Movie · 1956 · Science Fiction, Adventure · 1h 38m · G · English
Curator score: 8.6/10 (57.8K ratings)
Earthmen on a fabulous, peril-journey into outer space!
Overview
Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon," a scientific expedition that has been missing for twenty years. They find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.6/10
IMDb: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 80
TMDB: 7.2/10
Director
Fred M. Wilcox
Production
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Cast
Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Earl Holliman, Richard Anderson, George D. Wallace, Robert Dix, Jimmy Thompson, James Drury, Harry Harvey Jr., Roger McGee, Peter Miller, Morgan Jones, Richard Grant, James Best, William Boyett, Les Tremayne, Frankie Darro
Curator Review
Verdict
A landmark mid-century sci-fi adventure with iconic production design, pioneering electronic sound, and a surprisingly psychological core. Its dialogue and gender politics are dated, but the imagination and influence are undeniable.
Best for
classic sci-fi fans
viewers interested in film history
fans of retro-futurist design
people who enjoy campy-but-serious genre cinema
audiences curious about early space-age special effects
Skip if
you need modern pacing and realism
dated gender roles will ruin the experience
you want hard science over allegory
you dislike theatrical 1950s acting and exposition
Overview
Forbidden Planet is one of the key bridge films between pulp adventure and modern science fiction. It feels like a studio-era spectacle built from the future as imagined in the 1950s: bright widescreen imagery, elaborate sets, and a machine-age optimism that still carries a faint chill. The movie’s reputation is deserved not just because it looks expensive, but because it helped define the visual and sonic language of screen sci-fi for decades afterward.
Worth noting
What gives it staying power is the way it smuggles in psychological unease beneath the polished surfaces. The story’s Freudian undercurrent, the isolated world, and the idea of a destructive force emerging from the mind all make it more than a simple monster-in-space tale. Even when the performances lean stiff or the dialogue turns expository, the concept remains compelling.
Bottom line
It is also very much a film of its era, which means some of its attitudes toward gender and romance are hard to ignore. But if you can accept that as part of the artifact, there is a lot to admire here: the ambition, the design, the influence, and the sense that the future was once dreamed in bold, slightly uncanny colors.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Parker (3★) · 912 likes
Everyone Tries to Fuck the Young Daughter of a Space Scientist: The Movie.
Travis Lytle (4.5★) · 446 likes
While a contemporary audience might dismiss the now hokey-appearing charms of Fred M. Wilcox's "Forbidden Planet," that audience would be overlooking a science fiction classic that is a true document of its time. With its zithering, atonal music score; colorful, future-world sets; speculative technologies; and classic genre themes; the film works to establish an other-worldly sensibility and couch that sense in a cutting-edge, mid-century special effects extravaganza. The fact that it also strives to entertain the largest possible audience with… more While a contemporary audience might dismiss the now hokey-appearing charms of Fred M. Wilcox's "Forbidden Planet," that audience would be overlooking a science fiction classic that is a true document of its time. With its zithering, atonal music score; colorful, future-world sets; speculative technologies; and classic genre themes; the film works to establish an other-worldly sensibility and couch that sense in a cutting-edge, mid-century special effects extravaganza. The fact that it also strives to entertain the largest possible audience with… more
Jonathan White (4★) · 375 likes
Every damn time.
Every damn time I re-watch Forbidden planet, and the first act unfolds, I question how I consistently give this sci-fi classic four stars. I appreciate it’s complete cheesiness, how the Electronic Tonalities set the stage for aural sci-fi cues for the next decade, how Irwin Allen unabashedly appropriated everything about Robbie and Spaceship C57D for Lost In Space, and especially what could be the first movie use of the order issued by an earnest Captain .. ‘Reverse… more
megan (3★) · 347 likes
not enough robby
ScreeningNotes (4★) · 236 likes
Space Pilot: "Hey pops, something came on our ship last night and killed one of our dudes!"Space Scientist: "Let me explain." *serious voice* "Please examine all these sweet alien gadgets we found on this planet."Space Pilot: "Dang, this is some dank extraterrestrial swag! Why did I come here again?" Space Scientist: "No idea. Would you like to go hit on my daughter some more?"Space Pilot: "Heck yes."
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