Summaries

Synopsis

The title and credits are in white font over a black background. We open with a saucer shaped spacecraft drifting across a star filled sky. It stops and hovers, ejects a small sphere which heads to Earth. On a lonely highway at night a truck approaches. The driver, McCrary (Kenneth Alton) smokes and whistles to a tune playing on the radio. Suddenly his radio experiences interference, all of the truck instruments malfunction, and the truck engine quits. He exits the vehicle to check the engine. The sphere loitering nearby transforms into light and electrical energy and possesses McCrary. He gets back in his truck and drives to Lab Central, a government installation. A guard prevents his entrance. McCrary tells the guard he is lost. Distracting the guard, McCrary knocks the guard out with a monkey wrench. He walks into the main building and enters the office of Dr. Hubbell Eliot. Dr. Eliot (John Emery) challenges him asking, "Who are you? What are you doing here? You have no business here. How did you get past the guard?" McCrary never answers, but the light that possessed him is transferred to Dr. Eliot. McCrary falls to the floor. The injured guard and a maintenance man enter Eliot's office to check on the director. The two men carry McCrary's dead body out of the director's office.

Dr. Arnold Culver (George O'Hanlon) enters the computer lab and retrieves an orbital calculation SUZIE completed. He thanks the machine and departs his lab to see Dr. Leslie Gaskell (Jeff Morrow). Gaskell shows Culver Asteroid M47 on a viewing plate connected to the observatory telescope. Eliot behaves strangely, as does the M47 asteroid. Culver explains it as an orbital perturbation. Gaskell directs the machinery to take photo exposures, and then requests that they be developed. Gaskell's date for the evening, Vera Hunter (Barbara Lawrence) is also an employee of the lab. She works in the dark room. Dr. Eliot lets himself into the Insulation Chamber. Gaskell and Culver enter the dark room and review photo plates of M47.

Culver feeds more data into the computer. Vera asks Culver, "Why SUZIE?" Culver reads the sign above the control panel--S.U.Z.I.E. Synchro Unifying Sinometric Integrating Equitensor. Eliot leaves the chamber and walks to the computing department. The computer malfunctions as Eliot walks in. Gaskell briefs Eliot on the orbit of M47. Culver suggests Gaskell and Vera go on to see their movie and he will stay and fix the computer. Gaskell and Vera walk to the car in the parking lot, but before they leave Gaskell frets over leaving work unresolved. They walk back inside. Vera develops more plates. Culver calls and tells the pair that SUSIE is back up and running. Gaskell and Culver meet with Dr. Eliot in his office. They provided enough information to convince Dr. Eliot that it will strike the Earth within sixteen hours. Dr. Gaskell suggests that the military can deflect or destroy the asteroid with a nuclear strike.

The morning newspaper headline exclaims, "Asteroid Heading for Earth!" Another newspaper headline reads, "Asteroid to be Exploded in Upper Atmosphere." The military arms and prepares a rocket for launch. The lab calculates and verifies its calculation for the launch. Dr. Eliot leaves his office and stands outside Gaskell's office eavesdropping. Three rockets are launched and strike M47. Dr. Eliot reacts like he has a massive headache and collapses to the floor. Initially it appears the rockets have destroyed the asteroid, but M47 reappears. Gaskell tells Culver to get Dr. Eliot. Culver finds him at the doorway of Gaskell's office.

A news broadcast indicates that the asteroid is expected to hit the North American Continent. The asteroid does crash into the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Mexico. Gaskell suggests to Vera and Culver that M47 needs to be investigated immediately. Its behavior suggests intelligence and Gaskell wants to go down to Mexico immediately. Gaskell and Culver fly to Mexico then arrange for a helicopter to search for the object. Culver plots the location and Gaskell flies to it. They circle the area and look. Running low on fuel, they return to base--a beach shack. Manuel Ramirez (Jose Gonzales-Gonzales) helps Gaskell unloading his bags and equipment.

That evening, Gaskell, Culver, and Ramirez eat dinner. Vera arrives with some additional equipment and chemicals. In a hospital room, Dr. Albert Stern (Morris Ankrum) and his nurse (Marjorie Stapp) tend to Dr. Eliot in a hospital bed. Eliot regains consciousness. Dr. Stern records his mutterings. Dr. Stern wires Dr. Eliot up to an EEG machine.

The next morning Vera and Gaskell go for a swim in the ocean. Gaskell expresses his feeling of dread. He thinks that this is the calm before a large storm. Eliot wakes, light is flashing on his face. Out in the ocean, the asteroid is reacting. Stern sedates Eliot but is has no effect as shown on the EEG. Vera and Gaskell are out of the water and on the beach when Vera notices something out in the ocean. A rise or bulge of something is coming up out of the water. Ramirez and Culver join them on the beach. Dr. Eliot is improving. Dr. Stern orders daily electroshock treatments. Stern talks to Eliot. Eliot is himself and tries to convince Dr. Stern that he must listen and help him.

In Mexico, the fog has rolled in, but the object can still be seen out in the ocean. The next morning Ramirez wakes early and sees the giant machine. It is a pair of black cubes connected by a silver cylinder. The "legs" consist of a series of cylinders. The top is half a sphere. Ramirez, excited, wakes Gaskell, Culver and Vera. The object is on or near the beach.

