They Came from Beyond Space is a 1967 British Eastman Color science fiction film produced by Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, and directed by Freddie Francis. The screenplay was written by Subotsky, based on the 1941 novel The Gods Hate Kansas by Joseph Millard. The film stars Robert Hutton, Jennifer Jayne, Zia Mohyeddin and Bernard Kay.
The narrative follows the adventures of a scientist who tries to stop space aliens who are made of pure energy from enslaving humans in order to rebuild their spaceship so that they can return to their home planet.
The film is from Amicus Productions who released the film as a double bill with The Terrornauts.
Plot summary
An unusual V-shaped formation of meteorites has fallen in Cornwall. Scientists are appointed to investigate. However, their leader, Dr. Curtis Temple, who is recovering from an automobile accident and has a silver plate in his skull, is forbidden by his physician from going. Curtis turns the mission over to Lee Mason, his colleague and lover.
Arriving at the site, the scientists find the meteorites to be unusual in shape and colour – they are rather pointy and blue. They also house aliens who exist as "pure energy". A geologist attempts to chisel off a piece of meteorite. As a result, the rock emits a flash of light and a screech as the aliens take over the scientists' bodies and minds.
Concerned that the only contact with Lee has been her requisitions for millions of pounds' worth of equipment – including weapons Curtis decides to visit the site despite his MD's orders. But before he leaves, a fellow scientist determines that the meteorites have come from the Moon.
Upon arrival, Curtis finds that the site resembles a military post, with armed guards and a 10,000-volt electric fence. Lee herself bars him from entering.
An agent from "Internal Security" has been tailing Curtis. However, he must phone his superior for permission to give Curtis a full situation report. He enters a phone box to place the call, then stumbles out, covered with red spots, and falls dying to the ground. A crowd gathers. A doctor steps forward, but after touching the agent, he too dies. Then, each member of the crowd succumbs. The press dubs this unknown disease "The Crimson Plague". Although no cause or cure is discovered, the authorities develop a secret method of safely disposing of the victims' bodies.
After watching a night-time rocket launch from the site, Curtis decides to prevent another launch. A crack shot, he returns the next day with a sniper rifle and destroys the generator that supplies power to the camp, thus stopping the second launch. He climbs over the now-deactivated electric fence into the site.
After entering the aliens' headquarters, Curtis, who is also an expert in unarmed combat, wins a fight with one of them. At an underground complex, he discovers the frozen bodies of the plague victims. He is then captured and locked in a cell. Curtis escapes by hiding behind his cell door and jumping the alien who comes to kill him. Curtis then rescues an unwilling Lee, knocking her out with a punch and carrying her off.
He takes her to the home of his friend Farge. Curtis realises that the silver plate in his head somehow prevents the aliens from possessing him. He convinces Farge to melt his silver cricket trophies and fashions a colander-like protective helmet for him.
Farge uses ultraviolet light to exorcise Lee's alien. Later, she remembers nothing from her time under alien control. Howeber, she can pretend to still be an alien and drives to the site with Curtis and Farge hiding in the back of her car. Lee, too, is protected by a silver helmet.
The three conceal themselves in a rocket just before it blasts off. But they are soon discovered and brought before the Master of the Moon, who says the government's plan to dispose of the plague victims' bodies is to shoot them to the Moon.
The aliens are creatures of pure energy and are using the humans to repair their spaceship, which had crashed on the Moon. They want to return to their home planet to die, as they have grown old and tired after light years of travel. The frozen bodies Curtis found are not really dead. The Master assures them that once the spaceship is repaired, all the "victims" will be returned to normality.
Nonetheless, the aliens prepare to surgically remove Curtis's silver plate to tap his knowledge. Farge leads the workers in a revolt and saves Curtis.
Curtis tells the Master that they need not have attempted to conquer the Earth – all they had to do was ask for help, and it would have been given. The Master's eyes well up with tears at the revelation.