thisisatest Wrote:Steve D

AC and I made a bet about this movie. He thinks it's a Quartermass series movie, while I say it's a Hammer movie. I just found this:

Hammer Films recognized a successful product in the Quatermass stories. They first produced The Quatermass Xperiment in 1955, adapted from Nigel Kneale's BBC TV series which ran in 1953. Hammer wanted to produce a sequel, but could not get permission to use the Quatermass name. They produced X The Unknown earlier in 1957, which was a Quatermass-style story but without the Quatermass character. In 1955, Kneale's Quatermass 2 TV series ran -- perhaps the first sequel to actually use a number. Hammer bought the movie rights to it. They condensed down the 3 hours (6 half-hour episodes) into an hour and a half feature film. In it's American release, it was retitled "Enemy From Space." Quatermass 2 (Q2) is a rather good B sci-fi movie, combining the alien-takeover theme with the mass invasion theme reminiscent of War of the Worlds.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Mysterious objects are falling over eastern England. Professor Quatermass, whose rocket and moon base program have been scraped by the government, is in a foul mood. Curious, he and his assistant, Marsh, travel to small village of Winnerden Flats to investigate. They find only ruins and a huge processing plant that is supposedly producing synthetic food. The plant that looks suspiciously similar to Quatermass's own proposed moon base. Marsh finds one of the objects. It bursts and he is taken ill. Storm troopers arrive and carry away Marsh. Quatermass (Q, for short) drives to a nearby working class town for help, but they're all construction workers at the plant and refuse. Q asks Inspector Lomax for help. He puts Q in touch with an MP named Broadhead who arranges for a tour of the plant. Q escapes the trap and finds Broadhead covered in black acidic goo. He dies. Q escapes and tells Lomax. They return to the worker's village to learn more. Just before being nearly ejected by angry workers, a capsule falls into the pub, infecting the local beauty. Troopers arrive, shoot a reporter trying to call in the story, and take Sheila away. The enraged workers decide to storm the plant. Meanwhile, Q has infiltrated the plant wearing a dead soldier's uniform. Inside, he sees that the domes contain writhing gooey aliens. The soldiers are about to get him when the workers storm the gate, calling away all hands. The workers succeed and take one of the pressure control rooms. Q has them switch the gasses from ammonia to oxygen -- toxic to the creatures. After a tense siege, the workers fire an anti-tank weapon at the dome. It blows up, releasing several huge gooey blob creatures. These set about stomping the plant. Q's rocket finally hits the aliens' orbiting mother ship. The creatures fall over dead and burst into flames. The world is safe...for now... The End.

Okay, who wins the bet?