Dr. Stern reviews the tapes of Dr. Eliot's sessions. He dictates his prognosis notes. He is amused that Eliot believes he is possessed by some creatures that lives off of electrical and atomic energy. Further, they are running low on supplies and are searching the Universe for fresh supplies. Dr. Stern opens the newspaper to the headline, "Fantastic Monster Discovered."

Gaskell, Culver and Vera take the helicopter out and circle the machine. They land on the top of the metal object. Gaskell takes pictures while Culver takes radiation readings. The object activates and opens up and the machinery inside is revealed. They quickly get to the helicopter and depart. Dr. Stern dictates more notes. Under shock therapy Eliot's fantasy takes on more detail. An energy storehouse or accumulator has landed on Earth and will, "Suck the Earth dry of all electrical and Atomic Energy resources." Eliot enters Stern's office and demands the notes. Eliot threatens Stern, "Now you're the only one who knows. And you will never tell." Stern bolts, but Eliot catches him. They struggle and Stern is killed by Eliot. Eliot electrocutes Stern with his own equipment.

The news reports from Mexico describe the object as one-hundred feet high made of gleaming metal. Dr. Gaskell knick-names the object Kronos--a monster from Greek Mythology. Dr. Eliot leaves the hospital in Phoenix and returns to Lab Central. He reviews notes on Nuclear and Thermonuclear sources. He is now able to tell the Kronos where to get nuclear energy. He communicates with Kronos. It activates and with its base cylinders "walks" to the nearest source of energy. Gaskell, Culver, and Vera monitor its movement in their helicopter as it approaches an electricity generating station. After absorbing its energy it destroys the facility. The Mexican Air Force is deployed. The scientists are told to leave the area so the target can be destroyed. Kronos easily dispatches the four P-51 Mustang aircraft. Kronos is back on the move.

Gaskell, Culver and Vera return to Lab Central. They take the elevator down to the Isolation Chamber. It is shielded against cosmic rays. Eliot is in the chamber, he gets up and lets Gaskell and Vera inside. Gaskell asks Eliot about a newspaper headline, "Lab Central Chief Advises H-Bomb for Kronos!" Gaskell advises against such a move. He tells Eliot that Kronos will absorb the energy and become more powerful. Gaskell admits he has no alternative plan to stop the machine. Later in the day, Vera is looking for Gaskell. She believes she is talking to Gaskell, but it is Dr. Eliot, who is sitting with his back to Vera in the Astrophysics lab. She blurts out, "Les, there is something you should know, the Phoenix hospital just phoned." At that instant, Eliot turns around. Vera stops in mid-sentence. She tries to escape but Eliot catches her. She screams and Gaskell responds from another room. Eliot tries to electrocute Vera, like he did Dr. Stern at the hospital, but Gaskell stops him. Gaskell pushes him into an electrical panel. The voltage surge through his body returns Eliot to normal. Eliot explains the alien plan and Vera records it. "Here on Earth we have learned only one half of the nuclear secret. We can transform matter into energy. Up there, they have the other half. They transmute energy into matter. They have learned how to create the basic elements of matter, electrically and atomically." Eliot advises a reversal process be employed. Gaskell calls the Pentagon to stop the H-Bomb plane. The Air Force General (Robert Shayne) orders the B-47 to return to base. The aircraft turns to leave, but the controls are hijacked by Kronos. Kronos steers the airplane towards it. Just before impact and detonation, Kronos tucks all components inside and sits as a black cube. The H-Bomb detonates, and a mushroom cloud follows.

Dr. Eliot returns to the Isolation Chamber in the basement. He becomes ill and falls to the floor. The light flashes on his face and a liquid, like mercury, leaves his body and expends itself on the metal walls as sparking electricity. The H-Bomb reverses as Kronos absorbs the energy. It grows larger, opens, and resumes it search for more energy. Culver, Gaskell and Vera meet and review their notes. They review Eliot's recorded conversations with Dr. Stern. Gaskell proposes destroying Kronos with its own energy. He draws a picture of Kronos on the chalk board. He postulates the two antennae on top are a positive and negative pole. He proposes to set up a field of force between the two poles. "A concentrated field of omega particles," to cause a change of polarity is his plan.

Kronos is now headed for Los Angeles. Its destination is the nuclear stockpile at Port Hueneme. Culver, Gaskell and Vera meet with General Perry (John Parrish). He has made arrangements to fly the rare radioactive nuclear materials out from the Boston Institute of Technology. The pilot (Richard Harrison) sights Kronos. He is given instructions as to where to deploy his nuclear materials. The location must be exact. Unfortunately the wind changes and they abort the first strike. The weather station personnel calculate a new course. The pilot drops his load on Kronos and the reversal process starts. Kronos begins to glow and melt. Gaskell observes, "The chain reaction will keep on until the last stored electron of mass has been neutralized. Kronos is literally eating himself up alive. You are witnessing his death throes." Then a massive explosion occurs. Vera asks, "Les, do you think they'll send any more down?" Gaskell replies, "If they do well be ready for them." We close with a long shot of the smoldering shell of Kronos.