[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
    Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    EmmysSuperheroes GuideSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideBest Of 2025 So FarDisability Pride MonthSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

The Terrornauts

  • 1967
  • U
  • 1h 17m
IMDb RATING
4.8/10
773
YOUR RATING
Zena Marshall in The Terrornauts (1967)
MysterySci-Fi

A group of scientists are kidnapped and taken into outer space aboard a saucer.A group of scientists are kidnapped and taken into outer space aboard a saucer.A group of scientists are kidnapped and taken into outer space aboard a saucer.

  • Director
    • Montgomery Tully
  • Writers
    • John Brunner
    • Murray Leinster
  • Stars
    • Simon Oates
    • Zena Marshall
    • Charles Hawtrey
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    4.8/10
    773
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Montgomery Tully
    • Writers
      • John Brunner
      • Murray Leinster
    • Stars
      • Simon Oates
      • Zena Marshall
      • Charles Hawtrey
    • 33User reviews
    • 21Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos46

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 41
    View Poster

    Top cast16

    Edit
    Simon Oates
    Simon Oates
    • Dr. Joe Burke
    Zena Marshall
    Zena Marshall
    • Sandy Lund
    Charles Hawtrey
    Charles Hawtrey
    • Joshua Yellowlees
    Patricia Hayes
    Patricia Hayes
    • Mrs. Jones
    Stanley Meadows
    Stanley Meadows
    • Ben Keller
    Max Adrian
    Max Adrian
    • Dr. Henry Shore
    Frank Barry
    • Burke as a child
    Richard Carpenter
    Richard Carpenter
    • Danny
    Leonard Cracknell
    • Nick
    André Maranne
    André Maranne
    • Gendarme
    Frank Forsyth
    Frank Forsyth
    • Uncle
    Robert Jewell
    Robert Jewell
    • Robot Operator
    Graham Corrit
    • French Boy
    • (uncredited)
    Stephen Follett
    • French Boy
    • (uncredited)
    Eric Kent
    • Dig Site Worker
    • (uncredited)
    Nigel Kingsley
    • French Boy
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Montgomery Tully
    • Writers
      • John Brunner
      • Murray Leinster
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews33

    4.8773
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    4Leofwine_draca

    British Plan Nine

    Amicus were a well-known film company during the 1960s and 1970s who made a number of anthology horrors that continue to be well-regarded amongst fans. It transpires that they tried their hand at a number of other genre efforts during that time-frame too, including this ultra-low-budget sci-fi effort.

    Sadly, THE TERRORNAUTS turns out to be one of the cheapest and silliest British science fiction films ever made. It has good pedigree; after all, Amicus is behind it, and their DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS, made 3 years previously, is still one of my all-time favourites. This film is based on a novel by the one-time hugely popular Murray Leinster, and has a script by respected sci-fi writer John Brunner. What could go wrong? Er, everything, as it happens. This is a cheapo production with wobbly sets and production values which are far below par. It actually looks cheaper than the episodes of DR WHO that they were shooting at the same time. The basic storyline sees a group of astronomers getting involved with a planned alien invasion, but the outer-space special effects look like something you'd see in THE CLANGERS. It's hardly the stuff to give George Lucas nightmares.

    The cast turns up a few faces of interest, most notably Charles Hawtrey and Patricia Hayes who make up a kind of comic double act to comment on the action. Despite the limitations of his acting style, Hawtrey is the best thing in this - well, him and the beautiful actress Zena Marshall, one-time Bond girl (in DR NO) and now reduced to making this nonsense. Unfortunately, the male leads are resolutely dull.

    I still laugh even now when I think about the Robby the Robot rip-off that rolls and wobbles all over the place as well as the dodgy explosive effects and the green-skinned aliens who look like they're wearing bath rugs on their heads. As an unintentional comedy, THE TERRORNAUTS is a lot of fun, just as fun as all those dodgy sci-fi B-movies that got made during the 1950s. But as a proper film it's a real mess.
    7rodm-5

    An interesting and somewhat different SF plot for its time.

    I was constantly surprised by where this film took me.

    Initially expecting the the alien spaceship to have hostile intentions against the Earth, it simply kidnaps some miscellaneous and startled astronomers and makes off with them. After that it is nothing like the usual: aliens attack earth, humans fight back but are losing, humans find a clever trick/weapon/chemical/virus and defeat evil aliens (or get soundly defeated and taken over by evil aliens).

    They are dumped into an alien base on an asteroid and the fun part is watching them work out where they are, and why. The ending is novel for its time, but a little tacky.

    I enjoyed the film very much for its novelty and surprises (not its very basic special effects). It was a "nice" film. It is probably very dated now but I haven't seen it for 30 years.
    5EdgarST

    Star Talk indeed!

