Doomsday Machine (1972 film)

Doomsday Machine
Directed by	Harry Hope, Lee Sholem
Release date(s)	1972
Country	United States and Hong Kong
Language	English

Doomsday Machine, also known as Escape from Planet Earth (video title) is a 1972 American and Hong Kong science fiction film.^[1]

Plot

A spy discovers that the Chinese government have created a device capable of destroying the Earth. Soon after, Astra – a mission to Venus – has half of the male flight crew replaced by women shortly before take-off, including one Russian at the height of the Cold War. After leaving Earth, the seven crew members of Astra deduce that they have been put together to restart the human race should the Chinese activate their device. Shortly after this, the device goes off and Earth is destroyed.

As Astra continues to Venus, the crew realizes that a safe landing on Venus is impossible unless the crew is reduced to three. One of the crew members tries to rape another, at which point she accidentally gets them both blown out of an airlock.

Two more crew-members – an American astronaut and the female Russian – are lost as they head out to repair a fault with the spaceship using a crowbar and what looks like a bazooka. However, they notice another spacecraft conveniently nearby and jump to it. The second craft proves to be a lost Soviet ship. Though its pilot is dead, the astronauts successfully power up the Soviet ship. Before the two ships can rendezvous, contact with Astra is lost. A disembodied voice cuts in, claiming to be the collective consciousness of the Venusian population. The voice informs the survivors in the Russian ship that Astra no longer exists, and that no humans will be allowed to reach Venus. It gives a cryptic message about a life beyond the universe, before the movie abruptly concludes.

Production errors

Production of Doomsday Machine began in 1969, but the film was not completed until 1972. Sloppy production standards have made the film a favorite for buffs of bad cinema. Excessive use of stock footage is painfully obvious, including real (but badly degraded) NASA rocket footage, special effects shots from The Wizard of Mars (1965), Gorath (1962) and other disparate sources, leading to numerous continuity errors. Among persistent errors is the external appearance of the Astra, which inexplicably changes throughout the film. The painfully protracted last segment of the story – with an American and Russian astronaut boarding a derelict Soviet spacecraft – was obviously shot after the unfinished principal photography without either one of the characters' original actors. They stay in their spacesuits, which are noticeably different from those seen in the immediately preceding scenes and whose helmets have mysteriously become opaque, concealing their faces; their voices are completely different from that heard in the rest of the film, the Russian no longer even having an accent.

In popular culture

• The film is the second film riffed in the Cinematic Titanic series.

References

1. ^ HKcinemamagic.com

External links

• Doomsday Machine at the Internet Movie Database
• Doomsday Machine is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/doomsday-machine/