“They Just Can’t Help Themselves”

 Lessons From the Outer Limits:  Judgment is Coming – Part #2

 By Richard Allen – April 7, 2025

In Part #1 of this series, I introduced the concept that modern men and women often reveal their greatest hopes and fears in the Sci-Fi books and movies they produce. Most of us have hopes for what a “perfect world” would look like – where there would be no hunger, sickness, hatred or war – and we reveal those dreams and longings through our Sci-Fi.  But our Sci-Fi books and movies also reveal our worst fears and phobias, often of a coming judgment where mankind as a whole, or we personally, will incur judgment for the wrongs we have done. In this installment, I’d like to review the original 1951 Movie: “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

This movie was a “Blockbuster” film in its day, with great special effects and an “eerie sound track” that scared me to death – even listening from a room next door.  If I remember correctly, it was 1960, and I was around 8 years old. My dad was watching “Saturday Night At the Movies,” broadcast by a local NBC affiliate to our family television in the living room. Worried that I would be frightened, he strongly recommended that I not watch it. So, sitting in the kitchen, I didn’t get to see but a glimpse of the movie here and there, but I did hear it, and the other-worldly sounds were frightening. Since then, I have watched the movie several times over the years, appreciating the screenplay and cinematography. It was a very well crafted movie. Now as a Christian, I understand the plot in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” had elements of the preaching of John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ:

“But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. ‘You brood of snakes!’ he exclaimed. ‘Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham. That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire’ ” (Matthew 3:7-10, NLT).

The opening scenes of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” are quite realistic, showing what might happen if a “flying saucer” actually entered earth’s atmosphere from outer space, and circled the earth at 4,000 miles per hour. Air Defense Systems would be on high alert, Fighter Jets would scramble, and Radar Stations around the world would be abuzz from an actual visitor from outer space. Then, on a beautiful weekday, just as the excitement reaches a crescendo, this flying saucer chooses to land in the middle of the National Mall in Washington D.C.  Within minutes, the U.S. Army surrounds the spaceship with troops, armored personnel carriers and even a tank. After sitting still for what seemed like hours, a side door of the spaceship finally opens, and out walks a 9-foot-tall Robot named “Gort,” and a humanlike figure named Klaatu, wearing a space helmet. The giant Robot is a no-nonsense piece of advanced technology – that we later learn is an all-powerful “Policeman” for the other more advanced planets in our galaxy.

It’s ironic that the spaceman’s first words are: “We have come to visit you in peace, and with goodwill,” but when Klaatu removes a gun-like instrument from his pocket, a “jumpy young soldier” fires his sidearm, hitting Klaatu in the arm, destroying the supposed weapon. Turns out, the instrument was a gift to our president, to allow him to study the stars. In a display of measured power, the Robot Gort, uses a laser proceeding from his eyes to dissolve the guns, tanks and hardware without any loss of life. Klaatu speaks to Gort, and the Robot stands down, while the Army medics hurry Klaatu away to a Military Hospital to be treated. Klaatu, realizing that he doesn’t know or understand these humans very well, decides to leave the hospital and get out among regular people to learn more. With little effort, he’s able to open locked doors, find clothing that fits and head out into Washington D.C., landing in a boarding house where he introduces himself as John Carpenter, an obvious reference to Jesus Christ.

It’s at this boarding house that he meets a young widow, Helen Benson and her 10-year-old son, Bobby. He even offers to watch Bobby for the day so Helen can spend the day with her boyfriend, Tom. Mr. Carpenter (Klaatu) and Bobby visit the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, where Bobby’s father, a soldier killed in action during World War II, is buried. These are humanizing touches that show while Klaatu is from an advanced – almost godlike civilization – he still has human emotions. He’s one who is able to bridge the divide between “godlike” beings from another world and “flesh and blood” humans from earth. Klaatu shows empathy for Helen and Bobby, especially as he sits at the boarding house table listening to several of the other boarders express their fears and frustrations about the missing “Spaceman” who escaped from an Army Hospital. Some of the boarders view this visit from “another world” as a threat, amazed that the Army hasn’t already used advanced weapons on the Spaceship to destroy it. Helen, obviously a sympathetic woman, shows the other side of human emotions when she says to the other boarders:

“This spaceman or whatever he is, we automatically assume he’s a menace. Maybe he isn’t at all . . maybe he’s afraid. He was shot the minute he landed here. I was just wondering what I would do.”

