Coolidge Corner Theatre Brookline, MA
Wade Roush
Science and Technology Writer
It Came From Outer Space— Is there life, intelligent or otherwise, on other planets?
Program Description
This 1950s B-movie classic—co-written by Ray Bradbury—is a pulpy-but-effective psychological sci-fi picture, with a provocative message about xenophobia. Before the film, science and technology writer Wade Roush (Extraterrestrials) will discuss one of the great unsolved problems in science: is there life, intelligent or otherwise, on other planets?
Free outdoor 35mm screening in partnership with the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
Rain Date: Thursday, 8/17
Presented At
Coolidge Corner Theatre Brookline, MA
Film Synopsis
A spaceship from another world crashes in the Arizona desert, and only an amateur stargazer and a schoolteacher suspect alien influence when the local townsfolk begin to act strange.
While stargazing in the desert, John Putnam (Richard Carlson) sees what at first appears to be a meteor shower, but is actually a crash-landing alien spaceship. After investigating the impact crater, John informs the town sheriff (Charles Drake), who dismisses his story. Even his fiancée, Ellen (Barbara Rush), is skeptical. All that changes when the townsfolk start disappearing and are replaced by eerie alien duplicates.
Photo credit: Universal Pictures
About the Speaker
Wade Roush is a freelance science and technology writer, columnist at Scientific American, and host and producer of the tech-and-culture podcast Soonish. His work has appeared in Science, Xconomy, and MIT Technology Review. He is the editor of the science fiction anthology Twelve Tomorrows (MIT Press) and the author of Extraterrestrials (published in 2020 as part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series).