Ray Bradbury

In 1930s, a psychotic drifter who's after the mystery woman who covered his whole body in illustrations that foresee distant future shows three of them (The Veldt, The Long Rain and The Last Night of the World) to a mesmerized traveler. The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury, a collection of eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin, visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body. The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast space of stars and blackness, the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere, the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. —Stig Ohara Just as the original book is an anthology of science fiction stories, the Illustrated Man movie has a framing device to connect the fragmented story vignettes that are told. A young hobo falls in with an experienced traveler who at times frightens and entices him. The senior hobo(Rod Stieger) is covered from head to toe by tattoo illustrations that both enrich and curse him. He warns the young man not to stare too closely at them for too long, as they seem to come alive and portray tales. Each one in turn plays out a science fiction tale, a morality play, some bitter, some sweet, some perplexing. The movie reuses the same three principal actors in every story vignette, making it a bizarre, confusing task to try to re-identify each as their role changes from tale to tale. There is no connecting thread here, save for the continuing framing story of the young man becoming entranced by the illustrations. The older hobo claims he is searching for the woman who tattooed him to this extent, but it is unclear if she is real, a phantom, or an invention of his somewhat disturbed mind. By the time we get the entire tale of how the tattoos came to be, Rod has become romantically involved with the female tattoo artist. There is some suggestion that she has made a mark upon his soul by living with him for so long. But suddenly, she is gone, vanished, and he is forever searching for his lost love, his muse, his devil woman who has cursed him to live like this and thrown him to the hard, cruel world. Shocked and driven to the point of madness himself, the young man attempts to crush the old hobo's skull with a rock, and then flees himself, having now become the target of the old hobo's pursuit. There is no resolution to this, only an endless chase that continues... —Kirk G A young man is introduced to the hobo life by an odd, completely tattooed man. The tattoos seem to come alive and can drive a man mad. The old hobo pursues both the woman who tattooed him in his dreams and the young man who attempts to kill him. —Kirk G In this Sci-Fi anthology based on short stories by famous Sci-Fi and horror author Ray Bradbury, a man meets a strange woman and ends up having his whole body covered in tattoos or illustrations, as he calls them. He meets a curious traveler and agrees to explain to him the meaning behind three of there illustration, which all happen to tell about the future. The first story is called "The Veldt" and follows a couple who's worried over the fact that their kids are spending all their time in an African savanna created by their incredibly realistic home virtual reality simulator. When they take action to get the kids back to reality, the kids fight back. In "The Long Rain", a team of astronauts crash-lands on Venus, a planet now completely covered with jungles thanks to heavy rain that's constantly falling throughout the entire year. Can they navigate the endless jungle and reach safety before they fall pray to madness and exhaustion? In "The Last Night of the World", a couple learns that the world will end in a day and decides to carry on with their daily routine anyway.

In 1841, a sailor named Ishmael (Richard Basehart) arrives in the New England town of New Bedford, Massachusetts to find work on a whaling ship. Due to a shortage of local lodgings, he is forced to share his room at the inn with a Pacific Islander and harpooner named Queequeg (Friedrich Von Ledebur), whom he befriends after a tense first meeting. Queequeg did not know that he was sharing his room with Ishmael and attacks him when he finds Ishmael in his bed. The owner of the Inn Peter Coffin (Joseph Tomelty) helps straighten the matter out. Ishmael learns that as an outsider, he needs permission from the sailors of New Bedford to join a whaling crew. As the whaling rights belong to the natives of the town. Officers Stubb and Flask grant him the permission when Ishmael agrees to their rights over any profits from whaling. The town church is littered with epitaphs of crews and sailors lost to whale attacks over the years. The next morning, the two of them join the crew of Pequod (They were attracted to the ship as it was adorned with all sorts of ivory, skulls and bones from whale hunting) under the command of Captain Ahab (Gregory Peck), who is obsessed with hunting and killing a legendary, white-skinned whale named Moby Dick, who was responsible for severing Ahab's left leg. Peleg (Mervyn Johns) questions Ishmael's desire to join a whaling ship as he was in the merchant service before and has never thrown