Who's Out There?
About Who's Out There?
Orson Welles opens by reading from The War of the Worlds and from his 1938 radio broadcast, then talks with listeners who remember that night. The film turns to scientists. Carl Sagan, George Wald, Ashley Montagu, and others discuss whether life exists off Earth, and the picture uses NASA material on Mars. A second narrator says everyone on screen, scientists and listeners and Welles, has had reason to think non-earthly life is likely.
Cast & crew
More about Who's Out There?
Robert Drew directed the NASA short for Drew Associates. National Archives ARC identifier 649442, local identifier 255-HQ-226. A file on Wikimedia Commons runs 28 minutes 2 seconds. Some later write-ups date Welles's narration to 1975; the archive record is 1973.
Themes
Making
Drew shoots Welles as host and cuts his War of the Worlds reading against interviews and probe footage.
Music
Orson Welles narrates and reads from H. G. Wells.
Preservation
The National Archives holds the NASA item 255-HQ-226.
Notes
- Philip Morrison is among the scientists who appear.
- A Mars crater was later named for Welles. The naming is not part of the film.
Scenes
- Welles reads the Martian landing as the film opens.
- Sagan and the other scientists answer questions about life beyond Earth.
Influenced by
- H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
- Orson Welles, The War of the Worlds radio broadcast (1938)
Also available
- National Archives and Records Administration (ARC 649442)