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| Does anybody really
know what time it is? |
1. The time in the British radio newsroom reads 8:33. In New York the clock shows 3:23. It should be exactly 5 hours earlier than the one in the UK. The minute hand is several minutes late. |
| Raindrops keep falling
on my head! |
2. Radio announcer H. V. Kaltenborn called it "a beautiful spring [day]" and yet there are large puddles of rain for the military vehicles to skid in as they leave the compound. |
| Watch your airspace! | 3. The spaceship appears to pass in front of the flagpole atop the Smithsonian Institution on its way to the Ellipse. |
| Look out below! | 4. The crowds begin to scatter as the spaceship draws close. But, in the long shot of the landing, no one is moving until the vehicle gets extremely close to the ground. In fact, it comes close to landing on a couple people! |
| Summer school for
Bobby? |
5. We know it is spring. We find later that school is still in session. Yet the dry-cleaning ticket in Major Carpenter's coat pocket is marked 7-18. July 18. (Maybe this was the day it was filmed, as it was released later in 1951.) |
| Mixed-up kid | 6. Bobby tells his mother he and Carpenter went to a movie and then to see Daddy (at Arlington National Cemetery) when it was actually the other way around. |
| Dyslexic Klaatu? | 7. Klaatu tells Professor Barnhardt he was kept at Walter Reed Hospital in Room 309. It was actually Room 306. |
| You light up my life | 8. If all the electricity is neutralized, then why does the marquee in Times Square continue to blink? (See lower right corner of the screen.) |
| Feeling light headed | 9. A policeman on a stopped motorcycle is unfazed by the lone stoplight that continues to function. |
| Stand still...please? | 10. When the 'Earth Stands Still', the scenes shift around the world. Someone in England did not get the message as he continues to motorboat down the Thames. |
| Every breath you take... | 11. When Gort melts through the plastic after Klaatu's demise, there is a close-up of his helmet. Slots in the bottom of the `chin` area are air holes for the actor inside. |
| Shifting walls? Before
Star Trek? |
12. After Helen's infamous "Gort! Klaatu Barada nicto!", Gort steps forward to get her. There is a part of the corrugated steel wall blocking our view, and for good reason: there is no way Lock Martin (Gort) could bend over in that suit and pick her off the ground! If you watch carefully, the edge of the wall shifts slightly with a dissolve, indicating a time lapse, and giving time to set up the carrying scene (see next). |
| She ain't heavy, just
a bother! |
13. While Gort is `effortlessly` carrying Helen to the spacecraft, some type of wire harness holding Helen is visible. Then, on the longer shot, it seems all Gort is carrying is a lightweight mannequin as we only see these shots from behind. |
| Button up! | 14. After Gort picks up Helen, if you look on the front of Gort you can glimpse the fasteners used to hold the costume together. |
| Button up, too! | 15. Once Gort gets his pre-arranged instructions in the ship, he leaves Helen and walks out the door. Notice his left leg: the fastenings are again visible. This is because they had two suits: one opened from the front, and the other the back, depending on the shot. |
| Gort two step (cha-cha) | 16. At the end of the film, while Klaatu is giving his departure speech, Gort is standing behind him near the door of the ship. At the close-up of Rennie, Gort is standing behind with his feet apart, an awesome gaurd holding his ground. But when the view is shifted to Rennie from behind the crowd, Gort's feet are together with his heels touching. |