a harpoon at a whale. Peleg offers Ishmael a 300th part of the profits when Bildad (Philip Stainton) wanted to offer him only a 777th part. Queequeg is offered 60th part of the profits due to his harpooning skills. The ship is loaded with supplies and readied for departure. Just before their departure, Ishmael and Queequeg encounter a man named Elijah (Royal Dano), who delivers an ominous warning about Ahab and that all but one of the crew who follow him will find their deaths on this voyage. Elijah says that the whale marked Ahab's soul. He says that the crew will smell land where there is no land and that Ahab would fall, but then rise within the hour. And after that all but one crew will perish. Bildad and Peleg get off the ship before it sails. The ship carries Carpenter (Noel Purcell), Pip the cabin boy (Tamba Allenby), Daggoo (Edric Connor), Tashtego (Tom Clegg) (harpooner) and Perth the blacksmith (Ted Howard). As the ship casts off, and for some time afterwards, Ahab remains unseen until he finally appears to align his crew to the hunt for Moby Dick and sets course for the Bikini Atoll, where the whale is said to dwell. While the crew reaps a fair bounty of oil on their journey, Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick remains foremost in his mind. The crew learns that Moby Dick was the whale that took Ahab's leg. Ahab works the crew into a frenzy and makes them take an oath to hunt Moby Dick. The crew know that Moby Dick has killed over 1000 men so far, has a crooked jaw and has many harpoons stuck in its hump. Whaling process requires boats with harpooners to be lowered into the water. The boats are rowed next to the whales, where harpoons are thrust into the whale and the boats are attached to the harpoons with rope. The boats then follow the whale and continue to harpoon it till it sprouts blood and dies. The carcass is recovered and brought aboard to strip off the meat and the whale oil. The bones are stripped and thrown back into the sea. The oil from one whale can power 1000 homes for a year. Ahab has studied the migration patterns of the whales by looking at old shipping charts and knows the exact location where he can find the whales. Yet, he first wants Moby Dick. Ahab says that he predicts to find Moby Dick at Bikini Atoll as per his study of the charts. When the captain Boomer (James Robertson Justice) of a passing ship, who recently lost his hand to the white whale, informs Ahab of Moby Dick's latest whereabouts near the coast of Madagascar, Ahab immediately breaks off a particularly successful hunt, unsettling his crew, particularly his chief mate Starbuck (Leo Genn) (2nd in command). Starbuck argues that hunting a dumb brute that acted out of instinct is not wise. But Ahab is adamant that his ego is worth more to him. Starbuck asks his fellow officers Stubb (Harry Andrews) (2nd mate) and Flask (Seamus Kelly) (3rd mate) for help wresting command of the Pequod from Ahab, which the two refuse. As the Pequod nears the atoll, a top-man falls from the ship's mast into the sea and disappears. Right afterwards, the Pequod is stuck in slack water for days. Casting bones to read his future, Queequeg foresees his death and orders the ship's carpenter to make him a coffin, before he sits down to await his demise. When one of the crew prepares to cut Queequeg's skin for fun, Ishmael rises to his friend's defense, prompting Queequeg to break his death reverie and defend Ishmael. Just then, Moby Dick briefly appears before the ship and escapes before the Pequod crew can pursue him. After rowing the ship out of the becalmed area, Ahab resumes the hunt. To motivate the crew, Ahab offers his own 10% of the profits from the entire voyage to the crew if they kill Moby Dick. They encounter the Rachel, another whaler from New Bedford, whose captain, Gardiner (Francis De Wolff), asks Ahab to help search for his son, who was carried off by Moby Dick. Ahab refuses his aid and departs. When the Pequod hits a typhoon, Ahab uses the gale to speed the chase, endangering the ship. Starbuck attempts to kill Ahab in anger but relents when in a rare humane moment Ahab reminisces about his self-destructive obsession for revenge. The ship is stuck by St. Elmo's fire (a type of Northern lights effect), but Ahab douses it and continues hunting for Moby Dick. Right after this conversation, a strange omen portends the fulfillment of Elijah's baleful prophecy (Ahab smells land in the middle of the ocean and the smell was coming from Moby Dick), which Ishmael recounts to Ahab. The captain seems affected but shakes off his doubts when Moby Dick reappears moments later. The Pequod crew sets out in their boats to bring him down. In the chaotic altercation, Moby Dick destroys Ahab's boat, but Ahab climbs onto the whale's back and stabs him until Moby Dick submerges, entangling Ahab in the harpoon lines on his back and drowning him. Starbuck has a chance to abandon the hunt but chooses instead to avenge Ahab. Moby Dick attacks the boats, smashing them and killing the men; he then rams and sinks the Pequod before disappearing. Ishmael, the only survivor, manages to cling onto Queequeg's coffin until he is found and picked up by the Rachel.

