1950s b-movies as a shared universe

Dedicated to my Svenpals!

It’s 1950.

World War II ended five years ago with the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan. American life is a mixture of gleeful prosperity and existential dread. Sure, suburbia is booming and we’ve got a lot of cool stuff, but is another war ahead? This time with the “commies” and this time even more destructive due to atomic weapons? Little did anyone know that the copious atomic tests of the previous five years would unleash “atomic horror.” Fortunately, it would all be chronicled in b-movies…that I now propose as a shared universe.

A few words about what I’m doing.

I am engaging in fanfiction. Just in case you might not know, this is where someone takes plot and characters from established, copyrighted media, and writes their own stories using the content. It has been around for at least 50 years in the modern sense of the term, and I’ve been studying it off and on through the lens of Rhetoric and Composition. To me, fanfiction writers are reclaiming their agency in order to engage in the natural human need to contribute to mythmaking. Often this means taking liberties with the “canon” of the media. In my case, I will be monkeying with the timeline of these movies.

Why am I doing this with no hope of publication or compensation? A couple reasons.

One, I am so tired of writing about small college closures, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Two, I am exhausted from a month of class-building in Canvas while watching America erode into chaos. To say I want something diverting is an understatement. Fortunately, I happened to be tweeting back and forth with a few pals during my weekly viewing of Svengoolie, and this idea of a shared universe was born. I couldn’t wait to play in it.

And to be honest, that’s what I or any fanfiction writer is really doing. Playing.

I feel I need to make one more point. As one may logically conclude, these 1950s b-movies are reflective of the ethos and ideals of the society that created them. That means they are very, very white. There is opportunity to add diversity. Maybe African American characters who overcame the Jim Crow of that era in defiance of all expectations? Not all characters in these films have explicit sexual orientations. Maybe someone is LGBT? There is much that could be retroactively fixed and lot of cultural baggage shed. I am currently trying to figure out how, but a handful of films did it already as this article on female scientist characters points out.

Here is my attempt to weave together what a 1950s “atomic horror” (plus a handful of other pop culture properties thrown in for “seasoning”) shared-universe would look like:

1951

New Mexico-Authorities investigate a mute, wandering child and her parents’ apparent murder. Unbelievably, this leads to the discovery of giant, hostile ants inhabiting New Mexico. Radiation from the Trinity test mutated regular ants to the size of city buses. The military eventually destroys these ants. A few people stand out in the whole fracas. One is a G-Man named Robert Graham, and another is New Mexico State Trooper, Ben Peterson. Most of all, there is Dr. Harold Medford and his daughter, Dr. Pat Medford. Both are trained in the academic subfield of myrmecology (study of ants), but we’re open-minded and intellectually nimble enough to recognize and accept what was actually going on. As Dr. Harold Medford said, "When Man entered the Atomic Age, he opened the door to a new world. What we may eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict."

Once it was all over, these four all got a visit from a smiling “man in black” who said his name was “Indrid Cold.” He represented a covert government organization named Anomalous Scientific Events (heh! See what I did there?) or ASE (pronounced “ace”). The American government was growing aware of the unintended consequences of nuclear energy, and a team was being formed to meet the new challenges. The four accepted membership in the club. They might also have been persuaded by the presence of the ASE agents flanking Indrid Cold, as these men wore black trenchcoats, black hats, and their faces were obscured by black gas masks.

(Film source: Them!)

Japan-Something rose out of the depths of the Pacific. Resembling a dinosaur-like creature of enormous stature, it laid waste to a small fishing village. Dr. Kyohei Yamane, a paleontologist, determined the monster to have been in hibernation and then awoken, and perhaps mutated, by oceanic atomic testing. Given the name “Godzilla,” the beast attacked Tokyo and Japanese citizens suddenly felt like it was 1945 all over again. The Japanese military was less than useless against Godzilla, particularly as Godzilla could expel a fiery, radioactive breath. A scientist named Dr. Daisuke Serizawa was beseeched for help. Serizawa had built a device called an Oxygen Destroyer, but he refused to provide it, fearing it might proliferate into weapons even more deadly than the atomic bomb. As Tokyo burned, Serizawa’s conscience was moved and he agreed to use the device, provided he could first burn his design notes. Godzilla returned to Tokyo Bay and Serizawa dove down to plant the Oxygen Destroyer on the monster’s leg. The device worked, killing Godzilla, but Serizawa turned off his own oxygen tank, choosing to die and take the secret of the device with him. Yamane conjectured that if atomic testing continued, more Godzillas could await.

