- Directed by W. Lee Wilder
- Written by William Raynor, Myles Wilder
- Stars Peter Graves, James Seay, Steve Pendleton
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 11 Minutes
- Watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lYp1vpD0kI
- Get it from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3SIkG08
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one is pretty slow moving and tame. Heavy use of stock footage, use of real locations instead of sets, and aliens wearing egg carton cups over their eyes shows some low budget work. It’s apparent why Peter Graves went on to do lots of other things, he does a nice job in the lead. It’s short with an ending that was a little abrupt and easily wrapped up. Brian was pretty bored, Kevin found it moderately interesting and entertaining.
Spoilery Synopsis
We’re told about an atomic test and what goes on with one of those. There’s a great deal of old military stock footage as they drop the bomb. “This is the beginning,” we are told as the credits roll.
Dr. Doug Martin reads off the radiation readings as he flies his jet fighter over the bomb zone. The pilot sees something shiny beneath them, and then the plane crashes.
Colonel Banks calls Dr. Kruger to talk to Mrs. Ellen Martin; they can’t find a body in the wreckage but there’s no way he could have survived that crash.
A bit later, Doug Martin staggers into camp, more or less healthy, but very disoriented. He can’t remember anything, even how he got that big surgical scar on his chest. He’s never had an operation, so how did that get there?
Mr. Briggs with the FBI comes to check things out. Could the man they have in the infirmary be an impostor? Fingerprints show that he’s the right man after all. They decide to send Martin home, but he starts having weird nightmares about eyes. He wants to get right back to work, but Ellen and the doctors want him to relax at home.
Martin reads about the next atomic test in the newspaper; he wasn’t invited, and he’s angry about it. The government men say he’s not a good security risk after his disappearance. They’re probably not wrong, because he starts sneaking around copying files from Dr. Kruger’s office.
Briggs comes to discuss the files with Kruger, but he says the safe was locked and nothing is missing. He suggests that it was Dr. Martin. Briggs then questions Ellen about whether her husband has any new friends. The police put out an APB on Martin.
Briggs catches Martin putting a note under a rock, but Martin attacks him and drives off. He keeps getting visions of eyes and crashes his car.
Martin wakes up in the hospital with Briggs, Kruger, Banks and doctors. He rants about killers from space who want to wipe us all out. They give him some truth serum, and we flash back to what really happened during the crash as he tells everything.
The plane was crashing, and the next thing he knew, he was surrounded by strange aliens with weird eyes. He was probed and examined in the alien lab. They have been hiding in caves in the desert since the atomic testing began.
The leader of the aliens says that Martin was dead, and they fixed his heart. They’re from Astron Delta, a world with a dying sun. They’ve taken over several neighboring star systems, but they need to move here.
Martin is dropped in a cage with giant spiders, insects, and lizards, but he runs away from those. The leader explains that those carnivorous insects and animals are their armies, ready to wipe out humanity. They are drawing energy from the bomb tests, but they are also using electricity from the grid to keep the energy controlled. Martin was then hypnotized by the aliens to bring them atomic test schedules and to forget everything he’s seen.
Back in the hospital, Martin tells the others his story. They all think he’s crazy. The doctor says the stories couldn’t have been fabricated due to the truth serum.
Martin tries to break loose from the hospital, but the doctor and Ellen stop him. He asks for some paper and gets to work. Kruger and Ellen still won’t listen, so Martin runs out to the car; he wants to cut off the power supply to the aliens, which he thinks will overload their systems and blow them up.
There’s lots of running around in the power plant as everyone searches and Martin hides. Martin forces a technician to cut the power; there’s a massive explosion. He was right about his method for getting rid of the alien base.
Brian’s Commentary
So much smoking! Was this sponsored by one of the big cigarette companies? There was even a cigarette machine in the hospital.
According to IMDB, forty percent of the film is stock footage.
The aliens here are very distinctive; they used the bottoms of egg cartons for the eyes, which looks ridiculous, but otherwise, it’s all played pretty seriously.
It takes a long time to get to the weirdness, and even then it’s all very tame. I found this one pretty boring.
Kevin’s Commentary
It was strange seeing such a young Peter Graves here. Like Brian said, it’s very tame and does take a long time to get to anything really strange. There’s a lot of 1950s technology shown, which I always enjoy. The aliens do make you want to snicker at first sight, but they play it straight enough that they pull it off. I think a lot of that can be credited to the job that the actor did in the role of the main alien. I wasn’t bored, it’s short enough to get over with soon enough, but I wouldn’t rate it high for entertainment value. But it was okay.
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