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4.4/10
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Two countries race to have the first successful landing on Mars.Two countries race to have the first successful landing on Mars.Two countries race to have the first successful landing on Mars.
Konstantin Bartashevich
- Klark (Dr. Martin - US)
- (as K. Bartashevich)
Gurgen Tonunts
- Verst (Capt. Torrance - US)
- (as G. Tonunts)
Valentin Chernyak
- Somov (Paul Clinton - US)
- (as V. Chernyak)
Viktor Dobrovolsky
- Demchenko (Commander Daniels - US)
- (as V. Dobrovolsky)
Aleksandra Popova
- Korneva (Dr. Ruth Gordon - US)
- (as Alla Popova)
Larysa Borysenko
- Olga (Nancy - US)
- (as L. Borisenko)
Lev Lobov
- Sashko (Johnson - US)
- (as L. Lobov)
Sergey Filimonov
- Troyan - Journalist
- (as S. Filimonov)
Linda Barrett
- (U.S. version)
- (voice)
Mary Kannon
- (U.S. version)
- (voice)
- Directors
- Mikhail Karyukov
- Aleksandr Kozyr
- Francis Ford Coppola(re-edited version with new footage)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe credit on the US version of the film, "Battle Beyond the Sun", was given to "Thomas Colchart", a pseudonym for then -spiring filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. Roger Corman gave him the task of creating two monsters resembling genitalia (one male, one female) which were amusingly spliced into the film.
- GoofsAt the beginning of the movie (11:17) South Hemis has launched a rocket going to a space station carrying two astronauts. One of them is Dr Albert Gordon. Dr Gordon's wife Ruth also works on the project at ground control. Just after the launch Ruth is shown writing in what is likely a log book and at the top of the page the header reads North Hemis Space Agency instead of South Hemis.
- Alternate versionsReleased (by Roger Corman) in the USA as "Battle Beyond the Sun". This version was recut and also added new footage directed by a young Francis Ford Coppola. In this version, of course, all Soviet propaganda has been dropped.
- ConnectionsEdited into Queen of Blood (1966)
Featured review
4/10 not 8/10* For good and for bad, another AIP cannibalised Soviet science-fiction film
{Note: these comments and score refer to the AIP film 'Battle Beyond the Sun', NOT the Russian film 'Nebo Zovyot}'. American International Pictures bought the rights to 'Nebo Zovyot' ('The Sky Beckons') (1959), a Russian 'hard' science fiction film about a cold-war race to land the first manned spaceship Mars. Although a bit plodding, 'Nebo Zovyot' is an interesting film with excellent special effects (the scenes of the cosmonauts standing on the asteroid Icarus with Mars looming above them is especially memorable). Despite the project being handed off to a young Francis Ford Coppola (a film student at the time), the Americanised version is just a bargain-basement mix of time-filling introductory voiceover, bad dubbing, and sloppy editing (note the crude mask covering the "CCCP" on one of the spaceships, note also that they missed the Red Star on the tailfin). Oddly, all of the names in the credits have been changed to fictional 'western' names and only the "Mosfilm" credit suggests the movie's actual origins. The film, which originally depicted Americans vs Soviets, has been depoliticised (the spaceships now represent fictional Northern hemisphere and Southern hemisphere political rivals) and the only new footage is a laughable monster fight on one of the Martian moons (referred to as a moon of Mars in the dubbing but called "Ikar", because in the Russian original, they landed on the asteroid Ikar (Icarus)). Apparently Coppola's boss, the legendary Roger Corman, decided that the original scene, in which a cosmonaut stranded on the tiny moon looks up a hill and sees his rescuers, would be better if instead he saw monsters, so we're treated to a headless creature with protruding eye-stalks eyes battling a menacing-looking 'vag-dentata' beast. Such juvenile additions seem ridiculous in retrospect but no one can question as to whether Corman knew his audiences and if it wasn't for his unerring eye for talent (and profits), few people in the cold-war era 'west' (especially in the USA) would have had any opportunity to see some of the great work being done by filmmakers behind the Iron Curtain. As a stand-alone film, 'Battle Beyond the Sun' is hard to rate: the Russian special effects are great (I would give 'Nebo Zovyot' an 8/10) and, while the AIP version is awful (independent of its Russian visuals), it remains an interesting example of Corman's chutzpah, and, if you didn't know the provenance of the special effects, you'd likely think that 'Battle Beyond the Sun' was a well-made and pretty cool '60s science fiction movie. *there is only a single IMDB entry for the film and I don't seem to be able to rate the Russian (8/10) and the American (4/10) versions separately.
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- jamesrupert2014
- Apr 10, 2019
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- The Heavens Call
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