The opening title is against a waterspout and the credits over a kelp forest and other underwater scenes. Narration tells us, "This is operation experiment, a secret base far north of the Arctic Circle. Experiment was the code name for this top priority scientific expedition." Two radar operators (Alvin Greenman) and Charlie (James Best) spot the plane on radar and reports its location. Prof. Tom Nesbitt (Paul Christian/Hubschmid) and the military liaison officer Col. Jack Evans (Kenneth Tobey) observe the explosion of a Hydrogen Bomb. Charlie calls Col. Evans to report a very large object spotted on radar, but by the time Evans arrives it's gone. They chalk it up to something being tossed in front of the radar antenna. Nesbitt and Evans are reviewing their test results. George Ritchie (Ross Elliott) states, "You know, every time one of these things go off, I feel as if were helping to write the first chapter of a new Genesis." They depart to collect radiation results from forward observation posts. Ice blocks their path by tractor, so they go on foot the final distance. At Post 16 they take a radiation reading and decide it's too high. They decide they should split up; one visit Post 17 and the other Post 18 to limit their radiation exposure. They agree to meet back at Post 16. The weather gets worse. Ritchie spots a large dinosaur and hears its roar. He shouts out to his colleague, but Tom Nesbitt can't hear him. He explores a little further and distracted by the beast falls into a crevice, breaking his leg in the process. Nesbitt completes his task and returns to Post 16 and waits. Ritchie shoots a gun into the air, hoping its loud report will bring help. Nesbitt hears it and responds. Following his tracks left in the snow he finds his colleague. He tries to move him alone, but decides he needs more help. Ritchie tries to warn Nesbitt about "a prehistoric monster." Nesbitt attributes his rambling to the cold, pain, and shock. Then Nesbitt hears and sees Ritchie's "hallucination" himself. The creature's proximity and weight creates an avalanche that buries Ritchie and nearly kills Nesbitt. Nesbitt is brought back to base, barely alive from shock and exposure. The doctor tells Col. Evans to get him to a hospital in the states immediately. Nesbitt comes to and begins to ramble about Ritchie and a monster. He is flown to New York's Hartley Hospital. After a two week physical recovery he is started on "Psychiatric Interrogation for Traumatic Hallucinations." He is introduced to Dr. Ingersoll (King Donovan) who tells him that shock and trauma are the reason behind his dinosaur sighting. Col. Evans arrives to tell him that they found no trace of Ritchie or the beast. His primary care physician, Dr. Morton (Frank Ferguson) insists he rest. The fishing ketch, Fortune, is out in a storm in the North Atlantic. The captain enters the wheelhouse, his first mate Jacob Bowman (Jack Pennick) is at the wheel. Bowman spots something outside and calls for the Captain, abandoning the wheel as he recoils in fear. They hear a roar and see a huge black shape rise up from the ocean. It destroys their vessel and sinks it off the Grand Banks. The next morning Nesbitt is having his breakfast in his hospital room and spots the story in the newspaper. Bowman was the lone survivor of the disaster. Nesbitt dresses and visits the Paleontology Department of a local University. He talks to the department dean, Prof. Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) and his assistant Miss Lee Hunter (Paula Raymond). Elson is sympathetic but does not believe his story. Nesbitt asks if it is possible that the H-Bomb thawed the 100 million year old ice and freed the dinosaur. Elson does not think it possible a creature frozen for that length of time could survive. Lee Hunter interrupts to mention that a herd of Mastadon were thawed in Siberia after thousands of years, "yet their fur intact and the meat still edible." Nesbitt leaves dejected. Dr. Morton examines Nesbitt and tells him he can leave the hospital anytime. The radio is playing in his room and a broadcaster announces a second sea serpent sighting, this time from Marquette, Canada. Capt. George LeMay's ship was destroyed. Nesbitt returns to work at the Atomic Energy Commission, New York Regional Office. His secretary, Miss Ryan, is glad to have him back. She tells him that Lee Hunter is waiting to see him. She brings the newspaper with the LeMay story and tells him it is worth investigating. She's gathered sketches of the known species of dinosaurs and tells him if he can identify the creature that would be proof. That evening they meet at her apartment to look at the sketches. He narrows in on a few likely candidates, and she helps him identify the one he picks as the Rhedosaurus. She tells him if Capt. LeMay can identify the