had gotten the ball rolling with The Mysterians as well. Apparently, the final script just kept the names and they are not meant to be the same characters. In the second draft of the screenplay, instead of the alien’s controlling Dr. Achmed, shadowy alien specters infiltrated the space center and were spying on the conference. In one scene, Etsuko is working in her office and is startled by the appearance of a specter-like alien spy. When the alien leaves the room her paper work flies all over the place. In another scene, Katsumiya spots what appears a small tree outside his quarters, but is in fact another alien spy. One of the alien spy’s was to appear before the conference meeting. These ideas were scrapped because it would have required several optical effects, so it was decided that the aliens would use mind control on humans to do their dirty work to save money. In one of the original scripts, there were scenes where the crew-members eat their meals in a cafeteria on the rocketship. In the battle with the space torpedo’s the plates and food were to be tossed all over. Storyboards for an unused scene had the human astronauts spot a flying saucer go through a tunnel leading them to the alien base. Originally the Natarl attack the Earth's forces with their own land based vehicles on the moon. These vehicles, which reassembled yellow pill bugs with antennas, did not make it into the final version and instead the Natarl flying saucers appear during this sequence to attack. Originally in one of the early drafts, the
Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...
and
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
were to be destroyed in a fairly major effects scene, but it was decided to save money by using paintings. Early designs for the Natarl aliens were insectoid, as they had six tentacle-like arms and only one eye. In an early version of the story that is illustrated in the storyboards had a more interesting version of the encounter with the Natarl base. Instead of the astronauts keeping their distance and avoiding direct contact with the aliens, Katsumiya takes a strike team inside the Natarl base and succeeds destroying it from within. However, the imagery was totally reminiscent of the alien base from The Mysterians (1957).and building extra sets would have been too costly and repetitive. In an earlier draft of the script the Natarl Mothership’s anti-gravity beam was used to destroy the
Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "'' ...
in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, the
Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty, Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of th ...
in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, and the
Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...
. But in the end the anti-gravity beam is used for Tokyo. In the original scenario, a signal Natarl flying saucer destroyed
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
with the anti-gravity ray instead of the mothership. The original plan was that the alien mothership would never approach the Earth, however this was changed by Eiji Tsuburaya during shooting.


Filming

The exterior shots for the Space Research Center was the National Sports Center built for the Tokyo Olympiad in 1964. Interior shots were shot on sets back at Toho. The slow motion, gravity stricken walk of the cast on the moon was an idea from actor Yoshio Tsuchiya. Actor Ryo Ikebe uncharacteristically protested, declaring it was "just a movie" at the idea of the slow motion walk. However, Ishiro Honda ended up siding with Tsuchiya. The incident did not sour Ikebe, though, who worked again with Honda a few years later on ''
Gorath is a 1962 Japanese epic science fiction disaster film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Based on an idea by Jojiro Okami, the film is about mankind's efforts to move Earth out of its orbit to prevent it from ...
'' (1962). When
Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...
landed on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
on July 20, 1969, ten years after this film was released, Eiji Tsuburaya watched the “Great Leap for Mankind” on live television. Shortly afterword’s, he later told Sadamasa Arikawa, “We were right, our special effects team did a great job. Now, we can hold our heads before the public.”


Special effects

At the beginning of the film, we see three flying saucers traveling though space while the credits roll across the screen. These scenes were taken with the camera platform and the saucers attached to a overhead rail that move them both along at the same speed past the outer space backdrop. The tunnel in the ray gun test chamber was achieved by using a backdrop painting done in forced prospective making it look like an endless tunnel. To film the two SPIP rocketships flying up into the sky, the two six-foot miniatures were radio-controlled and launched from under a bridge suspended 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground at Miura Point, connecting the cities of Miura City and Joyga-shima. For the miniature wire-work, it was the job of Fumio Nakashiro, who used thin piano wires ranging from 0.1, 0.2 and 0.25 millimeters. They were painted to blend in with the background of outer space, but when they could be seen when it was a sky background. Sometimes you can see the wires shimmering in the light. The air jets effects for the moon rovers was created using a water spray. To simulate buildings being torn and thrown up into the air, miniatures were mostly made of lightweight materials such as cardboard, wafer-thin paraffin, gypsum and Styrofoam which was pre-cut and assembled. Some pieces were trained on the miniature set, blowing everything upwards thanks to multiple compressed air tanks underneath the set. The soldiers falling upward was achieved with a camera moving over the actors, and then superimposing them over the miniature action via a traveling matte.


Release

''Battle in Outer Space'' was released in Japan on 26 December 1959. It was released in the United States in an English-dubbed version by
Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
in 1960 where it was a double feature with ''
12 to the Moon ''12 to the Moon'' is a 1960 independent film, independently made American black-and-white science fiction film, produced and written by Fred Gebhardt, directed by David Bradley (director), David Bradley and starring Ken Clark (actor), Ken Clark, ...
''.


Reception

''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' film critic Howard Thompson gave ''Battle in Outer Space'' a mixed, but generally positive review, stating, "The plot is absurd and is performed in dead earnest... some of the artwork is downright nifty, especially in the middle portion, when an earth rocket soars to the moon to destroy the palpitating missile base... the Japanese have opened a most amusing and beguiling bag of technical tricks, as death-dealing saucers whiz through the stratosphere... and the lunar landscape is just as pretty as it can be." ''
Boxoffice ''Boxoffice Pro'' is a film industry magazine dedicated to the movie theatre business published by BoxOffice Media LP. History It started in 1920 as ''The Reel Journal'', taking the name ''Boxoffice'' in 1931 and still publishes today, with ...
'' magazine rated the film much more highly, hailing it a "science-fiction adventure drama on a grand scale... and spectacular special effects... can be exploited to attract the youngsters and mature action fans in huge numbers. Like similar Japanese-made thrillers, 'Rodan', 'H-Man' and 'The Mysterians' (all produced by Toho), this can pay off boxoffice-wise if exhibitors stress the amazingly realistic trick photography of flying saucers, moon exploration and a full-scale attack on U.S. cities which results in skyscrapers being destroyed, etc..." and makes note of the film's "explosive action, of which there is plenty, particularly in the climactic battle..." ''Boxoffice'' also cited Shinichi Sekizawa's "imaginative screenplay.""Feature Reviews" section. ''Boxoffice''. June 13, 1960.


References


Footnotes


Sources

*


Bibliography

* Ragone, August (2007, 2014
''Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters''
San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. .


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle In Outer Space 1950s science fiction films 1950s monster movies 1959 films Toho films Films scored by Akira Ifukube Alien invasions in films Films about astronauts Films directed by Ishirō Honda Films produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka Films set in 1965 Films set in Tokyo Films set in the future Japanese science fiction action films 1950s Japanese-language films Moon in film Space adventure films Toho tokusatsu films Godzilla (franchise) Films with screenplays by Shinichi Sekizawa 1950s English-language films 1950s Japanese films