Uploaded by NYPost on Dec 13, 2008
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 film)
Plot
In 1928, on an expedition in the snowy mountains of India, a mountaineer encounters a glowing sphere. He touches it and then finds himself awakening after a sudden loss of consciousness, with the sphere now gone and a scar on his hand.
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In the present day, the United States government hastily assembles a group of scientists, including Princeton professor Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), to formulate a survival plan when it is feared that a large unknown object with a speed of approximately one-tenth the speed of light, is due to impact Manhattan.
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The object slows down just before impact and is revealed to be a large spherical spaceship, which lands gently in Central Park. A being named Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) emerges from the sphere, around which the military has established a perimeter. Amidst the confusion, Klaatu is shot. A gigantic robot emerges, emitting a sound that temporarily paralyzes humans and disrupts all electrical systems in New York City. Before the robot can take the being back, Klaatu orders it to shut down.
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While recovering from his injuries, Klaatu takes on the appearance of the man from the opening scene of the film. He informs Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates), the United States Secretary of Defense, that he is a representative of a group of alien races sent to talk to the United Nations. Jackson instead orders that Klaatu be sent to a secure location for investigation. Klaatu manages to escape with the help of Helen, and is pursued by the authorities throughout Newark, New Jersey, and the forested Highlands, with Helen and her stepson, Jacob (Jaden Smith).
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Meanwhile, the presence of the sphere has caused a worldwide panic. The United States military manages to capture the robot after it thwarts their attempts to destroy the sphere using unmanned aerial vehicles that launch missiles. Klaatu meets with Mr. Wu (James Hong), another alien who has lived on earth for 70 years. Upon confirming humanity's destructive tendencies, Klaatu determines that humans shall be exterminated to ensure that the planet—with its rare ability to sustain complex life—can survive. Mr. Wu decides to stay on Earth, having grown to love humanity. Klaatu orders smaller spheres—hidden on Earth—to begin taking animal species off the planet. Helen drives Klaatu to a forest near a pond. She witnesses Klaatu summoning a sphere that collects various species (evoking Noah's Ark) as Klaatu walks on water.
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Around the planet, the spheres collect other life forms. Helen realizes that Klaatu has decided to exterminate humans. A police officer driving by the pond notices strange activity. He sees Klaatu and recognizes him as the alien. Drawing his gun he confronts Klaatu, who defends himself, forcing Helen's car to kill him. He then revives the officer by laying hands on his head, Lazarus like, and raises the officer from the dead. Helen appeals to him to save humanity.
After Helen witnesses Klaatu walking on water and raising the officer from the dead, she takes Klaatu to the home of Nobel Prize-winning Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese), where they discuss how Klaatu's own species went through a drastic evolution to survive its own star's demise.
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In meantime, The robot, named "GORT" (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology) by the United States government, is subjected to experiments in an underground facility in Virginia. After previously receiving the order from Klaatu to destroy the earth, it then transforms itself into a swarm of self-replicating insect-like nanites that begin destroying everything in their path including the military facility. The swarm of nanorobotic locusts consumes everything in its path and is now on a path to destroy humankind heading to Central Park where the major sphere is located.
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After speaking with Professor Barnhardt, Klaatu believes that humans might change their ways. Jacob betrays Klaatu and calls authorities with Klaatu's location. The military captures Helen. Jacob and Klaatu finally become allies and the Secretary Jackson allows Helen to reason with Klaatu. Klaatu becomes convinced of mankind's ability to change, and with the help of Dr. Granier, they head to Central Park and the large sphere to save humanity. Klaatu warns that even if he manages to stop GORT, there will be a price to the human way of life. The nanobot cloud arrives before they can reach the sphere and they hide from it just under a footbridge.
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After the nanobot cloud arrives in Central Park where Klaatu and Jacob are, and after Jacob is reunited with his mother Helen, it is revealed that Jacob and Helen have been infected by the nanites. She pleads with Klaatu to save Jacob, rather than herself. Klaatu saves both of them by transferring the infection to his own body, then walks through the nanites to the sphere and touches it. His actions cause the sphere to emit a massive pulse that destroys the nanobot cloud, saving humanity, but at the apparent expense of Earth's loss of electrical capability. Klaatu's body, not his spirit, is destroyed in martyrdom to save humanity, and the giant sphere leaves Earth.
