It Came from Outer Space
Free outdoor 35mm screening in partnership with the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
Rain Date: Thursday, 8/17
This 1950s B-movie classic—co-written by Ray Bradbury—is a pulpy-but-effective psychological sci-fi picture, with a provocative message about xenophobia. Before the film, science and technology writer Wade Roush (Extraterrestrials) will discuss one of the great unsolved mysteries in science: is there life, intelligent or otherwise, on other planets?
While looking through his telescope one night, John Putnam (Richard Carlson) sees what at first appears to be a meteor shower—but it is actually a crash-landing alien spaceship! After investigating the crater from the impact, John informs the town sheriff (Charles Drake), and receives nothing but ridicule. Even his fiancée, Ellen (Barbara Rush), is skeptical. All that changes when the townsfolk start disappearing, and are replaced by eerie alien duplicates.
About the Speaker
Wade Roush is a freelance science and technology writer, columnist at Scientific American, and host and producer of the tech-and-culture podcast Soonish. His work has appeared in Science, Xconomy, and MIT Technology Review. He is the editor of the science fiction anthology Twelve Tomorrows (MIT Press) and the author of Extraterrestrials (published in 2020 as part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series).
Screenings will take place at sunset at the Greenway's Wharf District Park (located between Milk Street and Atlantic Avenue in Boston).