The Day the Earth Stood Still (Remake) (2008)

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Jaden Smith, Jon Hamm, Kathy Bates, John Cleese, Kyle Chandler, James Hong, and a small role from Brandon T. Jackson
Grade: B-

As Klaatu says, “There’s only a handful of planets in the cosmos that are capable of supporting complex life”. To the surprise of no one, us humans fucked up one of them. Al Gore probably laughed his ass off watching this movie.

Summary

In 1928, in the snowy Karakoram Mountains in India, a mountaineer (Reeves, who plays this character just for the opening) sees a light shining within the snowstorm. He goes over to investigate and sees a big glowing sphere. Using a pickaxe, he digs into it for a moment, and the light shines through to the point where it’s blinding. The man awakens on the ground to see a scar on his hand where a DNA sample was taken from.

In the present day, astrobiologist Helen Benson (Connelly) finishes up her lecture. A colleague asks if she’s going to the faculty conference, but she turns him down. Helen goes home to her eight-year-old stepson Jacob (Smith). After telling him to get ready for dinner and him continuing to play his game, she notices an old razor belonging to his father on his dresser. They both seem to miss him, but Jacob lets her know the razor is his now because he found it. Afterwards, she gets a phone call from an unknown person. This person confirms with Helen who she is and then tells her someone will be there shortly to explain everything. She answers her door to find numerous federal agents waiting outside for her. The main agent tells her they need her and that she will be under federal custody for the time being. She is forced to have Jacob stay with her neighbor Isabel (Tanya Champoux), who is watching this whole thing unfold. Arguing in the car with the agents, she demands to know why she’s needed so badly. Unfortunately, the guy admits he doesn’t know, though it’s considered to be a matter of national security. We then see they shut down the highway just for them to get to their destination as quick as possible.

Yeah, this shit is serious.

They put Helen on a plane with several other highly intelligent scientists (and one civil engineer), each with their own specific field of expertise. As they all discuss the possibilities, the plane flies over to Ft. Linwood Military Academy, New Jersey. Everyone there is being told to keep their cell phones and cameras at the gate. Once she hides hers, a NASA official and friend of Helen’s in Michael (Hamm) calls her up to bypass what everyone else is doing. It was his doing that got her there, as he put her on the “vital” list. He says he’s been keeping up with the work she’s been doing with Professor Barnhardt (Cleese), taking her into a conference room with several others for a crash-briefing. Michael tells everyone some object shooting through our solar system had a hyperbolic orbit of sorts. At first, it was projected to pass millions of miles outside of Earth’s orbit. Sadly, they found out this object wasn’t free falling anymore, and its path recalculated. As a result, a collision with Earth is being labeled imminent. One guy suggests we send a missile to intercept it Armageddon style, and Michael concurs, saying the military is attempting to do it with several. Still, he notes that the speed in which this object is going at gives us a slim chance at best. Since they don’t have enough time to evacuate the area, the “best” they can do is plan for the aftermath.

They have 78 minutes until the collision.

In the bathroom, Helen sneaks a phone call to talk to Jacob for one last time, and she tries to downplay the meeting, so she doesn’t scare him. Even so, she tells him to go to the basement in preparation for the “big storm” that is about to happen. Once she says goodbye, a soldier knocks on the door asking for her cell phone. However, it’s not to take it. The teary-eyed woman just wants to use it to talk to her own family. Later, all the scientists talk in the heat of the moment, and they deduce based off the speed in which the object is approaching, they have zero chance of anything on Earth surviving. As they lose launch capabilities of the missile and it’s disabled, they all countdown to their deaths but nothing happens. As a soldier says the object is still approaching, Helen notices a shining light outside the window of the plane. The object lands. Soon after, the scientists’ plane and numerous soldiers land next to it to approach. The “object” is the sphere from the opening of the film. Only this time, it’s massive! Because we don’t know any better, every gun in the area is pointed towards it. The light shines brighter and a figure walks out of it and outstretches its hand. Helen walks closer to shake it, but someone shoots it. As Helen screams for a medic, King Kong-sized robot G.O.R.T. (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology) steps out and sends out this unbearable shrieking noise that renders everyone useless. He looks like he’s about to attack, but the downed figure Helen is holding says the words, “Klaatu barada nikto“.

They rush the alien into surgery, with the surgeon noting how the body has a lot of the same organs, nerves, and whatever else as a human. Also, the flesh seems to be removing itself from the body. The rest of the alien sheds its skin and starts to look like a naked human. Later, the body wakes up and starts freaking out, so Helen tries calming him by saying they are here to help. The alien, who we will find out is Klaatu (Reeves), starts repeating bits and pieces of what she said. As the news talks about how the public assumes the sphere is a sign of a future alien invasion, we learn the President and Vice President have been taken to secure locations. Because of this, Secretary of Defense Regina Jackson (Bates) becomes the “eyes and the ears of the presidency”. All the people involved in this mission, including John Driscoll (Chandler) among others, let Jackson know what they’ve learned. So far, they lost contact with a major satellite and smaller spheres have landed in locations all around the world. The satellite is a big deal because this specific one stands for Defense Systems Communications Satellite. The aliens were able to access our defense mainframe because of this satellite, temporarily shutting down their missile’s defenses. This is how they entered our air space. There’s a lot of intelligence on this satellite, so she now assumes the aliens know everything about us. Jackson comes to the conclusion that because they disabled our defenses, it means their intentions must be war-related.

Jackson is brought in to speak with Helen, Michael, and Dr. Ikegawa (Hiro Kanagawa). Ikegawa says the DNA samples they’ve taken represent three life forms. The body tissue is human and the gray flesh encasing it was organic material that’s a bio-engineered spacesuit. It resembles placental tissue which makes sense since given the placenta’s life support system. Helen explains that in order to survive in our environment, the alien had to be born here in human form. She deduces they must’ve come here in the past to obtain a DNA sample from a human subject, which we saw in the opening of the movie. Since the surgery, Klaatu has been growing into a full adult at a rapid pace. Jackson asks how much we know about it from decoding his DNA. Ikegawa says they’ll be studying these codes for generations, but Jackson is adamant about this never happening, telling them the info is property of the U.S. government and “its very existence is classified”. Jackson, Helen, and Michael go into the room to talk to an awake Klaatu. As he adjusts to his new body after drinking some much-needed water, Jackson starts drilling him with questions about his intentions. He ignores her, so Helen starts to ask basic stuff and he responds, leading him to finally revealing his name. Jackson continues her questioning and asks who he represents. Klaatu says he represents a group of civilizations. He then explains there’s a gathering of world leaders (the United Nations) not far from here, and he plans on explaining his purpose to them. Jackson refuses and wants to know on behalf of the President, but Klaatu balks at her ignorant comments.

Privately, Jackson lets Helen, Michael, and Ikegawa know they’ve decided to sedate Klaatu, and they will take him to a secure location and possibly interrogate him. Michael lets it be known they won’t consent to this. Next, Jackson argues history has lessons to teach us about first encounters between civilizations and how the less advanced is usually exterminated. In this case, this is us. Michael again refuses to sedate him, but Helen volunteers. This is so she can grab a solution of water, rather than the sedative they give to her to use on Klaatu. Back in the room, Jackson and Klaatu start to argue over what’s going to happen next, with Jackson letting him know of her plan and him noting he hasn’t done anything wrong to be in custody. Jackson cuts things short however and has Helen come over to sedate him. She grabs the water solution and injects him, whispering to him “Run”. Helen is sent away, and Klaatu is wheeled into a room to do a polygraph test. After a series of questions, Klaatu is able to use his power to electrocute the guy administering the test and control his mind, forcing him to answer Klaatu’s questions and allowing for Klaatu’s escape by telling him the exit, the code to leave, and giving up his suit for a disguise. He also manages to send that shrieking noise Gort did earlier to all of the agents’ earpieces, taking them all out. As the power starts flickering on and off, both Klaatu and Helen escape the facility separately. Jackson has everyone now on high alert for Klaatu. Unfortunately, he looks like every normal guy ever, so it’ll be difficult to find him. At Newark Penn Station, Klaatu gets a tuna salad sandwich from the vending machine and watches as some guy has a heart attack after fighting off some guy trying to steal his ticket. Once the man hits the ground, Klaatu watches as the other guy comes over and steals the guy’s ticket anyway. Following this, Klaatu goes to the bathroom and notices he’s bleeding through his shirt and passes out.

Honestly, it may have been the tuna.

