IMDb RATING
2.9/10
1.5K
YOUR RATING
Scientists build a time machine to snatch objects from the past. But little do they know that 20th-century objects put in the machine seem to be "traded" for analogous future objects by inte... Read allScientists build a time machine to snatch objects from the past. But little do they know that 20th-century objects put in the machine seem to be "traded" for analogous future objects by intelligent life.Scientists build a time machine to snatch objects from the past. But little do they know that 20th-century objects put in the machine seem to be "traded" for analogous future objects by intelligent life.
Photos
- Director
- Writers
- Robert J. Gurney Jr.
- Henry Slesar(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis bears one of the earliest film editing credits for Dede Allen, who went on to a career editing such feature films as The Hustler, Bonnie and Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon, and Reds.
- GoofsCarbon 14 testing cannot reveal future dates (a possible alternative would be to show a relatively recent artifact date impossibly old because it came from the future).
- Quotes
Narrator: In the year nineteen hundred and fifty-eight, Man launched the first satellite and pierced the space barrier.
- Alternate versionsWhen originally released theatrically in the UK, the BBFC made cuts to secure a 'X' rating.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Mystery Science Theater 3000: Terror from the Year 5000 (1997)
Featured review
cheap knock-off disaster
One wonders if the people who make films like this really care if audiences like them or not.
So let's see...we've got a museum curator who gets a statue in the mail along with a request to do radiometric dating on it. If he were competent in the field he would send it back since radiometric dating is unlikely to produce a meaningful date on a manufactured metallic object. But he goes ahead and does it and somehow determines that the piece is from the future (5200 AD). Never mind that radiometric dating doesn't work like that and couldn't give a future date for anything. He also is told later that the piece is dangerously radioactive. Well, again, if he were competent at the radiochemistry needed for the dating, he would have found THAT out right away. But ANOTHER scientist has to tell him that after the fact.
The piece is the product of a scientist and his financial backer working alone in the Everglades. If everything that comes though the time machine is so hopelessly radioactive, why aren't they both dead, or at least very sick? If the statue is so dangerous, why do the scientists who produced it (and who know it's radioactive) leave their amazing discovery lying around, and don't notice when it turns up missing? And if the apparatus used for this time travel is so powerful that it screws up TVs, lights, and motorboat engines, how is it possible for the young backer to be using it without anyone else's knowledge? And why 5200 AD? Don't the scientists have any control over the time period they explore? What's so interesting about 5200 AD as opposed to other times? Why not a hundred years in the future, or a billion years for that matter? Why not go backward in time?
Nothing much happens in the middle of the movie so it branches out into desultory explorations of jealousy and voyeurism, only to drop these themes when it comes time for "science fiction" to rear its head again.
And then the Terror shows up - an ugly woman. Somebody's got some issues with women I think! She speaks Greek from a few letters on a Phi Beta Kappa key, then conveniently switches to modern English when that doesn't work. She can hypnotize you with her sparkly fingernails. Oh, yeh, and she can kill you and steal your face. Which she does to the lovely and talented Salome Jens (the only actor in this wretched mess to deliver a well-crafted performance). From here on the script backfills furiously in a hurried attempt to generate meaning in this meaningless heap of trash before the budget runs out.
Time travel is an enormously complicated plot device for a science fiction film; few have done it well. "Terror from the Year 5000" is not one of them. It tries to cover its obvious shortcomings in pointless and unexplained plot diversions.
But again, it's unlikely the makers cared. Thank God it didn't wreck Salome Jens' career at the outset.
So let's see...we've got a museum curator who gets a statue in the mail along with a request to do radiometric dating on it. If he were competent in the field he would send it back since radiometric dating is unlikely to produce a meaningful date on a manufactured metallic object. But he goes ahead and does it and somehow determines that the piece is from the future (5200 AD). Never mind that radiometric dating doesn't work like that and couldn't give a future date for anything. He also is told later that the piece is dangerously radioactive. Well, again, if he were competent at the radiochemistry needed for the dating, he would have found THAT out right away. But ANOTHER scientist has to tell him that after the fact.
The piece is the product of a scientist and his financial backer working alone in the Everglades. If everything that comes though the time machine is so hopelessly radioactive, why aren't they both dead, or at least very sick? If the statue is so dangerous, why do the scientists who produced it (and who know it's radioactive) leave their amazing discovery lying around, and don't notice when it turns up missing? And if the apparatus used for this time travel is so powerful that it screws up TVs, lights, and motorboat engines, how is it possible for the young backer to be using it without anyone else's knowledge? And why 5200 AD? Don't the scientists have any control over the time period they explore? What's so interesting about 5200 AD as opposed to other times? Why not a hundred years in the future, or a billion years for that matter? Why not go backward in time?
Nothing much happens in the middle of the movie so it branches out into desultory explorations of jealousy and voyeurism, only to drop these themes when it comes time for "science fiction" to rear its head again.
And then the Terror shows up - an ugly woman. Somebody's got some issues with women I think! She speaks Greek from a few letters on a Phi Beta Kappa key, then conveniently switches to modern English when that doesn't work. She can hypnotize you with her sparkly fingernails. Oh, yeh, and she can kill you and steal your face. Which she does to the lovely and talented Salome Jens (the only actor in this wretched mess to deliver a well-crafted performance). From here on the script backfills furiously in a hurried attempt to generate meaning in this meaningless heap of trash before the budget runs out.
Time travel is an enormously complicated plot device for a science fiction film; few have done it well. "Terror from the Year 5000" is not one of them. It tries to cover its obvious shortcomings in pointless and unexplained plot diversions.
But again, it's unlikely the makers cared. Thank God it didn't wreck Salome Jens' career at the outset.
helpful•1217
- Andy Sandfoss
- Jan 31, 2000
- How long is Terror from the Year 5000?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Terror from 5000 A.D.
- Filming locations
- American Museum of Natural History - Central Park West at 79th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA(facade of the Natural History Museum.)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 6 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Top Gap
By what name was Terror from the Year 5000 (1958) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer