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9:07 p.m. - 2019-07-17 One of the first movies to connect the atomic age with movie monsters, "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms," based on a Ray Bradbury short story, was also Ray Harryhausen's first solo stop action special effects effort, following his apprenticeship and collaboration with Willis O'Brien of "King Kong" fame. Twentieth century science, responsible for the monster's release, finally proves its value in the end as an unnamed radioactive isotope becomes the source of the creature's destruction. The idea of science being simultaneously a force for good and evil is echoed in later films such as "Them!" (1954) and "Godzilla" (1954), and the partnership between scientists and the military was seen earlier in "The Thing from Another World" (1951), also set in the Arctic, and also featuring Kenneth Tobey as a military officer. Professor Thurgood Elson, the eccentric paleontologist, can be viewed as a forerunner of Professor Harold Medford, the myrmecologist in "Them!" Early posters advertising "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" showed it breathing fire, and--though this idea was dropped from the actual movie--it might have inspired the blazing exhalations of Godzilla the following year. Finally, the idea of the creature's blood being toxic presages the acid blood of the creature in "Alien" (1979). While the importance of the film in the development of science fiction movie monsters is hard to dispute, its scientific basis is on somewhat shakier ground. The creature, called a Rhedosaurus, has no basis in paleontological fact, though it appears to be a sort of quadrupedal T Rex. We are told that it is a 200 foot carnivore, which would make it approximately twice the size of any known dinosaur. Argentinosaurus huinculensis, a sauropod, is estimated to have been between 100 and 130 feet long. The largest known carnivorous dinosaur to date is Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, best known to movie fans as the predator in "Jurassic Park III" (2001), which measured about 50 feet in length. Interestingly, Spinosaurus is also believed to have been capable of swimming, an important trait of Rhedosaurus in the 1953 movie. The reference to 20,000 fathoms is also difficult to defend scientifically, since that depth would correspond to more than 22 miles, and the deepest known part of the ocean is about 6.8 miles. And it hardly seems necessary to mention that a creature remaining in a state of hibernation for millions of years has no precedent in fact. Nevertheless, these scientific flaws seem mild compared to the groundbreaking plot, the spectacular Ray Harryhausen special effects, and the skeptical but fair-minded questioning of the role of science in modern civilization. It is definitely a movie worth seeing for any fan of film science fiction and horror.
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