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Gorath (妖星ゴラス,   Yosei Gorasu?, lit. Planet Gorath), is a Japanese science fiction tokusatsu film produced by Toho in 1962. The story for Gorath was written by Jojiro Okami, a former Japanese Air Force pilot who also gave the original ideas to the films The Mysterians, Battle in Outer Space, and Dogora. It was released to Japanese theaters on March 21, 1962.

Synopsis[]

The film depicts a runaway star on a collision course with Earth in the then-future decade of the 1980s. Unlike most other impact event stories, in which mankind must abandon the Earth (When Worlds Collide) or destroy the threat (Deep Impact, Armageddon), Gorath sees humanity attempt to avert disaster by disengaging Earth from its own orbit around the Sun. While the American When Worlds Collide can be seen as an influence on the story of Gorath, Daiei's 1956 film, Warning from Space, in which a planet is on a collision course with Earth, may have been a more direct inspiration.

Plot[]

Early in the year of 1979, Japan's most famed rocketship, the JX-1 Hawk, with its crew of 30 men, was launched from the Interstellar Exploration Agency’s rocket launch site at Mt Fuji into space on a 9-month journey to investigate the planet Saturn. After a 9 months journey to Saturn, the crew are given a new directive for the mission from Earth. It was discovered that a small, runaway "planet," which some scientists believed to be the solid mega-dense core of a collapsed star that had somehow run amok. It is subsequently given the name "Gorath" by the international scientific community, had entered Earth's solar system. Upon encountering Gorath and attempting to investigate its rapid movement in the solar system, they discover that Gorath is smaller than Earth but with 6000 times Earth's gravity. The JX-1 is caught in its gravity well and its entire crew of the spacecraft lose their lives as the enormous gravity well of the approaching celestial body destroyed the ship.

Back on Earth during the Christmas season, the transmitted data made its way back to Earth. A month later in 1980, astronomers and astrophysicists throughout the international community announce that the enormous celestial body would collide with the Earth in two years time.

Later at the United Nations, a gathering of Earth’s top scientists resolved to this all-important goal by pooling together large amounts of technical advancements they made in the past two decades. After much debriefing, the scientific community unveiled their plan to save the Earth. They dub the plan the South Pole Operation. The South Pole operation base is to be designed to house a large international team of engineers and scientists. The plan involves the construction of huge rocket thruster engines, 500 meters below the surface and in an area 600 kilometers in diameter, producing an atomic force equal to that of 6,600,000,000 megatons. When completed and activated, these mega-thrusters would serve to literally move the Earth more than 400,000 kilometers out of its orbit in 100 days until it was safely out of range of both the approaching star Gorath and its devastating gravity well, and then move the Earth back into its proper orbit once the danger had completely passed.

The U.N. then sends the remaining prototype sub-light spacecraft JX-2 Eagle into space to obtain further data on Gorath.

Construction on the massive South Pole base is put into action as ships and helicopters from many nations bring in building material necessary to the plan. In addition, powerful mobile heat-generating devices known as atomic burrowers were quickly cobbled together to assist in the project of creating the caverns in the icy terrain of the Antarctic that would be needed to house the booster rockets.

Meanwhile, in deep space, the JX-2 Eagle succeeds in its mission. The data they acquired, including the disturbing fact that Gorath was continuously adding to its mass by absorbing more space debris in the path of its gravity well. This information was sent to the U.N. personnel on the three space stations SSS-A, Terra and Dalta.

Back on Earth, the first preliminary test of the rocket thrusters is about to commence. Around the world, anxious citizens watch live television broadcasts of the event. The thrusters are activated and the results are witness from the orbiting space stations the Earth is gently along. The South Pole Operation is hailed as a success and the Earth was moving out of the way of Gorath's path.

Meanwhile, in space, With this news, the JX-2 Eagle is ordered to return to its base on Earth, along with the three-space stations (all of which were moved from orbit to avoid having the multibillion-dollar constructs being struck by Gorath when it approached the Earth).

Back on Earth, an unexpected threat was literally unearthed when the completed rocket boosters were tested. The backlash of incredible heat this created caused a gigantic, 30-meter-long walrus to emerge from its home deep below the frozen tundra [this creature was later named 'Maguma' in Japanese press info about this incident; Maguma was evidently a hidden remnant of prehistoric creatures that survived into modern times. Angered by the dramatic intrusion into his home, Maguma began attacking the U.N. base. Acting to save the installation, a small VTOL craft that was used as a means of fast cargo transport, but also equipped with a powerful laser, was sent to stop the kaiju's assault. The pilot was determined to halt the creature without killing him, and initially used the laser cannon to cause an avalanche that buried the beast. Maguma easily escaped, however, and continued his attack. This left the South Pole crew no choice but to turn the craft's deadly laser beam on the creature himself, and the enormous animal was killed. Back in deep space, Gorath was continuing its destructive path, now absorbing the rings of Saturn. The JX-2 and the three space stations finally arrive back on Earth.

Sometime later, Gorath is close enough to the Earth to be seen by the naked eye and the atmosphere is reacting as the clouds are drawn toward the star. Tides begin to rise and a State of Emergency is declared. The Moon, Earth's lone satellite is pulled in by Gorath's gravity well and is obliterated. Gorath's full effect upon the Earth is felt as the great city of Tokyo is flooded by a tsunami. At the Interstellar Exploration Agency launch site at Mt Fuji, the JX-2 and the Space Station Terra are destroyed by an earthquake. The situation also became critical at the South Pole Operation base, as flooding waters enter the thruster area, extinguishing several fires.

