Klatu. Berenga. Niktoe...
(Heaven or hell: Turn. Or burn.)
Klatu (a recently arrived extraterrestrial with his flying saucer parked on a baseball field near the nation’s captital):
"I wish to meet with all the representatives of the planet."
Diplomat: "I’m afraid that may be a bit awkward - it’s unprecedented - they wouldn’t sit down at the same table."
Klatu: "I am not here to concern myself with your petty squabbles. What I am here for concerns everyone on this planet. I must speak therefore, to all of its representatives."
Diplomat: "Moscow says you must meet in Moscow. Britain says Britain, and the United States says here."
Klatu: "I am impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it."
Diplomat: "Please don’t judge us too harshly. Our problems are very complex."
(The following scene occurs at the aforementioned baseball field, at the center of which Klatu’s intergalactic space-vehicle is parked. It is now surrounded by thousands of curious onlookers, military personnel and various military weapons. Klatu, appearing to be a normal human being of approximately 35-40 years - he is actually 78 - mingles, unrecognized with the crowd of civilians who are rubber-necking the saucer shaped space vehicle, from behind a military cordon line.)
"I think I should get out among your people and learn the basis for their strange, unreasoning attitudes."
(Newsman with mobile microphone, randomly interviewing the crowd; he extends the microphone in front of Klatu
"Hello, sir. I suppose you’re afraid just like the rest of us?"
Klatu: "I am afraid when I see people substituting fear for reason, and I...."
Newsman interrupts:
"Thank you very much, sir...", and moves on to another onlooker:
"And what do you think of all this..." (Etceteras, etceteras...)
Later, inside the laboratory of a renowned scientist who is sympathetic with Klatu’s mission...
Professor Barnhart: "Maybe a little demonstration - it seems they won’t listen otherwise - something dramatic but not destructive, would the day after tomorrow be all right - say, about noon?"
Later that evening, Klatu leaves instruction with ‘Gort’, a large, humanoid shaped, metallic appearing robot: "Gort! Marenga! Axo Berenga Dabas."
The next scene features Klatu and his newly acquired earthling woman-friend. They are standing in a moving elevator and chatting...
Woman: "The elevator stopped! I’ll push the emergency button!"
Katu: "It won’t work. The (non-critical emergency) electricity has been neutralized for 30 minutes; all over the world."
Woman:"Then you are who you say you are..."
Klatu: "Yes."
Professor Barnhart (at the laboratory, to his secretary):
"Does this (world power outing) frighten you? Make you feel insecure?"
Secretary: "Yes."
Professor Barnhart: "Good. Very good."
Meanwhile, Klatu is briefing his earthling woman friend:
"If anything happens to me - you must get to Gort and say these words:
"Klatu, berenga, niktoe".
That night, the earthling military shoots Klatu down in the street with automatic small arms weapons. After further harrowing incidents, the earthling woman contacts Gort, who restores Klatu, who - secretly dying - bids the world farewell with the following speech (He has been shot, twice, since his arrival):
"There must be security for all, or no one is secure. This does not mean giving up any freedom except that of irresponsibility.
"At the first sign of violence, our robots, which you have already tested for their indestructibility - act against the aggressor. Their program is irrevocable. Join us and live in peace, or, pursue violence and be obliterated."
- Michael Renning (as ‘Klatu’), The Day The Earth Stood Still.


LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote

