BaronBl00d Not a bad premise at all about an eclectic group of scientists trying to send a man in space and achieving that dream only to falter in his descent by causing a bunch of meteors to gather together in one big clump and head toward Earth for its final destruction. The scientists scurry and hurry to find a way out of this doom and that is when the day the sky explodes is relevant. This movie has some things going for it. It is extremely thought-provoking - almost to the point of too much perhaps. It becomes so talky and leaden throughout and is aided by wooden performances and extremely cheap sets. Catch that rocket ship move like a snail! The acting, as I have said, is nothing particularly good nor is the direction nor is the script - which plods and plods. The film does get somewhat interesting in the last fifteen minutes or so, but by that time my eyes were almost glazing over from sleep. There are some brilliantly shot scenes despite the low budget and those were probably set up by cinematographer Mario Bava(one of the greatest horror directors of all time). You can get a sense of his visual artistry here and there, but let's face it - he hasn't much to work with. The Day the Sky Exploded has some real neat ideas but just less than compelling execution.

joebergeron The actor voicing McLaren in the American version is Shane Rimmer, who also provided the voice of Thunderbird 1 pilot Scott Tracy. I win the contest!To me, the oddest thing about this movie is McLaren's demeanor during the space flight. He looks like death warmed over, like he really really wants to go home right NOW, like he might vomit at any moment, and like he can barely bring himself to speak. Or admit that he feels like hell.This movie is not bad enough to be a source of amusement for that reason alone. It makes a serious attempt to tell a story, and is more coherent and intelligent than some recent similar films which commanded budgets hundreds of times larger.

lemon_magic On the surface, this little End-of-the-World number doesn't seem to have much to offer a viewer accustomed to modern science fiction films with budgets that are bigger by several orders of magnitude and state of the art computer and modeling graphics to sell the story. There seem to be a grand total of maybe 5 actual sets built for the movie.Most of the action is carried by stock footage scenes which are in turn linked by endless chunks of expository dialog.Most of the "live" scenes that carry the action involve people shouting into microphones or typing furiously on the "calculators". The characters are pure cardboard and character development is strictly by rote.And the whole thing is filmed in black and white.On the other hand, if you view this 'naively', as if you hadn't already seen "Meteor", "Deep Impact", or "Armaggeddeon", it's possible to appreciate the abrupt change of the movie's story arc from "exciting space adventure" to "End of the World Suspense Thriller", as the seemingly happy escape of the astronaut from his malfunctioning "atomic rocket" leads to unexpected consequences. If you think about it, that was a pretty creative conception for the time. The Eurocentric aspect of the production also gives the movie a somewhat unusual feel, even if the romantic lead is supposed to be "American" (actually, he was Swiss!) Most of the actors are pretty good at fleshing out their cardboard characters (with one or two exceptions - for instance the little boy obviously had no idea of what he was doing).The direction is workmanlike, and much of the live cinematography is really pretty good - moody lighting, stark chiaroscuro outlines, good compositions, etc.And the editors do a much better job of integrating the stock footage into the movie than many other examples of the genre (say, the original "Invasion USA") - the movie doesn't feel nearly as disconnected and airless as it might have in less skillful hands. "The Day..." suffers a bit from a less-than-stellar dubbing into English - there are bits of awkward dialog and tin-eared readings that cost this movie at least one star in my judgment. But I've heard far worse, and the problems here aren't enough to ruin the movie watching.I saw this movie as part of the "Nightmare Worlds" 50 movie compilation, and I would say it is easily the best of the 10 movies I've found time to watch so far.

sol1218 **SPOILERS** In a joint US/UK/USSR effort to send a man into space USAF pilot John McLaren, Paul Hubschmid, is chosen to go aboard the X/Z Atomic Rocket on a trip around the moon and back. As the X/Z approaches the moon it runs into technical troubles and McLaren together with his rocket cabin is ejected and lands back on earth with the X/Z's atomic powered motor/engine exploding harmlessly in space, or so everyone thought. The next few days strange things begin to happen back on earth that defy any explanation that modern science can provide. Birds and animals, even peoples pet dogs cats and canaries, start to act very weird. There's a massive migrations all over the earth of wildlife away from any large body of water like the sea or the ocean or even big lakes and rivers. The sky starts to change in color at sundown and sunrise with this golden bronze and red haze and the moon itself becomes a blood-red illuminated sphere at night. The magnetic pull from outer space, notably that of the moon, cause huge tidal waves and flooding of low lying areas and governments scientists and local astronomer pick up on radar this giant asteroid hurling itself towards earth. An asteroid one million times bigger then the one that struck in Siberia back in 1908 and wiped out hundreds of miles of woodlands. It turns out that when McLaren ejected from his space-craft it went on into deep space until it hit the Delta Astorid Belt and dislodged a number it's giant boulders. Causing them to travel in space towards both the earth and the moon attracted by their magnetic pull. Those boulders are now due to reach their destination with devastating force in less then a weeks time.Good use of newsreel stock footage in this little known Sci-Fi movie that's a lot like the more expensively made future disaster films like "Meteor" in 1979 and both "Deep Inpact" and "Armageddon" in 1998. With a top rate performance by Paul Hubschmid, also know previously as Paul Christian, as the air force pilot who was at first responsible for the space disaster to happen. And later was responsible for preventing it from destroying, by slamming into and pulverizing, the planet with the same element or force that initiated it; nuclear power.Exciting conclusion with the top scientists an military men on earth using all the worlds atomic and hydrogen bombs packed onto fleets of intercontinental missiles. These missiles are then sent toward the deadly out-of-control giant asteroid using the very forces of man-made nuclear destruction to save the earth from this terrifying force of nature from outer space.