# "Day the Earth Stood Still" remake - a 'save the earth' diatribe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046 "2008-12-06T22:08:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DirkGntly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/1 "2008-12-06T22:08:12Z")
Well, I’ve been keeping my eye on the previews…looks like instead of nuclear annihilation, they’ve decided that man’s inhumanity to the planet is the bugaboo this time… …anyone else wanna make a guess as to what the point will be with this one? ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/2 "2008-12-06T22:33:48Z")
Keanu Reeves is a representative of an extraterrestrial vegetable species, sent to rescue his brother trees here on Earth. So he’ll probably be pushing that agenda in this new movie, too. “Gort! Klaatu barada chestnut!” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/3 "2008-12-06T22:43:44Z")
> [@DirkGntly](#): > > …anyone else wanna make a guess as to what the point will be with this one? “He learned too late that man is a feeling creature…” Seems like a good moral for any crappy alien visitation movie. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/4 "2008-12-06T22:47:02Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > “He learned too late that man is a feeling creature…” > > Seems like a good moral for any crappy alien visitation movie. Sounds more like the moral would be, “Don’t let strange men feel your creatures.” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/5 "2008-12-06T22:57:53Z")
> [@DirkGntly](#): > > Well, I’ve been keeping my eye on the previews…looks like instead of nuclear annihilation, they’ve decided that man’s inhumanity to the planet is the bugaboo this time… > > …anyone else wanna make a guess as to what the point will be with this one? Wouldn’t the original’s nuclear annihilation plot line also be a “save the Earth” diatribe? It seems to me that it doesn’t much matter what the threat to the Earth is, you just need to have something that gives the aliens a pretext for showing up and telling us all what jerks we are. Nukes v. carbon emissions is just details. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/6 "2008-12-06T23:06:39Z")
I don’t think (at least to my recollection) that the aliens in the first one cares if we destroyed our own planet but rather were just concerned we not go about doing it in such a way that could intrude violently on them and the peaceful society they’d created. Stopping us from cooking our own planet would be a bit more altruistic. That said, there’s a line in the trailer where somebody says “our planet” and Reeves respondes “you’re planet?” which leads me to suspect that they are intervening on behalf of other life on Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/7 "2008-12-06T23:10:22Z")
“Klaatu Barada NGGHH!” ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/8 "2008-12-06T23:15:39Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Wouldn’t the original’s nuclear annihilation plot line also be a “save the Earth” diatribe? It seems to me that it doesn’t much matter what the threat to the Earth is, you just need to have something that gives the aliens a pretext for showing up and telling us all what jerks we are. Nukes v. carbon emissions is just details. That’s true. The original is pretty preachy, so we shouldn’t hold the remake to higher standards on that front. But that said, the aliens in the original had a rational self-interested reason to come to Earth. They weren’t simply offended us making war on one another, they were afraid that if we continued on our current warlike path we may someday be a threat to them, once we mastered space travel and started making even deadlier weapons. So they’re nipping the potential human threat in the bud, by putting us under the same rules they themselves live by. The fact that in doing so they’re also saving us from ourselves is just gravy. It’s harder to think of a reason why the aliens would care about the anthropogenic environmental damage to earth besides some kind of interstellar busibodiness. Maybe the film found one, but I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/9 "2008-12-06T23:32:18Z")
Today at Target I noticed that the 1951 movie’s been released in a nice two-disc DVD, with extras such as a historical commentary track, and featurettes about Harry Bates, flying saucers and science fiction. $15. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/10 "2008-12-06T23:33:23Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > That said, there’s a line in the trailer where somebody says “our planet” and Reeves respondes “you’re planet?” which leads me to suspect that they are intervening on behalf of other life on Earth. I think he was saying “Your planet?”, which would make more sense. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/11 "2008-12-07T00:18:11Z")
