Battle Beyond the Sun

1962 Science Fiction 64 minutes Directed by Mikhail Karyukov

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About Battle Beyond the Sun

In November 1997, after an atomic war, the world is split into North Hemis and South Hemis. Dr. Albert Gordon and Dr. Ruth Gordon run South Hemis's Mars project. North Hemis astronauts Captain Torrance and Dr. Martin dock at their station, hear the plan, and launch the Typhoon first, injuring Paul Clinton on the way out. A meteor storm throws the Typhoon toward the sun. Craig Matthews crosses over in a spacewalk and brings the North Hemis crew onto the Mercury. Short of fuel, they land on the asteroid Angkor, where a monster is waiting. A fuel rocket crashes. Clinton brings another, is wounded by fighting creatures, and dies after he reaches the others. The Mercury returns to Earth without having landed on Mars.

Cast & crew

More about Battle Beyond the Sun

Roger Corman bought the 1959 Soviet film Nebo zovyot and hired film student Francis Ford Coppola to Americanize it. Coppola cut the daydream framing, wrote a dubbing script with no USSR or USA, matted a pastel rhombus over the CCCP marks, and shot two monsters on a Hollywood stage. Jack Hill and Coppola also filmed the Pasadena Rose Parade for the homecoming. The print credits the director as Thomas Colchart.

Themes

  • North Hemis launching first
  • A rescue toward the sun
  • Monsters on Angkor
  • A Mars flight that only gets home
  • North Hemis
  • South Hemis
  • Typhoon
  • Mercury
  • Angkor
  • Craig Matthews
  • Paul Clinton
  • Rose Parade

Making

Coppola was still a film-school student. Corman's company, The Filmgroup, put the recut out in 1962. The Overlook Film Guide said a viewer is more impressed by Corman's cheek than by the finished picture.

Reviews

The Overlook Film Guide: Science-Fiction wrote that one remains more impressed with Corman's cheek and financial astuteness than with the finished film. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction called this version butchered.

Music

Yuli Meitus wrote the Soviet score, performed by Vyacheslav Mescherin. The American version adds music credited to Carmine Coppola.

Notes

  • Aleksandr Shvorin is billed as Andy Stewart. Ivan Pereverzev is billed as Edd Perry.
  • Soviet directors Mikhail Karyukov and Aleksandr Kozyr are billed as assistant directors Maurice Kaplin and Arthur Corwin.
  • Jack Hill said Coppola wanted one monster to look like a penis and the other like a vagina.
  • The original score is by Yuli Meitus, played by Vyacheslav Mescherin. Carmine Coppola is credited with music on the American version.
  • The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction called the American cut butchered and pointed readers back to Nebo zovyot.

Scenes

  • The Typhoon jumps the launch and is thrown toward the sun.
  • Matthews crosses in a spacewalk and takes the other crew onto the Mercury.
  • Two monsters fight on Angkor. Clinton dies after he reaches the landed ship.
  • The Earth welcome is the Pasadena Rose Parade cut against the astronauts.

Influenced by

  • Mikhail Karyukov and Aleksandr Kozyr's 1959 film Nebo zovyot

Also available

  • Internet Archive (BattleBeyondTheSun)
  • Wikimedia Commons (BattleBeyondTheSun1962.ogv)

Quotes

A fantasy of the future.