FAQ

Susan Winter (Gloria Talbott) is determined to find her fiance Bruce Barton (Duncan 'Dean' Parkin) a pilot presumed lost three years ago in a remote area of Mexico. To do so, she has engaged pilot Lee Brand (Tom Drake), guide Russ Bradford (James Craig), and financier Martin Melville (Lon Chaney Jr.), who hopes to recoup the cost by finding uranium in the area. What they do find, however, is a highly radioactive valley inhabited by giant, mutated life forms, including a one-eyed man.

The Cyclops is based on a screenplay by American science fiction film-maker Bert Gordon, who also directed the movie.

A cyclops, meaning 'circle eye', is an individual with one eye instead of two. In the movie, Bruce is considered a cyclops because his right eye is overgrown with skin, enabling him to see only out of his left eye.

Thinking that the Cyclops is sleeping, Susan, Russ, and Lee sneak past him and head back to the airplane. As Lee tries to get the plane started, the Cyclops steps out in front of them, so they abandon the plane and head for the hills where they hide behind some brush. The Cyclops scrutinizes the plane as though remembering it. In an attempt to lure him away, Russ grabs a stick and runs out in the open. The Cyclops follows, and Russ climbs up the hill just out of the Cyclops' reach. He wraps some dry weeds around the end of the stick, sets it on fire, and plunges it into the Cyclops' good eye. Susan, Russ and Lee then scramble back into the plane and take off. In the final scene, Russ and Susan look down at the dead Cyclops and hug each other.