We go back to Helen and Jacob at home. She gets a phone call from the station, with some guy telling her they have her “patient” there. After the guy relays the message that she has “his medicine”, she realizes it’s Klaatu. She picks up Klaatu at the station and asks him if she made a mistake saving him, asking if he’s a friend to the human race. Interestingly enough, he says he’s a friend to Earth. With Jacob in the backseat, and Klaatu using a salve to fix his wound, the three head out. Helen wants to help Klaatu in whatever his mysterious mission may be, but it seems the mission is already set in stone. The real mission is for Helen to convince Klaatu not to go through with his.

My Thoughts:

Yes, the original was better. However, this remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still was not nearly as bad as what people made it out to be. The message was just as thought-provoking and well-intentioned as the original. What ruined this potential for a good remake was its failure to follow through on the hot start it gives us and (oddly enough) the special effects, something that should’ve been a positive for a late 2000s film.

To start things off, I really enjoyed this reimagining of Klaatu, powered by a very menacing performance from Keanu Reeves, especially early on in the film. You may have read that the previous Klaatu was comparable to Christ, but this version is much like God himself. You can see throughout the film how his characterization parallels God observing humanity in the Old Testament (and being more vengeful to start) to the New Testament (becoming more understanding and forgiving). Now, it’s okay if you like the original movie and hate this remake. However, I will accept no argument that trashes Keanu Reeves’s take on the character.

Reeves already has an odd, alien-like delivery when he talks, so this role fit him very well. Considering how important of a character Klaatu is to the science fiction genre as a whole, you’re facing a daunting task in trying to recreate him and reimagine him in a different scenario. This Klaatu had an edge to him, complete with a slight unsteadiness from the camera to add to the unpredictable nature of his character. Each response he has becomes more chilling than the last, giving us a real sense of danger and tension in the room. At any given moment, this Klaatu seems like he’s on the verge of attacking someone. His interactions with Secretary Jackson are the first instances of this, with her asking “Why did you come to our planet?”. He looks at her with the straightest face, asking “Your?”. He already knows she’s wrong, but he wants to remind everyone in the room that his reason for being here is much bigger than the United States. What about when she starts hitting him with questions on behalf of the President, and he asks the very broad, “Do you speak for the entire human race?”. We the audience know she doesn’t, but to see her self-important American ego come out, like she’s the one who has the right to speak to the first-ever alien, is a great way to establish the sides we’re taking in this story. Even though Klaatu is rather cold and straight forward, and up until this point, we don’t know what his intentions are, we still gravitate towards him just like Helen does. Through the ignorance of her colleagues, she (and we) can see Klaatu is not the villain, despite his rather harsh responses. His lines are handled very carefully in the film, and they are a major positive coming out of this remake.

No opportunity is wasted regarding this characterization of Klaatu. You could argue a little too much was added to him though. The man was practically given superpowers, possibly because the studio felt like a grounded alien story would be too boring, despite this basically being the heart of the original movie. I wasn’t entirely against it, but the escape from the government facility was a perfect example of why it didn’t work. Not enough was explained of what he could do and what he did do (sending sound waves of a shrieking banshee to the earpieces of agents) was not the modern “action sequence” I was expecting for such a cool build up. I’m not saying the action should’ve been him kicking ass Matrix-style, but the way they did display his powers weren’t cool or as interesting as they should’ve been. I did like how he told the dude administering the polygraph that he was leaving. After controlling his body and mind, the guy softly whispers “No” while tearing up. I’m not entirely sure what that was, but it was pretty funny.

You can’t really compare Keanu’s take to 1951’s Klaatu because they’re different in almost every way, other than the fact they both wear a suit they stole. The character is written differently, the message is different, and the motivations are different. It begins right with the way the character looks. In the original film, it’s established that Klaatu is from a planet with a similar atmosphere, and this is why he looks human in appearance. In this film, Klaatu had to take a DNA sample of a human from the past and go through a fast-tracked version of birth to become human in appearance. This was an intriguing idea. I would’ve accepted it had they went with the previous version’s reasonings but adding this extra bit to “sci-fi” things up a notch was a cool detail. When even this was changed, the only real similarity between the character and plot is the endgame of the right group of human beings showing Klaatu humans aren’t all bad. A very important message we get in this film, and why I still felt a connection to it, was its exploration of the concept of change, a fundamentally human attribute. In the Mad About You series finale (I know this is a bit random, but I watch a lot of things so bear with me), Janeane Garofalo’s Mabel quotes her mother in saying “Intelligence is the ability to change one’s mind” and she lambasts this idea, questioning what it even means. The ability to change one’s mind is what this film is all about. Throughout, Klaatu tells Helen the decision to eradicate humans from the planet has already been made (“If the earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives.”). When she begs for a chance, he lets her know they’ve already watched and waited. He even tells Mr. Wu in their very important conversation things like, “They are not a reasonable race” and “They are destructive and won’t change”. He’s dead set on going through with his plan even though he sees good in Helen.

