- Directed by Herbert L. Strock
- Written by Tom Taggart
- Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 23 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3Aue0b8
Synopsis
Three scientists perform a scientific test on a sleeping monkey. They drop his temperature to 85 below zero. The monkey freezes solid. They thaw the monkey, and its heart starts again. The monkey is alive and well.
Two of the scientists leave, but one gets locked in the test chamber. The machines all turn themselves on and it starts getting cold. He falls over and shatters! The woman scientist comes in later and finds his body. As she screams, the door shuts behind her as well…
Dr. Sheppard is flying in in a helicopter that is controlled remotely by the “electronic brain” as they approach a secret base. The pilot doesn’t even know where they’re going. They land and go deep into the underground. There’s an atomic pile and an electronic brain and all kinds of research labs. Sheppard meets Dr. Van Ness who explains the “accident” with the freezing chamber.
He believes a saboteur operated the device. They also found a tracking device that transmits their location, possibly to a bomber? A hydrogen bomb would take out the entire base, even the underground parts. The enemy may already know where they are.
Sheppard and Joanna Merritt have a history. She’s with secret security. They find a dust sample in the transmitter and ask Marna to analyze it with the NOVAC brain.
One of the scientists explains the idea behind solar power and how it would be used on a space station. Sheppard looks through a solar telescope, directly at the sun. There’s lots of science talk. They also demonstrate solar mirrors that can melt steel— or burn cities. NOVAC controls all the mirrors, of course.
There’s also a demonstration of an anti-gravity room. They get call downstairs, the sound detector has begun to vibrate. It indicates a possible attack. At this frequency, sound generates heat, and a chair bursts into flame.
One of the transmitters was found in Dr. Zeitman’s room. They go into the NOVAC room, and Joanna explains that stands for Nuclear Operative Variable Automatic Computer. Zeitman invented the thing, but still doesn’t completely understand it. Sheppard sees two robots, named Gog and Magog. Zeitman might have been disposing of his computer tapes inappropriately.
There’s a radiation alarm on the second floor where there shouldn’t be any. They all run down there. Marna is dead from radioactive poison, the dust is gone, and her equipment is smashed. Someone didn’t want them to know what that stuff was. They also get confirmation that there is a secret airplane flying around above the base.
Who could have planted the radioactive isotope? “Someone who knows everything we do,” says the radiation expert.
There’s an experiment with a centrifuge, but it gets stuck in high gear. The two test subjects both die. Before long, all the suspects are in the conference room talking. Meanwhile, the solar weapon suddenly turns on Dr. Elzevir, and she barely breaks the mirror before it gets her. The sonic weapon fries the security chief. Everything starts going haywire.
Zeitman notices Magog is missing but can’t explain it. NOVAC was turned off during some of the murders, so it couldn’t have done it. Sheppard figures it out: NOVAC’s systems have been being operated remotely, controlled from the airplane overhead.
Suddenly, Gog activates and kills Dr. Engle and Dr. Zeitman. Magog is attacking the atomic pile, and Gog is chasing the humans. “We’ve got to stop those robots!” utters Dr. Van Ness. They call Air Defense Command to shoot down the airplane that’s controlling the robots.
Sheppard grabs a flame thrower and battles Magog as the nuclear indicator rises to the danger point. Magog fries, but then Gog comes in to finish the job, and Sheppard’s out of fuel!
Just as the robot is about to kill them all, the Air Force blows up the spy plane and the robot goes dead. Sheppard and Joanna both receive an unhealthy dose of radiation and have to go to the hospital, but they’ll be fine.
It turns out NOVAC was built with a radio transceiver built-in that relayed everything to the enemy since the day it was switched on. Van Ness plans to launch what amounts to a spy satellite the next morning to watch the Earth. “Nothing will ever surprise us again,” he explains.
Commentary
The robots were controlled by little people actors hiding inside, and of course, the computer was pure science fiction at this point. Gog and Magog were created ten years before Daleks were even thought of, but you can see the influence they had on the later creatures.
There’s lots of demonstration and science talk, but almost nothing happens in the first hour; it’s all Joanna leading Sheppard through the base. I’d have loved this if I had been ten years old when this came out, but we all just know too much real science today, so this just isn’t all that interesting in any way other than nostalgia.
It’s more of a mystery than anything else. It’s hokey in a lot of ways, but it did predict a lot of things, including computer malware, practical solar power, and remote-control robotics.