I thought he would play Gort. But what the hell is wrong with a message of peace that scares you people so much. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/12 "2008-12-07T00:23:34Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > They weren’t simply offended us making war on one another, they were afraid that if we continued on our current warlike path we may someday be a threat to them, once we mastered space travel and started making even deadlier weapons. But if we annihilated ourselves with said nuclear weapons (as anyone in that era would reasonably expect to be the outcome), why would that matter? ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/13 "2008-12-07T00:41:30Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > It’s harder to think of a reason why the aliens would care about the anthropogenic environmental damage to earth besides some kind of interstellar busibodiness. Maybe the film found one, but I’m not sure. In David Brin’s Uplift series, ecological crimes against planets are severely punished by the galactic civilization, as fallow planets are seen as resources of upliftable new citizen-species of the galactic civilization. So it is not as if that reason hasn’t been explored by sci-fi already. Mind you, I suspect the film will be quite dreadful. Just not for that reason. Shame, since I’d quite like if John Hamm got in a good movie so he’d be likely to keep on doing more. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/14 "2008-12-07T00:48:33Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > But if we annihilated ourselves with said nuclear weapons (as anyone in that era would reasonably expect to be the outcome), why would that matter? Not having read the book, I’d assume that it’s not the extremes that the aliens were worried about, where the humans kill themselves or have a “stop or die” epiphany. Maybe they could just wait for the humans to kill themselves, but that means taking the risk that they might master space travel before they implode. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/15 "2008-12-07T03:57:01Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Not having read the book, I’d assume that it’s not the extremes that the aliens were worried about, where the humans kill themselves or have a “stop or die” epiphany. Maybe they could just wait for the humans to kill themselves, but that means taking the risk that they might master space travel before they implode. The book (short story, really) doesn’t explain why the aliens came, other than perhaps for exploration. The master of the ship does seem to be curious about life on Earth and experiments with it. Though there is a lot of concern by humans that the aliens will be upset that the first thing that happened when they came is that someone attacked them. Note that the story’s title is “Farewell to the Master” and this new movie appears to be a remake of the movie, not another adaptation. ---
**Author:** ![Nicest\_of\_the\_Damned](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8baadc/32.png) [@Nicest\_of\_the\_Damned](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nicest_of_the_Damned)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/16 "2008-12-07T07:26:49Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > Keanu Reeves is a representative of an extraterrestrial vegetable species… “An intellectual carrot? The mind boggles!” ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/17 "2008-12-07T07:55:04Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > That said, there’s a line in the trailer where somebody says “our planet” and Reeves respondes “you’re planet?” … proving he can’t even act in plain text. Wh’o’a. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/18 "2008-12-07T08:08:55Z")
From the press kit: > [@20th Century Fox](#): > > In THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, a contemporary reinvention of the 1951 science fiction classic, renowned scientist Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) finds herself face to face with an alien called Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), who travels across the universe to warn of an impending global crisis. > When forces beyond Helen’s control treat the extraterrestrial as a hostile and deny his request to address the world’s leaders, she and her estranged stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith) quickly > discover the deadly ramifications of Klaatu’s claim that he is “a friend to the Earth.” Now Helen must find a way to convince the entity who was sent to destroy us that > mankind is worth saving – but it may be too late. > … > As re-conceived by screenwriter David Scarpa and director Scott Derrickson, the premise for the 2008 version of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is rooted not in man’s violence against man, but in mankind’s destruction of the Earth’s environment. “I’m a tremendous fan of the original film,” Derrickson says. “It was so interesting and original and progressive for its time – in the visual effects, in the way it commented on the Cold War tensions of that era, in the idea of seeing humanity from an outsider’s perspective. It’s a truly great film, but most modern audiences haven’t seen it. I feel like people deserve to know this story, and this was a fantastic opportunity to retell it in a way that addresses the issues and conflicts that are affecting us now.” > … > As the representative of a group of alien civilizations that have suffered their own painful evolution in the wake of cataclysmic climate change, Klaatu travels to Earth with the intention of exterminating what he and his peers view as an imminent threat to a planet that is too uniquely abundant to be compromised. “The situation has reached a crisis point where the life of the planet itself is at stake because the humans are killing it,” Reeves says. “Klaatu comes to Earth to assess whether or not human beings are capable of changing their behavior, or if ‘the problem’ needs to be eliminated.” ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-a-save-the-earth-diatribe/476046/19 "2008-12-07T09:28:48Z")
I’ve been watching these ads & thinking, “Don’t do it, Klaatu!” I just know the humans are going to persuade him not to destroy them, & really he should just get rid of mankind so the elephants can evolve a civilization & do it properly.