Ironically, he is the one that doesn’t want to change. He’s not open to the possibility of seeing the other side of humanity. He doesn’t believe in them, and why would he? He’s seen what we’ve done to the planet and has given us a lot of time.

Klaatu even gets a perfect example of the future with Jacob. At one point, the three main characters are in the car, and they discuss the intentions of the alien. Helen tells Jacob the aliens don’t want to hurt us. Jacob responds saying, “Well, we should kill them just to make sure”. If this doesn’t further Klaatu’s point of losing hope on humanity’s ability to change, I don’t know what does. Oddly enough, seeing the simplicity of Jacob backtracking his statement later on is where we see the glimpses of the humanity Klaatu tries to deny. Can we change? Professor Barnhardt (Cleese) argues “It’s only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice, do we evolve”. We need a moment, or something to push us to the brink, to force us to change. Humanity may be stubborn in their ways, but it can be argued it’s more passion than stupidity. We don’t want to change because we like living the way we do. Because of this, we’ll try anything (or deny anything) to avoid changing the lifestyle we like. However, if our back is against the wall, you’d be surprised as to how many people are willing to make the change for survival. Every civilization reaches a breaking point where they are forced to evolve or become extinct. Klaatu notes how this happened to his people. When Barnhardt uses this in defense of humanity, noting we may need a similar event to force the change Klaatu thinks is impossible, it was such a cool moment, as we watched these two geniuses argue respectfully in a real-life chess match of sorts. With one point from Klaatu, Barnardt hit him with a counterpoint by using Klaatu’s life as an example.

Though we only get a scene with Barnhardt, the conversation between him and Klaatu is a game changer and exactly the compelling and thought-provoking conversational scene that brings out the potential of this remake.

Following this conversation, and Jacob’s backtracking, Klaatu sees the “other side” of humanity. This is the change that is possible. When shown directly and given said chance, we can change. Because of this, Klaatu is forced to change his mind himself, even though he was adamant of not doing so when he first arrived. This sign of hope and changing one’s mind is what makes us as human beings different from everyone else. It even humanizes Klaatu. Because of this idea of change, it also shows the dangers of generalization and grouping things together, assuming people think the same or feel the same. This is a dangerous thing to do in real life, and Klaatu sees firsthand why you can’t assume anything about the human race. There is another side to us, to all of us. No one person is one-dimensional, cut-and-dry, or the same as another through and through. Though we see a lot of negativity, whether it be on the news or whatever else, there is another side to even the worst person. Fellow alien Mr. Wu (Hong) decides to stay on Earth despite knowing of Klaatu’s plan because he loves the life, the home he’s created, and the people. He hits Klaatu with a very powerful statement despite all the obvious things wrong with the human civilization: “I love them. I can’t explain it”. You really can’t explain it, can you? These feelings of love, home, and family are all things you can’t really feel, understand, or explain the importance of unless you see it firsthand or have it yourself. Even with all the bad we see, there’s still so much good, but you have to see it to understand. Seeing Klaatu being dumbfounded about Wu’s thoughts on the matter and his subsequent findings later in the movie is an uplifting journey worth seeing.

In the original film, Klaatu’s message to the human race is to become a peaceful Earth and to avoid war and aggression towards one another. He then leaves to await their decision. In this film however, it’s all about environmental disaster. It’s not that an anti-war message would’ve been irrelevant for a modern film, but had they covered this issue again, it would’ve been the same movie but with more action. Because of this, I don’t mind this remake tackling a different issue. What’s interesting here is that Klaatu isn’t as persistent about his meeting with the world leaders. It’s only a minor goal of his visit but after the initial failure of setting it up, he just goes on about his plan. This is why it’s interesting. The old Klaatu gave humanity one last shot. This Klaatu came here saying, “It’s time. You failed”. The plan to save the Earth, not its people, is a decision already made before he landed. Because of this, he has a pretty good idea on how Earthlings act. He’s not going to waste time observing like the old Klaatu. The only glimpses he gets from them are enough to ensure his suspicions (at least, early on) like the man stealing the other’s train ticket after the dude has a heart attack, or his differences with Secretary Jackson and the rest of the U.S. government.