same sketch that would be proof. He calls Canada to talk to the Captain. LeMay (Leo Mostovoy) answers but can only speak French. Nesbitt asks him about the serpent, and the captain promptly hangs up the phone. The operator tells Nesbitt that he won't talk to him further. Nesbitt makes a personal visit but misses him. He speaks to the newspaper editor. He decides to visit Jacob Bowman in the hospital. He convinces Bowman to return to New York and identify the creature. Elson is packing for a vacation; Lee is helping him. He notes that Lee is developing a budding romance with Nesbitt. Nesbitt arrives with Bowman in tow. Bowman reviews the sketches and picks the same creature--the Rhedosaurus. Elson is now convinced, and speaks to Col. Evans on the phone. Evans tells Elson he will check with a friend in the Coast Guard if anything unusual is reported. A lighthouse on the coast of Maine contains a keeper and his assistant. One plays a concertina while the other wipes down the equipment. The creature comes ashore and climbs up the lighthouse, drawn to the beacon. They see it and try to escape down the spiral staircase, but the creature destroys it before they can safely exit. Col. Evans pays a visit to Capt. Philip Jackson (Donald Woods) at his U.S. Coast Guard office. He tells him the story Nesbitt and Elson told him. He asks about any unusual occurrences. That evening at the ballet, Nesbitt and Lee are on a date when Nesbitt is handed a message. They quickly depart and meet with Elson and Evans at Jacksons USCG office. Jackson explains that in addition to the lighthouse, there was shore wreckage in Massachusetts reported. Elson looks at the chart and sees a pattern. It is following the Arctic Current southward. He concludes the beast is heading for New York, its ancestral home. Elson wants to see it before he can formulate a plan to capture the creature alive. He makes arrangements with Jackson for the use of a diving bell. On the ship Elson boards a diving bell for their first drop into the Hudson submarine canyon system. Elson is in communication with Nesbitt on the surface and provides periodic reports of progress. He spots the Rhedosaurus, only the shoulder and the leg, but confirms it is enormous. Then as he describes it to Lee Hunter in more detail, it attacks and chews off the bell from the cable. The newspaper story the next day confirms Elson's death. Longshoremen are working at a New York port facility when the Rhedosaurus comes ashore. What starts as a few people scattering turns into a mob in full panic. People stuck in buildings look on in horror at the panic in the streets and the beast's destruction of property. People abandon their cars on the street and run. A patrolman shoots it with his service revolver, with little effect other than annoying the beast. As he reloads the dinosaur bends down and latches on to him by the head. He lifts him up and swallows him whole to the shock and horror of a woman witness. As it walks the streets of New York it destroys cars, utility poles and buildings. The police respond with greater numbers and rifles. Many people seek refuge in the subway system. The National Guard is called out and the Wall Street and Lower Manhattan area is turned into a battlefield. A newspaper headline indicates 180 dead and 1500 injured during the first rampage. A bazooka team fires a couple of rounds wounding the beast in the neck. The ER doctor (Michael Fox) has concluded that the beast has some very dangerous virus or bacteria in its blood that is fatal to humans. A patrol of soldiers begins collapsing after exposure to large patches of the creature's blood. Evans and Nesbitt discuss how to eliminate the beast. Anything that will spread the blood particles is out. Just as they think the creature may be dying of its wound, it is announced that the beast is alive and ashore at Manhattan Beach at the amusement area. Nesbitt suggests a radioactive isotope shot directly into the wound. The Army arrives at the amusement park. The Rhedosaurus is at the Roller Coaster. They wait for the isotope to be delivered. Evans selects his best marksman, Corp. Stone (Lee Van Cleef) for the job. He and Nesbitt don radiation suits and take a roller coaster car to the top for a better shot. Nesbitt retrieves the isotope from a lead lined container and Stone fires it into the beast's neck wound. He scores a direct hit and the beast, now in great pain, damages some of the wooden framework and rails. The coaster they were riding gets away from them, crashes, and starts a fire. The two men climb down the burning coaster while the beast goes through its death throes. The Rhedosaurus knocks out a section of burning coaster framework and makes its way to the beach and collapses. We close with Nesbitt and Lee embracing, then turning to view the dead dinosaur.