After the critical moment passed, the full global cooperation of every nation on the planet succeeded marvelously and Earth was moved out of Gorath's path, and then successfully actuated back into its normal orbit, thus saving the planet from destruction.

Staff[]

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

  • Directed by Ishiro Honda
  • Written by Jojiro Okami, and Takeshi Kimura
  • Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka
  • Music by Kan Ishii
  • Cinematography by Hajime Koizumi
  • Edited by Reiko Kaneko
  • Assistant directing by Katsumune Ishida, Koji Kajita, Shoji Kuroda, and Masashi Matsumuto
  • Special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano, Kan Narita, Sokei Tomioka, Eiji Tsuburaya, Akira Watanabe, and Koichi Kawakita

Cast[]

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

  • Ryô Ikebe as Dr. Tazawa - Astrophysicist
  • Yumi Shirakawa as Tomoko Sonoda
  • Akira Kubo as Tatsuma Kanai - Cadet Astronaut
  • Kumi Mizuno as Takiko Nomura
  • Hiroshi Tachikawa as Wakabayashi - Pilot of Ôtori
  • Akihiko Hirata as Endô - Captain of Ôtori
  • Kenji Sahara as Saiki - Vice Captain of Ôtori
  • Jun Tazaki as Raizô Sonoda - Tomoko's Father
  • Ken Uehara as Dr. Kôno - Astrophysicist
  • Takashi Shimura as Kensuke Sonoda - Paleontologist
  • Seizaburô Kawazu as Tada - Minister of Finance
  • Kô Mishima as Sanada - Engineer
  • Sachio Sakai as Physician
  • Takamaru Sasaki as Prime Minister Seki
  • Kô Nishimura as Murata - Secretary of Space
  • Eitarô Ozawa as Kinami - Minister of Justice
  • Masanari Nihei as Itô - Astronaut of Ôtori
  • Kôzô Nomura as Observer of Ôtori
  • Keiko Sata as Prime Minister's Secretary
  • Hideyo Amamoto as Man in bar
  • George Furness as Hooverman (as Jôji Fânesu)
  • Ross Benette as Gibson (as Rosu Benetto)
  • Jun'ichirô Mukai as Space Base Security Guard
  • Nadao Kirino as Manabe - Takiko's Lover
  • Fumio Sakashita as Hayao Sonoda - Tomoko's Brother
  • Ikio Sawamura as Taxi Driver
  • Toshihiko Furuta as Observer of Ôtori
  • Yoshiyuki Uemura as Mathematician of Ôtori
  • Rinsaku Ogata as Engineer of Ôtori
  • Masayoshi Kawabe as Observer of Ôtori
  • Yasushi Matsubara as Radio Operator of Ôtori
  • Tadashi Okabe as Mathematician of Ôtori
  • Kôji Uno as Reporter
  • Yukihiko Gondô as Pilot of Ôtori
  • Ken'ichirô Maruyama as Engineer of Ôtori (as Ken'ichiro Maruyama)

Appearances[]

Weapons, Vehicles, and Races[]

  • JX-1 Hayabusa
  • SSS-1
  • Space Station Terra
  • Dalta
  • Atomic Burrower
  • V-TOL
  • JX-2 Ootori
  • Capsule 1

Monsters[]

Place[]

Gallery[]

Main article: Gorath (1962 film)/Gallery.

Soundtrack[]

Main article: Gorath (Soundtrack).

Alternate Titles[]

  • Suspicious Star Gorath
  • UFOs to the Destroy the Earth
  • Clash of the Planets

Theatrical Releases[]

  • Japan - March 21, 1962  [view poster]link=http://godzilla.wikia.com/wiki/Gorath (1962 film)/Gallery#Posters?file=Gorath - Movie Poster
  • United States - May 15, 1964  [view poster]link=http://godzilla.wikia.com/wiki/Gorath (1962 film)/Gallery#Posters?file=affiche2
  • West Germany - July 10, 1975
  • France
  • Greece

U.S. Release[]

Affiche2

American Gorath poster

The film was released in the United States by Brenco Pictures. Most of the visual content was kept intact, but the six-minute sequence featuring the character Maguma was removed. The distributors found the character's appearance comical, even dubbing him "Wally the Walrus" (most likely inspired by Wally Walrus, an antagonist from the Woody Woodpecker cartoons popular at the time). As such, they removed the sequence for their cut of the film, and it has never been restored to the English-language edit, which was aired several times on television throughout the 1960s and '70s.

The English dubbing was done by Ryder Sound Services, and scripted by Star Trek writer John Lucas. Only four voice actors were used to dub the film. Besides the voices, the audio track was tampered with, including adding a sound effect for the meteor which was not in the original Japanese version.

Brenco Pictures re-released the film on a double-bill with The Human Vapor in 1968, but between the two releases never turned a profit on their investment in Gorath. The company closed in 1969 soon after the death of co-owner Edward L. Alperson on July 3 of that year. The film was purchased by Heritage Enterprises and distributed to U.S. television. Presumably, it was seen by more people on TV than by people who saw it between its two theatrical releases.

Videos[]

Trailer[]

Trivia[]

  • The planet Gorath later appeared as a meteorite in Godzilla: Final Wars. According to the Xiliens, a dead star went supernova and expelled Gorath, possibly a small planet broken into smaller chunks after this event. In truth, Gorath was part of the Xiliens' plans to bring their most powerful weapon, Monster X, to Earth, while still fooling the humans into believing that the Xiliens intended to save the Earth from the collision.
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