The Day the Earth Stood Still corrections

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - 10 corrections

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The man from Mars is in an elevator with a woman when the power goes out. He tells her he cut the electricity and gas powered engines all over the world for a half an hour. They proceed to show clips of the power out in different parts of the world. When they get to Big Ben in London, you can see a motorboat cruising down the river in the background. [In 1950, there were hundreds of oil, coal or even wood fired steam powered boats on the Thames.]

In the elevator, when the electricity comes on again, Klaatu says that the time should be 12:30; Helen checks her watch and confirms this. It's understandable that he left hospitals and planes with electricity, but he also made sure that people would know what time it was? [Why wouldn't he? It would certainly add to the fear and paranoia for people to see that the aliens can pick and choose what to stop.] Corrected by MovieGuy

When Gort emerges from the spaceship and walks down the runway, as he walks, wrinkles and bends are quite visibly made in his 'metal' body. This happens in later parts of the movie as well. [When in the film is it ever stated that Gort is made of rigid metal? How would he walk if he was? It is obviously some futuristic super-durable plastic, which flexes and bends as he walks, as Kevlar does.]

Gort kills two soldiers guarding him with his death ray without moving an inch. A few seconds later, Patricia Neal shows-up and the robot decides to chase her first and then almost use his death ray. Was it her skirt or the perfume that got Gort to move? [She wasn't armed. There is a vague hint that Gort and Klaatu were telepathically linked, and it may have required "exposing" the laser for Gort to establish that Patricia's intent was not hostile.]

How was it possible for Klaatu, posing as Mr Carpenter to take a room in a guest house without paying any money as a deposit? Surely it is the norm to pay in advance before being given a room? [It's a guest house, similar to a bed-and-breakfast. They have weekly and daily rates, but I've never heard of one charging a deposit.]

When Klatuu is running away from the cab, the soldier shoots him in the back. When Gort brings him to the spaceship, we see blood on the left FRONT of his coat. [The bullet probably went all the way through him so he would have blood on the front. Later in the spaceship after he's brought back to life, you can see the two bullet holes in his back.]

When Klaatu is in the hospital his room number changes. Instead of the 3 it becomes an 8. [I watched over and over, and never saw the room number change.]

Klaatu states that he traveled 250 million miles. Yet, the nearest stars are trillions of miles away. Scientist at the time knew that Mars and Venus were unlikely to harbor life. [While not strictly accurate, this was expected terminology for films at that time.]

Klaatu neutralizes the electricity all over the world for 30 minutes at high noon Washington DC time. The Sun however was shining brightly in England and Russia at that same moment in the film. [This is possible, if the scene relates to the middle of summer then noon Washington DC time is 5pm in the UK and 8pm USSR time so it's quite possible to be bright and sunny - sunset in late June is around 9pm in London and 10pm in Moscow.]

Klaatu supposedly neutralised all the electricity on the Earth for 30 minutes, which would explain why gasoline-powered cars would stop, because the spark plugs wouldn't work. Diesel engines (used in many trucks and buses shown in the film), however, don't use sparkplugs, so they would keep running. [Diesel engines still need an electric pump to draw the fuel from the tank up to the injectors.]