A fireball streaks across the desert sky and crashes. We see an aerial view of Sand Rock, Arizona in the late evening in the early spring. Inside an isolated ranch house outside of town we meet John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his girlfriend Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush). He is an amateur astronomer, she the local school teacher. They sit in front of a fire in his partially completed home enjoying a cup of coffee. They walk outside to take in the night air when they spot the "meteor" from the opening shot. From inside the crater, by the old Excelsior Mine, we see a sphere partially exposed that looks like a soccer ball. A hexagonal shaped "door" opens and we see some weird machinery and in shadow one of the occupants--a single eyed blob of a creature. It exits the ship and explores the desert leaving in its wake a shimmery trail. John and Ellen charter Pete Davis (Dave Willock) to take them to the crater in his helicopter. They circle the crater and land near the rim. The three climb to the top and peer inside. John walks down to the floor of the newly formed crater insisting that Ellen and Pete stay up on the rim. John sees the ship partially buried in the side of the mine, and also notices the shimmery substance near the exit of the ship. He stretches his hand out to touch the glowing material, but hesitates when he notices something inside the ship and stands up to face it. The door closes and slams shut triggering an avalanche of loose debris, burying the ship and almost killing John. John climbs back out of the crater and explains what he saw, but Ellen and Pete do not believe him. Two cars approach the crater. Pete and Ellen beg John not to discuss what he saw--they think he was imagining it. Sheriff Matt Warren (Charles Drake) and Dave Loring (Alan Dexter), who runs the local newspaper, arrive on the scene. John starts to relay his story and the disbelief and ridicule starts. Three more cars arrive at the crater. John, Ellen, and Pete fly back to the airport. John and Ellen drive back to his house. Along the way they are being observed. They encounter the creature on the highway as it appears to block their path on the road. John pulls to the side of the road thinking they hit it. Finding nothing they continue down the road. The next morning the crater is a buzz of activity. A KLTV television news van pulls up. The Sheriff's office has set up a cordon around the crater admitting only authorized personnel. The military has sent a small group out to explore. John and Ellen arrive only to be hounded by the press. John is there to meet with Dr. Snell. Dugan (Robert Carson) from American Press, and Lober (Dick Pinner) from Press Dispatch want to question John about the Sand Rock Star newspaper headline, "Star Gazer Sees Martians". They get no answers and turn their attention to Ellen, who is equally reluctant to talk to the press. John walks down into the crater to talk to Dr. Snell (George Eldredge). His assistant, Bob (Bradford Jackson) is taking radioactivity measurements, but finds none. Snell is convinced it was just a meteor, and refuses Johns request to dig it out. As John heads back to his car, where Ellen was patiently waiting, he is confronted by Matt. He has known Ellen a long time and is concerned about her involvement with John. He is jealous. John and Ellen drive off. As they are driving the see the county telephone linemen, George (Russell Johnson), and his boss, Frank (Joe Sawyer). John asks them if they've seen anything. Frank tells them he's hearing something very strange on the wires. Frank and George head down the road and encounter the creature. As he exits the truck, George is attacked and "globbed" or absorbed. John and Ellen suspect something is wrong and turn around and head back in the same direction that George and Frank took. They find the empty telephone truck on the side of the road. John retrieves his gun from the car and they begin their search, starting with the truck. John notices blood on the truck door and the shimmery trail, a telltale sign of the xenomorph. George appears to them, but is behaving very strangely. John notices Frank's arm on the ground, unmoving, the rest of his body is hidden behind a boulder. John and Ellen head back to town to get the Sheriff. John states his conclusion that Frank