20 Million Miles to Earth
The first U.S. spaceship to Venus crash-lands off the coast of Sicily on its return trip. A dangerous, lizard-like creature comes with it and quickly grows gigantic.
- Director: Nathan Juran
- Genre:Horror / Sci-Fi
- Runtime:79 minutes
Cast
William Hopper : Colonel Robert Calder
Joan Taylor : Marisa Leonardo
Frank Puglia : Dr. Leonardo
John Zaremba : Dr. Judson Uhl
Thomas Browne Henry: Major General A.D. McIntosh (as Thomas B. Henry)
The government of the United States, along with The Pentagon organizes the first interplanetary expedition to the planet Venus. The spacecraft XY-21 with a crew of seventeen successfully reaches the planet 20 million miles away and vast mineral resources and precious raw materials are discovered on the planet, but atmospheric conditions are extremely harsh and cannot support life from Earth, and several members of the expedition die because of the conditions. None of this is actually seen, but is all explained in dialogue later on in the film.
On the return journey, thirteen months after leaving, the rocket is crippled by a meteor and crashes into the Mediterranean Sea off the southern coast of Sicily. The film begins as the two surviving crewmen are rescued by local fishermen before the vessel sinks beneath the waves and are taken to the local hotel. Staying at the hotel are an American scientist, Dr. Leonardo and his daughter Marisa, who is, fortunately, a medical student. Marissa tends to the crew herself, with mixed results: horribly burnt chief scientist of the expedition Dr. Sharman dies, whilst Col. Robert Calder survives. Calder determines to locate a specimen they brought with them to study how the creature survives and therefore prepare another expedition to tap into the planet’s resources. In his dying breaths Dr. Sharman had different thoughts: he considered the creature a dangerous threat and beseeched Calder to find it and destroy it to prevent the creature causing destruction and carnage on Earth. Meanwhile the specimen, an egg, shrouded in jelly within a metal cylinder, washes ashore and is found by a local boy, who then sells it to Dr. Leonardo.
Overnight the egg hatches a reptilian creature, referred to as the Ymir. The Ymir begins to grow at a prodigious rate due to the abundance of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. Dr. Leonardo thoughtfully places the Ymir in a cage. Soon, however, the Ymir becomes large and strong enough to free itself. Apparently, the Ymir eats sulfur and passes by horses, poultry and sheep before finding some bags of agricultural chemicals in a barn, one of which is sulfur and begins to eat. The Ymir only attacks when provoked and after being attacked by a dog and a farmer it escapes the barn. This time the Ymir runs to the erupting volcanic crater at Mount Etna. Read more
