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WD_472/ 2010
(  Satoshi Kinoshita )
| Series: | Works on paper: Drawings 5 | | Medium: | oilstick on paper | | Size (inches): | 39.8 x 28.1 | | Size (mm): | 1012 x 713 | | Catalog #: | WD_0472 | | Description: | Signed, date and copyright in pencil on the reverse.
"There's no limit to what he can do. He could destroy the earth... If anything should happen to me you must go to Gort, you must say these words, "Klaatu barada nikto", please repeat that." - Klaatu
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaatu_barada_nikto
Klaatu barada nikto -
"Klaatu barada nikto" is a phrase originating from the science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). "Klaatu" is the name of the humanoid alien protagonist in the film. Klaatu (Michael Rennie) commanded Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) that, were anything to happen to him, she must utter the phrase to the robot Gort. In response, Gort relented from destroying the Earth and resurrected Klaatu from death.[1]
In the 2008 remake of the movie, Helen Benson never learns the phrase. Instead, Klaatu uses it near the beginning of the movie to shut down Gort after he was shot, and again at the end when he touches the sphere and stops the destruction of the earth.
No translation of the phrase was stated in the film. Philosophy professor Aeon J. Skoble speculates the famous phrase is a safeword that is part of a fail-safe feature used during the diplomatic missions such as the one Klaatu and Gort make to Earth. With the use of the safe-word, Gort's deadly force can be deactivated in the event the robot is mistakenly triggered into a defensive posture. Skoble observes that the theme has evolved into a "staple of science fiction that the machines charged with protecting us from ourselves will misuse or abuse their power".[2] In this interpretation, the phrase apparently tells Gort that Klaatu considers escalation unnecessary.
The Robot Hall of Fame describes the phrase as "one of the most famous commands in science fiction"[3] and Frederick S. Clarke of Cinefantastique called it "the most famous phrase ever spoken by an extraterrestrial."[4]
Since the release of the movie, the phrase has appeared repeatedly in fiction and in popular culture. Some examples include:
* 1982: the words are seen in the film Tron, posted on a sign hanging in Alan Bradley's cubicle (27:20). [5]
* In the 1984 comedy The Foreigner by playwright Larry Shue, the title character, a science fiction proofreader, speaks the phrase in order to trick and rout members of the Ku Klux Klan.
* In the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, two of Jabba the Hutt's skiff guards reference this phrase: one guard is an alien of the Nikto species named Klaatu, and another is an alien of the Klatooinian species, named Barada. [6]
* In the film Toys, the character Leland Zevo speaks the phrase to stop a rampaging robotic sea creature he calls the "Seaswine". [7]
* In the film Army of Darkness, Ash has to speak similar words in order to retrieve the Necronomicon but fails to remember it properly ("Klaatu... verata... n... Necktie. Nectar. Nickel. Noodle."). In the end he speaks the words again after consuming a potion, allowing him to return to his era. The words were altered from their original use because their meaning was unclear in the original.[8]
* The June 7, 1994, edition of the now-defunct supermarket tabloid Weekly World News reported that 12 U.S. Senators were aliens from other planets, including Alan K. Simpson. Then-Senator Simpson's spokesman Charles Pelkey, when asked about Simpson's galactic origins, told the Associated Press: "We've got only one thing to say: Klaatu barada nikto."[9]
* As an Easter egg, the web browser Mozilla Firefox 3 (as well as some other browsers using Mozilla's Gecko layout engine) uses the phrase as the title of the page about:robots.
* In the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, this line was added at Keanu Reeves' insistence as he wanted to speak the famous line. Klaatu uses it near the beginning of the movie to shut down Gort after he was shot, and again at the end when he touches the sphere. Although the line is not in the English subtitles, it can be heard.
References:
1. ^ Pomerance, Murray (2006). Cinema and Modernity. Rutgers University Press. p. 125. ISBN 0813538165.
2. ^ Skoble, Aeon J. (2007). "Technology and Ethics in The Day the Earth Stood Still". in Steven M. Sanders. The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813124727.
3. ^ "The Robot Hall of Fame: Gort". 2006 Inductees: Gort. Carnegie Mellon University. 2006. http://www.robothalloffame.org/06inductees/gort.html. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
4. ^ Clarke, Frederick S. (1970). Cinefantastique: 2.
