Ground Zero (The Atomic Monster)

This 38-page Bradbury treatment was first seen by fans in the Gauntlet book; perhaps it was originally meant for Bradbury's eyes only and never submitted to his Universal bosses, as it's undated, filled with cross-outs and handwritten scribbles, and gives every evidence of being written in extreme haste. (For example, he alternately calls Putnam "the astronomer" and "the reporter" and alternately calls Ellen the "woman assistant" of Putnam and the fiancée of Putnam.) Two titles, Ground Zero and The Atomic Monster, are typed on the top page of this treatment, which in later years Bradbury classed as his attempt to fill the Alland-Arnold directive for something "vulgar obvious."

A meteor streaks across the desert night sky and crashes as the inhabitants of a small town watch in awe. Next, via "a camera helicopter," we (the audience) descend into the crater and find a huge space rocket under one rim of the pit. The camera continues through an open hatchway where now there is "a hint, a suggestion of black moving against black. A faint whirling of sparks, like fireflies, a glitter, a whisper of steam, a soft breathing."

Young astronomer John Putnam and fiancée Ellen have seen the crash from his house; Putnam calls it "the biggest meteor that ever hit earth...a small planet almost" (sic!). Hiring a helicopter and pilot, John and Ellen fly to and land in the smoking crater, where the soles of their shoes smoke as they explore until they find the spaceship. The helicopter pilot enters through the hatchway and doesn't come back; Putnam is about to follow when an avalanche covers the ship. When officials, newsmen and excavators converge on the scene the next day, Putnam's report of "a hollow ship" is dismissed. John and Ellen are driving back to town that night when something flashes across the road; Putnam: "[It was] a man! ...No, no, not a man, I don't know, a coyote perhaps, or a shadow, or something. A bird, yes, maybe only a bird."*1 As they drive away, "the camera 'walks' mind you to the center of the road, and watches the car vanish off into the night. The wind blows. The stars shine."

A few days later, while driving around searching for the Something they saw on the road, Putnam and Ellen come upon telephone linesmen Frank and George; the former has Putnam join him atop a pole and listen, via headphones, to "the darnedest [sound] you ever heard" coming over the wires.*2 After the linesmen drive away, their truck skids to a stop when they see an oncoming 50-foot-high whirlwind of dust. "Camera moves from thirty feet away, rapidly, toward truck, as if it was a person walking, beginning to run, as if it was the whirlwind"; as it comes right up to the truck, the men's expressions change from awe to fear. Putnam and Ellen later discover the truck with doors open and blood on the seat and running board. George comes up behind them and, staring off into space, unconvincingly claims that Frank is off chasing a line-tapper they caught in the act. His face subtly quivers and shape-shifts as he talks. Putnam spots Frank's bloody body lying nearby and, certain that George killed him, he and Ellen fetch the sheriff, but on their return to the spot, they find nothing. That night, when Frank and George are seen standing outside a bar, the sheriff dismisses the affair. Out on the desert near a ghost town, an old prospector and his mule are confronted by something that makes both man and animal scream. The next morning, three gold miners have the same experience in the lower level of their mine.

Putnam realizes, and tells the sheriff, that space creatures have arrived and are in the process of repairing their ship; when seen by Earthlings, they use hypnosis to make onlookers think they're seeing familiar human faces. The two men agree to call in the government for help. Meanwhile, out on a desert road, motorist Ellen sees Frank and gets him into her car. With a cream-white moon in each of his staring eyes, he talks about being afraid and alone and wanting to go home--and tells her to drive him in the direction of the old mines. When Ellen resists, his face becomes mirror-like and reflects thousands of stars, as he clasps her wrist with a lizard's hand. "Ellen glances quickly into the shows at his face. We get the merest glimmer, a suggestion only, of something from a nightmare, something that suggests a spider, a lizard, a tiger, something dark and terrible, something that glistens softly..."

Searching for the missing Ellen, Putnam, the sheriff and his deputies take to the night sky in two helicopters and chase Ellen's car, driven at high speed by Frank; the sheriff unsuccessfully tries to shoot the car's gas tank. Frank stops the car stops and carries Ellen into the nearby mine. On foot, Putnam races to the mine entrance and there finds an Ellen whom he senses is really an alien. She asks him for his gun but he points it at her, and despite her pleas ("Oh, please, don’t, don’t!") he shoots her four times. She IS an alien (luckily for Putnam!): "Closeup of Ellen's face. It almost splinters, like glass. It almost sparkles, like luminescent fire. It melts." Putnam races into the cave, where he finds the real Ellen in the clutches of an alien version of Putnam. "Get out," says the invader. "We don’t want trouble. We just want to leave. The girl will be our hostage. When we are ready to go, she'll be released." Putnam shoots his duplicate and then, after a fight, throws him down a mine shaft.

Exiting the mine, Putnam and Ellen encounter the sheriff. Putnam finds some dynamite and suggests using it to seal the entrance; the sheriff lights a stick but, instead of tossing it into the mine, throws it up at the deputies' hovering helicopter and blows it out of the sky. The alien-turned-"sheriff" lights a second stick and is preparing to throw it at Putnam and Ellen when Putnam shoots him; the dynamite goes off in his hand, killing him. Putnam and Ellen then blow up the mine entrance. They find the real sheriff and revive him as state police helicopters and cars arrive.

Putnam points out that the spaceship in which the creatures are now trapped underground must have enough oxygen to keep them alive for years, so the government can take its time ("One week, one month, a year, five years from now") deciding whether to reopen Pandora's Box. In the meantime, he points out, we have to make sure that one of the creatures isn’t still on the loose. "You never know. It could be one of us. Behind one of our faces the enemy could be hiding. The Government will have to make a thorough check all the way down the line." Looking down at the crater from a departing helicopter, Putnam says, "God forgive us for leaving them buried this way. God help them to rest in peace and wake some other day, maybe, and finally go all the way home, wherever that may be, across the universe, if necessary, or across a thousand universes of stars."

Atomic Monster (treatment dated September 3, 1952)

This is merely a more professionally typed version of the above, undated one, identical except for corrections (e.g., Putnam is no longer repeatedly mislabeled a reporter) and a few nearly invisible changes (for instance, following the crater avalanche that buries the spaceship and traps the helicopter pilot inside it, Putnam and Ellen hitchhike back to town instead of flying back in the copter).

Atomic Monster (treatment dated September 4, 1952)

A second, one-day-later retyping of the same "vulgar obvious" yarn, this one augmented by a midpoint scene in which Ellen and an agitated Putnam walk the night streets of the town, looking at wax figures in a store window, eyeing rings in a jewelry shop window, etc. The linesmen appear, walking in the shadows across the street, but "Putnam and his woman do not turn to see them pass. They only listen to them pass."

It Came from Outer Space (September 1952)

Over 100 pages long, this deluxe treatment based on Bradbury's "better concept" is quite an elaborate blueprint for the movie that eventuated, full of dialogue (much of which was eventually used), suggestions for shot compositions, camera placement and camera moves, tips to help set the mood of particular scenes, ideas for the composers and more. ("It was my first experience in a studio and I let my enthusiasm run rampant, giving them more than they expected," Bradbury told me. "Like a fool, I gave them 80 or 90 pages of treatment, which was, in effect, a screenplay.") His "better concept" treatment is dated September 1952 and filled with many October pages of changes.
(continues)

Last Edited By: TomWeaver999 Aug 6 10 12:02 PM. Edited 1 times.