Indrid Cold met Yamane and invited him to join ASE. At the same time, ASE agents raided Dr. Serizawa’s lab and confiscated all they could to reconstruct an Oxygen Destroyer. Also, an ASE intelligence named Race Bannon spent two days interrogating Steve Martin, an American reporter who witnessed the devastation wrought by Godzilla.

(Film sources: Godzilla, Jonny Quest)

1952

The Arctic-A secret nuclear test at the North Pole had an unintended consequence. It dislodged a block of ice containing a gigantic praying mantis, frozen since prehistoric times. This mantis awoke and attacked US military forces in northern Canada who were building the DEW (Distant Early Warning) radar line. From there it headed south, attacking New York and Washington D.C. Members of ASE, such as Drs. Yamane and Medford, formulated the means to defeat the monster bug and it eventually died trapped in Manhattan Tunnel.

(Film source: The Deadly Mantis)

The same classified nuclear test knocked loose yet another significant block of ice. This one contained a Nazi bomber of advanced design. It crashed in the Arctic in the 1940s as it was piloted away from American cities…by Captain Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America. The bomber and Rogers were found by ASE agents and US forces scouring the area following the deadly mantis attack. Incredibly, Captain America had been frozen in suspended animation all that time. Indrid Cold persuaded the newly-thawed Rogers that ASE…and all of America…still needed Captain America.

(Film source: Captain America: The First Avenger.)

By sheer uncanny coincidence, ASE enlisted yet another “special agent” at this very time. A researcher and industrialist had perfected his own rocket pack. With such propulsion on his back, a leather flying jacket around his torso, and a streamlined and bug-eyed helmet on his head, he quietly pledges his daredevil flight skills to Indrid Cold, ASE, and the good ol’ US of A. His codename would be “Commando Cody.”

(Film source: The Commando Cody serials)

1953

The Arctic (again)-The US Air Force responded to a call from Polar Expedition Six about the crash of an unknown aircraft. ASE agents Peterson, Graham, and Captain America accompanied. It was discovered that the downed aircraft was in fact an alien spaceship. The ship was accidentally destroyed, but the ship’s frozen occupant, presumed dead, was brought back to the research station. The alien thawed out and immediately began killing mammalian life in order to devour its primary food source: blood. Dr. Arthur Carrington, Nobel laureate and lead researcher at the polar station, determined that the alien was a form of plant-based life and demanded that “The Thing” (for lack of a better term) be captured for study. Captain Kenneth Tobey, commanding officer of the military expedition, rejected the proposal due to obvious security concerns. After a fierce battle with Captain America, the alien made its way inside the outpost. Dr. Carrington attempted to reason with the alien, but was killed. The alien was at last destroyed by electricity.

Ned “Scotty” Scott, a journalist who accompanied the detachment, radioed the story along with a warning to “Keep watching the skies!” This transmission never made it to the newswire thanks to interference by ASE. Scott and Tobey, however, were recruited into the organization, with a keen eye on Scott’s ability to manage public information. 

This incident prompted a subdivision to form in ASE. The objective for this group was to confront possible extraterrestrial threats. Primary agents in this task force were Arthur Dales, Bill Mulder, and Carl Busch, the latter never giving his colleagues his actual name. This led to him simply being known as “The Cigarette Smoking Man” due to his three-pack-a-day-habit. Calling their subgroup “The X-Files,” these agents retrieved pieces of the alien’s destroyed ship. A computer was eventual salvaged and restarted. It contained numerous intelligence on terrestrial atomic weapons as well as data on Godzilla, the mantis, and giant ants. The three agents also confiscated all of Dr. Carrington’s analysis of the alien. This would become invaluable later.

(Film sources: The Thing From Another World, The X-Files)

Arizona-A small town seemed to lose its mind. Local resident John Putnam and a schoolteacher named Ellen Fields blamed it on a crashed spaceship and its mind-controlling occupant. ASE took statements and noted that an extraterrestrial presence appeared to be growing on Earth. To keep pace with the growing threat, ASE recruited a scientist named Dr. Clayton Forrester into the fold.

(Film source: It Came From Outer Space, War of the Worlds)

1954

Los Angeles, CA-Two scientists construct a robot named “Tobor” designed to take the place of human astronauts in space travel, thus presumably saving human lives. Tobor was briefly stolen by enemy agents (presumed Soviet), but the robot prevailed with the assistance of Commando Cody.

