The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Schedule
Wed, 08 Oct, 2025 at 07:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
Tampa Theatre | Tampa, FL
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1h 32m / G / Sci-Fi, DramaTRAILER:
VENUE: Historic Duncan Auditorium
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A flying saucer lands on the National Mall in Washington D.C. and its inhabitants — one silent, enormous and menacing, the other looking like your dad in a glittery jumpsuit — declare they are here for peace and well-being, and so we immediately shoot them. The movie contains within itself its own parody. As the human-looking one (Klaatu, played by Michael Rennie) heals and makes an international tour trying to get scientific geniuses to listen to him, the other one simply stands a vigil, dematerializing anybody who tries to mess with him. They have a message of warning about nuclear weapons. Will the world listen?
The Day the Earth Stood Still is born of a unique moment — one of the very few times the Earth has all stood still was in recent memory, the dropping of the first nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the consequences of that act were still spooling out in the imagination. In 1954, Godzilla is released, serving as Japan’s fictional contention with the unthinkable power of atomic weapons. This was one of the U.S.’s first such contentions. We now have the power to end everything. Wouldn’t it be nice if somebody could keep that from happening? Somebody more powerful, more wise, more compassionate than us?
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Part of both our October "Big Picture: Science Fiction Creature Features" and 2025 A Nightmare on Franklin Street horror series. View the full lineup at https://tampatheatre.org/movie-categories/nightmare/
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Where is it happening?
Tampa Theatre, 707 N Franklin St, Tampa, FL 33602-4400, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
