Last night I went to watch the movie “The Day The Earth Stood Still”, starring Keanu Reaves.
I’ve heard people mentioning about it but I’ve never actually taken the effort to read more about it prior to watching the movie. So you can say that when I was in the cinemas, I was clueless on what I was up for.
The story begins with a random ice climber (Keanu Reaves) stumbling upon an alien spherical object which the object obtains a DNA sample of him. You probably won’t realise this until later on in the movie. It’s quite random and not really well explained.
Then moving forward to the present time, a similar spherical object but probably 100x larger accelerates as a speed of 3×107 ms-1 from outer spaces heading towards earth. As the Americans prepare for an imminent collision, the object suddenly slows down and lands on a park.
An alien then reveals itself publicly and the US military shoots in with the justification, “Shoot first, find out later”. The alien was then treated for the gunshot wound but then later discovered that the alien was actually wearing some high tech armor suit with a human inside of it.
Well, the alien takes in the form of a human, with the random ice climber’s DNA sample. And of course, the US military tries to defend itself by trying to figure out what it’s motives and intentions are and are also willing to use force if necessary.
It only makes sense when Klaatu, the alien, reveals it’s purpose on earth: to save earth from destruction from humans. The interesting thing about this movie is that there are biblical principals in it.
Klaatu notices how the human race is violent, destructive and selfish in nature and how the earth is dying as a cause of that. It intends to gather as many life samples as it can before eradicating the humans from the face of the earth and start afresh.
This is similar to the story of Noah’s Ark on how God was displeased with mankind on how sinful they are and was planning to wipe them all out except for Noah, his family and the animals, and start anew. (Genesis 5-9:17)
Throughout the movie, Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelley), a microbiologist professor, helps Klaatu by driving him around and also convincing it that while humans have the sinful, destructive and violent aspects, there are also the aspects of love and kindness.
Klaatu’s original plan was to negotiate with the leaders of the world (United Nations) but due to the American’s hostility, Klaatu decided on destroying mankind.
However, Klaatu also discovers the loving and kind nature of mankind through the relationship between Helen and her step son. Faced with the brink of destruction, humans are able to change.
This once again ties in with how God sometimes punishes man due to their sinful nature and urges them to turn away from sin and to go back to God. When faced with a grim situation, the sinful man turns and runs back to God’s open arms. The Old Testament of the Bible is filled with stories like this.
In the end, Klaatu decides not to eradicate mankind but to give them another chance and leaves Earth. That’s how the movie ends. Yes, pretty stupid ending but I could see how the storyline was ok.
I probably wouldn’t recommend paying money to watch this movie as I always hate stupid endings. But I liked the biblical principles behind it though.