is dead, and it appears that George was the perpetrator. The xenomorph, now masquerading as George explains things to the human George and Frank. The Sheriff reluctantly agrees to accompany John and Ellen back out to where they encountered George and Frank, but when they arrive the truck and any evidence is gone. The three drive back to town. The Sheriff returns to his office, but John notices George and Frank walking through town. John follows and confronts them. They warn John not to interfere. Back at the Excelsior Mine, miners Sam (Edgar Dearing) and Toby (Warren MacGregor) are building a fire just outside the mine opening. They are waiting for Tom (George Selk) to return with food. Tom and his mule are just about back to the mine when the mule is spooked, and runs off. Tom turns around and is confronted by the xenomorph and is "globbed" or absorbed. Sam and Toby think they hear something in the mine and enter it. As they exit the mine they are met by the creature and are also a globbed. John and Ellen are summoned to see the Sheriff that evening. Frank's wife (Virginia Mullen) and George's girlfriend Jane Dean (Kathleen Hughes) have reported them acting strangely and now missing. Their clothes are also missing. The sheriff questions John because he appears to be the last one to have spoken to either of them. Ellen takes Mrs. Daylon and Jane home in John's car. John stays with Matt to discuss the situation; he tells Matt that Frank and George are in fact the creatures from the space craft stuck in the crater. The sheriff tells John that electrical equipment has been stolen from the hardware store and that Dr. Snell and his assistant, Bob, have been reported missing. John and Matt go out to the crater and find Dr. Snell's car, but no trace of Snell or Bob. Ellen is driving alone on the highway when she encounters Frank standing in the middle of the highway. She stops and he gets into the car. Frank instructs Ellen to take him to the mine. Back at the Sheriff's office, the phone rings. It is for John, and he is informed that the xenomorphs have Ellen. The Sheriff and John drive out into the desert. John exits the car and searches for Ellen. He sees what appears to be Ellen on a ridgeline in a cocktail dress. He follows her. She leads him to the opening to the mine shaft. A voice from inside the mine tells John that they are repairing their ship and will be leaving that night. The missing townsfolk are being held hostage. John begs to see the creature as it really is. It shows itself and John is horrified and repelled. He returns to see Matt who has been waiting by the car. Matt drops John off at his house. John notices the door unlocked and a shimmering trail leading back to an empty closed. All of his clothes are missing. The Sheriff gives orders to clear everyone away from the crater. John tells Matt that he got a visit and his clothes are missing. Frank appears in town just outside the Sheriff's office. Matt is spoiling for a confrontation with the creature impersonating the lineman, but John restrains him. They fight. Frank drives off in his telephone truck. The Sheriff forms an impromptu posse as John steals his police car and heads off to the crater. The Sheriff intends to confront Frank on the highway. Taking a shortcut through the desert, he forms a vehicle barricade across the highway. As Frank approaches, the posse opens fire. The truck careens off the highway and hits a boulder and bursts into flame. Meanwhile John arrives at the mine entrance and enters. He finds alien Ellen. She tells John they only need a few more hours. She then attacks him with a wand that emits a beam that cuts through rock, but misses. He shoots her with his gun and she falls into a lake below and dissolves. The posse arrives outside as John continues his exploration of the old mine. He hears machinery and finds the aliens in their human form making repairs to their ship. The head xenomorph has assumed John's identity. He explains their mission and the equipment's power. John demands Ellen's release as a sign of good faith. Alien John reciprocates by ordering all the hostages released. As they depart the mine, alien John resumes his alien form. John seals the mine entrance with dynamite to keep the posse away from the aliens. The ground begins to rumble and the ship departs, streaking across the sky.