As Klaatu explains, “yes, I am currently coming in peace,” but later makes it clear that he’s also threatening us with future doom and destruction. He warns: “As long as the people of earth only war and kill each other, no one would interfere. But now that you have Nuclear weapons – you threaten the peace and security of the whole galaxy. This will not be tolerated!” To put Klaatu’s words in a more Biblical Framework: “Change your behavior quickly or sudden destruction will come upone you like a flood!" Klaatu intuitively knows his warning won’t be received well by earth’s leaders. He needs to find another way to communicate with all peoples of the earth who will be willing to listen and heed his warning.

In typical prophetic style, Klaatu has a serious demeanor, all because he has a terrifying message of coming judgment to share.  Even though he landed in the United States of America, he insists that he “will not talk to the president” or just a few of earth’s leaders, no, his message of “repent or perish” had to be delivered to All Mankind! 

Learning from Bobby that the “smartest man in the world” is one professor Barnhardt, a renowned physicist who works for some Government Agency, Klaatu visits Dr. Barnhardt’s home.  Entering uninvited through a door off the study, Klaatu sees Dr. Barnhardt’s work in quantum physics on a blackboard. He decides to leave the good doctor a calling card by solving his equation. Later that day Dr. Barnhardt sends a car to bring Mr. Carpenter back to his home. Barnhardt is amazed at Mr. Carpenter’s physics equation and discovers that he is the missing “Spaceman.” Klaatu explains the purpose of his visit – to warn the peoples of the earth of impending judgment if humankind fails to alter its behavior, threatening others in the galaxy. Professor Barnhardt agrees to invite all the world’s scientists to meet Klaatu at the National Mall (by the spaceship).  He then tells Klaatu that he will need some type of sign to convince them that he really is in communication with the Spaceman. It’s here that the Movie gets its name: Klaatu agrees to neutralize all electricity for exactly 30 minutes, at noon the next day – virtually “making the earth stand still!”

At twelve noon the next day, Mr. Carpenter, realizing that Bobby had discovered that he was the missing “Spaceman,” reveals himself to Helen Benson as well.  They are in an elevator at the office where she works, when the power goes off for half an hour.  He not only tells her the purpose of his visit, but enlists her help to keep her meddling boyfriend, Tom, from calling the Military. But it’s too late, Tom has already alerted the authorities to Mr. Carpenter being the missing “Spaceman.” Fleeing from the Military Police in a taxi, Klaatu gives Helen one last request.  If anything were to happen to him, she must get to Gort and mention three of the most famous Sci-Fi words ever uttered: “Klaatu, Barada, Nikto.” Then as Klaatu runs form the taxi, he is fatally shot by the military who are pursuing him.  His lifeless body is placed in a cell at a local Police Station.  At Klaatu’s death, Gort awakens from his silent watch, and after lasering several soldiers, tanks and equipment, he goes after Helen. Terrified, she is finally able to mention the three magic words, and Gort safely brings her inside the Spaceship. For reasons we can’t grasp, Gort, a 9-foot-tall Metallic Robot is able to walk through Washington in the wee hours of the morning, unseen.  Then, in a scene reminiscent of “moving the stone at Christ’s grave,” Gort retrieves Klaatu from his “cement sepulcher,” bringing him back to the Spaceship! 

As an obvious “Christ figure,” Klaatu came to “warn us all of the wrath to come,” and lets us know there was another way. This way was to Repent and Believe the message Klaatu was proclaiming. This alone would deliver us from the promised wrath of the galaxies’ police-like Robots, who would “burn the earth to a cinder.” But what is the first of many Sci-Fi Messiahs, John Carpenter (Klaatu) dies at the hands of misguided and evil men – only to be brought back again, resurrected to life – to finish his work and return to the “heavens.” It is so obvious that John Carpenter is both “godlike and human,” sent to warn us to flee from the coming wrath and to give his life, as we are incapable of grasping the mission he was sent to do. But death couldn’t hold him, coming back to life he gives us a final warning and then returns to that “other world.” You may think these are all clever coincidences, but they are not.  As my title says: “They Just Can’t Help Themselves.” While not a saving message, these shadows of Gospel Truth are hidden in our human psyches. We all know that we need someone who can conquer death, who is the bridge between our mortal human frames and the one capable of giving life from that “other-world.” That Savior is not Klaatu, but Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

Soli Deo Gloria!