The first thirty minutes of this film were electric. Right from the start, the foot is on the gas pedal. They grab Helen, no one knows what the hell is going on, they learn doomsday is coming but then it doesn’t, we come into contact with an alien, and then there’s the emergence and initial conversations with Klaatu. This first half hour is exactly how you hook an audience. Speaking of which, my favorite moment of the film had to be during the polygraph test when after the man questions, “Are you aware of an impending attack on Earth?”. Klaatu pauses for a moment and looks over, hitting us with the line I’ll forever remember from the trailer when the film first came out in, “You should let me go”. I still get chills hearing it.

The momentum is at an all-time high during this timeframe. Sadly, after this, a majority of the movie never reaches the heights the first act got to. Additionally, the special effects are lackluster and somewhat bland. Specifically, the design of the sphere was particularly unimaginative. If this thing is supposed to represent a modern-day Ark, it shouldn’t look as dull and gloomy as it did. The treatment of Gort was a travesty. If you never watched the original, you probably wouldn’t care about how this character was treated, passing it off as any old robot. For those of us that have seen the original however, it was flat-out disrespectful. The character was not only vital to the original’s action, but its existence is explained as the reason war is avoided entirely on Klaatu’s home planet, being an example of the race of police robots that watch over them to make sure no war or aggression is allowed. In the remake, Gort’s reasoning for existence is never really explained. He’s a giant, indestructible robot, very obviously CGI-constructed and unimpressively so, and serves no purpose other than to fuck people up. Oddly enough, his size is ten times the original’s but nowhere near as memorable or as fearsome.

This was a huge failure. There’s no other way to put it.

On top of this, any further potential this film had was ruined by Jacob, played infuriatingly by Jaden Smith. I don’t know if they gave Smith the direction of, “Be as annoying as humanly possible”, but it’s like he got this advice and tried to respond like his life depended on it. This has to be one of the most maddening supporting characters we’ve seen in a while. This kid fights Helen on almost anything, even when the situation doesn’t call for it. It could be something small like her asking for him to not answer the phone, so what does he do? He answers it and has the audacity to say it’s for her.

Yeah, no shit.

When she gets the news that the world is basically ending, she calls Jacob because it’s the only person she has in life. When she asks to talk a bit longer, just to hear his voice, he cuts her off and says he has to go.

Dude, you were not that busy!

On top of all this, she tells him she loves him and what is his response? “Ok, bye Helen.”. I’m sorry, but he was dead to me from then on. I couldn’t stand him.

It’s one thing to not come down for dinner because you’re playing your game, but it’s a whole other thing when you snitch on your stepmom to the feds because you refuse to trust her, even when she begs for him to trust her just ONE FUCKING TIME about her “work friend” in Klaatu. At every turn, he gives her no credit for taking him in after his father (and her husband mind you) passed away in the military. Even when the argument comes up of what they should do with the alien, with the rest of the world suggesting military action, not only does he continue to make ignorant comment after ignorant comment, but he also suggests that his dad would’ve wanted to stay and fight. We learn from Helen that his dad was an engineer and had no interest in fighting when he was in the military. So not only is Jacob a condescending little know-it-all who’s lack of awareness is startling, but he’s unequivocally wrong about the stuff he thinks he knows. His stepmother was just nice enough to let him believe this because she knows it would crush him. Based off how he acts however, I would’ve told him right off the bat. Fuck this kid. He’s an ungrateful little prick. Bobby from the original film may have been an unrealistic, sitcom-like child, but Jacob was so awful that it made me like the Bobby character this much more.

2008’s The Day the Earth Stood Still was facing a rather intimidating task of trying to remake the beloved original. Unfortunately, in the many ways the film succeeded, it failed in almost an equal number of ways. It’s still a worthy watch if you wanted to compare it to the original movie and its themes, as well as seeing Klaatu’s characterization in the modern age compared to the 1951 original, but it doesn’t have the staying power the old film had. With all that being said, I would still describe this movie as underrated in a lot of ways.