Unknown World

Plot

Dr. Jeremiah Morley (Victor Kilian) is concerned about an imminent nuclear war. He organizes an expedition of scientists and has them use a large atomic-powered tank-like boring machine, the Cyclotram, capable of drilling down deep through earth and stone, to find an underground environment where humanity could escape the coming nuclear holocaust.

The expedition (Jim Bannon, Marilyn Nash, Otto Waldis, Tom Handley and Dick Cogan) begins after government funding has fallen through and they are bailed out at the last minute by private funding from a newspaper heir (Bruce Kellogg), who insists on going with them as a lark. Romantic rivalry develops between Bannon and Kellogg for Nash, and two lives are lost to the perils of the dangerous expedition.

In the end the scientists accomplish their goal and find an enormous underground expanse with a plentiful air supply, its own ocean, and phosphorescent light. However, all the lab rabbits brought with them give birth to dead offspring. Through autopsies, it is discovered that this underground world has somehow rendered the rabbits, and hence any other life form, sterile. Dr. Morley is deeply depressed by the news. When an underground volcano suddenly erupts, he fails to enter the safety of the Cyclotram and quickly perishes.

The Cyclotram, carrying the remaining survivors, enters the underground ocean. They soon find themselves rising to the surface of the upper world, having been caught up in a strong upward moving ocean current. They eventually surface near a tropical island.

Cast

Production

Portions of Unknown World were filmed in Carlsbad Caverns, Bronson Caves, Nichols Canyon, and at Pismo Beach.

Unknown World was put together by two Hollywood special effects men, Jack Rabin and Irving Block, who are two of the film's three producers.

Some of the plot elements of Unknown World were reused years later in the big studio science fiction film The Core (2003).

Reception

The B-Movie Review site Million Monkry Theater found that the "production crew try hard, and it really seems like they have an important message to tell, but the execution and polish are lacking"