Battle in Outer Space (1959)

Action, Sci-Fi

It is 1965Three spacecraft approach a space station. Sensing danger the crew of the station begin firing on the ships, despite multiple hits there seems to be no effect. The three ships return fire and quickly destroy the installation. On Earth a train speeds through the Japanese mountain side. Ahead of the train one of the spacecraft that attacked the space station appears, moves a railway bridge causing the train to crash, then replaces the bridge in its original positionNext morning, along with the train crash, reports of another similar accident in Japan come to light. During the rest of the day more reports appear of strange accidents all over the world including the flooding of Venice and the destruction of an American freight shipAs a result of these incident, the world council calls for a conference in Tokyo at the Space Research Center. Scientist decides that all these incidents were connected; the frost bite suffered by survivors is puzzling but could be attributed to some form of anti gravity device.During the conference the delegate from India Dr Archmed (Malcom Pearce) seems to fall under a trance like spell and wanders out into a court yard where he suddenly disappears. Meanwhile Major Katsumiya (Ryo Ikebe) arranges for a firing test of a new heat ray he has been working on. A short time later Dr Archmed is seen leaving the facilityBack at the conference many scientists believe that the Earth is being visited by a hostile race, as such preparations must be made to fend off any other potential attacksThe new ray gun is set up and demonstrated for the scientists. A series of targets made from Belirium 19, the worlds hardest metal a set up and the ray makes short work of them. The scientists are then shown a series of new spacecraft under construction.Katsumiya has the controls of one of the rockets slaved to the central control room and a test firing is conducted to the satisfaction of the scientists. Dr Archmed re-appears and attacks workers who are packing away the new ray gunAt the same time Inspector Irake (Fuyuki Murakami) appears in the central control room urgently looking for Archmed. An alarm sounds and everyone rushes to the ray gun storage area. Archmed takes a hostage and begins to escape. From the way he is speaking he is not himself and speaks of Earth coming under the colonial rule of the planet NatalRetreating to the courtyard, Achmed makes contact with a UFO before being hit by a red beam of light and disappearing. A faint smear is found on the ground with a small device buried in it. After doing tests the smear appears to be Achmeds remains, and the device seems to have been planted in Achmeds brain to control him New evidence produced indicates that the inhabitants of Natal have constructed a forward base on the Moon. It is decided that two ships will be sent to investigate. Dr Atachi ( Koreya Senda) will command one ship and Dr Richardson (Leonard Stanford) will command the second ship.Dr Atachi explains that this is to only be considered a reconnaissance mission to investigate the strange radio signals coming from the Sea Of RainsAs the rockets are prepared, Katsumiya spends a last night with his girlfriend when they interrupted by their friend Iwoura (Yoshi Tsuchiya) who recommends they go on a more adventurous. They decline and Iwoura heads off by himself before being brought under the control of the aliens. After the encounter he spends the rest of the night as planned, oblivious to what the aliens have done The next day the two ships are ready and the crews are seen of with great ceremony. Each ship will have nine crew members. After preflight checks, the two ships launch without incident and begin their journey to the Moon.Before long both ships pick up strange radar contacts, investigating they discover the orbital wreckage of the destroyed space station. 42 hours later they pick up a strange signal from the Moon. Suddenly Iwoura begins to act erratically while piloting one of the shipsBefore Iwouras issue can be resolved the ships detect a number of objects coming towards them. Both ships fire their respective heat rays and destroy them. Meanwhile Iwoura, now under the control of the aliens attempts to disable the heat ray With only one raygun firing, one of the alien weapons get through. The ship avoids destruction using evasive maneuvers. The immediate danger over the crew hear a broadcast from the aliens warning them not approach the Moon or the ships will be destroyed.Realizing they have no choice they prepare to land on the Moon, given the attack it is decided to change the landing point slightly to stop the opportunity of further attacks. Iwoura is restrained and kept on the ship to avoid him taking any further action against the shipBoth ships successfully land and begin to deploy tractor like transport vehicles onto the surface. As they strike out on their mission the aliens make repeated attempts to get Iwoura to break his bonds and damage the ships. Realizing this is failing, the aliens send ship to follow the tractors.Because of the attention of the alien craft the crews abandon their vehicles and set off on foot until they find a tunnel that might lead to the enemy base. As expected they find the base and ponder the best way to destroy it.A number of the crew decide to sneak into the base but attacked and captured by the aliens before anything is achievedBack at the ship things have gotten worse, Iwoura, finally free of his bonds manages to destroy one of the ships and gets ready to attack the second oneMeanwhile it is realized that some of the crew have been captured and the rest of the crew lead an attack to drive off the aliens. A message is received from the main base telling the crew to give up or be destroyed. They deploy a hand held version of the heat ray and a running battle breaks out between the alien base and the crewA number of crew were killed however using the combined rays of the transport vehicles the base soon catches fire and eventually explodes. With the destruction of the base Iwomura regains his senses and begins undoing the damage hes doneAs the combined crews return to their ship, they express some concern over a number of alien craft seen leaving the base just before it was destroyed. The soon find out when the aliens regroup and attack. The aliens are driven off with heavy losses bout one of the vehicles is disabled. The survivors are transferred to the remaining operation vehicle and they set off once again for the ships.The last transporter makes good its escape. Iwomura sends a message to the others explaining what he has done. Full of remorse he goes out onto the surface and single handedly fights off the saucers while the remaining ship makes its escape to Earth.Back on Earth the population rallies and begins to make plans to defend the planet. At a follow up meeting of the council it is decided to arm the new generation of ships and use them as scout ships to go into space and try and fend off the aliensWith Earths industrial capacity brought to bare, huge numbers of fighter rockets and installations spring up. Finally incoming spacecraft are detected and the new space fighters are deployed. They make contact with a group of alien ships escorting a mother ship. It is realized this is an all out attack and all Earth forces are deployed against the aliensAn extended battle breaks out with Earth using their heat ray and the aliens some unexplained beam technology. Although the aliens take heavy losses the mothership and a group of scouts break through and launch space torpedoes.The fighter ships are ordered to break of their attack and stop the space torpedoes. Unfortunately they fail and New York and San Francisco are destroyed. The mothership then approaches Tokyo with the intentions of destroying the city with its anti gravity beamAs the destruction begins various Earth ships attempt to force the craft to retreat. Although Tokyo is badly damaged the alien forces are down to one saucer and the mother ship. Command begins to deploy ground based ray guns and shoot down the remaining forces.This is eventually done, and the an eerie silence falls over the battlefield as Earth begins to believe they have successfully fought of the enemy
  • 1959-12-26 Released:
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  • Ishirô Honda Director:
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