The X from Outer Space

Plot

The spaceship AAB Gamma is dispatched from Japan to travel to Mars to investigate reports of UFOs in the area. When the Gamma nears the red planet, it comes across a mysterious alien vessel that sprays the ship with spores. Samples are taken back to Earth where one of them begins to develop.

The cosmic spore grows into a giant, lizard-like creature dubbed "Guilala." The monster begins a reign of destruction through Tokyo. It spits fireballs, feeds on nuclear fuel, turns into a flying, burning sphere and destroys any airplanes and tanks in its path. Guilala is finally defeated by jets laden with bombs, which coat it in a substance called "Guilalalium." It causes Guilala to shrink down to its original spore form. The government promptly launches the spore back into space, where it will circle the sun in an endless orbit.

Cast

Release

The X From Outer Space was released in Japan on 25 March 1967. The X From Outer Space was never released theatrically in the United States, and was released directly to television by American International Television in 1968.

The Criterion Collection released The X from Outer Space on DVD in a compilation titled When Horror Came to Shochiku through their Eclipse label. The DVD offers both a dubbed and subtitled version of the film. The box set was released on November 20, 2012.

Reception

Film historian Chuck Stephens described the film as having "a well-deserved reputation as one of the silliest—and, as a consequence, most beloved—rubber-suit monster movies ever made." Sight & Sound described the film as a "harebrained kaiju epic" that was "Cheesy, rich in comic non sequiturs and scored with an unpredictable mishmash of 1960s pop and bossa nova, X fits comfortably into one's stoned best-bad-movie rental evening."