The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a 1953 film about a ferocious dinosaur awakened by an Arctic atomic test that terrorizes the North Atlantic and then New York City.

Directed by Eugène Lourié. Written by Fred Freiberger.

The sea's master beast of the ages- raging up from the bottom of time  (taglines)

Other

• Opening Narrator: This is Operation Experiment, a secret base far north of the Arctic Circle. Experiment was the codename for a top priority scientific expedition. These men arrived here on X-day minus 60. It has taken them the full two months to get ready. Today is X-day.
• Cpl. Stone: If you can load it, I can fire it.
• Prof. Thurgood Elson: I feel like I'm leaving a world of untold tomorrows for a world of countless yesterdays.

Dialogue

George Ritchie: [referring to the A-bomb test] You know every time one of those things goes off, I feel as if I was helping to write the first chapter of a new Genesis.

Professor Tom Nesbitt: Let's hope we don't find ourselves writing the last chapter of the old one.

---

Cpl. Stone: Colonel says you need a dead shot, mister.

Professor Tom Nesbitt: Yes. Ever use a grenade rifle?

Cpl. Stone: Pick my teeth with it.

Taglines

• It's alive!
• You'll see it tear a city apart!
• FANTASTIC SEA-GIANT CRUSHES CITY!
• Prehistoric sea-giant rages against city!
• They couldn't believe their eyes! They couldn't escape the terror! And neither will you!
• Cast of thousands! Over a year in the making!
• The seas master beast of the ages- raging up from the bottom of time
• A Thrill-Story Beyond All Imagining !

Quotes about The Beast

• For some reason the creation was called a rhedosaurus, and although I can't remember where this name came from, I suspect Hal Chester or one of the writers coined it. Over the years, people have suggested that the first two letters relate to the initials of a certain animator. I have no comment.
  • Ray Harryhausen (2003), An Animated Life, Aurum Press, p. 49
• The task of instilling pathos into a creature that was, after all, an innocent victim of circumstances was something I had set myself from the outset, although I was restrained by the script... The Beast is a poor lost soul brought back to life by man and then destroyed by man. If it sounds familiar, it is. King Kong was a huge influence, as he would be in all the other creatures I would be father to.
  • Ray Harryhausen (2003), An Animated Life, Aurum Press, p. 57

Cast

• Paul Hubschmid — Professor Tom Nesbitt
• Paula Raymond — Lee Hunter
• Cecil Kellaway — Dr. Thurgood Elson
• Kenneth Tobey — Colonel Jack Evans

External links

• The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms quotes at the Internet Movie Database