Doppelgänger (1969 film)
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- This article is about the science fiction film. For other uses, see Doppelgänger (disambiguation).
| Doppelgänger | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Robert Parrish |
| Produced by | Gerry Anderson Sylvia Anderson |
| Written by | Gerry Anderson Sylvia Anderson |
| Starring | Roy Thinnes Ian Hendry Patrick Wymark Ed Bishop Lynn Loring |
| Music by | Barry Gray |
| Distributed by | Rank Organisation Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 8th October, 1969 (UK premiere) |
| Running time | 101 minutes |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Doppelgänger is a 1969 British science fiction film directed by Robert Parrish. The film was released in the US as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, a title by which it is now better known.[1] The crew of a spacecraft journey to a previously unknown planet far side of the Sun, only to seemingly find themselves returning back to the Earth. The storyline is extremely similar to an hour-long episode of the Twilight Zone entitled, The Parallel.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The film begins with the discovery of an unknown planet orbiting exactly the opposite side of the Sun from Earth (an idea reminiscent of the Antichthon or Counter-Earth proposed by Philolaus in the fifth century B.C). The European Space Exploration Council (EUROSEC) and NASA send British astrophysicist John Kane (Ian Hendry) and American astronaut Col. Glenn Ross (Roy Thinnes) to the new planet in a rocket which resembles a Saturn 5 rocket.
During their long voyage, they are put into hibernation, and are maintained by a pair of on board Heart/Lung/Kidney machines, meaning that they will have no recollection of the journey. When they awaken, they enter orbit of the planet and do an initial survey. They find the planet's atmosphere to be breathable but they see no signs of life. They decide to go forward with a landing. They suit up, and go through an access tunnel to reach their lifting body lander which slides out the rear of the mother ship.
As they enter the atmosphere, the ship's controls begin to short out and malfunction. They lose all control of the craft, which clips a mountaintop before crashing into rocky terrain. After the crew is clear of the burning wreckage, a suited figure picks them up into a hovering unfamiliar ship.
They find they have been taken aboard an air-sea rescue craft. It appears that the crew have somehow returned to Earth instead of going to the planet. They are discreetly returned to the space center, with Kane in critical condition. He later dies of his injuries.
Ross is grilled by EUROSEC officials who accuse him of aborting the mission. Ross denies turning back, saying he and Kane actually arrived at the new planet, and could not explain why he is now on Earth.
Soon, Ross puts together the shocking fact that he is not on Earth at all - but on the planet, which is an identical Earth where everything is a mirror image of our own. At first, his own wife Sharon (Lynn Loring) and others at the space agency think he is insane for claiming signs and even the layout of his apartment on the spaceport's base are backwards, but he convinces the director of EUROSEC, Jason Webb (Patrick Wymark) that it is true by easily reading documents and written directions shown as a reflection in a mirror. Ross theorizes that everything that is done on his Earth is done on the planet at the same time, but opposite to it. If he tries to go back, he will return as if nothing happened.
Concern over whether the duplicate shuttle craft he and Kane used to come to Earth from the spaceship share the same electrical charge is raised, but Ross decides to try. He takes off in a shuttle he has named "DOPPELGANGER," meaning "double," (written in our manner of left to right) to dock with the Earth ship he came in to retrieve its flight recorder. But as he docks, the electrical systems short out -- they were wrong, the polarity of electricity is the same on both worlds. He loses contact with the ground base, and his shuttle craft undocks from the ship, hurtling towards the ground with the automatic approach system locked on. This locks out his controls resulting him having no flight control as he descends into the atmosphere. When ground control realizes his situation, they disengage the system, but too late, resulting in the shuttle crashing into a second mission rocket. He is killed instantly and the crash causes a chain reaction of explosions destroying the space center in a style typical of Gerry Anderson production.
The final scene shows an elderly Webb, long ago dismissed as head of the space agency, institutionalized and telling the staff there about what had happened (the disaster had destroyed all evidence). In his dementia, he sees his reflection in a mirror mounted in front of a window, and in an attempt to touch his mirror self, crashes through the mirror and window to fall to his death.
TV screenings of this movie have seen an incorrectly-produced print being shown.
In order to create the illusion of a mirror-Earth - reversed writing, driving on the "wrong" side of the road etc., for the scenes on the "mirror-Earth", the producer did what was called a "flop-over" - unfortunately, a producer or TV exec examined the film and noticed that bits of it were reversed - not being familiar with the plot, he thought it was a mistake and "corrected" it - this version, if screened, makes viewers think that the "mirror" Colonel Ross has, in fact, landed on this Earth.
[edit] Crew
The film was produced by Gerry Anderson, who was best known for producing television series using the puppetry technique Supermarionation, indeed utilising many of his greatest techniques, primarily the use of models and pyrotechnics. It also has an innovative score by Barry Gray which, like the earlier Captain Scarlet makes great use of an Ondes Martenot, particularly during the 'sleeping astronauts' scene. However, the soundtrack is still unavailable. The success of this film led to Anderson producing live-action series for television, beginning with UFO, which recycled a number of props, actors and music from the film.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Doppelgänger at Fanderson
- ^ Doppelgänger at Fanderson
[edit] External links
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