(Film source: Tobor the Great)

1955

Pennsylvania-An object fell from space outside a rural town. Later, two teenagers found an elderly man with a strange, purple, jelly-like substance. The youths took the man to a local doctor, but the old man was consumed by the growing “blob.” The blob would have devoured the entire town if not for the quick thinking of local high school students. There were two main outcomes from this incident. Teenager Steve Andrews became ASE’s youngest recruit because Indrid Cold “liked the cut of his jib” and said he could “really handle himself.” Secondly, ASE scientists and investigators came to suspect that the “blob” was an alien weapon covertly dropped on Earth.

(Film source: The Blob)

1957

Mexico-Yet another object fell from space, this time splashing down in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico. An enormous alien robot rose from the ocean and came ashore, absorbing all energy sources it encountered. The news media dubbed the robot “Kronos” for reasons unknown. ASE responded to threat as its scientists determined that bombarding Kronos with nuclear ions would reverse its polarity. This worked and Kronos fell to pieces. ASE collected the fragments and began to reverse engineer the device. Despite the work of Ned Scott and Race Bannon, it becomes more difficult for ASE to conceal the alien threat.

(Film source: Kronos)

1958

Washington D.C.-All efforts of ASE and its “X-Files” to cover up alien visitation on Earth are negated when a flying saucer landed on the White House lawn. A human-looking alien named Klaatu met with ASE scientists to warn that human experimentation with nuclear weapons has garnered attention in the galaxy. If the human race did not agree to abandon the nuclear arms race for the sake of its own existence and prosperity, then other civilizations may regard humanity as a threat and wipe the face of the Earth clean. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was onboard with the idea, but said the Soviets would never agree, so it was judged as a non-starter. Klaatu departed for his home planet, but not before imparting the ominous threat, “Beware. They’re coming.”

(Film source: The Day the Earth Stood Still)

1959

WORLDWIDE CONFLAGRATION 

Earth was invaded.

Cylinders dropped from the sky all over the world. These cylinders disgorged hovering war machines armed with heat rays. Blobs, just like the kind encountered in rural Pennsylvania in 1955, plopped into major cities. Additionally, giant ants, just like the kind encountered in New Mexico in 1951, attacked heavily populated areas for the first time. Drs. Medford determined that these ants were under the control of the alien invaders. Mind control, just as seen in Arizona in 1953, was brought to bear as a weapon against humanity as the alien invaders created small armies of zombified humans. Captain America and Race Bannon fought these brainwashed citizens in the streets. Commando Cody struck the alien war machines from skies with mixed success. Response from the world’s militaries was swift, but ineffective as weapons such as tanks and jet fighters disintegrated when hit by alien heat rays. Not even the atomic bomb made any difference. As broadcaster Ned Scott noted, “it was the rout of humanity.”

The tide of the war turned in the Pacific when the aliens awoke another Godzilla to do their bidding. Godzilla was not interested and turned his destructive force on the aliens. ASE agents, armed with experimental laser guns and commanding robot armies based on the designs of Tobor and Kronos, brought down war machines. Race Bannon single-handedly killed one of the aliens. He brought the corpse to ASE scientists, led by Dr. Clayton Forrester, in a makeshift lab built in the California hills after the loss of ASE HQ when Los Angeles. One breakthrough occurred at this lab when the aliens’ language was deciphered by Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones. Then analysis of the alien body found it to be identical the alien encountered in the Arctic in 1953. Using the notes of the late Dr. Carrington, ASE scientists developed a bioweapon against the aliens and dispersed it widely. The aliens abandoned Earth after many of them were felled by the virus, “the tiniest weapon ever known to man.”

Though victorious, humans faced a difficult situation. Over one million died and many more were injured, whole cities needed rebuilding, and we still had giant ants. What’s more, Godzilla still lurked somewhere in the oceanic depths. And rumors began to fly about a giant, pterodactyl-like creature that rose out of  Japanese volcano. In its own significant blow, ASE came to learn that sometime during the war, Indrid Cold had disappeared.

(Film source: War of the Worlds)

Addendum

Arthur Dales believed there was far more weirdness out there than ASE was investigating. He left ASE, went into journalism, and changed his name to "Carl Kolchak."

(Film source: Kolchak the Nightstalker)

So there it is. The skeleton of a shared universe. A lot of grist for the mill, and plenty of nooks and crannies to fill in, but for now…I had fun. 

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