    "The Terrornauts" is on the edge of being an awful film, were it not for its slightly suggested comic approach. If you listen carefully to the music cue accompanying the main title sequence, it gives you a hint of what to expect. Classic composer Elisabeth Lutyens' score has airs of (sinister) children games and charades, and I am only guessing that is what the movie must have inspired her, with its cartoonish models of space ships, props which are riddles, pastel sets of a military base (with test cubicles and a control room) and the acting by vaudeville buffoons as Charles Hawtrey, Patricia Hayes and even Max Adrian as the "villain" who is against the space program led by Simon Oates. The program aims to find signs of life in outer space, following a hunch Oates has since childhood, when he had a visionary dream. Unfortunately, the script is loaded with dialogues, explanations and debates within closed sets, and little action. Even for children and adolescents "The Terrornauts" is too verbose, making its running time seem much longer than its 73 minutes.
    3kevinolzak

    Retread of "This Island Earth" sunk by lack of budget

    1967's "The Terrornauts" proved too ambitious for an Amicus budget, topping a dismal double bill with the only slightly better "They Came From Beyond Space," box office duds to ensure no further outer space adventures were forthcoming. The John Brunner script was adapted from Murray Leinster's 1960 novel "The Wailing Asteroid," the outline following Universal's "This Island Earth" of aliens securing aid from Earth to fight an interstellar battle that will save their galaxy. Hoping to learn something about other beings in the universe has been a lifelong ambition for Dr. Joe Burke (Simon Oates), ever since he received a curious cube as a child that inspired a dream of a world with two suns. The skeptical leader of Project Star Talk (Max Adrian) tires of their finances being drained away without results, allowing only three more months to discover concrete evidence from their intricate radio telescope. Immediately, a signal reaches them from a small asteroid repeating like an SOS call, prompting Burke to put together a transmitter to send an answer to the mysterious messenger, resulting in a ship arriving to transfer Burke and four others to the asteroid center manned by a lone robot (looking suspiciously like a rejected version of one of Dr. Who's Daleks). Various tests meant to confirm the visitors' intelligence and good intentions allow for them to decipher the secret behind the messages, an enemy force set not only to destroy the asteroid but also the planet Earth. Universal provided an adequate budget to bring "This Island Earth" to vivid life (even though the climactic view of the alien world is all too brief), but for this film Amicus started out with a decent script with a pitifully small budget that renders every action sequence downright laughable. The wires are clearly visible during space flight, the miniatures too obvious, the entire cast uninvolved, and one scene where Zena Marshall's exotic scientist is captured for a human sacrifice ends so swiftly and abruptly that it must have been done strictly to promise a colorful poster (reminding one of Cy Roth's inept "Fire Maidens of Outer Space"). A rather sad finale for 41 year old Zena Marshall, best remembered as the very first Bond Girl to bed Sean Connery's 007 in 1962's "Dr. No."
    7bkoganbing

    A Science Fiction Sleeper

    The Terrornauts which looks like it was shot on a budget for a real and not Walt Disney high school musical, is one of the quirkiest science fiction films ever made. That's in fact part of its charm, a Star Wars type budget would have killed this film.

    Three British scientists who are on a project trying to communicate with other intelligent life forms out in space are about to get the plug pulled from their funding. They've got three months to get some results from their radio telescope or the foundation that funds them will cut them off.

    One night working late, the scientists, Zena Marshall, Simon Oates and Stanley Meadows actually achieve a breakthrough. It's while suffering the presence of auditor Charles Hawtrey from their benefactor foundation. Even the lunch lady Patricia Jones is around. But the scientists get more than they bargain for when they're teleported to an asteroid where some civilization has left quite a space station outpost to contemplate.

    The space station was put there by some civilization long extinct like the Krells to guard against an invader whose got some space ships heading for earth right now. The premise is similar to the one for The Last Starfighter.

    What makes The Terrornauts fun and not some total Ed Wood type disaster is the presence of Charles Hawtrey and Patricia Jones. They're of absolutely no help whatsoever to the scientists except both as witnesses to what transpired and for comic relief to the audience. Hawtrey was on hiatus from the British Carry on series and in his droll fey way keeps the proceedings hysterical. He's aided and abetted by Jones who even though she's bewildered by what's going on, keeps a nice even keel about everything. They play beautifully against the oh so serious scientists.

    The Terrornauts is a real sleeper of a science fiction film, a camp delight something Ed Wood would have liked to have had credited to his name. But just imagine if the scientists had not been teleported and it was just Hawtrey and Jones. Where would the world be then?

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      John Brunner, who adapted Murray Leinster's 1960 book "The Wailing Asteroid" for this film (his only screenplay), was shortly to be a Hugo- and BSFA-award winner for his own books "Stand on Zanzibar" and "The Jagged Orbit".
    • Goofs
      Smoke from an explosion rises in the air and goes behind the twin moons of the alien planet. Obviously the moons were painted on a sheet of glass set in front of the camera.
    • Quotes

      Mrs. Jones: [Examining the alien complex] They're houseproud, I'll say that for them. They're houseproud!

    • Connections
      Featured in Shiver & Shudder Show (2002)

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ13

    • How long is The Terrornauts?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 1967 (United Kingdom)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Космический террор
    • Filming locations
      • Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK(Studio)
    • Production company
      • Amicus Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 17 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Zena Marshall in The Terrornauts (1967)
    Top Gap
    By what name was The Terrornauts (1967) officially released in India in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.