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaatu_barada_nikto
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 film) -
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 American black-and-white science-fiction film that tells the story of a humanoid alien visitor who comes to Earth with a warning. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, and Hugh Marlowe, under the direction of Robert Wise. Screenwriter Edmund H. North based the screenplay on the 1940 Harry Bates' short story "Farewell to the Master". The score was composed by Bernard Herrmann and used two theremin electronic instruments.
Plot:
A flying saucer lands on the Ellipse in President's Park, Washington, D.C. Its pilot Klaatu (Michael Rennie) emerges and declares he has come on a mission of goodwill. When he opens a small, menacing-looking device, he is shot and wounded by a nervous soldier. In response, a large humanoid robot called Gort steps out of the ship and disintegrates all weapons present without harming the soldiers. Klaatu orders him to stop and remarks that the device he carried was a gift for the President. Klaatu is taken to an army hospital, where he recovers. The military attempts to enter Klaatu's ship, but finds it impregnable, while Gort stands motionless outside.
Klaatu meets the President's secretary, Harley (Frank Conroy), and reveals he has a message he wants the whole world to hear, to which Harley replies that the divided world leaders would not even be able to agree on a meeting place. When Klaatu suggests he live among ordinary people to get to know them better, Harley informs him that he is in protective custody.
Klaatu escapes to a boarding house, assuming the alias "Mr. Carpenter". Among the residents are Helen Benson (Patricia Neal), a widow whose husband was killed in World War II, and her son Bobby (Billy Gray). At breakfast the next morning, Klaatu listens to a paranoid radio commentator and to the boarders' speculations about his flying saucer.
While Helen and her boyfriend, Tom Stephens (Hugh Marlowe), go on a day trip, Bobby takes Klaatu on a tour of the city, including a visit to his father's grave in Arlington National Cemetery, where Klaatu is dismayed to learn that most of those buried there were killed in wars.
The two then visit the Lincoln Memorial and the heavily guarded spaceship. Klaatu, impressed by the inscription of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, is hopeful that Earth may harbor people wise enough to understand his message. When he asks Bobby to name the greatest person living in the world, Bobby suggests a leading American scientist, Professor Jacob Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), who lives nearby.
Bobby takes Klaatu to Barnhardt's home. The professor is absent, but Klaatu leaves his address with the housekeeper, and he writes the solution to an advanced mathematical problem on a blackboard as a means of introducing himself to the professor.
Later, government agents escort Klaatu to see Barnhardt. Klaatu introduces himself and warns the professor that the people of the other planets are concerned for their own safety because human beings have developed atomic power.
As the meeting with Barnhardt progresses, Klaatu declares that, if his message is rejected, "Planet Earth will be eliminated." Barnhardt agrees to arrange a meeting of scientists at Klatuu's ship. Barnhardt then asks Klaatu to provide a demonstration of his power as a warning; something that everyone will notice, but not cause harm to anyone. Klaatu returns to his spaceship the next evening to implement the demonstration, unaware that Bobby has followed him.
Bobby tells Helen and Tom what he has seen. At first, they do not believe him, but Tom finds a diamond on the floor of Klaatu's room, and the following day, a jeweler tells him it is unique.
Klaatu finds Helen at her workplace. She leads him to an unoccupied elevator which stops suddenly. Klaatu admits he is responsible, tells Helen his true identity, and asks for her help. A montage sequence shows that Klaatu has executed his demonstration: He has neutralized electric power everywhere, with exceptions for human safety, making the world "stand still" for half an hour.
After the blackout ends, the manhunt for Klaatu intensifies and Tom tells the authorities of his suspicions. Helen and Klaatu take a taxi to Barnhardt's home; en route, Klaatu tells Helen that if anything should happen to him, she must go to Gort and say, "Klaatu barada nikto." When they are spotted, Klaatu is shot dead.
Helen goes to the spaceship and approaches Gort, who awakens and kills two guards before Helen can give him Klaatu's message. Gort gently carries her into the spaceship, leaves and returns with Klaatu's corpse, and revives him.
Klaatu steps out of the spaceship and addresses the assembled scientists, explaining that humanity's penchant for violence and first steps into space have caused concern among other spacefaring worlds, who have created a race of robot enforcers including Gort to stifle aggression. He warns that if the people of Earth threaten to extend their violence into space, then the robots will destroy Earth, adding that "The decision rests with you." He enters the spaceship and departs.
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still_(1951_film)
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